The 1945 Ohio State Buckeyes football team was an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

team that represented

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

in the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

during the

1945 Big Ten Conference football season The 1945 Big Ten Conference football season was the 50th season of college football played by the member schools of the Big Ten Conference (also known as the Western Conference) and was a part of the 1945 college football season. The 1945 Indian ...

. In their second season under head coach

Carroll Widdoes Carroll Curtis Widdoes (December 3, 1903 – September 22, 1971) was an American college football coach and athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Ohio State University (1944–1945) and Ohio University (1949–1957), co ...

, the Buckeyes compiled a 7–2 record (5–2 against Big Ten opponents), finished in third place in the Big Ten, outscored opponents by a total of 194 to 71, and was ranked No. 12 in the final AP Poll. The Buckeyes ranked ninth nationally in rushing offense with an average of 237 yards per game. The ground attack was led by fullback

Ollie Cline Oliver Monroe Cline (December 31, 1925 – May 12, 2001) was an American professional football player who was a fullback for the Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions in the 1940s and 1950s. A standout high school athlete in his hometown of Frede ...

who ranked third in the nation with 931 rushing yards, an average of 5.44 yards per carry. Three Ohio State players received first-team honors from the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

(AP) or

United Press United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ...

(UP) on the

1945 All-Big Ten Conference football team 1945 marked the end of World War II, the fall of Nazi Germany, and the Empire of Japan. It is also the year Nazi concentration camps, concentration camps were liberated and the only year in which atomic weapons Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and ...

: Ollie Cline at fullback (AP-1, UP-1); Russ Thomas at tackle (AP-1, UP-1); and

Warren Amling Dr. Warren Eugene Amling (December 29, 1924 – November 1, 2001) was an American football and basketball player, playing for the Ohio State Buckeyes from 1944 to 1946. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1984. In 1945 A ...

at guard (AP-1, UP-1). The 1944 Ohio State team had compiled an undefeated 9–0 record and won the Big Ten championship. Between the 1944 and 1945 seasons, the Buckeyes had a winning streak of 12 games that ended with a loss to Purdue on October 20, 1945.

Schedule

Rankings

Game summaries

Pittsburgh

Statistics *Rushing: Oliver Cline 229 yards 2012 Ohio State football record book.

Coaching staff

, head coach, second year * Sam T. Selby, assistant

1946 NFL draftees

References

{{Ohio State Buckeyes football navbox

Ohio State The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one of the largest universities by enrollme ...

Ohio State Buckeyes football seasons

Ohio State Buckeyes football The Ohio State Buckeyes football team competes as part of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, representing Ohio State University in the Big Ten Conference. Ohio State has played its home games at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, since 1 ...