1939! - Football National Champions!!!!

[EverythingOrange]

Tennessee was the reighning National Football Champions of the previous year (1938).

They finished a 10 game regular season schedule UNDEFEATED / UNTIED / & UN- SCORED upon for the ENTIRE regular season! (The ONLY football team in the modern era to accomplish that!). - Yeah, they lost to USC in a bowl game - but bowl games back then were just like a minor festival……

The pollsters gave the National Championship to Texas A&M - who had a weaker schedule anyway!

General Neyland got ROBBED on THAT one!!!

There is NO Reason that UT should NOT claim 1939 as a National Championship!

Alabama claimed THREE undeserved titles just by putting them in their “Annual Programs…..”

 

[Sudden Impact]

I thought we already did...

 

[GreveHaller]

offseasons are tough

 

[JohnWardForever]

Yep, that feat of Nobody scoring on a team throughout the season will stand forever. The GENERAL'S Greatest Team; IMO. Unfortunately, back then and up to the BCS , National Titles were political as hell popularity contests and SEC teams rarely got the credit they deserved. We now see where the top teams come from.

 

[Evol]

I’ve been claiming it

 

[VOLfrombama]

The regular season Defense/scoreless record is absolutely insane

 

[Brave Volunteer]

Tennessee was the reighning National Football Champions of the previous year (1938).

They finished a 10 game regular season schedule UNDEFEATED / UNTIED / & UN- SCORED upon for the ENTIRE regular season! (The ONLY football team in the modern era to accomplish that!). - Yeah, they lost to USC in a bowl game - but bowl games back then were just like a minor festival……

The pollsters gave the National Championship to Texas A&M - who had a weaker schedule anyway!

General Neyland got ROBBED on THAT one!!!

There is NO Reason that UT should NOT claim 1939 as a National Championship!

Alabama claimed THREE undeserved titles just by putting them in their “Annual Programs…..”

Is 1939 really considered the modern era?

 

[wmcovol]

I heard an idiot once say “but they lost their bowl game”. Polls until the late 60s, didn’t include bowl games. The last polls were immediately after the reg season ended. Also, Tennessee took a train for about 5 days to California. They’d stop along the way and get a quick practice in. Imagine the fatigue of that trip. Last, their best player, Bad News Cafego, was injured & didn’t play.

 

[KTrain]

Tennessee was the reighning National Football Champions of the previous year (1938).

They finished a 10 game regular season schedule UNDEFEATED / UNTIED / & UN- SCORED upon for the ENTIRE regular season! (The ONLY football team in the modern era to accomplish that!). - Yeah, they lost to USC in a bowl game - but bowl games back then were just like a minor festival……

The pollsters gave the National Championship to Texas A&M - who had a weaker schedule anyway!

General Neyland got ROBBED on THAT one!!!

There is NO Reason that UT should NOT claim 1939 as a National Championship!

Alabama claimed THREE undeserved titles just by putting them in their “Annual Programs…..”

I read about that season. Can't remember the small details but they were looking un-beatable. As I recall from the article they rode a Train from Knoxville to California to participate in the Bowl game and stopped a few places along the long trek and had scrimmages. The take away was the long drawn out cumbersome travel really had a negative effect on the players energy and psyche and hindered the visitors basically playing a home town team.

 

[Boca Vol]

Alabama claimed THREE undeserved titles just by putting them in their “Annual Programs…..”

That's what UT did with the '67 NC. It wasn't acknowledged in the UT programs/ guides until the early-mid 90's. I believe Texas A&M retro-claimed one recently from way back in the day.

IMO, I don't think it changes anything as the NC's are now decided on the field.

 

[peaygolf]

The ‘38 team was probably better though

 

[The_Big_Orange]

Lol what’s your words to exclamation point count ratio sitting at?

 

[ptcarter]

Is 1939 really considered the modern era?

Damn right it is!!!

 

[onevol74]

Damn right it is!!!
View attachment 559834

The Orange and tan would make one hell of a throw back uniform. I would love it to honor 1939 and George Cafego, especially against Vandy this year in Neyland.

 

[PEPPERJAX]

The ‘38 team was probably better though

The 1922 Vols were severely underrated.

 

[peaygolf]

The 1922 Vols were severely underrated.

8-2. Eh?

 

[PEPPERJAX]

8-2. Eh?

I had to look up their record after posting it too.

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

National championships back before about 1975 or so often make very little sense. I know there's been controversy since then some years but the pro North/Midwest bias in particular before that is off the charts. This is an interesting article that shows it's work. THE definitive national champ for each season, 1869-2019

 

[franklinboy]

Look up the university of the South a.k.a. Sewanee and their i believe 1896 team or close to that year and tell me who really was the baddest team to ever assembled in this state...but I will agree with Bad news Cafego getting hurt i believe with him against USC they would've whipped the trojans..also not even Ba,a has had i team that was as near as good as Sewanee back in 1896 ...GBO any damn ways!

 

[LordBolton]

My Dad's HS coach was on that team. He said that guy worked them hard to be the best.

 

[ftsandersvol]

Tennessee was the reighning National Football Champions of the previous year (1938).

They finished a 10 game regular season schedule UNDEFEATED / UNTIED / & UN- SCORED upon for the ENTIRE regular season! (The ONLY football team in the modern era to accomplish that!). - Yeah, they lost to USC in a bowl game - but bowl games back then were just like a minor festival……

The pollsters gave the National Championship to Texas A&M - who had a weaker schedule anyway!

General Neyland got ROBBED on THAT one!!!

There is NO Reason that UT should NOT claim 1939 as a National Championship!

Alabama claimed THREE undeserved titles just by putting them in their “Annual Programs…..”

 

[IndianapolisVol]

Tennessee was the reighning National Football Champions of the previous year (1938).

They finished a 10 game regular season schedule UNDEFEATED / UNTIED / & UN- SCORED upon for the ENTIRE regular season! (The ONLY football team in the modern era to accomplish that!). - Yeah, they lost to USC in a bowl game - but bowl games back then were just like a minor festival……

The pollsters gave the National Championship to Texas A&M - who had a weaker schedule anyway!

General Neyland got ROBBED on THAT one!!!

There is NO Reason that UT should NOT claim 1939 as a National Championship!

Alabama claimed THREE undeserved titles just by putting them in their “Annual Programs…..”

Modern era?

 

[Volosaurus rex]

If I may offer a slight correction, we were the last major college football program to go undefeated, untied and unscored upon in the regular season. "A total of 18 teams were verifiably undefeated, untied, and unscored upon before the 1932 Colgate Red Raiders." Comparison to Today - Undefeated, Untied, Unscored Upon, and Uninvited: The 1932 Colgate Football Team

"In 1938, Duke showed their defensive prowess on the scoreboard and set the marks for fewest rushing and passing touchdowns allowed per game and fewest points allowed per game at 0.00. The following season, Tennessee matched that same mark and did so with a 10-game schedule. Duke’s mark was set over a 9-game season." The oldest records in the NCAA football stat book

Finally, to identify every undefeated, untied and unscored upon team (regular season only) in college football history, scroll down to page 179 of this source: http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/football_records/2020/FBS.pdf. Teams that went unscored upon are indicated as such with a small, black circle directly to the left of the number of wins that team recorded for a specific season. According to this list, the first team to achieve this feat was Yale in 1888. Colgate (1932), Duke (1938) and the Big Orange in '39 were the only teams to achieve this trifecta since 1920.

 

[DuckInAPen]

National championships back before about 1975 or so often make very little sense. I know there's been controversy since then some years but the pro North/Midwest bias in particular before that is off the charts. This is an interesting article that shows it's work. THE definitive national champ for each season, 1869-2019

Next time some Fighting Illinus starts talking trash to me about football, I'll bust out this article out and show him that we've got just as many "consensus" national championships as they do.

 

[rok_etop]

I was at that game!