1940 Dartmouth Indians football team

The 1940 Dartmouth Indians football team was an American football team that represented Dartmouth College as an independent during the 1940 college football season. In their seventh and final season under head coach Earl Blaik, the Indians compiled a 5–4 record. Louis Young was the team captain.^[1]

1940 Dartmouth Indians football
Conference	Independent
Record	5–4
Head coach	Earl Blaik (7th season)
Captain	Louis Young
Home stadium	Memorial Field
Seasons ← 1939 1941 →

1940 Eastern college football independents records

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 5 Boston College			–					11	–	0	–	0
Duquesne			–					7	–	1	–	0
No. 14 Penn			–					6	–	1	–	1
Penn State			–					6	–	1	–	1
No. 12 Fordham			–					7	–	2	–	0
No. 15 Cornell			–					6	–	2	–	0
La Salle			–					6	–	2	–	0
Princeton			–					5	–	2	–	1
Columbia			–					5	–	2	–	2
Brown			–					6	–	3	–	1
Bucknell			–					4	–	2	–	2
Boston University			–					5	–	3	–	0
Colgate			–					5	–	3	–	0
Hofstra			–					4	–	3	–	0
Harvard			–					3	–	2	–	3
Dartmouth			–					5	–	4	–	0
Temple			–					4	–	4	–	1
Tufts			–					4	–	4	–	0
Vermont			–					4	–	4	–	0
Villanova			–					4	–	5	–	0
Pittsburgh			–					3	–	4	–	1
Syracuse			–					3	–	4	–	1
Buffalo			–					3	–	5	–	0
Carnegie Tech			–					3	–	5	–	0
Manhattan			–					3	–	6	–	0
Providence			–					3	–	6	–	0
NYU			–					2	–	7	–	0
Yale			–					1	–	7	–	0
Army			–					1	–	7	–	1
CCNY			–					1	–	5	–	1
Massachusetts State			–					1	–	8	–	0
Rankings from AP Poll

George Wolfe was the team's leading scorer, with 48 points, from eight touchdowns.^[2]

Dartmouth was ranked at No. 72 (out of 697 college football teams) in the final rankings under the Litkenhous Difference by Score system for 1940.^[3]

Dartmouth played its home games at Memorial Field on the college campus in Hanover, New Hampshire.

Cornell game controversy

Main article: Fifth Down Game (1940)

Cornell scored a touchdown in the last few seconds of the game, resulting in a 7-3 win for Cornell being officially recorded.^[4] However, observers felt that an illegal fifth down had occurred, and therefore the touchdown was invalid.^[4][5] After developing and reviewing filmed footage of the game, the referee agreed.^[4][5] Cornell coach Carl Snavely agreed to give up the win, and thus the official score was revised to 3-0 in favor of Dartmouth.^[4][5] The loss broke Cornell's 18-game winning streak.^[4] As of 2024, it is believed to be the "only collegiate sporting contest to be decided off the field after its completion."^[4]

Schedule

Date	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
September 28	St. Lawrence	Memorial Field Hanover, NH	W 36–0		[1]
October 5	Franklin & Marshall	Memorial Field Hanover, NH	L 21–23	8,000	[6]
October 12	Columbia	Memorial Field Hanover, NH	L 6–20	10,000	[7]
October 19	at Yale	Yale Bowl New Haven, CT	L 7–13	35,000	[8]
October 26	at Harvard	Harvard Stadium Boston, MA (rivalry)	W 7–6	35,000	[9]
November 2	Sewanee	Memorial Field Hanover, NH	W 26–0		[10]
November 9	at Princeton	Palmer Stadium Princeton, NJ	L 9–14	30,000	[11]
November 16	Cornell	Memorial Field Hanover, NH (Fifth Down Game) (rivalry)	W 3–0	10,000	[12][13][14]
November 23	at Brown	Brown Stadium Providence, RI	W 20–6	15,000	[15]