1945 Army Cadets football team

1945 Army Cadets football
1945 Army Cadets football
Consensus national champion; Eastern champion
Conference	Independent
Ranking
AP	No. 1
Record	9–0
Head coach	Earl Blaik (5th season);
Captain	John Green
Home stadium	Michie Stadium
	Seasons ← 1944 1946 →

The 1945 Army Cadets football team was an American football team that represented the United States Military Academy as an independent. In their fifth season under head coach Earl 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.

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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]

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Date	Opponent	Rank	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
September 29	Personnel Distribution Command		Michie Stadium West Point, NY	W 32–0	9,000	^[13]^[14]
October 6	Wake Forest		Michie Stadium West Point, NY	W 54–0	10,000	^[15]
October 13	vs. No. 9 Michigan	No. 1	Yankee Stadium Bronx, NY	W 28–7	70,000	^[16]^[17]
October 20	Melville PT Raiders	No. 1	Michie Stadium West Point, NY	W 55–13		^[18]
October 27	vs. No. 19 Duke	No. 1	Polo Grounds New York, NY	W 48–13	42,287	^[19]
November 3	Villanova	No. 1	Michie Stadium West Point, NY	W 54–0	12,000	^[20]
November 10	vs. No. 2 Notre Dame	No. 1	Yankee Stadium Bronx, NY (rivalry)	W 48–0	74,621	^[21]
November 17	at No. 6 Penn	No. 1	Franklin Field Philadelphia, PA	W 61–0	73,000	^[22]
December 1	vs. No. 2 Navy	No. 1	Philadelphia Municipal Stadium Philadelphia, PA (Army–Navy Game)	W 32–13	102,000	^[23]
Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game

	Week
Poll	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Final
AP	1 (86)	1 (90)	1 (101)	1 (91)	1 (86)	1 (91)	1 (81)	1 (80)	1 (116)

1945 Army Cadets football team

Schedule

Rankings

Personnel

Players

Coaches

Awards and honors

Team

Individual

References

Wikiwand - on

1945 Eastern college football independents records
v t e	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