An Undefeated Mississippi State Team Beats Alabama in 1940
Mississippi State football made history this past Saturday as the 2014 team became the first and only team in school history to start a season 9-0. But there was another Mississippi State team that was unbeaten through nine games, and like the 2014 Bulldogs, faced Alabama in their tenth game of the season: the 1940 Maroons. That game in 1940 is the subject of today’s look back in Bulldog football history.
The only blemish to an otherwise perfect record for the 1940 Mississippi State team was a 7-7 tie with Auburn early in the year. State hammered Ole Miss 19-0 in their final home game and Coach Allyn McKeen’s #11 Maroon squad needed only a season ending victory at #17 Alabama to complete an unbeaten regular season and earn a bowl bid. The Tide’s only loss in 1940 was to eventual SEC champion Tennessee, and the Crimson Tide had defeated State the previous year in a bitter 7-0 game that saw All-American end Buddy Elrod ejected from the game. So the Maroons entered the 1940 game with revenge on their minds.
A crowd of approximately 22,000 assembled at Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa on a cold late November afternoon. Mississippi State would draw first blood, with running back Harvey “Boots” Johnson doing the damage. Johnson, who would later lose his life in a B-29 bombing raid over Japan during World War II, broke a 47 yard run following a first quarter Alabama fumble, then follow it up with a seven yard touchdown run to give State an early 7-0 lead.
The story of the game though was defense. Four times in the first half, the Crimson Tide found themselves in the red zone, only to be turned away by a determined Maroon defense led by Elrod, Hunter Cohern, John Tripson and Harvey Johnson.
The game remained a defensive struggle in the third quarter, with neither team scoring, but the Maroons finally earned some breathing room in the fourth quarter. Charles Yancey intercepted an Alabama pass at the State 45 and returned it to the Tide 23 yard line. On the next play, Yancey ripped through the middle of the Bama line for a 23 yard touchdown run that put State up 13-0.
There would be no more scoring that day, as the Maroons completed their season unbeaten with a 9-0-1 record. The tie with Auburn ended up costing State a share of the SEC championship. The Tennessee Volunteers of General Robert Neyland, whom Mississippi State did not play in 1940, claimed the conference title with a perfect SEC record and a bid to the Sugar Bowl.
The undefeated Maroons were considered one of the favorites to be selected for the 1941 Rose Bowl. In those days, the champion of the Pac 8 conference hosted the Rose Bowl and selected the team they wished to play. Mississippi State was one of the teams under consideration by Stanford, but State had already received an invitation to the Orange Bowl and elected to accept that bid rather than waiting on the Rose Bowl. The Bulldogs defeated Georgetown 14-7 in that 1941 Orange Bowl to become the first ten win team in school history.
Amazingly, there is some extremely rare (and fairly high quality for the era) video footage from that 1940 Mississippi State vs. Alabama game, courtesy of our friend Ryan Sparks, a collector of MSU game films and footage. Enjoy..