The Houlgate System was a college football ranking method based on

strength of schedule In sports, strength of schedule (SOS) refers to the difficulty or ease of a team's/person's opponent as compared to other teams/persons. This is especially important if teams in a league do not play each other the same number of times. Computatio ...

that was syndicated nationally in the 1930s through 1950s. The system was created by Carroll Everard "Deke" Houlgate (May 8, 1905—July 31, 1959), a Los Angeles-based college football statistician and historian. Starting in 1945 Houlgate selected competitors for the Futility Bowl, a hypothetical post-season matchup between the nation's two lowest-ranked teams. This

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to determine the country's worst team would be held in

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in an empty stadium. Houlgate was the author of ''The Football Thesaurus'', a leather-bound compilation of game scores, football history, and team facts. The thesaurus was released in two editions in 1946 and 1954. Houlgate released annual supplements for the 1954–1958 seasons until his death in 1959. The

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

recognizes the Houlgate System as a "major selector" of college football national championships and lists the system's post-bowl selections, as published in the 1954 edition of ''The Football Thesaurus'', in the official NCAA records book. Houlgate was born in

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, on May 8, 1905. He graduated from Ventura High School and attended the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

. He served in the Air Force during

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and died at the Wadsworth Veterans Administration Hospital in

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, on July 31, 1959, at age 54. Houlgate's wife, Dorothy P. Houlgate, was considered "one of the leading feminine football experts" and assisted with the annual football ratings; she died in August 1959, less than a month after the death of her husband. In his career in

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for the

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, Houlgate is known for coining or popularizing the phrase "Now you're cooking with gas!" and planting the phrase with writers for

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's radio programs in an early example of

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National champions

The Houlgate System is listed as a "major selector" of national championships in the NCAA ''Football Bowl Subdivision Records'' book. * Teams listed in ''italics'' indicate championships that were awarded retroactively.

Foreman & Clark Trophy

Contemporary

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under the Houlgate System were awarded the Foreman & Clark Trophy. The award was sponsored by the Los Angeles department store and given to the No. 1 team in the contemporary pre-

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final rankings.

Futility Bowl

In 1945, Houlgate also initiated his selections for the Futility Bowl matching the two worst college football teams in a fictional football game to be played in

. His annual picks for the Futility Bowl included: (1)

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and Wooster in 1945; (2) Kansas State and

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in 1947; (3) Kansas State and Montana State in 1948; (4) BYU and Rhode Island State in 1949; and (5) Davidson and

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

in 1951.

References

{{reflist , refs= {{cite book, title=The Football Thesaurus: 77 years on the American gridiron, author=Deke Houlgate, publisher=Nash-U-Nal Pub. Co., year=1946, oclc=1487183 {{cite book , last=Houlgate , first=Deke , author-link=Houlgate System , date=1954 , title=The Football Thesaurus: 85 Years on the American Gridiron , location=Los Angeles, California , publisher=Houlgate House , quote=In the Huddle with Deke Houlgate: College Football from 1869 through 1953; Annual Supplements for 1954–1958 College football championships College football awards organizations

National champions

Foreman & Clark Trophy

Futility Bowl

See also

References