Missouri football is recognizing its 1960 national title
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The 1960 Missouri Tigers will officially be honored by the university as national champions in 2026.
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Sixty-six years after the team won, Missouri athletics announced Friday that it will recognize the 1960 Missouri football team as that year’s national title winners during its Sept. 19 game against Troy.
The athletic department said there will be a ceremony at halftime of the game against the Trojans to recognize the team. The game will also serve as the 100th anniversary of Memorial Stadium.
“We have a unique opportunity this year to recognize the Tigers who built the history and tradition of Mizzou football while keeping our eyes firmly on the future,” Missouri athletic director Laird Veatch said in a news release. “As we celebrate 100 years of Memorial Stadium and open the Centennial Project, we want to properly honor the 1960 team and its legacy in Mizzou history.”
In the team’s official record-keeping, Missouri went 11-0 in the 1960 season. On the field that season, the Tigers did lose one game — to Kansas in the regular-season finale in Columbia.
It was later discovered that Kansas fielded an ineligible player, Bert Coan, in that game, and the Big Eight Conference required the Jayhawks to forfeit.
Mizzou, which won the Big Eight title that year, went on to beat Navy in the Orange Bowl. That makes it the only undefeated season in program history. But by that time, the Associated Press and coaches polls had selected Minnesota as the 1960 national champions.
The Golden Gophers lost to Washington in their bowl game, and some other outlets went on to recognize the Huskies as that year’s national champions. Ole Miss, which had 10 wins and a tie, and Iowa, which had one loss, were also among the teams to receive a championship nod from the wide variety of sources that picked national champions back then.
Mizzou has never claimed that year’s championship.
Until the ball got rolling earlier this month in the U.S. Senate.
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Missouri, introduced a Senate resolution on Aug. 6 that recognized Missouri’s 1960 team and its “claim to the 1960 national championship,” as well as its undefeated season and Orange Bowl victory.
No senators objected, and it passed. Senate resolutions do not have the force of law, so that alone was not enough to officially claim or recognize the national title on Mizzou’s behalf.
The Tigers, 66 years on from that historic season, will officially recognize the national championship.
"We appreciate Sen. Schmitt and the U.S. Senate for recognizing the accomplishments of our 1960 football team and for bringing renewed attention to a remarkable group of Tigers,” Veatch said in a news release. “The 1960 team has an important place in Mizzou history, and after reviewing the historical record, we believe it is appropriate to honor that team as national champions."
“Coach Dan Devine and Danny LaRose led the Mizzou Tigers to an undefeated season in 1960 — and now, the Senate has unanimously recognized them as the 1960 College Football National Champions,” Schmitt said in a Mizzou news release. “For too long, fans and players who proudly represent their school in the Black and Gold have been deprived of this glory. More than six decades later, the Tigers are now taking their rightful place in history. Their championship was earned. Their record remains perfect. And Kansas still lost.”
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri football is recognizing its 1960 national title