Sixty-six years after Dan Devine’s team finished what Missouri lists as a perfect season, the Tigers finally have a national championship to claim.
Mizzou Athletics announced Friday that it will recognize the 1960 football team as national champions, the first official title claim in program history. The move follows a unanimous U.S. Senate resolution introduced Aug. 6 by Sen. Eric Schmitt and is grounded in the Poling System, an NCAA-recognized historical selector that ranked Missouri No. 1 that year.
“The 1960 team has an important place in Mizzou history, and after reviewing the historical record, we believe it is appropriate to honor that team as national champions,” athletic director Laird Veatch said.
The school will honor the team at halftime of the Sept. 19 game against Troy, part of Memorial Stadium’s 100th-anniversary celebration. Missouri will wear throwback uniforms. Kickoff is 6 p.m. on SEC Network+. The night also marks the opening of the $250 million Memorial Stadium Centennial Project in the north end zone.
Devine was in his third year when the Tigers opened 9-0. They beat Penn State on the road, handled Oklahoma 41-19 in Norman, and rose to No. 1 in the Associated Press poll heading into the Border War finale against Kansas.
On Nov. 19 in Columbia, Kansas won 23-7 on the field. Jayhawk halfback Bert Coan scored twice. On Dec. 8, the Big Eight faculty committee ruled Coan ineligible after finding he received improper benefits, including a plane ticket to an all-star game from booster Bud Adams. The conference ordered Kansas to forfeit its last two wins, stripped KU of the league title, and awarded the Big Eight championship and Orange Bowl berth to Missouri.
Missouri has long carried the season as 11-0. Kansas and the NCAA still count the on-field result as a Jayhawk victory, which is why the series record remains split: Missouri claims a 58-54-9 lead; Kansas lists it 57-55-9.
The Tigers then beat No. 4 Navy and Heisman Trophy winner Joe Bellino, 21-14, in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 2, 1961. Norm Beal’s 90-yard interception return flipped an early deficit. Missouri finished No. 5 in the final AP poll and No. 4 in the coaches poll. Both polls closed before bowl games until 1968.
The roster still reads like a program cornerstone: consensus All-American end Danny LaRose; halfbacks Mel West (650 rushing yards) and Norris Stevenson (610 yards, 7.2 per carry), Missouri’s first two Black football players; and scoring leader Donnie Smith. Missouri outscored opponents 295-93.
College football in 1960 had no playoff and no post-bowl AP poll. Several schools still claim a piece of that season:
- Minnesota (8-2): AP and coaches champion after the regular season; lost the Rose Bowl to Washington.
- Ole Miss (10-0-1): Football Writers Association of America.
- Iowa (8-1): Litkenhous Ratings, a claim Iowa does not recognize.
- Washington (10-1): Helms Athletic Foundation after beating Minnesota.
- Missouri (11-0 by conference forfeit): Poling System.
The Poling System, used from 1924 to 1984, is one of the NCAA’s designated major historical selectors. Missouri had treated 1960 as an unclaimed rating, the same approach it still takes with a 2007 Anderson & Hester selection. The Senate resolution and a fresh review of the record changed that.
Schmitt’s resolution, S.Res. 833, passed by unanimous consent. Senate resolutions express the chamber’s sentiments and carry no force of law. Schmitt did not hide the rivalry edge.
“Coach Dan Devine and Danny LaRose led the Mizzou Tigers to an undefeated season in 1960 — and now, the Senate has unanimously recognized them as the 1960 College Football National Champions,” he said. “Their championship was earned. Their record remains perfect. And Kansas still lost.”
The ceremony lands on a built-in anniversary night. Memorial Stadium opened in 1926. Missouri will wear throwbacks, honor surviving 1960 players and families at halftime, and fold the new claim into a broader tribute to the program’s past as the renovated north end zone comes online.
Veatch framed the claim as history, not a substitute for the present.
“We have a unique opportunity this year to recognize the Tigers who built the history and tradition of Mizzou Football while keeping our eyes firmly on the future,” he said. “While we celebrate where we’ve been, our priority is where we’re going next — supporting the 2026 Tigers and striving to capture the next Mizzou national championship.”
That is the clean version of a messy year. A recognized selector already had Missouri No. 1. The conference already flipped the Kansas result. The Orange Bowl win already happened. What changed in 2026 is that the university decided to hang the banner.
For a program that had never officially claimed a national championship, the 1960 Tigers are now first.
