American college football season
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(discuss)
The 1934 college football season was the 66th season of college football in the United States. Two New Year's Day bowl games were initiated to rival the Rose Bowl Game. On February 15, Warren V. Miller and Joseph M. Cousins organized the New Orleans Mid-Winter Sports Association and by October, the group had enough funds to sponsor the Sugar Bowl. Meanwhile, W. Keith Phillips and the Greater Miami Athletic Club worked in November at a January 1 game for Florida, and the Orange Bowl was created.
Once again, University of Illinois Professor Frank Dickinson's math system selected a Big Ten team as national champion, the undefeated Minnesota Golden Gophers. William Boand and Professor Edward Earl Litkenhous also selected Minnesota at the end of the season. The conference, however, still had a bar against its members playing in the postseason, so Minnesota did not play in any of the bowl games. The undefeated and eventual Rose Bowl champion Alabama Crimson Tide was selected as national champion by the other contemporary math system selectors, Dick Dunkel, Paul Williamson and Deke Houlgate.
Conference realignment
Membership changes
September
September 22 Stanford opened with a 48β0 win over San Jose State, while in Houston, Rice opened with a 12β0 win over Loyola College of New Orleans.
September 29 Minnesota beat North Dakota State 56β12 and Illinois beat Bradley 40β7.
Alabama beat Samford 24β0, and Tulane beat UT-Chattanooga 41β0. Rice and LSU played to a 9β9 tie while Stanford and Santa Clara tied 7β7.
Navy defeated William & Mary 20β7 while Pittsburgh beat Washington & Jefferson 26β6.
October
October 6
Minnesota beat Nebraska, 20β0, in Minneapolis. Alabama beat Sewanee, 35β6, in Montgomery Alabama. Illinois beat Washington University, 12β7, in St. Louis. Navy beat Virginia 21β6 in a game in Washington, DC. In New Orleans, Tulane beat Auburn 13β0. At Portland, Stanford beat Oregon State 17β0. Columbia opened its season in New York with a 12β6 win over Yale, and Colgate beat St. Lawrence 32β0. Pittsburgh won at West Virginia 27β6. Ohio State beat Indiana 33β0. Rice won at Purdue 14β0.
October 13 Illinois beat Ohio State 14β13.
Stanford beat visiting Northwestern 20β0. Pittsburgh defeated visiting USC 20β6. Alabama defeated Mississippi State 41β0, Rice defeated SMU 9β0, and Tulane won at Florida 28β12.
Navy defeated Maryland 16β13, Colgate beat St. Bonaventure 62β0 and Columbia beat VMI 29β6.
October 20 Minnesota won at Pittsburgh, 13β7. Ohio State defeated visiting Colgate 10β7. Navy beat Columbia 18β7. Alabama and Tennessee, both 3β0β0, met in Birmingham, with Bama winning 13β6. Tulane edged visiting Georgia 7β6. In Omaha, Rice beat Creighton University 47β13.
Stanford beat USF at San Francisco, 3β0.
October 27 Alabama beat Georgia 26β6 at Birmingham, while in New Orleans, Tulane beat Georgia Tech 20β12. Rice stayed unbeaten with a 20β9 win over visiting Texas. Minnesota won at Iowa 48β12, .
Illinois won at Michigan 7β6, and Ohio State won at Northwestern 28β6. Stanford registered its fourth shutout, a 16β0 win over USC.
Navy won at Penn, Colgate won at Holy Cross 20β7 and Columbia beat visiting Penn State 14β7. Pittsburgh beat host school Westminster College of Pennsylvania, 30β0
November
November 3 Pitt (4β1β0) and Notre Dame (3β0β0) met in Pittsburgh, with the Panthers winning 19β0. Minnesota beat Michigan 34β0. In Cleveland, Ohio State won at Western Reserve 76β0. Illinois beat Army 7β0. Alabama won at Kentucky 34β14. Rice beat Texas A&I 27β0. Tulane beat Ole Miss 15β0. In Los Angeles, Stanford beat UCLA 27β0.
Columbia defeated Cornell 14β0 and Navy beat Washington & Lee 26β0.
November 10 At Yankee Stadium, Tulane (6β0β0) faced Colgate (3β1β0), with the Red Raiders handing the Green Wave their first loss, 20β6. In a meeting of unbeaten teams, Stanford (7β0β1) hosted Washington (4β0β0) and had a sixth straight shutout 24β0. Over in Cleveland, Navy beat Notre Dame 10β6. Pittsburgh won at Nebraska 25β6.
Minnesota beat Indiana 30β0, Illinois won at Northwestern 14β3, and Ohio State beat Chicago 33β0
Alabama beat Clemson 40β0 and Rice won at Arkansas 7β0. Columbia beat Brown 39β0
November 17 Navy (7β0β0) hosted Pittsburgh (6β1β0) and lost 31β7
Minnesota beat Chicago 35β7 and Ohio State defeated Michigan 34β0. Previously unbeaten (6β0β0) Illinois was upset at Madison when it faced a (3β3β0) Wisconsin Badgers team, falling 7β3.
Alabama defeated Georgia Tech 40β0, while Tulane won at Kentucky 20β7. Stanford beat the Olympic Club team 40β0, and had a record of 192β7 against its opponents to that time. Colgate won at Syracuse 13β2 and Columbia edged Penn 13β12. Rice beat Texas A&M 25β6. Yale's 11 "Iron Men" (they played the entire game with no substitutions) upset Princeton 7β0 at Princeton.
November 24
Minnesota won at Wisconsin 34β0, Ohio State beat Iowa 40β7, and
Illinois won at Chicago 7β1. Stanford clinched a trip to the Rose Bowl with a 9β7 win at California. Colgate beat Rutgers 14β0. Tulane beat Sewanee 32β0. Columbia (7β1β0) beat Syracuse (6β1β0) in a Sunday game 12β0. In Houston, previously unbeaten (8β0β1) Rice hosted (6β3β0) Texas Christian (TCU) and was upset, 7β2.
On Thanksgiving Day, November 29, Alabama beat Vanderbilt in Birmingham, 34β0, and was invited soon after to meet Stanford at the Rose Bowl. Pittsburgh beat crosstown rival Carnegie Tech, 20β0, and Kansas State beat Nebraska 19β7 to clinch the Big Six Conference championship.
December
December 1
In Louisiana, Tulane (8β1β0) and LSU (6β0β2) faced each other in Baton Rouge. Both teams were likely hosts for the first Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, and Tulane edged the Tigers 13β12 to become the host team, where it would face 7β0β2 Temple University.
Rice ended at 9β1β1 with a 32β0 win at Baylor.
Colgate closed its season with a 20β13 win in Providence against Brown. At the ArmyβNavy Game, held in Philadelphia, Navy (7β1β0) beat Army (7β2β0) on a field goal, 3β0.
Conference standings
For this article, major conferences defined as those including multiple state flagship public universities.
Major conference standings
Independents
Minor conference standings
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1934 West Virginia Athletic Conference football standings
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Conf |
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Overall
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Team |
W |
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L |
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T |
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W |
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L |
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T
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] $
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5
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– |
0
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– |
0 |
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6
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– |
2
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– |
0
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West Virginia Wesleyan
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4
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– |
0
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– |
0 |
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6
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– |
3
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– |
1
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]
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3
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– |
2
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– |
1 |
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3
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– |
5
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– |
1
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]
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4
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– |
3
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– |
0 |
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4
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– |
5
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– |
0
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]
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2
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– |
2
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– |
0 |
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4
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– |
3
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– |
0
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]
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2
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– |
3
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– |
2 |
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3
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– |
4
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– |
2
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]
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2
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– |
4
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– |
0 |
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4
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– |
4
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– |
0
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]
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1
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– |
4
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– |
1 |
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1
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– |
5
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– |
1
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]
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0
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– |
4
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– |
0 |
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0
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– |
5
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– |
0
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] *
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1
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– |
1
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– |
0 |
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4
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– |
5
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– |
1
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Marshall *
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1
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– |
1
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– |
0 |
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3
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– |
6
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– |
0
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] *
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1
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– |
2
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– |
0 |
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1
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– |
5
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0
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- $ – Conference champion
- * β Did not qualify for conference standings
Ties did not count in conference standings.
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Minor conference champions
Rankings
Bowl games
- β played with non-collegiate teams
Rankings from the Dickinson System
In the first Sugar Bowl game, Tulane (9β1) hosted unbeaten Temple (7β0β2) before a crowd of 30,000 in New Orleans. Temple took a 14β0 lead before Tulane came back to win the game, 20β14. Temple had closed its season with a scoreless tie against Bucknell, which finished at 6β2β2, and the Bison were invited to play the Miami Hurricanes in the first Orange Bowl. The 'Canes best days were still ahead of them, and they made only three first downs altogether. Although 15,000 were expected, only 5,000 turned out to watch Bucknell beat Miami, 26β0.
The big game remained the Rose Bowl with Stanford, at 9β0β1, and Alabama, at 9β0. With both teams unbeaten, a crowd of 85,000 turned out in Pasadena to watch them. Stanford led 7β0 in the first quarter, but Alabama scored 22 points in the second, with the help of quarterback Dixie Howell and future Pro Football Hall of Fame Don Hutson, with Alabama winning, 29β14.
The Sun Bowl was given a test drive with non-collegiate teams, as the El Paso All-Stars beating the visiting Ranger Bulldogs, 25β21, before a crowd of 3,000 in El Paso. In Honolulu, the Hawaii team beat vacationing California, 14β0, and in Houston, Tuskegee beat Prairie View, 15β6, in a New Year's Day game for HBCUs
Awards and honors
All-Americans
The consensus 1934 College Football All-America Team included:
Position
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Name
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Height
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Weight (lbs.)
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Class
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Hometown
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Team
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Quarterback
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Bobby Grayson
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5'11"
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195
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Jr.
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Portland Oregon
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Stanford
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Halfback
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Dixie Howell
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5'11"
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164
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Sr.
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Hartford, Alabama
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Alabama
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Halfback
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Buzz Borries
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6'0"
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175
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Sr.
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Louisville, Kentucky
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Navy
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Fullback
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Pug Lund
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5'11"
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185
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Sr.
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Rice Lake, Wisconsin
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Minnesota
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End
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Don Hutson
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6'1"
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183
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Sr.
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Pine Bluff, Arkansas
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Alabama
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Tackle
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Bill Lee
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6'2"
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231
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Sr.
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Eutaw, Alabama
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Alabama
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Guard
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Chuck Hartwig
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Sr.
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Wileyville, West Virginia
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Pittsburgh
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Center
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Jack Robinson
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Sr.
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Long Island, New York
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Notre Dame
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Center
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Darrell Lester
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6'3"
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218
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Jr.
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Jacksboro, Texas
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TCU
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Center
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George Shotwell
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6'2"
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159
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Sr.
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Hanover Township, Pennsylvania
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Pittsburgh
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Guard
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Bill Bevan
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Sr.
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St. Paul, Minnesota
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Minnesota
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Tackle
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Bob Reynolds
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6'4"
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220
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Jr.
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Okmulgee, Oklahoma
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Stanford
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End
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Frank Larson
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Sr.
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Duluth, Minnesota
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Minnesota
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Statistical leaders
References
- 2020 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records (PDF). Indianapolis: The National Collegiate Athletic Association. July 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
- "Yale Football Book:Bulldogs' History Featured in New Book". The official website of the Yale University Athletics. Archived from the original on June 18, 2015.
- "1934 Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association Year Summary". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 9, 2018.
- "Tulane Victory Assures More N.O. Games," San Antonio Light, January 2, 1935, p10
- "Bucknell Wins Game At Miami," Charleston (WV) Daily Mail, Jan. 2, 1935, p8
- "Alabama Passes Thrill West Coast," San Antonio Light, January 2, 1935, p10
- "Football Results," San Antonio Light, Jan. 2, 1935, p11