149 Fun Facts About College Football

Through 2025, who is the only player to have won the Heisman Trophy twice?

Archie Griffin fumbled on his only carry in his first Ohio State game, ran for a school-record 239 yards in his second, and went on to win the Heisman in both 1974 and 1975.

The AP poll, which crowned Alabama a record 12 times through 2020, is decided by the votes of whom?

Sportswriters and broadcasters vote in the AP poll, which in 1964 still closed before the bowls: Alabama kept that year's title despite losing the Orange Bowl to Texas.

What do Ohio State and Michigan call their annual end-of-season meeting?

The Game's strangest edition was the 1950 'Snow Bowl': in a blizzard the teams punted 45 times, and Michigan won 9-3 without making a first down or completing a pass.

Which postseason game, 'The Granddaddy of Them All', is traditionally played on New Year's Day in Pasadena?

The Rose Bowl was first played in 1902, and Michigan's rout of Stanford was so lopsided that the organizers ran chariot races and other events instead of football until 1916.

Big Al, the costumed mascot who roams the sideline for Alabama's Crimson Tide, is what animal?

An elephant is an odd fit for a team called the Tide, but the pachyderm link dates to a 1930 sportswriter describing Alabama's huge linemen as 'red elephants' thundering onto the field.

Which coach's seven claimed national titles are the most in college football history?

Nick Saban won his first title at LSU in 2003, left for the NFL's Miami Dolphins and went 15-17 in two seasons, then returned to college and won six more with the Crimson Tide.

Which team did Ohio State beat 42–20 in the first College Football Playoff title game, in January 2015?

Oregon and Heisman winner Marcus Mariota lost to a Buckeye side led by Cardale Jones, a third-string quarterback who had made his first college start only weeks earlier.

Which university's 'Touchdown Jesus', a library mural of Christ with arms raised, looms over one end of its football stadium?

Notre Dame's 'Word of Life' mural on Hesburgh Library shows Christ with arms raised like a referee signalling a score; a later stadium expansion partly blocked the view from the field.

What prize goes to each season's winner of the three-way series among Army, Navy and Air Force?

The Commander-in-Chief's Trophy has been contested since 1972 among Army, Navy and Air Force; when the three-way series ends in a tie, the previous winner keeps the trophy.

Keith Jackson popularized "The Big House" as the nickname of which college football venue?

Michigan Stadium's official capacity, now 107,601, has ended in a 1 since 1956; the extra seat is said to be reserved for former athletic director Fritz Crisler.

Which SEC rivalry game is known as the 'Iron Bowl'?

Alabama vs. Auburn is the Iron Bowl, named for Birmingham, the South's iron and steel capital, where Legion Field hosted the game for decades with the tickets split evenly between the schools.

What does Clemson call its pregame entrance after players rub Howard's Rock?

Running Down the Hill follows a rub of Howard's Rock, a stone from Death Valley, California, that coach Frank Howard used as an office doorstop until it was put on show at the stadium in 1966.

Which coach has the most all-time wins in NCAA Division I FBS history?

Joe Paterno won 409 games at Penn State from 1966 to 2011; the NCAA vacated 111 of them in 2012, then restored them in a 2015 settlement, which returned the record to him.

What is the name of the live Longhorn steer that has served as the University of Texas mascot since 1916?

Bevo's name is often traced to Texas A&M pranksters who branded the first steer '13-0', but the tale is a myth: he had been called Bevo for months before the branding happened.

Which school's fight song includes the lyric 'Hail to the Victors'?

Michigan student Louis Elbel wrote 'The Victors' on the train home in 1898, after a 12-11 road win capped an unbeaten season.

Which player won the 2020 Heisman Trophy while playing for Alabama?

DeVonta Smith, the first receiver to win since Desmond Howard in 1991, then caught 12 passes for 215 yards and three touchdowns in the first half of the title game before a finger injury ended his night.

Which SEC school's fans 'Call the Hogs' with a 'Woo Pig Sooie' chant before kickoff?

Arkansas teams were the Cardinals until coach Hugo Bezdek said in 1909 that his players had fought 'like a wild band of razorback hogs'; the hog call is said to date from the 1920s.

USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington left the Pac-12 in 2024 to join which 18-team conference?

Big Ten: the moves, led by USC and UCLA, broke up the Pac-12, which played the next two seasons with Oregon State and Washington State as its only full members.

Which trophy goes to the winner of the annual USC-UCLA football game?

The Victory Bell, a 295-pound locomotive bell given to UCLA in 1939, was carried off by USC students in 1941 and kept hidden until the schools agreed in 1942 to play for it.

Which university has played its home football games at the Rose Bowl stadium since 1982?

UCLA left the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which it had shared with USC, when the NFL's Raiders moved in for 1982; its adopted home stadium is 26 miles from campus.

Which coach led Oklahoma to 47 straight wins from 1953 to 1957, still the major-college record through 2025?

Bud Wilkinson's team won 47 in a row before Notre Dame, the last side to beat it back in the 1953 opener, ended the run 7-0 in Norman in November 1957.

Which Texas A&M quarterback became the first freshman ever to win the Heisman Trophy, in 2012?

Johnny Manziel, 'Johnny Football', made his case as a redshirt freshman by leading Texas A&M to a 29-24 upset of top-ranked Alabama in Tuscaloosa in November 2012.

What nickname did LSU's 1988 win over Auburn earn after the crowd's roar registered on a nearby seismograph?

The Earthquake Game: Tommy Hodson's late touchdown pass to Eddie Fuller beat Auburn 7-6 on October 8, 1988, and the crowd's roar registered on a seismograph in LSU's geoscience building.

Which coach led Alabama from 1958 to 1982 and earned his nickname by agreeing to wrestle a captive bear at 13?

Paul 'Bear' Bryant retired in 1982 with a then-record 323 wins; asked what he would do without coaching, he said he would 'probably croak in a week', and he died four weeks after his last game.

Which major bowl game has made New Orleans its home since its first playing in 1935?

The Sugar Bowl has left New Orleans only once: after Hurricane Katrina damaged the Superdome, the January 2006 game was played in Atlanta's Georgia Dome.

What is a 'Hail Mary' in football?

A Hail Mary is a long, desperate end-zone heave. The term went mainstream after Roger Staubach's 1975 playoff winner to Drew Pearson; Doug Flutie's 1984 miracle for Boston College cemented it in the college game.

Which school is known for its 'Midnight Yell Practice' tradition?

Texas A&M fans, 20,000 or more of them, gather the night before a game to rehearse yells; when the stadium lights are switched off, Aggies are supposed to kiss their dates.

Which running back set the NCAA single-season rushing record with 2,628 yards in 1988?

Barry Sanders spent two seasons as Thurman Thomas's backup at Oklahoma State before running for 2,628 yards in 11 games in 1988; he accepted the Heisman by satellite from Tokyo.

Which Big Ten school paints its visitors' locker room entirely pink, a tradition begun by Hayden Fry?

Iowa: Fry, a psychology major, reasoned that pink would calm visiting players and that some would bristle at a 'sissy color'; everything from lockers to urinals at Kinnick Stadium got the treatment.

What is the name of the trophy awarded to the winner of the Florida-Georgia game?

The Okefenokee Oar, a 10-foot oar carved from a cypress that grew in the swamp straddling the Georgia-Florida line, was introduced by the two schools' student governments in 2009.

Oklahoma's fight song 'Boomer Sooner' borrows its tune from 'Boola Boola', the fight song of which Ivy League school?

Yale's 'Boola Boola' supplied the tune when Oklahoma student Arthur Alden wrote the words in 1905; a section borrowed from North Carolina's 'I'm a Tar Heel Born' was added a year later.

Which school's mascot is a live bulldog named Uga?

Georgia's Uga mascots have all come from the Seiler family of Savannah since 1956; Uga V lunged at an Auburn receiver after a 1996 touchdown, and past Ugas are interred at Sanford Stadium.

Cal's five-lateral kickoff return in 1982, 'The Play', ended with Kevin Moen flattening a Stanford band member playing what?

A trombone: Stanford's band, thinking the game was over, had come onto the field, and Gary Tyrrell's smashed trombone is now displayed in the College Football Hall of Fame.

Which future Notre Dame coach popularized the forward pass with Gus Dorais against Army in 1913?

Knute Rockne, then an end, spent the summer of 1913 working on passes with quarterback Gus Dorais on the beach at Cedar Point, Ohio, where he was a lifeguard; that fall they stunned Army 35-13.

Which program introduced the 'turnover chain', a gold chain draped on defenders who force a turnover, in 2017?

Miami Hurricanes coaches had a local jeweler make the 36-inch gold chain, hung with a 'U' of some 900 orange and green sapphires, and sprang it on the defense as a surprise in the 2017 opener.

Which Big Ten school plays at 'The Horseshoe', a stadium also called 'The House That Harley Built' after a 1910s star?

Ohio State, whose Chic Harley drew crowds so big in 1916-19 that the $1.3 million Ohio Stadium was built in 1922 to hold them. It seats more than 100,000, and the open end gives the horseshoe its name.

When the BCS launched in 1998, which 1995-97 title-matching arrangement did it replace?

The Bowl Alliance involved the Fiesta, Sugar and Orange bowls but not the Rose Bowl, so it could never guarantee a true No. 1 vs No. 2 game; the BCS that replaced it lasted through the 2013 season.

Which team's fans ring cowbells during games, a tradition unique in the SEC?

Mississippi State fans kept ringing cowbells through an SEC ban on artificial noisemakers that ran from 1974 to 2010; the bells are now allowed at set times, such as after touchdowns.

Auburn's 'Kick Six', the last-play touchdown that beat Alabama in 2013, was a return of what?

A missed field goal: Alabama's 57-yard try fell short with one second left, a second restored after Nick Saban asked for a review, and Chris Davis ran it back 109 yards to win 34-28.

How many teams were in the original College Football Playoff format when it launched?

The first playoff took 4 teams, and its selection committee passed over Baylor and TCU, ranked fifth and sixth, for Ohio State, which went on to win the title as the last team in.

Which two teams meet in Dallas each October in the 'Red River Rivalry'?

Texas vs. Oklahoma is named for the river on the two states' border and has been played since 1932 at the Cotton Bowl, with the crowd divided at the 50-yard line.

Which school introduced the 'Tomahawk Chop' chant and arm motion to college football?

Florida State fans started the chop in 1984 during a game against Auburn; it later spread to the Atlanta Braves, the Kansas City Chiefs and England's Exeter Chiefs rugby club.

Who was the first Heisman Trophy winner in 1935?

Jay Berwanger won the 1935 award a year before it took the Heisman name; he was also the first pick in the first NFL draft but never played, over a salary dispute.

At which school's home games do fans bounce to 'Jump Around' between the third and fourth quarters?

Wisconsin fans have done it at Camp Randall since 1998; officials cancelled it for the 2003 opener during construction, then restored it after students protested and engineers confirmed the stadium could take the shaking.

Which trick play won the 2007 Fiesta Bowl for Boise State moments before its running back proposed on the field?

The Statue of Liberty: Jared Zabransky faked a pass and slipped the ball to Ian Johnson for the winning two-point conversion against Oklahoma; Johnson then proposed to cheerleader Chrissy Popadics on live TV.

Georgia's home games at Sanford Stadium are famously said to be played 'between the' what?

Hedges of privet have ringed the field since the stadium opened in 1929; they were removed when the 1996 Olympics used it for soccer and replaced with plants grown from cuttings of the originals.

Which true freshman quarterback led Clemson to a 44–16 rout of Alabama in the January 2019 national title game?

Trevor Lawrence began 2018 behind senior Kelly Bryant, was named the starter after four games, went 34-2 at Clemson and became the first pick of the 2021 NFL draft.

ESPN's College GameDay first left its studio in 1993 to broadcast from which Indiana college town?

South Bend hosted the show when top-ranked Florida State visited second-ranked Notre Dame, a 31-24 Irish win; GameDay had been based in a Bristol, Connecticut, studio since 1987.

Which rival ended Clemson's ACC-record 40-game home winning streak in November 2022?

South Carolina won at Clemson on November 26, 2022, a week after beating fifth-ranked Tennessee 63-38; the streak, begun in 2016, had become the league record a month earlier.

Which New York City club first presented the Heisman Trophy in 1935, naming it for its athletic director after his death?

Downtown Athletic Club, which at first honored only the best player east of the Mississippi; its building near the World Trade Center was cut off after the September 11 attacks, and the club went bankrupt.

Sculptor Frank Eliscu modeled the Heisman statue on Ed Smith, a 1934 star at which school that has since dropped football?

New York University: Smith, a former high-school classmate of Eliscu, did not learn the sculpture had become the Heisman until 1982 and was given one of his own in 1985.

Who in 2007 became the first sophomore ever to win the Heisman Trophy?

Tim Tebow: no underclassman had won in the award's first 72 years; sophomores then took it three years running, with Sam Bradford and Mark Ingram following in 2008 and 2009.

Which school's Memorial Stadium sellout streak, an NCAA record begun in 1962, reached 400 games in 2024?

Nebraska's streak began in Bob Devaney's first season; sellout No. 400 was an overtime loss to Illinois, and donors have had to buy tickets in bulk to keep the run alive in lean years.

The first intercollegiate football game, in November 1869, matched Princeton against which school?

Rutgers won 6–4 under rules adapted from England's Football Association, so the game looked far more like soccer than modern football.

Stanford and Cal play for the Stanford Axe in which rivalry, first staged in 1892?

The Big Game: Stanford yell leaders unveiled the Axe at an 1899 rally by beheading a straw man in blue and gold; Cal students took it two days later, and 21 Stanford students took it back in 1930.

Ralphie, the live mascot who leads Colorado's football team onto the field, is what animal?

A bison: every Ralphie has been female, because female bison are smaller and less aggressive than the bulls.

Minnesota and Wisconsin, who once played for the Slab of Bacon, have met since 1948 for which trophy?

Paul Bunyan's Axe replaced the Slab of Bacon, which went missing in the 1940s and turned up in a Camp Randall storage room in 1994 with scores through 1970 painted on its back.

Which rivalry trophy began as a 30-cent water container that Michigan left behind after a 1903 tie at Minnesota?

The Little Brown Jug was bought by Michigan's student manager because coach Fielding Yost feared Minnesota fans might tamper with his team's water; it stayed in Minneapolis after the 6-6 tie.

Which team began running onto its home field to Metallica's 'Enter Sandman' in 2000?

Virginia Tech has entered Lane Stadium to 'Enter Sandman' since 2000, with the crowd jumping in unison; Metallica itself played the stadium in May 2025.

Smokey, the hound who leads Tennessee onto the field, is what breed?

Bluetick Coonhound: the first Smokey won a 1953 halftime contest by howling when his name was called, then howling again when the students cheered.

Auburn fans celebrate big wins by covering Toomer's Corner with what?

Toilet paper: the 'rolling' of the Toomer's Corner oaks is so cherished that an Alabama fan, Harvey Updyke, was fined and jailed after poisoning the trees in 2010.

When the Buckeyes' band forms Script Ohio, which musician traditionally dots the 'i'?

A sousaphone player now has the honor, but when the band first performed Script Ohio in 1936 a trumpet player, John Brungart, dotted the 'i'; honorary dotters have included Bob Hope and Jack Nicklaus.

Georgia Tech's 222–0 rout of Cumberland in 1916 came under which head coach?

John Heisman's Georgia Tech baseball team had lost 22-0 to Cumberland earlier in 1916, and when Cumberland tried to cancel the football game he held it to a contract with a $3,000 forfeit.

In 2007, which FCS team beat No. 5 Michigan 34–32 in Ann Arbor?

Appalachian State blocked a field goal in the final seconds to win, and Michigan became the first team to fall from the top five out of the AP poll entirely after a single game.

Which Boston College quarterback's last-second 1984 touchdown pass to Gerard Phelan beat Miami 47–45?

Doug Flutie, 5ft 10in, threw it at least 63 yards into a 30mph wind to Phelan, his roommate; the Heisman voting was already in, and he collected the trophy a week later.

Which school laid football's first non-green field, a blue artificial turf, in 1986?

Boise State athletic director Gene Bleymaier reasoned that if the school was paying $750,000 for new turf it need not be green again; the Broncos then went 5-6, their first losing season in four decades.

Which Texas A&M tradition traces to E. King Gill at the January 1922 Dixie Classic?

The 12th Man: Gill, a basketball player, suited up and stood ready on the sideline as injuries thinned the Aggies against Centre College; he never played, and A&M's student section now stands through whole games.

Which team won the first BCS National Championship, the January 1999 Fiesta Bowl?

Tennessee beat Florida State 23-16 behind quarterback Tee Martin, a year after Peyton Manning had left for the NFL, for its first consensus national title since 1951.

Which coach led eighth-seeded Ohio State to the first 12-team College Football Playoff title in January 2025?

Ryan Day's team was upset by rival Michigan in its last regular-season game, then won four playoff games in a row, finishing with a 34-23 win over Notre Dame.

In what year was the Big Ten, the oldest Division I conference, founded?

1896: the Big Ten began as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives, formed by seven Midwestern universities, and predates the NCAA, founded in 1906, by a decade.

The SEC was founded in December 1932 by 13 schools that broke away from which league?

Southern Conference: its 13 members west and south of the Appalachians broke away at a meeting in Knoxville; charter member Sewanee never won an SEC football game and left after 1940.

Which coach led Notre Dame to its 1988 national championship?

Lou Holtz's 1988 team went 12-0, edging Miami 31-30 in the game billed as 'Catholics vs. Convicts' and beating West Virginia 34-21 in the Fiesta Bowl to clinch the title.

Which Yale man, the 'Father of American Football', invented the line of scrimmage and downs?

Walter Camp served on football's rules committees from his playing days at Yale until his death in 1925, steadily pulling the game away from rugby, and picked an annual All-America team.

Which sportswriter coined the 'Four Horsemen' nickname for Notre Dame's 1924 backfield?

Grantland Rice opened his New York Herald Tribune report on the 1924 Army game with 'Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again'; student publicist George Strickler then posed the four on horseback.

Which future U.S. president played George Gipp in the 1940 film 'Knute Rockne, All American'?

Ronald Reagan was called 'the Gipper' for the rest of his life; the real George Gipp died at 25 of a strep infection and pneumonia, three weeks after his final game.

Mike, the live mascot who lives in a habitat beside LSU's Tiger Stadium, is by tradition what kind of animal?

A Bengal tiger by tradition, though the last three Mikes have been mixes: Mike VII, who came from a Florida sanctuary in 2017, is part Siberian and is not taken into the stadium on game days.

Which trophy has gone to the winner of the Notre Dame–USC game since 1952?

The Jeweled Shillelagh is an Irish club cut from oak or blackthorn, decorated with an emerald shamrock for each Notre Dame win and a ruby Trojan head for each USC win.

'Ol' Crimson', the flag first waved behind a College GameDay set in 2003, is which school's?

Washington State fans hatched the idea on an online forum in 2003, and through 2025 the flag had flown at every GameDay since, over 300 in a row, though the show did not visit their campus until 2018.

Lee Corso's first GameDay headgear pick, in October 1996, was the head of which mascot?

Brutus Buckeye: Corso made the pick in Columbus before Ohio State-Penn State on October 5, 1996, and closed his career in August 2025 by again choosing the Buckeyes.

The Egg Bowl, played for the Golden Egg trophy since 1927, is the annual rivalry between Mississippi State and which school?

Ole Miss, the University of Mississippi, and the trophy was introduced after a 1926 brawl in which fans fought with chairs, in the hope that a prize would calm things. It is usually played on Thanksgiving weekend.

The Alabama–Tennessee rivalry game is traditionally known by what name?

The Third Saturday in October, the date the Alabama-Tennessee game occupied for most of the 20th century; SEC expansion in 1992 often shifted it a week, yet the name stuck.

Which two Pennsylvania colleges play 'The Rivalry', college football's most-played series, dating to 1884?

Lafayette and Lehigh, 17 miles apart, have met more than 160 times because in the series' early years they played twice a season.

Which Auburn back won the 1985 Heisman after turning down the New York Yankees to go to college?

Bo Jackson had promised his mother he would be the first in the family to attend a major college; he later starred in both MLB and the NFL.

Which Georgia running back won the 1982 Heisman and later ran for the U.S. Senate?

Herschel Walker left Georgia a year early because the new USFL, unlike the NFL, would sign underclassmen; four decades later he lost the 2022 Senate race to Raphael Warnock in a runoff.

Which LSU quarterback threw a then-record 60 touchdown passes in 2019 on the way to the Heisman and a national title?

Joe Burrow's 60 broke the record of 58 set by Hawaii's Colt Brennan in 2006; he had spent three years at Ohio State without winning the starting job before transferring in 2018.

Two-way star Travis Hunter, the 2024 Heisman winner, played for which Deion Sanders-coached school?

Colorado: Hunter followed Deion Sanders from Jackson State to Boulder in 2023 and in 2024 became the first player to win both the Bednarik (defense) and Biletnikoff (receiver) awards.

Alabama's overtime winner over Georgia in January 2018 is known by what down and distance?

2nd and 26, after a 16-yard sack on first down, when freshman Tua Tagovailoa, in relief of Jalen Hurts, threw a 41-yard touchdown to DeVonta Smith. It was the first title game of the playoff era decided in overtime.

Which Texas quarterback's late touchdown run beat USC 41–38 for the national title in January 2006?

Vince Young scored on fourth-and-five with 19 seconds left, finished with 467 total yards and ended a USC winning streak that had reached 34 games.

Through 2025, who is the only Heisman Trophy winner to have coached another Heisman winner?

Steve Spurrier won as Florida's quarterback in 1966, then came back as head coach and guided Danny Wuerffel to the 1996 award in the Gators' national-title season.

Top-ranked Nebraska beat which second-ranked rival 35–31 on Thanksgiving Day 1971 in the 'Game of the Century'?

Oklahoma led late before Jeff Kinney's fourth touchdown put Nebraska ahead with 1:38 left; Johnny Rodgers had opened the scoring with a 72-yard punt return.

Which Wisconsin back won the 1999 Heisman and ran for 7,125 career yards, bowl games included?

Ron Dayne's bowl yards came before the NCAA counted postseason stats, so his official total is 6,397 and the record passed in 2016 to Donnel Pumphrey, who ran for 6,405.

Which 1993 Heisman winner skipped the NFL for 11 NBA seasons, mostly with the Knicks?

Charlie Ward said he would consider the NFL only as a first-round pick, was not taken there, and went to the New York Knicks with the 26th pick of the 1994 NBA draft.

Which coach, in charge at Iowa since 1999, was the longest-tenured head coach in major college football in 2025?

Kirk Ferentz, an Iowa assistant through the 1980s, lost 10 of 11 games in his first season as head coach in 1999, yet was still in the job more than 25 years later.

Which program won 10 FCS national titles between 2011 and 2024, including five in a row?

North Dakota State won in 2011-15, 2017-19, 2021 and 2024, put together a record 22-game playoff winning streak, then left for the FBS and the Mountain West in 2026.

Under college football's overtime rules since 2021, what do teams trade from the third overtime onward?

Two-point conversion tries replace full drives in long games, a change first made after LSU and Texas A&M's seven-overtime, 74-72 game in 2018 ran nearly five hours.

The Outland Trophy honors college football's best player at which position group?

Interior lineman: John Outland, an All-American at tackle in 1898 and at halfback in 1899, argued that guards and tackles deserved more recognition and conceived the award for them.

What was built inside LSU's Tiger Stadium in the 1930s, reputedly at Governor Huey Long's urging?

Student dormitories were built into the stands because the state budget had money for housing but none for seats, so the seats went on top; students lived in them until the late 1980s.

Which team did Michigan beat 34–13 in January 2024 for its first national title since 1997?

Washington lost to a Michigan team whose coach, Jim Harbaugh, had been suspended for six games that season; 16 days after the title he left for the NFL's Chargers.

Nike, Oregon's longtime outfitter, was co-founded by ex-Ducks runner Phil Knight and which coach?

Bill Bowerman was Knight's track coach at Oregon; the pair founded Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964, the company that became Nike, and Knight's donations later funded many of Oregon's athletic facilities.

Which future wrestler and film star was a backup defensive tackle on Miami's 1991 national title team?

Dwayne Johnson sat behind future Hall of Famer Warren Sapp on the depth chart, went undrafted in 1995 and turned to wrestling after the Calgary Stampeders cut him.

Which future president played center for the Wolverines' unbeaten national title teams of 1932 and 1933?

Gerald Ford turned down offers from the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers, instead taking a job as boxing coach and assistant football coach at Yale, where he studied law.

Which cartoon character became the University of Oregon's mascot through a handshake deal with Walt Disney?

Donald Duck was used on trust alone until Disney's lawyers questioned the deal in the 1970s; a photo of Walt in an Oregon Donald jacket settled it, and a contract followed in 1973.

Which university lost 37 football players in a November 1970 plane crash, the subject of a 2006 film?

Marshall hired Jack Lengyel from the College of Wooster, and the NCAA let him play freshmen on the varsity, which its rules did not then allow. Matthew McConaughey played him in We Are Marshall.

Which Western film star played football at USC until a bodysurfing injury cost him his scholarship?

John Wayne broke his collarbone bodysurfing and later said he was too afraid of coach Howard Jones to admit how it happened, so he went to work for the Fox Film Corporation instead.

At Kinnick Stadium, fans turn after the first quarter and wave to people in which building next door?

A children's hospital overlooking the east stands opened in 2017, and a fan's Facebook suggestion started what ESPN called "college football's coolest new tradition".

Which president's 1905 White House meetings on football deaths led to the founding of the NCAA?

Theodore Roosevelt urged reform after a 1905 season with 19 fatalities, and that December 62 schools met in New York to make the game safer.

Which future baseball Hall of Famer led the NCAA in punt return average for the Bruins in 1939 and 1940?

Jackie Robinson starred beside Kenny Washington and Woody Strode on an unbeaten 1939 team, and he was the school's first athlete to letter in four sports.

Actor Tommy Lee Jones played guard for which Ivy League team in its famous 29–29 tie with Yale in 1968?

Harvard scored 16 points in the final 42 seconds, and the student paper declared "Harvard Beats Yale 29–29". Jones's college roommate was future vice president Al Gore.

Which NASCAR track drew 156,990 fans to a college football game played there in September 2016?

Bristol Motor Speedway staged the game to smash the sport's attendance record of 115,109, and the "Battle at Bristol" beat it by more than 40,000.

Which film follows a Fighting Irish walk-on who got into one game in 1975 and recorded a sack?

Rudy casts coach Dan Devine as the obstacle, but in real life it was Devine's idea to dress Rudy Ruettiger, who sacked the quarterback on the game's final play and was carried off by teammates.

Which Carlisle Indian School football star won the Olympic pentathlon and decathlon in the summer of 1912?

Jim Thorpe ran through Army in a 27–6 Carlisle win that autumn; one of the cadets trying to tackle him was halfback Dwight Eisenhower, the future president.

Which coach of Carlisle, Pittsburgh and Stanford gave his name to America's largest youth football organization?

Pop Warner also devised the single-wing and double-wing formations and the three-point stance, and won four national titles after his Carlisle years.

Which halfback, nicknamed the "Galloping Ghost", scored four touchdowns in the first 12 minutes of a 1924 game?

Red Grange took the opening kickoff 95 yards, then scored on runs of 67, 56 and 44 yards at the grand opening of Illinois's new Memorial Stadium.

Which Navy quarterback won the 1963 Heisman Trophy, then served a tour in Vietnam before his NFL career?

Roger Staubach later became the first player to win both the Heisman Trophy and Super Bowl MVP, earning the second in Super Bowl VI with the Dallas Cowboys.

Which Wolverines cornerback beat Peyton Manning to the Heisman Trophy as a primarily defensive player?

Charles Woodson also returned punts and occasionally lined up at wide receiver, and he went on to be the NFL's Defensive Rookie of the Year and later its Defensive Player of the Year.

Which Auburn quarterback won the 2010 Heisman one year after leading Blinn College to a junior-college title?

Cam Newton spent a single season at each school, and the Carolina Panthers then made him the first overall pick of the 2011 NFL draft.

Which Louisville quarterback hurdled a Syracuse defender into the end zone in his 2016 Heisman season?

Lamar Jackson beat finalists including Deshaun Watson and Baker Mayfield, yet lasted until the final pick of the first round of the 2018 NFL draft.

Which Wolverines quarterback had to platoon with Drew Henson in 1999, then fell to pick 199 of the NFL draft?

Tom Brady began seventh on the depth chart, and early in 1999 he played the first quarter and Henson the second before coach Lloyd Carr chose one of them for the second half.

Which coach won national titles with USC in the 2000s, then Super Bowl XLVIII with the Seattle Seahawks?

Pete Carroll became the third head coach to win both a college national championship and a Super Bowl, after his Trojans went 67–7 over one 74-game stretch.

Which nickname do LSU's Tiger Stadium and Clemson's Memorial Stadium both go by?

Death Valley was pinned on Clemson's field in 1948 by a visiting coach whose teams rarely scored there, and the university cemetery once overlooked it.

Since 2021, college athletes may earn money from their NIL, which stands for name, image and what?

Likeness completes NIL, a policy the NCAA adopted at every level of competition on June 30, 2021, two years after California became the first state to allow such deals.

Which hand signal did cheerleader Harley Clark unveil at a 1955 Texas pep rally, inspired by shadow puppets?

Hook 'em Horns came to Clark after two friends had been casting shadows on a wall of the Texas Union; he showed it to the student body at Gregory Gym a few nights later.

Which Buckeyes coach was fired the morning after punching a Clemson player during the 1978 Gator Bowl?

Woody Hayes struck nose guard Charlie Bauman, who had just intercepted a pass and been run out of bounds on his sideline, then refused his athletic director's offer to resign instead.

Which school is nicknamed the "Cradle of Quarterbacks" and produced Super Bowl winner Drew Brees?

Purdue became just the second college to produce three different Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks when Brees led the New Orleans Saints to victory in Super Bowl XLIV.

Which Syracuse halfback, in 1961 the first Black Heisman winner, died of leukemia before playing an NFL game?

Ernie Davis was the first overall pick of the NFL draft and was traded to the Cleveland Browns, but was diagnosed within months and died at 23; the 2008 film The Express tells his story.

Which USC tailback shoved quarterback Matt Leinart into the end zone to beat the Fighting Irish in 2005?

Reggie Bush gave the play its name, the "Bush Push"; helping a runner that way was illegal assistance under the rules, but the officials called no foul.

Which private Texas school was barred from playing in 1987 under the NCAA's "death penalty" for paying players?

SMU had run a slush fund for under-the-table payments to players since the 1970s, and after its 1987 season was cancelled the school chose to sit out 1988 as well.

Which three-back option offense did coordinator Emory Bellard install at Texas in 1968?

Wishbone was coach Darrell Royal's word for it after a Houston sportswriter said the backfield looked like a "pulley bone"; after a tie and a loss, Texas won 30 straight games and two national titles.

Which trick play, banned by the NCAA after 1992, gave Nebraska guard Dean Steinkuhler a 1984 Orange Bowl touchdown?

Fumblerooski has the quarterback set the ball on the ground on purpose for a lineman to pick up; Steinkuhler ran it in from 19 yards with Nebraska trailing 17–0.

Which city has hosted the Army–Navy Game most often?

Philadelphia, roughly equidistant from West Point and Annapolis, became the game's home when the University of Pennsylvania persuaded the academies to resume their suspended series at Franklin Field.

Which city became home to the College Football Hall of Fame after earlier homes in Ohio and Indiana?

Atlanta had lost the previous bid to an Indiana city in 1992; the hall's first real building had opened beside Ohio's Kings Island amusement park in 1978, hoping to share its crowds.

Which European capital staged its first college football game in 1988 and later season openers at Aviva Stadium?

Dublin's first game, the 1988 Emerald Isle Classic, was billed as the first major NCAA-sanctioned game played in Europe and drew 42,524 to Lansdowne Road.

Which school is nicknamed "Linebacker U" and has staged a "White Out" at Beaver Stadium since 2004?

Penn State's White Out began as a student-section stunt; ESPN's Beano Cook said anyone unimpressed by it probably thinks the moon landing was faked.

Which "Golden Boy" quarterback won the 1956 Heisman Trophy even though his team finished with a 2–8 record?

Paul Hornung could run, pass, block, tackle and kick, and with the Green Bay Packers he became the first Heisman winner to be named the NFL's Most Valuable Player.

Which Seminoles coach, father of head coaches Terry and Tommy, finished 14 straight seasons in the AP top five?

Bobby Bowden and both sons each coached an unbeaten season, and his games against Tommy's Clemson teams were billed as the "Bowden Bowl".

Vince Lombardi played on which New York school's famed 1936 offensive line, the "Seven Blocks of Granite"?

Fordham's publicist Timothy Cohane pushed the name in 1936 to win attention for a team that was unbeaten halfway through the season, having tried "Seven Samsons" the year before.

Which Western Athletic Conference school went 13–0 in 1984 and was voted national champion?

BYU was the only unbeaten major-college team that year, yet some pollsters balked because only two of its opponents had won at least seven games.

Which name did the NCAA's top football tier carry from 1978 until it became the Football Bowl Subdivision?

Division I-A was created when the larger schools pushed for more autonomy before the 1978 season; the rest of the top division's football teams became I-AA, now the FCS.

Which Texas-heavy league broke up in 1996 when four members joined the Big Eight schools to form the Big 12?

Southwest Conference programs were hit by a run of recruiting scandals and NCAA probations in the 1980s, weakening a league that had existed since 1914.

Which pass-first offense did Hal Mumme and Mike Leach develop at Iowa Wesleyan and Valdosta State?

Air raid football went mainstream at Kentucky, where the pair turned quarterback Tim Couch into a consensus All-American and later a first overall NFL draft pick.

Which mass formation, first sprung on Yale in 1892, was outlawed two seasons later for causing serious injuries?

Flying wedge teammates locked themselves to the ball carrier with their hands and arms and charged as one; the tactic is now banned in rugby union and rugby league too.

The prize for college football's top placekicker honors which Cleveland Browns great, nicknamed "the Toe"?

Lou Groza spent his whole career with Cleveland as both an offensive tackle and the placekicker; the award bearing his name is presented in Palm Beach County.

The Ramblin' Wreck that has led Georgia Tech's team onto the field since 1961 is which 1930 car?

A Ford Model A Sport coupe restored by a Delta Air Lines pilot and his son was sold to the school for $1,000 in 1961; before that, the Wrecks were a string of old cars owned by students, faculty and alumni.

Which university, coached for 41 seasons by Amos Alonzo Stagg, abolished its football program in 1939?

Chicago's president Robert Maynard Hutchins decided big-time football and the university's commitment to academics were not compatible; he had already forced out the 70-year-old Stagg.

Which Ivy League school gave up a 1940 win over Dartmouth after game film showed it had scored on a fifth down?

Cornell had won 18 straight games, but its players, coach and president agreed to offer a forfeit by telegram, turning a 7–3 win into a 3–0 Dartmouth victory.

Which small Southern college's unbeaten "Iron Men" of the 1890s won five road games in six days, all by shutout?

Sewanee covered 2,500 miles by train on that trip, and trainers rubbed the players down on the trains between games to ease their pain and help them sleep.

Which Minnesota small-college coach won a record 489 games while banning tackling in practice?

John Gagliardi told players not to call him "coach", used no whistle or blocking sleds, did not make them lift weights and kept practices to 90 minutes.

Which school's students threw the goalposts into a nearby lake when its 34-game losing streak ended in 1982?

Northwestern students had "celebrated" the record-setting 29th straight defeat a year earlier by rushing the field and chanting "we're the worst!"

Which small Ohio college won 54 straight games in the late 1990s, then 55 straight from 2000 to 2003?

Mount Union won a conference title in 23 of coach Larry Kehres's 27 seasons, and its run of 24 consecutive league crowns lasted until 2016.