1940 Boston College Eagles football team

The 1940 Boston College Eagles represented Boston College in the 1940 college football season. Playing as an independent, the team was led by head coach Frank Leahy in his second year, and played their home games at Fenway Park in Boston and Alumni Field in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. They won all ten games in the regular season, were the highest-scoring team in the country, and took the Lambert Trophy winner, awarded to the best team in the East. With its victory on New Year's Day in the Sugar Bowl over the undefeated Tennessee, champion of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), the BC Eagles were widely acclaimed as national champions.[1] Minnesota and Stanford also have viable claims to the national championship.

1940 Boston College Eagles football
National champion (self-claimed)
Lambert-Meadowlands Trophy
Sugar Bowl champion
Sugar Bowl, W 19–13 vs. Tennessee
ConferenceIndependent
Ranking
APNo. 5
1940 record11–0
Head coach
CaptainHank Tocyzlowski
Home stadiumAlumni Field (c. 15,000)
Fenway Park (c. 38,805)
1940 Eastern college football independents records
ConfOverall
TeamW L TW 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
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

From 1936 to 1964, the final AP Poll ranking college football teams was taken at the end of the regular season, before the postseason bowl games. The final 1940 rankings were published on December 2, and listed undefeated Minnesota (8–0) first with its thrilling home win by an extra point 7–6 over No. 3 Michigan (7–1). Stanford (10–0) was ranked second, Tennessee (10–0) fourth, and Boston College (10–0) was fifth.[2]

Neither Minnesota nor Michigan played in a post season bowl game, and Stanford defeated No. 7 Nebraska (8–2) in the Rose Bowl. Tennessee outscored its regular season opponents 319–26, soundly beating such opponents as Alabama, Florida, LSU, Kentucky, Virginia, and Duke.[3] Despite where the AP rated teams at the end of the regular season, BC's post season win over Tennessee was widely deemed the best win of any team in the 1940 season.[4]

Schedule
DateOpponentRankSiteResultAttendanceSource
September 21Centre
W 40–019,000[5]
September 28at Tulane
W 27–742,000[6]
October 12Temple
W 33–2024,000
October 19IdahoNo. 8
  • Fenway Park
  • Boston, MA
W 60–08,000[7][8][9]
October 26Saint AnselmNo. 10
  • Alumni Field
  • Chestnut Hill, MA
W 55–015,000
November 2ManhattanNo. 9
  • Alumni Field
  • Chestnut Hill, MA
W 25–05,000
November 9Boston UniversityNo. 8
W 21–015,000
November 16No. 9 GeorgetownNo. 8
  • Fenway Park
  • Boston, MA
W 19–1841,700
November 23AuburnNo. 4
  • Fenway Park
  • Boston, MA
W 33–730,000
November 30Holy CrossNo. 4
W 7–039,000
January 1, 1941vs. No. 4 TennesseeNo. 5
W 19–1373,181[10]
  • Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game

[11]

References
  1. See what the nation's leading sportswriters thought of the BC Sugar Bowl victory at “Sports Writers Comment on B.C. Win In Sugar Bowl”, Daily Boston Globe (1928-1960); Jan. 3, 1941; p. 9. For extensive contemporaneous documentation of the championship see http://bcnationalchamps1940.wordpress.com/
  2. Reid Oslin (November 10, 2015). Boston College Athletics – The 1940 Team of Destiny Retrieved July 21, 2016.
  3. Haywood Harris and Gus Manning (2004) “Six Seasons Remembered: The National Championship Years of Tennessee Football”, The University of Tennessee Press/ Knoxville pp. 24–45.
  4. "Sports Writers Comment on B. C. Win In Sugar Bowl". The Boston Globe. Boston, Massachusetts. January 3, 1941. p. 9. Retrieved June 8, 2021 – via Newspapers.com .
  5. King, Bill (September 22, 1940). "Boston College Crushes Centre". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Associated Press. p. 42. Retrieved June 8, 2021 – via Newspapers.com .
  6. "Boston stuns Tulane with 27–7 victory". The Clarion-Ledger. September 29, 1940. Retrieved April 10, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. "Boston College fears scoreless Idaho". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. October 19, 1940. p. 11.
  8. "Boston College tramples Idaho". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). Associated Press. October 19, 1940. p. 1.
  9. "Boston swamps Idaho team, 60-0". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. October 20, 1940. p. 1, sports.
  10. "Indomitable spirit brings Eagles win". The Boston Globe. January 2, 1941. Retrieved August 8, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. DeLassus, David. "Boston College Yearly Results: 1940–1944". College Football Data Warehouse. Archived from the original on February 18, 2013. Retrieved March 17, 2013.
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