1943 Big Ten Conference football season
SportFootball
Number of teams9
Top draft pickPat Harder
Co-championsPurdue, Michigan
Season MVPOtto Graham
Football 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 Big Ten Conference football season was the 48th season of college football played by the member schools of the Big Ten Conference (also known as the Western Conference) and was a part of the 1943 college football season.

The 1943 Purdue Boilermakers football team compiled a perfect 9–0 record, tied for the Big Ten championship, led the conference in scoring defense (6.1 points per game), and were ranked No. 5 in the final AP Poll. Guard Alex Agase was a consensus first-team pick on the 1943 College Football All-America Team. Another guard, Dick Barwegen, received the team's most valuable player award.

Michigan, under head coach Fritz Crisler, compiled an 8–1, tied with Purdue for the conference championship, led the conference in scoring offense (33.6 points per game), and was ranked No. 3 in the final AP Poll. The team's sole loss was to consensus national champion Notre Dame. Bill Daley was a consensus first-team All-American and finished seventh in the voting for the Heisman Trophy. Bob Wiese received the team's most valuable player award.

Northwestern, under head coach Pappy Waldorf, compiled a 6–2 record and was ranked No. 9 in the final AP Poll. Quarterback Otto Graham received the Chicago Tribune Silver Football trophy as the most valuable player in the Big Ten. Northwestern's two losses were to No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 3 Michigan.

Season overview

Results and team statistics

Conf. Rank Team Head coach AP final AP high Overall record Conf. record PPG PAG MVP
1 (tie) Purdue Elmer Burnham #5 #2 9–0 6–0 23.8 6.1 Dick Barwegen
1 (tie) Michigan Fritz Crisler #3 #2 8–1 6–0 33.6 8.1 Bob Wiese
3 Northwestern Pappy Waldorf #9 #8 6–2 5–1 23.6 8.0 Otto Graham
4 Indiana Bo McMillin NR NR 4–4–2 2–3–1 19.3 10.6 John Tavener
5 Minnesota George Hauser NR #9 5–4 2–3 18.9 20.4 Paul Mitchell
6 Illinois Ray Eliot NR NR 3–7 2–4 15.4 30.8 Eddie Bray
7 Ohio State Paul Brown NR #18 3–6 1–4 16.6 20.8 Gordon Appleby
8 Wisconsin Harry Stuhldreher NR NR 1–9 1–6 4.1 28.2 Joe Keenan
9 Iowa Slip Madigan NR NR 1–6–1 0–4–1 10.4 19.1 Robert Liddy

Key
PPG = Average of points scored per game[1]
PAG = Average of points allowed per game[1]
MVP = Most valuable player as voted by players on each team as part of the voting process to determine the winner of the Chicago Tribune Silver Football trophy

Regular season

Bowl games

During the 1943 season, the Big Ten maintained its long-standing ban on postseason games. Accordingly, no Big Ten teams participated in any bowl games.

All-Big Ten players

For the complete All-Big Ten selections, see 1943 All-Big Ten Conference football team.

The following players were picked by the Associated Press (AP) and/or the United Press (UP) as first-team players on the 1943 All-Big Ten Conference football team.[2][3]

All-Americans

For the complete All-America selections, see 1943 College Football All-America Team.

At the end of the 1943 season, Big Ten players secured two of the consensus first-team picks for the 1943 College Football All-America Team.[4] The Big Ten's consensus All-Americans were:

Other Big Ten players who were named first-team All-Americans by at least one selector were:

1944 NFL draft

The following Big Ten players were selected in the first six rounds of the 1944 NFL draft:[5]

Name Position Team Round Overall pick
Pat Harder Fullback Wisconsin 1 2
Otto Graham Quarterback Northwestern 1 4
Billy Hillenbrand Halfback Indiana 1 6
Merv Pregulman Guard Michigan 1 7
Paul Mitchell Tackle Minnesota 2 12
Tom Kuzma Halfback Michigan 3 22
Rudy Smeja End Michigan 3 24
Babe Dimancheff Halfback Purdue 3 27
Jack Tavener Center Indiana 4 28
Rudy Sikich Tackle Minnesota 4 29
John Greene Tackle Michigan 5 35
Bill Garnaas Back Minnesota 6 44

References

  1. ^ a b "1943 Big Ten Conference Year Summary". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved January 5, 2017.
  2. ^ "Western Conference All Star Grid Squad Picked". Sarasota Herald-Tribune (AP story). November 30, 1943. p. 6.
  3. ^ "Michigan Places Three on Big Ten Conference Team". The News-Herald (Franklin, Penn.). November 26, 1943. p. 10.
  4. ^ "2014 NCAA Football Records: Consensus All-America Selections" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). 2014. pp. 5–6. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 22, 2014. Retrieved August 16, 2014.
  5. ^ "1944 NFL Draft: Full Draft". NFL.com. National Football League. Retrieved January 4, 2017.
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