1963 Navy Midshipmen football team

The 1963 Navy Midshipmen football team represented the United States Naval Academy as an independent in the 1963 NCAA University Division football season. Led by fifth-year head coach Wayne Hardin, the Midshipmen finished the year with an overall record of 9–2 and a loss against Texas in the Cotton Bowl Classic.

Quarterback Roger Staubach won the Heisman Trophy and the Maxwell Award while leading the Midshipmen to a 9–1 regular season record and a final ranking of No. 2 in the nation. He led Navy to victory over their annual rivalry with Notre Dame, which would be the Midshipmen's last win over Notre Dame until 2007. In the Crab Bowl Classic, Navy defeated Maryland by a score of 42–7. There was talk of cancelling the 1963 Army-Navy game in the aftermath of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, but his widow, Jacqueline, insisted that the game should be played. No. 2 Navy accepted an invitation to play in the 1964 Cotton Bowl Classic versus No. 1 Texas, the second No. 1 versus No. 2 bowl game in college football history.

Schedule[]

Date	Opponent	Rank	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
September 21	at West Virginia	No. 9	Mountaineer Field Morgantown, WV	W 51–7
September 28	William & Mary	No. 5	Navy–Marine Corps Memorial Stadium Annapolis, MD	W 28–0
October 5	at Michigan	No. 6	Michigan Stadium Ann Arbor, MI	W 26–13	55,877
October 11	at SMU	No. 4	Cotton Bowl Dallas TX (rivalry)	L 28–32	37,000
October 19	vs. VMI	No. 10	Foreman Field Norfolk, VA (Oyster Bowl)	W 21–12
October 26	No. 3 Pittsburgh	No. 10	Navy–Marine Corps Memorial Stadium Annapolis, MD	W 24–12	30,231	[1]
November 2	at Notre Dame	No. 4	Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame, IN (rivalry)	W 35–14	59,362
November 9	Maryland	No. 4	Navy–Marine Corps Memorial Stadium Annapolis, MD (rivalry)	W 42–7
November 16	at Duke	No. 2	Wallace Wade Stadium Durham, NC	W 38–25	41,000
December 7	vs. Army	No. 2	Philadelphia Municipal Stadium Philadelphia, PA (Army–Navy Game)	W 21–15
January 1, 1964	vs. No. 1 Texas	No. 2	Cotton Bowl Stadium Dallas, TX (Cotton Bowl)	L 6–28	75,300
Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game

Roster[]

Team players in the NFL[]

• 1964 NFL Draft

^[2]

Awards and honors[]

• Roger Staubach – Heisman Trophy,^[3] Walter Camp Award^[4]

References[]

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