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1943 Big Ten Conference football season
1943 Big Ten Conference football season
Sport	Football
Number of teams	9
Top draft pick	Pat Harder
Co-champions	Purdue, Michigan
Season MVP	Otto Graham
Football seasons
	← 1942 1944 →

1943 Big Ten Conference football standings
v t e	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
No. 5 Purdue +	6	–	0	–	0	9	–	0	–	0
No. 3 Michigan +	6	–	0	–	0	8	–	1	–	0
No. 9 Northwestern	5	–	1	–	0	6	–	2	–	0
Indiana	2	–	3	–	1	4	–	4	–	2
Minnesota	2	–	3	–	0	5	–	4	–	0
Illinois	2	–	4	–	0	3	–	7	–	0
Ohio State	1	–	4	–	0	3	–	6	–	0
Wisconsin	1	–	6	–	0	1	–	9	–	0
Iowa	0	–	4	–	1	1	–	6	–	1

+ – Conference co-champions Rankings from AP Poll

The 1943 Big Ten Conference football season was the 48th season of college football played by the member schools of the Big Ten Conference (also known as the Western Conference) and was a part of the 1943 college football season.

The 1943 Purdue Boilermakers football team compiled a perfect 9–0 record, tied for the Big Ten championship, led the conference in scoring defense (6.1 points per game), and were ranked No. 5 in the final AP Poll. Guard Alex Agase was a consensus first-team pick on the 1943 College Football All-America Team. Another guard, Dick Barwegen, received the team's most valuable player award.

Michigan, under head coach Fritz Crisler, compiled an 8–1, tied with Purdue for the conference championship, led the conference in scoring offense (33.6 points per game), and was ranked No. 3 in the final AP Poll. The team's sole loss was to consensus national champion Notre Dame. Bill Daley was a consensus first-team All-American and finished seventh in the voting for the Heisman Trophy. Bob Wiese received the team's most valuable player award.

Northwestern, under head coach Pappy Waldorf, compiled a 6–2 record and was ranked No. 9 in the final AP Poll. Quarterback Otto Graham received the Chicago Tribune Silver Football trophy as the most valuable player in the Big Ten. Northwestern's two losses were to No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 3 Michigan.

Season overview

Results and team statistics

Conf. Rank	Team	Head coach	AP final	AP high	Overall record	Conf. record	PPG	PAG	MVP
1 (tie)	Purdue	Elmer Burnham	#5	#2	9–0	6–0	23.8	6.1	Dick Barwegen
1 (tie)	Michigan	Fritz Crisler	#3	#2	8–1	6–0	33.6	8.1	Bob Wiese
3	Northwestern	Pappy Waldorf	#9	#8	6–2	5–1	23.6	8.0	Otto Graham
4	Indiana	Bo McMillin	NR	NR	4–4–2	2–3–1	19.3	10.6	John Tavener
5	Minnesota	George Hauser	NR	#9	5–4	2–3	18.9	20.4	Paul Mitchell
6	Illinois	Ray Eliot	NR	NR	3–7	2–4	15.4	30.8	Eddie Bray
7	Ohio State	Paul Brown	NR	#18	3–6	1–4	16.6	20.8	Gordon Appleby
8	Wisconsin	Harry Stuhldreher	NR	NR	1–9	1–6	4.1	28.2	Joe Keenan
9	Iowa	Slip Madigan	NR	NR	1–6–1	0–4–1	10.4	19.1	Robert Liddy

Key
PPG = Average of points scored per game^[1]
PAG = Average of points allowed per game^[1]
MVP = Most valuable player as voted by players on each team as part of the voting process to determine the winner of the Chicago Tribune Silver Football trophy

Regular season

Bowl games

During the 1943 season, the Big Ten maintained its long-standing ban on postseason games. Accordingly, no Big Ten teams participated in any bowl games.

All-Big Ten players

The following players were picked by the Associated Press (AP) and/or the United Press (UP) as first-team players on the 1943 All-Big Ten Conference football team.^[2]^[3]

Herb Hein, end, Northwestern (AP, UP)
Pete Pihos, end, Indiana (AP, UP)
Paul A. Mitchell, tackle, Minnesota (AP, UP)
Bill Willis, tackle, Ohio State (AP, UP)
Dick Barwegen, guard, Purdue (AP, UP)
Alex Agase, guard, Purdue (AP, UP)
Fred Negus, center, Michigan (AP, UP)
Bob Hoernschemeyer, quarterback/halfback, Indiana (AP, UP)
Bob Wiese, quarterback, Michigan (UP)
Otto Graham, halfback, Northwestern (AP, UP)
Tony Butkovich, halfback, Purdue (AP)
Bill Daley, fullback, Michigan (AP, UP)

All-Americans

At the end of the 1943 season, Big Ten players secured two of the consensus first-team picks for the 1943 College Football All-America Team.^[4] The Big Ten's consensus All-Americans were:

Alex Agase, guard, Purdue (AAB, FN, INS, LK, SN, UP, CP)
Bill Daley, halfback, Michigan (AAB, AP, CO, FN, INS, LK, SN, UP, CP, NYS, SS)

Other Big Ten players who were named first-team All-Americans by at least one selector were:

Pete Pihos, end, Indiana (AAB, SN, CO, NYS)
Herb Hein, end, Northwestern (CO)
Merv Pregulman, tackle, Michigan (CO, FN, LK, SN, SS)
Otto Graham, quarterback, Northwestern (AAB, AP, FN, CP)
Tony Butkovich, fullback, Purdue (SN, UP, CP, SS)

1944 NFL draft

The following Big Ten players were selected in the first six rounds of the 1944 NFL draft:^[5]

Name	Position	Team	Round	Overall pick
Pat Harder	Fullback	Wisconsin	1	2
Otto Graham	Quarterback	Northwestern	1	4
Billy Hillenbrand	Halfback	Indiana	1	6
Merv Pregulman	Guard	Michigan	1	7
Paul Mitchell	Tackle	Minnesota	2	12
Tom Kuzma	Halfback	Michigan	3	22
Rudy Smeja	End	Michigan	3	24
Babe Dimancheff	Halfback	Purdue	3	27
Jack Tavener	Center	Indiana	4	28
Rudy Sikich	Tackle	Minnesota	4	29
John Greene	Tackle	Michigan	5	35
Bill Garnaas	Back	Minnesota	6	44

References

^ ^a ^b "1943 Big Ten Conference Year Summary". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved January 5, 2017.
^ "Western Conference All Star Grid Squad Picked". Sarasota Herald-Tribune (AP story). November 30, 1943. p. 6.
^ "Michigan Places Three on Big Ten Conference Team". The News-Herald (Franklin, Penn.). November 26, 1943. p. 10.
^ "2014 NCAA Football Records: Consensus All-America Selections" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). 2014. pp. 5–6. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 22, 2014. Retrieved August 16, 2014.
^ "1944 NFL Draft: Full Draft". NFL.com. National Football League. Retrieved January 4, 2017.