1947 Michigan State Spartans football team


The 1947 Michigan State Spartans football team represented Michigan State College as an independent during the 1947 college football season. The team compiled a 7–2 record and outscored opponents by at total of 167 to 101. Biggie Munn was the head coach, and Ralph H. Young was the athletic director. Robert McCurry was the team captain.
In December 1946, after Charlie Bachman resigned, Michigan State hired Munn as its head football coach. Munn had been the head coach at Syracuse in 1946 and had previously been the line coach at Michigan for seven years. In their first season under Munn, the Spartans achieved their most successful since the 1937 team finished 8–2.
The Spartans began the Munn era with a 55–0 loss to in-state rival 1947 Michigan team. The Spartans' only other setback was a narrow 7 to 6 loss to Bear Bryant's Kentucky Wildcats. In intersectional play, the Spartans beat Mississippi State, Washington State, Santa Clara, Temple, and Hawaii. The Hawaii game was played in Honolulu with Bud Crane scoring four touchdowns for the Spartans. The team's 58 points against Hawaii was its highest total since 1932.
At the end of the 1947 season, Tommy Devine wrote in the Detroit Free Press that Munn had "restored athletic 'peace' to Michigan State." At the team's post-season banquet, Robert McCurry was selected to serve another year as the team's captain, and end Warren B. Huey was named the team's most valuable player and recipient of the Governor of Michigan award.

Schedule

Players

From the 1947 team, 32 players and the student manager received varsity letters for their contributions to the team. The players who received varsity letters are:
Frank O. May of Dearborn was the student manager.

Game summaries

Michigan

On September 27, 1947, Michigan State opened the season with a non-conference game against Michigan. Playing in Ann Arbor in front of 73,115 spectators, the Wolverines defeated the Spartans, 55–0. The game was the first as head coach of the Spartans for "Biggie" Munn, who had been an assistant coach at Michigan from 1938 to 1945. Michigan dominated the game, outgaining Michigan State 504 yards to 56. Michigan head coach Fritz Crisler played second, third, and fourth string players later in the game, using 37 players in all. Bob Chappuis ran for three touchdowns and threw a touchdown pass for another.