1947 VPI Gobblers football team

The 1947 VPI Gobblers football team was an American football that represented Virginia Polytechnic Institute in the Southern Conference during the 1947 college football season. In its third season under head coach Jimmy Kitts, the team compiled a 4–5 record (4–3 against conference opponents), finished eighth in the Southern Conference, and as outscored by a total of 191 to 162.[1]

1947 VPI Gobblers football
ConferenceSouthern Conference
Record4–5 (4–3 SoCon)
Head coach
CaptainBilly Shelby Barbour
Bobby Smith
Home stadiumMiles Stadium
1947 Southern Conference football standings
ConfOverall
TeamW L TW L T
No. 14 William & Mary $ 7 –1 –09 –2 –0
No. 9 North Carolina 4 –1 –08 –2 –0
South Carolina 4 –1 –16 –2 –1
No. 19 Duke 3 –1 –14 –3 –2
Washington and Lee 3 –2 –05 –5 –0
Maryland 3 –2 –17 –2 –2
No. 17 NC State 3 –2 –15 –3 –1
VPI 4 –3 –04 –5 –0
Davidson 3 –3 –16 –3 –1
Wake Forest 3 –4 –06 –4 –0
VMI 2 –3 –13 –5 –1
Clemson 1 –3 –04 –5 –0
The Citadel 1 –4 –03 –5 –0
Furman 1 –4 –02 –7 –0
Richmond 1 –5 –03 –7 –0
George Washington 0 –4 –01 –7 –1
  • $ – Conference champion
Rankings from AP Poll

VPI was ranked at No. 88 (out of 500 college football teams) in the final Litkenhous Ratings for 1947.[2]

The team played its home games at Miles Stadium in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Schedule
DateTimeOpponentSiteResultAttendanceSource
September 27Furman
W 20–610,000[3]
October 4vs. Virginia*
L 7–4122,000[4]
October 11vs. William & Mary
L 7–2110,000[5]
October 18at No. 7 Army*
L 0–4020,000[6]
October 25Marylanddagger
  • Miles Stadium
  • Blacksburg, VA
L 19–2112,500[7]
October 318:00 p.m.at George Washington
W 42–65,000[8][9]
November 8vs. Washington and Lee
W 27–14[10]
November 15Richmond
  • Miles Stadium
  • Blacksburg, VA
W 26–145,500[11]
November 27vs. VMI
  • Victory Stadium
  • Roanoke, VA (rivalry)
L 14–2829,000–33,000[12][13]
  • *Non-conference game
  • daggerHomecoming
  • Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game

1948 NFL draftees

One VPI player was selected in the 1948 NFL draft, as follows:[14]

NFL Draft Selections 
Year Round Pick Overall Name Team Position
1951 28 10 337 Sterling Wingo Los Angeles Rams Back

Players

The following players were members of the 1947 football team according to the roster published in the 1948 edition of The Bugle, the Virginia Tech yearbook.[13]

VPI 1947 roster
  • Jim Adams
  • Victor Anderson
  • Frank H. Ballard
  • Billy Shelby Barbour (Capt.)
  • William Ernest Baucom
  • Ralph Coe Beard
  • Raymond Rucker Beasley
  • Floyd Samuel Bowles
  • Robert LeRoy Browder
  • Maynard Leon David Bruce
  • Thomas Craig Burns
  • Donald Butkovsky
  • Coy Lenard Chambers
  • Joseph Litton Church
  • Pete "Chip" Collum
  • Jack Cooke
  • Mervin K. Cox
  • Billy Patrick DeNardo
  • Richard T. DeShazo
  • William Donovan
  • Hubert Wallace Dutton
  • Bruce Mills "Bud" Fisher
  • Charles Mugler Forbes
  • Robert Fracker
  • Nelson Fuller
  • John E. "Jack" Gallagher
  • William Hughes Hegamyer
  • Robert Hess
  • Joseph William Hoffmann Jr.
  • Oren Edward Hopkins
  • Jack Ross Ittner
  • Cary Kenyon Johnson
  • Robert Edward Johnson
  • Ted James Johnson
  • Howard Jones
  • Jimmy Kitts
  • John Harry Kroehling
  • Anthony Thomas Kujawa
  • Carl Leonard
  • John James Maskas
  • J. Cordell McCraw
  • Augustus Paul Mengulas
  • Hamilton Otey Meriwether
  • Ronald Garland Miller
  • Elmo Natali
  • Ross Moore Orr
  • Horace Lee Pearce
  • Erving Hascall Rand
  • Frank Ransome
  • Bernard Sizemore
  • Bobby Smith (Capt.)
  • G. L. "Pete" Smith
  • Warren William Squires
  • John Robert Stortz
  • Bob Taylor
  • Franklin Ray Taylor
  • David Lacy Thomas
  • W. Harry Walton
  • Robert Franklin Webb
  • Richard White
  • Donald Lindbergh Whiteman
  • William Elmer Wilson
  • Sterling Lagrand Wingo
  • Gerhard Charles Zekert
  • Paul Ethan "Zig" Zender

References
  1. "1947 Virginia Tech Hokies Schedule and Results". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved February 19, 2019.
  2. Dr. E. E. Litkenhous (December 18, 1947). "Michigan National Champion in Final Litkenhous Ratings". Times. p. 47 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Scoop Latimer (September 28, 1947). "V.P.I.'s Gobblers Race To 20-6 Win Over Hurricane: Pruitt Sparks Purples". The Greenville News. p. Sports 1 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. Robert Moore (October 5, 1947). "Va. Cavaliers Run Roughshod On VPI". Daily Press (Newport News, VA). p. 11A – via Newspapers.com.
  5. "WM On Warpath In Final Quarter To Beat VPI 21-7". Daily Press (Newport News, VA). October 12, 1947. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. Jim McCulley (October 19, 1947). "Army Rips VPI, 40-0; Rowan Scores 2 TDs". The Daily News (New York City). p. C41 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. "Fourth Period Brings Defeat For Gobblers". The Staunton News Leader. October 26, 1947 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. "George Washington vs. V.P.I. The George Washington Athletic Review". VPI vs. George Washington Football Program. 1947. p. 1. Retrieved October 11, 2017.
  9. "Virginia Tech's Gobblers Start Early, Rout George Washington Eleven, 42-6". The Staunton News-Leader. November 1, 1947. p. 6 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "V.P.I. Eleven Tops Washington & Lee". The Baltimore Sun. November 9, 1947. p. 32 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "Muddy Field Only Slight Deterrent To VPI In 26-14 Win Over Spiders". The Staunton News-Leader. November 16, 1947. p. 7 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. "Squadron Flies Over Gobblers 28–14". The V.M.I. Cadet. Virginia Military Institute. December 1, 1947. p. 1. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
  13. "The Bugle 1948" (PDF). Virginia Tech Bugle. 1948. Retrieved January 23, 2016.
  14. "1948 NFL Draft". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on October 31, 2010. Retrieved February 19, 2019.
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