1937 McMNC: California Bears

AP Top 10: Final Record -- Key Bowl Results
1. Pittsburgh: 9-0-1 -- None
2. California: 10-0-1 -- W, Rose, 13-0
3. Fordham: 7-0-1 -- None
4. Alabama: 9-1-0 -- L, Rose, 0-13
5. Minnesota: 6-2-0 -- None
6. Villanova: 8-0-1 -- None
7. Dartmouth: 7-0-2 -- None
8. LSU: 9-2-0 -- L, Sugar, 0-6
9. Notre Dame: 6-2-1 -- None
(tie) Santa Clara: 9-0-0 -- W, Sugar, 6-0

The good McMisanthrope giveth, and he taketh away.

Pittsburgh may have won my 1936 McMNC, but that doesn’t mean they get a pass for 1937. While their 9-0-1 record is impressive, they didn’t win a bowl game. Also, since another team won a bowl game and finished with an equally impressive record, that other team (California) is going to get the edge on Pittsburgh for the 1937 title.

By beating a 9-0-0 Alabama team in the Rose Bowl, California proved it was the best team in the country in 1937. Yes, they have a tie on their record, just as Pittsburgh does. But California put their record on the line in a bowl game, and while I know that’s not the fault of the Pittsburgh players themselves, reality is it means a lot more to go 10-0-1 with that last, pressure-packed win being over an undefeated, untied Alabama team in the Rose Bowl than it does to go 9-0-1 and rest on your laurels through the holiday season.

The only other school with a legitimate claim to the 1937 McMNC is Santa Clara. Sound familiar? You'd think after Santa Clara beat LSU in the Sugar Bowl in 1936 that the voters would give them some respect in 1937. But no. Voters are just as stupid then as they are now, and the Broncos were buried in the Top 10, actually tying for #9 with a two-loss, one-tie Notre Dame team. But Santa Clara proved itself (again) with a Sugar Bowl win over a 9-1-0 LSU team, traveling across the country for the second year in a row, to beat an SEC team.

So it comes down to California and Santa Clara, two school separated by about 50 miles in the San Francisco Bay Area. Heck, Santa Clara cut its football program years ago, IIRC. Too bad, because they had a nice tradition to reflect upon. Their coach, Buck Shaw, later coached California for one season before being the first coach of the San Francisco 49ers in the AAFC and then the NFL. He ended up his career with the NFL’s Eagles, winning the 1960 NFL title with the help of Chuck Bednarik. Amazing career.

But I digress. A quick glance at the two schedules shows us that neither California nor Santa Clara played a “tough” schedule. In fact, seven of California’s ten regular season games were at home. The PCC was down that year, as no other league team made the AP Top 20. However, Santa Clara played a weaker schedule of small-school California teams. Two common opponents for California and Santa Clara help us analyze this: Stanford and St. Mary’s. Both teams beat Stanford on the road, California winning 13-0 and Santa Clara winning 13-7. So California gets the slight edge there. Both teams beat the Gaels at home, Santa Clara shutting them out 7-0 and California romping, 30-7. That’s a big edge for California.

Thrown in the reality that California beat a better team more convincingly in the bowl games, and in the end, it has to be California. Santa Clara finishes second for the second year in a row, though: not bad for a small school which traveled long and far to beat the big boys two years in a row.

Side note: Fordham’s 1937 team featured the renowned “Seven Blocks of Granite”, although the 1936 team probably deserves the title more. Coached by one of the Four Horsemen, Jim Crowley, this team had a lineman named Vince Lombardi on the squad.

McMNC Revisions
1. California
2. Santa Clara
3. Pittsburgh
4. Fordham
5. Villanova
6. Dartmouth

RUNNING SCORECARD:
California: +1937
Pittsburgh: +1936, -1937
Minnesota: -1936