page_title: 1948 Michigan Wolverines football team
section_title: National championship and post-season honors
hierarchical_section_title: 1948 Michigan Wolverines football team / Season summary / National championship and post-season honors
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of Dan Dworsky
context_page_description: The 1948 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan during the 1948 Big Nine Conference football season. In its first year under head coach Bennie Oosterbaan, Michigan compiled a 9–0 record, defeated six ranked opponents by a combined score of 122–17, and won both the Big Nine Conference and national football championships. In the final AP Poll, Michigan received 192 first place votes, twice as many as second-place Notre Dame which garnered 97 first place votes.
  The 1948 season was Michigan's second straight undefeated, untied season. After Fritz Crisler led the 1947 team to a perfect 10–0 record, the Wolverines entered the 1948 season with a 14-game winning streak dating back to October 1946. Despite the loss of all four backfield starters from the 1947 team, the 1948 team extended the winning streak to 23 games.
  On offense, Michigan was led by a new backfield that included All-American quarterback Pete Elliott and halfbacks Chuck Ortmann and Leo Koceski. The team scored 252 points, an average of 28 points per game. With Ortmann as the principal passer, the Wolverines relied on an air attack, gaining more yards in the air than on the ground.
context_section_description: In the final AP Poll released at the end of November 1948, Michigan was the consensus pick for "the mythical national football championship."  The sports writers voting in the final poll cast their first place votes as follows: Michigan (192), Notre Dame (97), North Carolina (31), and Oklahoma (30).  Notre Dame finished the 1948 season with an undefeated 9–0–1 record, but Michigan's record was better against four of five common opponents.  Writing in The New York Times, sports writer Allison Danzig wrote: "Another college football season ends with Michigan and Notre Dame again at the top."
  Despite winning the Big Nine championship, Michigan was ineligible to represent the conference in the 1949 Rose Bowl.  A Big Nine rule prohibited any team from making more than one Rose Bowl appearance in three years.  Having represented the Big Nine in the 1948 Rose Bowl, Michigan would not be eligible to return to Pasadena until the 1950 season.  The New York Times wrote that Michigan's victories "made a mockery of the arrangement which prevents a Big Nine team from succeeding itself in the Rose Bowl assignment."
  
  In early December 1948, Bennie Oosterbaan was selected as the "Coach of the Year" in a nationwide poll of football coaches.  Oosterbaan received 61 first place votes, nearly double the 33 first place votes cast for runner-up Lynn Waldorf of California.  With Fritz Crisler having received the honor in 1947, Oosterbaan's selection was the first time the award had been given in consecutive years to coaches from the same university.  Writing in the New York World-Telegram, Lawrence Robinson described the coaches' rationale for honoring Oosterbaan:
  "They knew what Oosterbaan must have faced, taking over a championship team, generally rated No. 1 in the country in 1947 . . . and that had lost its entire backfield, both tackles, the center and the star end.  They realize what it took to rebuild a team and keep it at a winning tempo. . . . They also knew that in all football  there is no more solid citizen than quiet, modest Bennie Oosterbaan . . ."
  
  End Dick Rifenburg and tackle Al Wistert were also honored in the post-season as consensus first-team players on the 1948 College Football All-America Team.  Pete Elliott was also picked by the INS (the Hearst newspaper wire service) as a first-team All-American at defensive quarterback.  Those same three players, as well as guard Dominic Tomasi, were selected as first-team All-Big Nine Conference players. Although Chuck Ortmann was not selected as a first-team All-American, Tommy Devine opined in The Sporting News:
  "This blond, tousled-haired youngster from Milwaukee played the key role in moving Michigan to its second straight Western Conference championship and another claim to the national title. . . . Off his 1948 performance, Ortmann already is being rated along with the scintillating Tom Harmon and brilliant Bob Chappuis among Michigan's modern great backs."
caption: Center Dan Dworsky later designed Crisler Arena.
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