Duke defends the belt, 29–26, at a neutral site over Alabama.
AP poll, week 8: Alabama No. 16 at Duke No. 11 · No. 1 that week: Army. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Duke came in 58 days into reign #93, which began with a win over Georgia Tech, with 3 defenses already behind it; this was its 4th defense. Duke went on to defend it 2 more times before Navy took it on October 6, 1945, 336 days after the reign began.
For Alabama this was its 4th shot at the belt; it had held the belt once before.
It was the first of 2 meetings between the two with the belt on the line; all-time it is 1–1.
About this game
Duke, defending the belt, faced Alabama at a neutral site on January 1, 1945, in a postseason matchup. Duke won 29-26 and retained the belt.
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 26427) · This game in the downloadable dataset