1935 college football season The 1935 college football season was the last one before the Associated Press writers ' poll was used in selecting the national champion . The Dickinson System , consisting of the calculations of University of Illinois Professor Frank Dickinson , crowned Southern Methodist University ( SMU ) as the best in the nation . A poll of newspaper writers , taken at year ' s end — by United Press rather than the AP — concluded that the University of Minnesota ' s eleven was the best in the nation . Major conferences that existed in 1934 were the Western Conference , the Pacific Coast Conference , the Southeastern Conference , the old Southern Conference , the Big Six and the Southwest Conference . September . September 21 SMU opened with a 39 - 0 win over North Texas and TCU opened its season with a 41 - 0 win over visiting Howard Payne College . September 28 SMU beat Austin College 60 - 0 and TCU beat North Texas 28 - 11 . Stanford beat San Jose State 35 - 0 and UCLA beat Utah State 39 - 0 . , Fordham University , whose 1936 team would include the legendary Seven Blocks of Granite was a favorite New York City college football teams , after New York University and Columbia University . The Rams played all of their games at home at the Polo Grounds , which also hosted the NFL ' s New york Giants . In a game against visiting Franklin & Marshall , the Rams were losing until they scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter for a 14 - 7 win . California played a doubleheader , beating UC - Davis 47 - 0 and Whittier 6 - 0 . Notre Dame defeated visiting Kansas , 28 - 7 . Pittsburgh had an unexpectedly difficult time in a 14 - 0 win over visiting Waynesburg College . October . October 5 Minnesota beat visiting North Dakota State 26 - 6 Stanford won at the U . of San Francisco 10 - 0 and California beat St . Mary ' s 10 - 0 . In Portland , UCLA beat Oregon State 20 - 7 . Ohio State beat Kentucky 19 - 6 Princeton edged Penn 7 - 6 , Fordham beat Boston College 19 - 0 , Notre Dame won at Carnegie Tech , 14 - 3 and Pittsburgh won at Washington & Jefferson 35 - 0 . TCU won at Arkansas 13 - 7 and SMU beat visiting Tulsa 14 - 0 . October 12 Minnesota won at Nebraska 12 - 7 and Ohio State defeated visiting Drake 85 - 7 . In Portland , California beat Oregon 6 - 0 . TCU won at Tulsa , 13 - 0 . In St . Louis , SMU beat Washington University 35 - 6 . Notre Dame won at Wisconsin , 27 - 0 Pittsburgh beat West Virginia 24 - 6 . Fordham lost to Purdue , 20 - 0 Princeton defeated Williams College 14 - 7 . October 19 UCLA won at Stanford , 7 - 6 . Notre Dame ( 3 - 0 ) and Pittsburgh , both 3 - 0 - 0 , met at South Bend , with the Fighting Irish handing Pitt itss first loss 9 - 6 . Minnesota beat visiting Tulane 20 - 0 Ohio State beat Northwestern 28 - 7 . SMU and Rice , both 4 - 0 - 0 , met in Dallas , with SMU winning 10 - 0 . TCU beat visiting Texas A & M 19 - 14 to stay unbeaten . California beat Santa Clara 6 - 0 . Princeton beat Rutgers 29 - 6 . Fordham beat Vanderbilt , 13 - 7 October 26 TCU won at Centenary 27 - 7 . Stanford won at Washington 6 - 0 , California beat visiting USC 21 - 7 , and UCLA beat Oregon 33 - 6 . Minnesota beat Northwestern at home 21 - 13 and Ohio State won at Inidana 28 - 6 Fordham defeated Lebanon Valley College 15 - 0 . Pittsburgh beat Penn State 9 - 0 . Princeton won at Cornell 54 - 0 . At Baltimore , Notre Dame beat Navy 14 - 0 . In a game at Wichita Falls , Texas , SMU beat Hardin - Simmons 18 - 6 . November . November 2 Notre Dame ( 5 - 0 - 0 ) and Ohio State ( 4 - 0 - 0 ) met at Columbus before a crowd of 80 , 000 . Grantland Rice described what happened : " Completely outplayed in the first two quarters , trailing 13 to 0 as the final quarter started with every killing break against it - - breaks that would crack the heart of an iron ox - - this Notre Dame team came surging back in the final quarter . . . " . Notre Dame scored early in the fourth , but the extra point attempt bounced off the crossbar , and it was 13 - 6 . After an interception , the Irish drove to within six inches of the goal line 0when Milner fumbled the ball away . With 90 seconds left , Andy Pilney passed to Mike Layden for a touchdown , but the extra point failed and the Irish trailed 13 - 12 . Andy Pilney forced a Buckeye fumble at midfield , giving the Irish the ball at the 49 yard line , and on the next play , Pilney , taking back over as quarterback , scrambled to the 19 yard line , but was injured . With only one play left in the game , reserve quarterback Bill Shakespeare passed to Wayne Milner for the 18 - 13 win . At Los Angeles , California ( 6 - 0 - 0 ) faced UCLA ( 4 - 0 - 0 ) and won 14 - 2 . TCU visited Baylor ( 6 - 0 - 0 ) . TCU shut the Bears out 28 - 0 . SMU beat visiting Texas 20 - 0 . Minnesota beat Purdue 29 - 7 . Stanford beat Santa Clara in another close game , 9 - 6 . Fordham and Pittsburgh played to a 0 - 0 tie . Princeton defeated Navy 26 - 0 . November 9 Unbeaten Notre Dame hosted the Northwestern Wildcats , who had a losing record ( 2 - 3 - 0 ) . With William Shakespeare at left halfback for the Irish , and Henry Wardsworth Longfellow playing right end for the Wildcats , the game looked like no more than a meeting of literary namesakes . Shakespeare ' s running game was shut down , while Longfellow caught one touchdown pass , and then recovered a fumble in the fourth quarter to set up a second touchdown for a major upset , as Northwestern won 14 - 7 Minnesota won at Iowa 13 - 6 . In Los Angeles , SMU handed UCLA ( 4 - 1 - 0 ) its second straight loss , 21 - 0 . Stanford won at USC , 3 - 0 . California beat Washington 14 - 0 . Fordham tied St . Mary ' s College 7 - 7 , Princeton beat Harvard 35 - 0 and Pittsburgh beat visiting Army 29 - 6 . Ohio State won at Chicago , 20 - 13 . In a Friday game at New Orleans , TCU beat Loyola College 14 - 0 . November 16 TCU won at Texas 28 - 0 and SMU won at Arkansas 17 - 6 . Fordham beat Muhlenberg College 45 - 0 at the Polo Grounds , while Notre Dame and Army played to a 6 - 6 tie at Yankee Stadium . Pittsburgh beat Nebraska 6 - 0 and Princeton beat Lehigh 27 - 0 . Stanford defeated Montana 32 - 0 California beat Pacific 39 - 0 Ohio State beat Illinois 38 - 0 and Minnesota won at Michigan 40 - 0 In a Friday game , UCLA beat visiting Hawaii 19 - 6 . November 23 California ( 9 - 0 ) and Stanford ( 6 - 1 - 0 ) met at Palo Alto , as Stanford handed the Golden Bears their first loss , 13 - 0 . On the strength of the win , Stanford got the bid to the Rose Bowl . In a matchup of two great Ivy teams , Princeton ( 7 - 0 - 0 ) hosted Dartmouth ( 8 - 0 - 0 ) , with Princeton winning 26 - 6 . SMU defeated visiting Baylor 10 - 0 and TCU beat visiting Rice , 27 - 6 , as both teams raised their records to 10 - 0 - 0 . UCLA beat Loyola Marymount 14 - 6 Notre Dame closed its season with a 20 - 13 win over USC . Minnesota beat visiting Wisconsin , 33 - 7 to close its season at 8 - 0 - 0 . For the first time , Ohio State closed with its regular season with Michigan , a tradition that continued with only one interruption , in 1942 . OSU won at Ann Arbor , 38 - 0 . On Thanksgiving Day , November 28 a crowd of 78 , 000 turned out at Yankee Stadium to watch Fordham ( 5 - 1 - 2 ) face New York University ( 7 - 1 - 0 ) . Fordham shut out NYU 21 - 0 , but not before a fight broke out with the spectators crowding the field , Pittsburgh ( 6 - 1 - 0 ) and Carnegie Tech ( 2 - 5 - 0 ) played to a 0 - 0 tie . November 30 The most eagerly watched game of the season matched two unbeaten ( 10 - 0 - 0 ) teams , with Texas Christian ( 10 - 0 - 0 ) hosting Southern Methodist . SMU won 20 - 14 and was invited to the Rose Bowl , while TCU went to the Sugar Bowl . Princeton closed its season with a 38 - 7 win at Yale , to finish 9 - 0 - 0 . December . December 7 UCLA beat Idaho 13 - 6 . TCU won at Santa Clara , 10 - 6 . December 14 In San Francisco , UCLA closed its season with a 13 - 7 win over St . Mary ' s , while in Los Angeles , Pittsburgh beat USC 12 - 7 . Conference standings . The following is an incomplete list of conference standings : Dickinson System . The AP sportswriters ' poll would not begin continuously until 1936 . ( although , the first time was a one instance publishing in 1934 ) Frank G . Dickinson , an economics professor at the University of Illinois , had invented the Dickinson System to rank colleges based upon their records and the strength of their opposition . The Rissman Trophy , and later the Rockne Memorial Trophy , was awarded to the winning university . In an AP story with the caption " Figure This Out ! " , the system was explained : " For each victory of a first division team over another first division team , the winner gets 30 points and the loser 15 points . For each tie between two first division teams , each team gets 12 . 5 points . For each victory of a first division team over a second division team , the first division winner gets 20 points and the second division loser 10 points . For each tie between two second division teams , each gets 15 points . For each tie between a non - division team and a second division team , the first division team gets 15 points and the second division team gets 20 points . Then , after each team has been given its quota of points its final " score " is tabulated by taking an average on the number of games played . " Final Dickinson rankings . SMU , Minnesota and Princeton were all unbeaten and untied at season ' s end . Based on the strength of its schedule ( which included twelve games ) , SMU was ranked first . Professor Dickinson also had additional variables , based on the strength of the conferences , reported as follows : Big Ten ( + 3 . 78 ) , SWC ( + 3 . 31 ) , East ( 0 . 00 ) , Pacific Coast ( - 0 . 11 ) , SEC ( - 0 . 12 ) , Big Six ( - 1 . 95 ) and Southern ( - 6 . 15 ) The United Press Sport Writers ' Poll . Although the AP would begin the first " weekly " writers ' poll in 1936 , and UPI would not follow until 1950 , United Press did conduct a season ' s end poll in 1935 . Writers from 112 papers were asked to vote for their Top Ten , and then the choices were to be weighted , with 10 points for first , 9 points for second , etc . The results placed Minnesota first and SMU second Bowl games . The Rose Bowl matched unbeaten SMU ( 12 - 0 - 0 ) against Pacific champion Stanford ( 7 - 1 - 0 ) before a crowd of 86 , 000 . Stanford had been a two time loser at Pasadena , falling to both Alabama and Columbia . Determined not to have a three - peat , the Stanford Indians scored an early touchdown and held off the Mustangs to win 7 - 0 . In New Orleans , the second annual Sugar Bowl pitted Texas Christian ( TCU ) ( 11 - 1 - 0 ) against SEC champion Louisiana State ( LSU ) ( 9 - 1 - 0 ) before a crowd of 38 , 000 . TCU ' s Sammy Baugh , later to go on to NFL fame , was forced out of the end zone on a pass attempt , and the safety gave LSU a 2 - 0 lead . Two minutes later , Baugh drove the Frogs to the 17 yard line , setting up Taldon Malton ' s field goal . The final score was TCU 3 , LSU 2 In Miami , the second annual Orange Bowl matched Mississippi ( 9 - 2 - 0 ) against the unheralded Cardinals of Catholic University ( 8 - 1 - 0 ) . A crowd of 10 , 000 watched Catholic take an early lead and pull off a 20 - 19 upset . The Sun Bowl matched two colleges for the first time , as New Mexico State and Hardin - Simmons battled to a 14 - 14 tie . Heisman Trophy . 1935 was the first year that the Heisman Trophy was ever awarded , although it was named differently in the first year . In 1935 , it was presented by the Downtown Athletic Club ( DAC ) in Manhattan , New York , a privately owned recreation facility near the site of the former World Trade Center . It was first known simply as the " DAC Trophy " for this inaugural year . The first winner , Jay Berwanger , was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles but declined to sign for them . He never played professional football for any team . In 1936 , John Heisman died and the trophy was renamed in his honor . Larry Kelley , the second winner of the award was the first man to win it officially named as the " Heisman Trophy . "