1945 Army Cadets football team

1945 Army Cadets football
Consensus national champion
Eastern champion
ConferenceIndependent
Ranking
APNo. 1
Record9–0
Head coach
CaptainJohn Green
Home stadiumMichie Stadium
Seasons
← 1944
1946 →
1945 Eastern college football independents records
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
No. 1 Army   –   9 – 0 – 0
Franklin & Marshall   –   4 – 0 – 1
No. 20 Columbia   –   8 – 1 – 0
Temple   –   7 – 1 – 0
No. 16 Holy Cross   –   8 – 2 – 0
Tufts   –   4 – 1 – 0
No. 8 Penn   –   6 – 2 – 0
Yale   –   6 – 3 – 0
Massachusetts State   –   2 – 1 – 1
Harvard   –   5 – 3 – 0
Penn State   –   5 – 3 – 0
Cornell   –   5 – 4 – 0
Villanova   –   4 – 4 – 0
Boston College   –   3 – 4 – 0
Brown   –   3 – 4 – 1
Colgate   –   3 – 4 – 1
Princeton   –   2 – 3 – 2
NYU   –   3 – 4 – 0
Pittsburgh   –   3 – 7 – 0
Bucknell   –   2 – 5 – 0
Drexel   –   2 – 5 – 0
Dartmouth   –   1 – 6 – 1
Syracuse   –   1 – 6 – 0
Boston University   –   0 – 5 – 0
CCNY   –   0 – 8 – 0
Rankings from AP Poll

The 1945 Army Cadets football team was an American football team that represented the United States Military Academy as an independent and considered to be among the greatest in collegiate history.

In their fifth season under head coach Earl "Red" Blaik, the Cadets compiled a 9–0 record, shut out five of nine opponents (including a 48–0 victory over No. 2 Notre Dame and a 61–0 victory over No. 6 Penn), and outscored all opponents by a total of 412 to 46.[1] Army's 1945 season was part of a 32-game undefeated streak that included the entire 1944, 1945, and 1946 seasons.

In the final AP Poll released on December 2, Army was unanimously ranked No. 1 nationally with 1,160 points, more than 200 points ahead of No. 2 Navy.[2] The Cadets repeated as winners of the Dr. Henry L. Williams trophy for the AP national championship. Army also won the Lambert Trophy as the best football team in the east.[3]

All eight other contemporary NCAA-designated major selectors also recognized Army as the 1945 national champion, including the Boand System, Dunkel System, DeVold System, Helms Athletic Foundation, Houlgate System, Litkenhous Ratings, Poling System, and Williamson System. Army also garnered five retrospective selections by later major selectors Berryman (QPRS), Billingsley Report, College Football Researchers Association, and Sagarin Ratings;[4] the National Championship Foundation selected them as co-champions with Alabama.[4]

The team led the nation with an average of 462.7 yards of total offense per game, including 359.8 rushing yards per game.[5] The offense was led by backs Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis. Blanchard scored 114 points in 1945 and received both the Heisman Trophy and the Maxwell Award as the best player in college football.[6][7][8] Davis rushed for 944 yards and led the nation with an average of 11.51 rushing yards per carry.[9]

Four Army players were consensus first-team picks on the 1945 All-America college football team: Blanchard; Davis; tackle Tex Coulter; and guard John Green.[10] In a departure from normal practice, the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) named all eleven Army starters as its All-American team for 1945.[11] Other notable players included quarterback Arnold Tucker (NEA) and end Hank Foldberg.

The undefeated 1945 Army team was one of the strongest of all time, as during World War II, loose player transfer rules allowed service academies to assemble many of the nation's best players.[12]

  1. ^ "1945 Army Black Knights Schedule and Results". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  2. ^ "Army Unanimous Choice as Top Team in AP's Final Poll". Abilene Reporter-News. December 4, 1945. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "Army Lambert Winner". The Boston Globe. December 4, 1945. p. 15 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ a b 2020 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records (PDF). Indianapolis: The National Collegiate Athletic Association. July 2020. pp. 112–114. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  5. ^ W.J. Bingham, ed. (1946). The Official National Collegiate Athletic Association Football Guide including the Official Rules 1946. A.S. Barnes and Company. p. 30.
  6. ^ "Uconn Ace Crowned New Scoring Champ". The Cincinnati Enquirer. December 3, 1945. p. 16 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "Trophy Given To Blanchard". Arizona Republic. December 4, 1945. p. 14 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ "Blanchard Also Wins Maxwell Club Award". The Boston Globe. December 4, 1945. p. 15 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ W.J. Bingham, ed. (1946). The Official National Collegiate Athletic Association Football Guide including the Official Rules 1946. A.S. Barnes and Company. p. 34.
  10. ^ "Football Award Winners" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). 2016. p. 8. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
  11. ^ Harry Grayson (November 27, 1945). "Army's And Nea's 1945 All American Chosen: Men Hail From Nine States". Olean Times Herald. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ Connelly, Bill (December 10, 2016). "What made 1945 Army the greatest college football team of all time". SBNation. Vox Media, LLC. Retrieved July 7, 2022. World War II gave the service academies competitive edges, and the Cadets took maximum advantage, producing perhaps the most dominant season of college football possible.