1940 Stanford Indians football team

1940 Stanford Indians football
National champion (Billingsley, Helms, Poling)[a]
PCC champion
Rose Bowl champion
Rose Bowl, W 21–13 vs. Nebraska
ConferencePacific Coast Conference
Ranking
APNo. 2
Record10–0 (7–0 PCC)
Head coach
Offensive schemeT formation
Home stadiumStanford Stadium
Seasons
← 1939
1941 →
1940 Pacific Coast Conference football standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
No. 2 Stanford $ 7 0 0 10 0 0
No. 10 Washington 7 1 0 7 2 0
Oregon State 4 3 1 5 3 1
Washington State 3 4 2 4 4 2
Oregon 3 4 1 4 4 1
California 3 4 0 4 6 0
USC 2 3 2 3 4 2
Montana 1 2 0 4 4 1
UCLA 1 6 0 1 9 0
Idaho 0 4 0 1 7 1
  • $ – Conference champion
Rankings from AP Poll

The 1940 Stanford Indians football team, nicknamed the "Wow Boys",[b] represented Stanford University as a member of the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) during the 1940 college football season. First-year head coach Clark Shaughnessy inherited a team that finished with a 1–7–1 record the previous season.[2] He installed his own version of the T formation, a system that had largely fallen into disuse since the 1890s and was viewed as obsolete.[3] The Indians shocked observers when they won all ten of their games including the Rose Bowl, which prompted several selectors to declare them the 1940 national champions. Stanford's dramatic reversal of fortunes prompted football programs across the nation to abandon the single-wing formation in favor of the new T formation.

  1. ^ "National Poll Champions", 2007 NCAA Division I Football Records Book (PDF), pp. 74–76, National Collegiate Athletic Association, 2007. Accessed 2009-07-28. Archived 2009-07-31.
  2. ^ Wow Boys: The Team That Changed the Game, Stanford Magazine, Stanford Alumni Association, January/February 2007. Accessed 2009-07-28. Archived 2009-07-30.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference si was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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