October
October 3 Santa Clara beat Loyola Marymount 13-6 LSU and Texas played to a 6-6 tie. Alabama defeated Clemson 32-0 Northwestern opened with an 18-7 win over Iowa. Pittsburgh beat West Virginia 34-0
October 10 Minnesota beat visiting Nebraska 7-0. Pittsburgh won at Ohio State 6-0 Washington won at UCLA 14-0 Santa Clara beat San Francisco 15-7. Alabama beat Mississippi State 7-0. Northwestern beat North Dakota State 40-7.
October 17 Minnesota defeated Michigan 26-0. Santa Clara won at San Jose State 20-0 In Birmingham, Alabama and Tennessee played to a 0-0 tie. Northwestern edged Ohio State 14-13. In a meeting between Pittsburgh's two unbeaten (3-0-0) and untied schools, Pittsburgh was beaten by Duquesne, 7-0. Washington beat Oregon State 19-7.
The first AP Poll was released on October 20, with Minnesota being the majority favorite, with 32 of 35 first place votes, and 345 out of 350 points. The Gophers were followed by 2.Duke 3.Army 4.Northwestern and 5.Purdue. USC, ranked #6, received one first place vote.
October 24 #1 Minnesota hosted #5 Purdue, in a meeting of unbeaten (3-0-0) schools. Minnesota proved the AP voters right by winning 33-0. #2 Duke (5-0-0) lost to (1-2-1) Tennessee, 15-13. #3 Army beat Springfield College 33-0. #4 Northwestern won at Illinois 13-2. #8 Washington beat California 13-0. #9 Pittsburgh beat visiting, and previously unbeaten, #7 Notre Dame 26-0. #16 Fordham edged visiting #12 St. Mary's 7-6. The next top five was 1.Minnesota 2.Pitt 3.Northwestern 4.Washington 5.Fordham
October 31 In a Friday night game, #1 Minnesota and #3 Northwestern, both unbeaten (4-0-0), met in a Big Ten conference game at Evanston. The Gophers had not lost a game in more than three years, and the game was scoreless after three quarters, until Northwestern's line "ripped a gaping hole in the Gophers' forward wall" and Steve Toth drove across the goal line. With five minutes left, Minnesota's Rudy Gmitro was in the clear for a touchdown before being brought down by Fred Vanzon, and Northwestern held on for the 6-0 win.
At the Polo Grounds in New York, #2 Pittsburgh and #5 Fordham played to a 0-0 tie. In Portland, #4 Washington beat Oregon 7-0, but dropped to 6th. #10 Marquette beat visiting #20 St. Mary's 20-6 and rose to 4th place (the Warriors would give up football after 1960). The next top five was 1.Northwestern 2.Minnesota 3.Fordham 4.Marquette 5.Pitt.
Read more about this topic: 1936 College Football Season