1943 Purdue Boilermakers football team

1943 Purdue Boilermakers football
Big Ten co-champion
ConferenceBig Ten Conference
Ranking
APNo. 5
Record9–0 (6–0 Big Ten)
Head coach
MVPDick Barwegen
CaptainNone
Home stadiumRoss–Ade Stadium
Seasons
← 1942
1944 →
1943 Big Ten Conference football standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
No. 5 Purdue + 6 0 0 9 0 0
No. 3 Michigan + 6 0 0 8 1 0
No. 9 Northwestern 5 1 0 6 2 0
Indiana 2 3 1 4 4 2
Minnesota 2 3 0 5 4 0
Illinois 2 4 0 3 7 0
Ohio State 1 4 0 3 6 0
Wisconsin 1 6 0 1 9 0
Iowa 0 4 1 1 6 1
  • + – Conference co-champions
Rankings from AP Poll

The 1943 Purdue Boilermaker football team represented Purdue University in the 1943 Big Ten Conference football season. In their second year under head coach Elmer Burnham, the Boilermakers compiled an undefeated 9–0 record (6–0 Big Ten), outscored their opponents by a total of 214 to 55, and finished the season ranked No. 5 in the final AP Poll.[1]

The 1943 squad was the only undefeated team playing a full schedule in major college football, but finished third in the country per the AP Poll. This would seemingly be sufficient grounds for Purdue to claim a 1943 National Championship as the NCAA itself did not recognize champions in the era. However, Purdue has never pursued this claim.

The 1942 Purdue team had won only one game, but the 1943 team was bolstered with several new players who had been transferred to Purdue as part of the V-12 Navy College Training Program.[2]

Purdue guard Alex Agase was selected as a consensus first-team player on the 1943 All-America Team,[3] and was later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Fullback Tony Butkovich was also selected as a first-team All-American by The Sporting News, the United Press, the Central Press, and Stars and Stripes newspaper. Butkovich led the Big Ten in scoring with 14 touchdowns despite missing the last two games after being called to active duty by the Marines; he was killed in action at the Battle of Okinawa in April 1945.

  1. ^ "Purdue Yearly Results (1940-1944)". College Football Data Warehouse. David DeLassus. Archived from the original on September 5, 2015. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  2. ^ "1943 Purdue Marines" (PDF). College Football Historical Society Newsletter. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016.
  3. ^ "2014 NCAA Football Records: Consensus All-America Selections" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). 2014. p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 22, 2014. Retrieved August 16, 2014.