1969 Big Ten Conference football season

1969 Big Ten Conference football season
Sport	American football
Number of teams	10
Top draft pick	Mike Phipps
Co-champions	Michigan Ohio State
Runners-up	Purdue
Season MVP	Mike Phipps

1969 Big Ten Conference football standings

	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 4 Ohio State +	6	–	1	–	0			8	–	1	–	0
No. 9 Michigan +	6	–	1	–	0			8	–	3	–	0
No. 18 Purdue	5	–	2	–	0			8	–	2	–	0
Minnesota	4	–	3	–	0			4	–	5	–	1
Iowa	3	–	4	–	0			5	–	5	–	0
Indiana	3	–	4	–	0			4	–	6	–	0
Northwestern	3	–	4	–	0			3	–	7	–	0
Wisconsin	3	–	4	–	0			3	–	7	–	0
Michigan State	2	–	5	–	0			4	–	6	–	0
Illinois	0	–	7	–	0			0	–	10	–	0
+ – Conference co-champions Rankings from AP Poll

The 1969 Big Ten Conference football season was the 74th season of college football played by the member schools of the Big Ten Conference and was a part of the 1969 NCAA University Division football season.

The 1969 Michigan Wolverines football team, in the program's first year under head coach Bo Schembechler, was ranked No. 9 in the final AP Poll. The 1969 Michigan vs. Ohio State football game was considered one of the biggest upsets in college football history, as Ohio State came into the game with an 8–0 record, a 22-game winning streak and the No. 1 ranking in the polls. Michigan defeated Ohio State, 24–12, to win the Big Ten's berth in the 1970 Rose Bowl, where they lost to USC. Michigan tight end Jim Mandich and defensive back Tom Curtis were consensus first-team All-Americans. Mandich was selected as the team's most valuable player.

The 1969 Ohio State Buckeyes football team, under head coach Woody Hayes, was ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll every week until losing to Michigan in the final game of the regular season. After the loss to Michigan, the Buckeyes dropped to No. 4 in the final AP Poll. Defensive back Jack Tatum, running back Jim Otis, and middle guard Jim Stillwagon were consensus first-team All-Americans. Otis was selected as the team's most valuable player.

The 1969 Purdue Boilermakers football team, in its final season under head coach Jack Mollenkopf, compiled an 8–2 record and was ranked No. 18 in the final polls. Quarterback Mike Phipps totaled 2,527 passing yards, won the Chicago Tribune Silver Football trophy as the conference's most valuable player, was selected as the consensus first-team All-American quarterback, received the Sammy Baugh Trophy as the nation's top collegiate passer, and finished second in the voting for the 1969 Heisman Trophy.

Season overview

Results and team statistics

Conf. Rank	Team	Head coach	AP final	AP high	Overall record	Conf. record	PPG	PAG	MVP
1 (tie)	Ohio State	Woody Hayes	#4	#1	8–1	6–1	42.6	10.3	Jim Otis
1 (tie)	Michigan	Bo Schembechler	#9	#7	8–3	6–1	32.0	13.5	Jim Mandich
3	Purdue	Jack Mollenkopf	#18	#8	8–2	5–2	35.4	26.4	Mike Phipps
4	Minnesota	Murray Warmath	NR	#19	4–5–1	4–3	21.0	26.0	Ray Parson
5 (tie)	Iowa	Ray Nagel	NR	NR	5–5	3–4	25.5	27.5	Larry Ely
5 (tie)	Indiana	John Pont	NR	#10	4–6	3–4	25.2	24.2	John Isenbarger
5 (tie)	Northwestern	Alex Agase	NR	NR	3-7	3-4	13.7	30.6	Don Ross
5 (tie)	Wisconsin	John Coatta	NR	NR	3–7	3–4	19.6	34.9	Stu Voigt
9	Michigan State	Duffy Daugherty	NR	#12	4–6	2–5	20.2	23.1	Ron Saul
10	Illinois	Jim Valek	NR	NR	0–10	0–7	10.6	39.7	Doug Dieken

Key
AP final = Team's rank in the final AP Poll of the 1969 season
AP high = Team's highest rank in the AP Poll throughout the 1969 season
PPG = Average of points scored per game; conference leader's average displayed in bold
PAG = Average of points allowed per game; conference leader's average displayed in bold
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; trophy winner in bold

Preseason

On December 24, 1968, the University of Michigan announced that head football coach Bump Elliott would assume a new job as associate athletic director and that a new football coach was being sought. Two days later, the university announced that Bo Schembechler had been hired as Elliott's replacement.

Regular season

September 20

Date	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Result	Attendance	Ref.
September 20	No. 19 Minnesota	Arizona State	Sun Devil Stadium • Tempe, AZ	L 26–48	-
September 20	No. 14 Indiana	Kentucky	Commonwealth Stadium • Lexington, KY	W 58–30	-
September 20	Vanderbilt	Michigan	Michigan Stadium • Ann Arbor, MI	W 42–14	-
September 20	Washington	No. 12 Michigan State	Spartan Stadium • East Lansing, MI	W 27–11	-
September 20	Northwestern	No. 11 Notre Dame	Notre Dame Stadium • South Bend, IN (Northwestern–Notre Dame football rivalry)	L 10–35	-
September 20	No. 6 Oklahoma	Wisconsin	Camp Randall Stadium • Madison, WI	L 21–48	-
September 20	Oregon State	Iowa	Kinnick Stadium • Iowa City, IA	L 14–42	-
September 20	No. 18 Purdue	TCU	Amon G. Carter Stadium • Fort Worth, TX	W 42–35	-
September 20	Washington State	Illinois	Memorial Stadium • Champaign, IL	L 18–19	-
#Rankings from AP Poll. All times are in Eastern Standard Time.

September 27

Date	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Result	Attendance	Ref.
September 27	California	No. 10 Indiana	Memorial Stadium • Bloomington, IN	L 14–17	-
September 27	Washington State	Iowa	Kinnick Stadium • Iowa City, IA	W 61–35	-
September 27	Washington	No. 20 Michigan	Michigan Stadium • Ann Arbor, MI	W 45–7	-
September 27	SMU	No. 13 Michigan State	Spartan Stadium • East Lansing, MI	W 23–15	-
September 27	Illinois	No. 11 Missouri	St. Louis, MO (Illinois-Missouri football rivalry)	L 6–37	-
September 27	Minnesota	Ohio	Athens, OH	T 35–35	-
September 27	TCU	No. 1 Ohio State	Ohio Stadium • Columbus, OH	W 62–0	-
September 27	No. 9 Notre Dame	No. 16 Purdue	Ross–Ade Stadium • West Lafayette, IN (Shillelagh Trophy)	W 28–14	-
September 27	Northwestern	No. 5 USC	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum • Los Angeles, CA	L 6–48	-
September 27	No. 14 UCLA	Wisconsin	Camp Randall Stadium • Madison, WI	L 23–34	-
#Rankings from AP Poll. All times are in Eastern Standard Time.

October 4

Date	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Result	Attendance	Ref.
October 4	Colorado	Indiana	Memorial Stadium • Bloomington, IN	L 7–30	-
October 4	Arizona	Iowa	Kinnick Stadium • Iowa City, IA	W 31–19	-
October 4	Iowa State	Illinois	Memorial Stadium • Champaign, IL	L 20–48	-
October 4	No. 9 Missouri	No. 13 Michigan	Michigan Stadium • Ann Arbor, MI	L 17–40	-
October 4	Nebraska	Minnesota	Memorial Stadium • Minneapolis, MN	L 14–42	-
October 4	No. 14 Michigan State	Notre Dame	Notre Dame Stadium • South Bend, IN (Megaphone Trophy)	L 28–42	-
October 4	No. 1 Ohio State	Washington	Husky Stadium • Seattle, WA	W 41–14	-
October 4	No. 17 Stanford	No. 8 Purdue	Ross–Ade Stadium • West Lafayette, IN	W 36–35	-
October 4	Syracuse	Wisconsin	Camp Randall Stadium • Madison, WI	L 7–43	-
October 4	No. 11 UCLA	Northwestern	Dyche Stadium • Evanston, IL	L 0–36	-
#Rankings from AP Poll. All times are in Eastern Standard Time.

October 11

Date	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Result	Attendance	Ref.
October 11	Minnesota	Indiana	Memorial Stadium • Bloomington, IN	IND 17–7	-
October 11	No. 9 Purdue	Michigan	Michigan Stadium • Ann Arbor, MI	MICH 31–20	-
October 11	Northwestern	Illinois	Memorial Stadium • Champaign, IL (Sweet Sioux Tomahawk)	NW 10–6	-
October 11	No. 19 Michigan State	No. 1 Ohio State	Ohio Stadium • Columbus, OH	OHST 54–21	-
October 11	Iowa	Wisconsin	Camp Randall Stadium • Madison, WI (Iowa–Wisconsin football rivalry)	WIS 23–17	-
#Rankings from AP Poll. All times are in Eastern Standard Time.

October 18

Date	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Result	Attendance	Ref.
October 18	Illinois	Indiana	Memorial Stadium • Bloomington, IN	IND 41–20	-
October 18	No. 13 Michigan	Michigan State	Spartan Stadium • East Lansing, MI (Paul Bunyan Trophy)	MSU 23–12	-
October 18	Wisconsin	Northwestern	Dyche Stadium • Evanston, IL	NW 27–7	-
October 18	No. 1 Ohio State	Minnesota	Memorial Stadium • Minneapolis, MN	OHST 34–7	-
October 18	Iowa	No. 17 Purdue	Ross–Ade Stadium • West Lafayette, IN	PUR 35–31	-
#Rankings from AP Poll. All times are in Eastern Standard Time.

October 25

Date	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Result	Attendance	Ref.
October 25	Michigan State	Iowa	Kinnick Stadium • Iowa City, IA	IOWA 19–18	-
October 25	Michigan	Minnesota	Memorial Stadium • Minneapolis, MN (Little Brown Jug)	MICH 35–9	-
October 25	Illinois	No. 1 Ohio State	Ohio Stadium • Columbus, OH (Illibuck)	OHST 41–0	-
October 25	Northwestern	No. 15 Purdue	Ross–Ade Stadium • West Lafayette, IN	PUR 45–20	-
October 25	Indiana	Wisconsin	Camp Randall Stadium • Madison, WI	WIS 36–34	-
#Rankings from AP Poll. All times are in Eastern Standard Time.

November 1

Date	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Result	Attendance	Ref.
November 1	Indiana	Michigan State	Spartan Stadium • East Lansing, MI (Old Brass Spittoon)	IND 16–0	-
November 1	Wisconsin	No. 20 Michigan	Michigan Stadium • Ann Arbor, MI	MICH 35–7	-
November 1	Minnesota	Iowa	Kinnick Stadium • Iowa City, IA (Floyd of Rosedale)	MINN 35–8	-
November 1	No. 1 Ohio State	Northwestern	Dyche Stadium • Evanston, IL	OHST 35–6	-
November 1	No. 13 Purdue	Illinois	Memorial Stadium • Champaign, IL (Purdue Cannon)	PUR 49–22	-
#Rankings from AP Poll. All times are in Eastern Standard Time.

November 7

Date	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Result	Attendance	Ref.
November 7	Iowa	Indiana	Memorial Stadium • Bloomington, IN	IOWA 28–17	-
November 7	No. 18 Michigan	Illinois	Memorial Stadium • Champaign, IL	MICH 57–0	-
November 7	Northwestern	Minnesota	Memorial Stadium • Minneapolis, MN	MINN 28–21	-
November 7	Wisconsin	No. 1 Ohio State	Ohio Stadium • Columbus, OH	OHST 62–7	-
November 7	Michigan State	No. 10 Purdue	Ross–Ade Stadium • West Lafayette, IN	PUR 41–13	-
#Rankings from AP Poll. All times are in Eastern Standard Time.

November 15

Date	Visiting team	Home team	Site	Result	Attendance	Ref.
November 15	No. 14 Michigan	Iowa	Kinnick Stadium • Iowa City, IA	MICH 51–6	-
November 15	Minnesota	Michigan State	Spartan Stadium • East Lansing, MI	MINN 14–10	-
November 15	Indiana	Northwestern	Dyche Stadium • Evanston, IL	NW 30–27	-
November 15	No. 10 Purdue	No. 1 Ohio State	Ohio Stadium • Columbus, OH	OHST 42–14	-
November 15	Illinois	Wisconsin	Camp Randall Stadium • Madison, WI	WIS 55–14	-
#Rankings from AP Poll. All times are in Eastern Standard Time.

November 22

Date	Visiting team	Home team	Site	TV	Result	Attendance	Ref.
November 22	Iowa	Illinois	Memorial Stadium • Champaign, IL		IOWA 40–0	-
November 22	No. 1 Ohio State	No. 12 Michigan	Michigan Stadium • Ann Arbor, MI (The Game)	ABC	MICH 24–12	-
November 22	Michigan State	Northwestern	Dyche Stadium • Evanston, IL		MSU 39–7	-
November 22	Wisconsin	Minnesota	Memorial Stadium • Minneapolis, MN (Paul Bunyan's Axe)		MINN 35–10	-
November 22	No. 17 Purdue	Indiana	Memorial Stadium • Bloomington, IN (Old Oaken Bucket)		PUR 44–21	-
#Rankings from AP Poll. All times are in Eastern Standard Time.

Bowl games

Main article: 1970 Rose Bowl

On January 1, 1970, Michigan lost to USC, 10–3, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The score was tied, 3–3, at halftime. With three minutes to play in the third quarter, USC quarterback Jimmy Jones threw a 33-yard touchdown pass to Bob Chandler to give the Trojans the 10–3 victory. Michigan head coach Bo Schembechler suffered a heart attack the night before the game and was in the hospital during the game. Defensive coordinator Jim Young assumed the coaching responsibilities for the game.

Statistical leaders

The Big Ten's individual statistical leaders include the following:

Passing yards

1. Mike Phipps, Purdue (2,527)
2. Larry Lawrence, Iowa (1,680)
3. Harry Gonso, Indiana (1,336)
4. Maurie Daigneau, Northwestern (1,276)
5. Phil Hagen, Minnesota (1,266)

Rushing yards

1. John Isenbarger, Indiana (1,217)
2. Jim Otis, Ohio State (1,027)
3. Don Highsmith, Michigan State (937)
4. Alan Thompson, Wisconsin (907)
5. Billy Taylor, Michigan (864)

Receiving yards

1. Kerry Reardon, Iowa (738)
2. Stan Brown, Purdue (725)
3. Ashley Bell, Purdue (669)
4. Jim Mandich, Michigan (662)
5. Jade Butcher, Indiana (552)

Total yards

1. Mike Phipps, Purdue (2,745)
2. Larry Lawrence, Iowa (2,086)
3. Don Moorhead, Michigan (1,886)
4. Rex Kern, Ohio State (1,585)
5. Harry Gonso, Indiana (1,573)

Point scored

1. Jim Otis, Ohio State (96)
1. Stan Brown, Purdue (96)
3. Garvie Craw, Michigan (78)
4. Ashley Bell, Purdue (66)
5. Jade Butcher, Indiana (60)

Awards and honors

All-Big Ten honors

For the complete All-Big Ten selections, see 1969 All-Big Ten Conference football team.

The following players were picked by the Associated Press (AP) and/or the United Press International (UPI) as first-team players on the 1969 All-Big Ten Conference football team.

Offense

Position	Name	Team	Selectors
Quarterback	Mike Phipps	Purdue	AP, UPI
Running back	John Isenbarger	Indiana	AP, UPI
Running back	Jim Otis	Ohio State	AP, UPI
Running back	Mike Adamle	Northwestern	AP
Running back	Billy Taylor	Michigan	UPI
End	Jim Mandich	Michigan	AP, UPI
End	Ray Parson	Minnesota	AP
End	Jade Butcher	Indiana	UPI
Tackle	Dan Dierdorf	Michigan	AP, UPI
Tackle	Paul DeNuccio	Purdue	AP
Tackle	Charles Hutchison	Ohio State	UPI
Guard	Ron Saul	Michigan State	AP, UPI
Guard	Don DeSalle	Indiana	AP
Guard	Jon Meskimen	Iowa	UPI
Center	Brian Donovan	Ohio State	AP
Center	Guy Murdock	Michigan	UPI

Defense

Position	Name	Team	Selectors
Defensive end	Dave Whitfield	Ohio State	AP, UPI
Defensive end	Mark Debeve	Ohio State	AP
Defensive end	Rich Saul	Michigan State	UPI
Defensive tackle	Paul Schmidlin	Ohio State	AP, UPI
Defensive tackle	Ron Curl	Michigan State	AP
Defensive tackle	Bill Yanchar	Purdue	UPI
Middle guard	Jim Stillwagon	Ohio State	AP, UPI
Linebacker	Veno Paraskevas	Purdue	AP, UPI
Linebacker	Jack Tatum	Ohio State	AP, UPI [def. back]
Linebacker	Marty Huff	Michigan	AP
Linebacker	Doug Adams	Ohio State	UPI
Defensive back	Tom Curtis	Michigan	AP, UPI
Defensive back	Ted Provost	Ohio State	AP, UPI
Defensive back	Mike Sensibaugh	Ohio State	AP, UPI

All-American honors

For the complete All-America selections, see 1969 College Football All-America Team.

At the end of the 1969 season, Big Ten players secured six of the consensus first-team picks for the 1969 College Football All-America Team. The Big Ten's consensus All-American was:

Position	Name	Team	Selectors
Defensive back	Jack Tatum	Ohio State	AFCA, AP, CP, FWAA, NEA [cornerback], UPI, FN, TSN, WCFF
Tight end	Jim Mandich	Michigan	AFCA [end], AP, CP [end], FWAA, NEA, UPI [end], FN, Time, WCFF
Quarterback	Mike Phipps	Purdue	AFCA, AP, CP, FWAA, NEA, UPI, FN, Time, TSN, WCFF
Running back	Jim Otis	Ohio State	AP [fullback], CP [fullback], FWAA, UPI, FN, WCFF
Middle guard	Jim Stillwagon	Ohio State	AFCA, AP, CP, NEA, UPI, FN, WCFF
Defensive back	Tom Curtis	Michigan	AP, CP, UPI, FN, WCFF

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

Position	Name	Team	Selectors
Offensive guard	Ron Saul	Michigan State	CP, NEA, Time, TSN
Offensive guard	Chuck Hutchison	Ohio State	Time
Running back	Rex Kern	Ohio State	CP, FN
Running back	John Isenbarger	Indiana	FN
Defensive back	Ted Provost	Ohio State	Time, TSN
Defensive back	Tim Foley	Purdue	Time

Other awards

Purdue quarterback Mike Phipps received the Sammy Baugh Trophy as the nation's top collegiate passer. He also finished second in the voting for the Heisman Trophy.