For some sports fans, fall is always welcome as the season when baseball finally gets interesting. But for countless other fanatics, autumn is about one thing: football. And not professional football, either. From Maine to California and all points in between, the last four months of the year are when college football is in full swing. It doesn’t really matter all that much whether a school is in the SEC or the Big Ten; the Ivy League or Big Sky; Division I, II or III: when summer’s over, every Saturday is football Saturday, and every game — especially against a long-time rival (Army-Navy, OSU-Michigan State, Cal-Stanford and on and on) — feels like a matter of life and death.
From the time LIFE began publishing as a weekly in 1936, the magazine covered college football as closely and as breathlessly as it covered the other three most popular American sports of the middle part of the 20th century: baseball, boxing and horse racing. And for decades, professional football played second fiddle to college ball in the pages of LIFE. Then again, those were also the years when the magazine devoted page after page to teams from schools like Yale, Princeton and Trinity; hardly powerhouses today, but back in the ’40s and ’50s those squads could play with any teams in the country.
Here, LIFE.com celebrates the players, fans, cheerleaders and coaches who made the action on and off the college gridiron back in the day so downright picturesque. There are big players here (Heisman winners like Glenn Davis and Steve Spurrier) and famous teams (Notre Dame, LSU, et al.). There are highly emotional coaches and worked-up fans. There are, in short, scenes that capture the emotional and visual scope of college football in the middle part of the 20th century as seen through the eyes of LIFE photographers.
Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.
Pittsburgh vs. West Virginia, 1953.Yale Joel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesTrinity's Charles Sticka, 1955.Grey Villet—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesMichigan's Tom Harmon in 1940, the year he won the Heisman.Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesOhio State's Paul Sarringhaus gets instruction from a coach, 1941.Myron Davis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesArmy's "Dream Backfield" in 1946: Thomas "Shorty" McWilliams, Arnold Tucker and Heisman winners Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis.Sam Shere—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesNotre Dame's Bill Wightkin leaps to snatch a 44-yard toss against Tulane, 1949.Joe Scherschel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesAn SMU cheerleader shows his spirit at a University of Texas football game, 1950.Loomis Dean—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesSyracuse vs. Texas, 1960 Cotton Bowl. Syracuse beat Texas 23-14 behind a great performance by Ernie Davis -- the first African American to win the Heisman.Robert W. Kelley—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesSaint Mary's University (Texas) halfback Henry Tutor, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesA player is carried from the field with a broken collar bone during a 1952 Notre Dame-Michigan game.Mark Kauffman—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesNavy fans, 1953.Yale Joel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesArmy-Navy game, 1953.Yale Joel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesArmy-Navy game, 1953.Yale Joel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesNavy's Joe Bellino, 1960.George Silk—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesEugene "Mercury" Morris, West Texas State, 1968.Bob Gomel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesMichigan State football, 1952.Joe Scherschel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesMinnesota University's Paul Giel, exhausted after a 67-yard run which set up Minnesota's only touchdown against USC, puts an ice pack on his head, 1953.Ed Clark—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesBilly Cannon, LSU's All-American halfback, 1959.George Silk—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesYale's Ben Balme is carried off the field after the 1960 Yale-Harvard game during the Elis' last unbeaten and untied season.Stan Wayman—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesCotton Bowl, 1960.Robert W. Kelley—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesSyracuse vs. Texas, 1960 Cotton Bowl. At left is the great Ernie Davis (#44) -- the first African American to win the Heisman.Robert W. Kelley—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesNotre Dame's legendary coach Ara Parseghian can't bear watching as the Fighting Irish lose in 1964.Bill Ray—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesUniversity of Florida's Steve Spurrier (#11), 1966.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesEugene "Mercury" Morris, West Texas State, 1968.Bob Gomel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images