Northwestern defends the belt, 40–7, at home over North Dakota State.
AP poll, week 4: North Dakota State unranked at Northwestern No. 1 · No. 1 that week: Northwestern. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Northwestern came in 336 days into reign #77, which began with a win over Notre Dame, with 3 defenses already behind it; this was its 4th defense. Northwestern went on to defend it 5 more times before Notre Dame took it on November 21, 1936, 378 days after the reign began.
For North Dakota State this was its first shot at the belt; it had never held the belt. It still hasn’t; this remains its only belt game.
This is the only time North Dakota State and Northwestern have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
On October 10, 1936, Northwestern defended the belt at home against North Dakota State, winning 40-7 to retain the championship.
Written by Claude, strictly from this site’s own record of the game — the score and what it meant for the belt. CFBD doesn’t have a box score for games this old, so nothing here is invented beyond what’s verifiably on file.
Sources Game record: College Football Data (id 21078) · This game in the downloadable dataset