There’s important college sports-related legislation making the rounds on Capitol Hill this week in the form of the Protect College Sports Act, up for consideration in the U.S. Senate.
But on Thursday afternoon, Missouri got its own moment in the Congressional record.
U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Missouri, introduced a Senate resolution that recognizes Mizzou’s 1960 football team “for its undefeated regular season, Orange Bowl victory and claim to the 1960 national championship.”
No one in the Senate chamber objected to Schmitt’s resolution, so it passed. Senate resolutions are, by the chamber’s definition, considered reflective of the legislative body’s “sentiments” and do not have the force of law.
MU does not claim to have won the national title in 1960, though some external entities — including now the U.S. Senate — have made that claim on the school’s behalf.
That year, the Tigers only lost one game during the regular season, to Kansas. After the fact, though, the Big 8 Conference required the Jayhawks to forfeit the game because they’d fielded an ineligible player.
The game sparked outrage amongst fans and is still challenged today.
Missouri then went on to beat Navy and Heisman Trophy winner Joe Bellino in the Orange Bowl, finishing 11-0.
At that time, national champions were determined by a variety of sources — the BCS and College Football Playoff were decades away from being used to settle the matter.
In 1960, the Associated Press and coaches polls picked Minnesota as the champion following the regular season. When the Golden Gophers went on to lose to Washington, some sources instead recognized the Huskies as champs. Others still picked Ole Miss, with 10 wins and one tie, as the champ. Even a one-loss Iowa team got a championship nod.
There have been some in the Mizzou fanbase who would like to see the Tigers stake a claim to the 1960 title, even 60-plus years later.
“I’ve been beating the drum to try to get the university to recognize it because I think they have as much a right as anyone in the country to be national champions in 1960,” author Brendon Steenbergen, whose 2024 book Respectable Roughnecks detailed that season, told the Post-Dispatch previously.
Schmitt apparently feels similarly.
Prior to introducing his resolution, the Senator delivered a six-minute floor speech telling the story of Missouri’s 1960 season. Schmitt talked about then-coach Dan Devine’s motivations toward getting revenge against Oklahoma for a miserable 1958 loss; the talent of star Norris Stevenson, credited for breaking the color barrier at MU as the school’s first Black player to receive a football scholarship; and of course the infamous overturned loss against Kansas.
“Today, I’m proud to honor Coach Dan Devine, Norris Stevenson and every member of the undefeated 1960 Missouri Tigers,” Schmitt said in his prepared remarks. “Their promise was kept, their championship was earned, their record remains perfect. And Kansas still lost.”
