Led by eleventh-year head coach Ben Schwartzwalder, the independent Orangemen were undefeated and won the school's only national championship in football, topping the rankings by wide margins in the final polls in early December.
[2][3][4][5] They met fourth-ranked Texas in the Cotton Bowl Classic in Dallas on New Year's Day.
[6] Unranked at the start of the season, Syracuse finished with an 11–0 record with five shutouts, and outscored its opponents 413–73.
Notable players included sophomore running back Ernie Davis, winner of the Heisman Trophy in 1961 and the first selection of the 1962 NFL draft.
In the Cotton Bowl Classic, he scored the first two touchdowns and threw a pass to Gerhard Schwedes for the third.