[2] The 1963 Texas Longhorns football team compiled a perfect 11–0 record, won the Southwest Conference championship, and defeated No.
Navy quarterback Roger Staubach won the Heisman Trophy and the Maxwell Award as the best player in college football.
Baylor quarterback Don Trull led the University Division with 2,157 passing yards and won the Sammy Baugh Trophy.
Hill was the first African-American football player in any of the southern athletic conferences composed of formerly segregated white institutions.
In the preseason poll released on September 16, the defending champion USC Trojans were first, followed by Southeastern Conference (SEC) rivals, the Ole Miss Rebels and the Alabama Crimson Tide at second and third.
5 Texas beat hapless Tulane 21–0 with the help of its "shoeless kicker", Tony Crosby and halfback Phil Harris.
1 USC shut out Colorado on a muddy field at Boulder, 14–0, with the Trojans' Pete Beathard running for two scores.
2 Ole Miss was held to a scoreless tie at Memphis State, and the result was enough to take the Rebels out of the poll.
Big Ten rivals Northwestern (winning 34–21 over Indiana) and Wisconsin (which beat Notre Dame 14–9 at South Bend) tied at No.
4 Northwestern lost at Illinois, 10–9, due to a missed extra point and a bad punt that went only five yards and set up the Illini's touchdown.
Roger Staubach drove his team to the 7-yard line with :01 to play, but his pass attempt was batted down in the end zone by Tommy Caughren.
2 Wisconsin won 10–7 at Iowa, as Paul Krause of the Hawkeyes went for a win instead of a tie with 99 seconds left, and was stopped a foot short of a first down after a fake field goal attempt,[13] and the No.
1 Texas beat Rice at home, 10–6, as Tommy Nobis blocked an extra point, and shoeless Tony Crosby made a field goal.
1 Texas stayed unbeaten by defeating SMU at Dallas, 17–12, as Crosby made his 21st consecutive point after.
4 Navy handed Notre Dame its second straight loss on Staubach's passing, 35–14 in South Bend[22] and No.
2 Illinois had an 8–7 lead with minutes left in a game at home against Michigan, when a fumble gave the Wolverines the ball 11 yards from the goal line, setting up Mel Anthony's winning score for a 14–8 upset.
4 Michigan State was trailing Notre Dame 7–6 at home in the fourth quarter, but Sherm Lewis ran 85 yards from scrimmage to win the game, 12–7.
5 Oklahoma won at Missouri 13–3, but dropped to sixth and was replaced by Pittsburgh (which had trounced Army, 28–0) at the fifth spot.
[26] North Carolina State had played a Friday night game against Wake Forest, winning 42–0, and the Big Ten games were set to continue until Michigan Governor George Romney received a Saturday morning cancellation from Big Ten commissioner Bill Reed.
The annual Oklahoma-Nebraska game, which would determine the Big Eight championship and an Orange Bowl berth, was played as scheduled in Lincoln.
In the Battle for the Rag, LSU defeated Tulane 20–0 in the most recent daytime game at Tiger Stadium not to be televised.
Duke Carlisle scored the winning touchdown with 1:19 left, and the Longhorns won 15–13 to finish with a 10–0–0 record.
With a 5–1–1 conference record, Illinois earned a trip to the Rose Bowl, while the Spartans' season ended with a 4–1–1 second-place finish[29] November 30 saw unbeaten No.
After the game, Ole Miss accepted an invitation to play against fellow SEC member Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.
The Rose Bowl pitted Big Ten titlist Illinois against unranked Washington, which was 6–4 overall but which had won the AAWU crown by going 4–1 in conference play.
In the Cotton Bowl, the Longhorns' Duke Carlisle guided Texas to a score six plays after kickoff and to a 21–0 lead by halftime.
Navy's Roger Staubach saw a second defeat at Dallas (after an earlier loss to SMU), but would go on to a remarkable career there in the NFL.
"[34] Alabama won the Sugar Bowl 12–7 on four field goals by Tim Davis, including 46 and 48 yards.
[35] Auburn drove down to the 11-yard line with 90 seconds left, but Nebraska batted down Jimmy Sidle's 4th down pass attempt to preserve a 13–7 win.
[36] And after taking a 7–3 lead at halftime, on a touchdown by Dave Kopay, Washington fell to a comeback attempt led by All-Americans Jim Grabowski and Dick Butkus in the Rose Bowl.