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1961 Houston Cougars football team

American college football season

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 19, 2026
Entity authorityQ104848903 ↗
Source-derived summary

The 1961 Houston Cougars football team was an American football team that represented the University of Houston as an independent during the 1961 college football season. In their fifth and final season under head coach Hal Lahar, the Cougars compiled a 5–4–1 record.

Ken Bolin, Bill Brown, and Joe Bob Isbell were the team captains.

The team played its home games at Rice Stadium in Houston.

Schedule

Statistics

The Cougars gained an average of 127.3 rushing yards and 96.9 passing yards per game during the 1961 season. On defense, they held opponents to 107.3 rushing yards and 106.6 passing yards per game.

The team's passing leaders were quarterbacks Don Sessions (48 of 111 for 549 yards, four touchdowns, 10 interceptions) and Billy Roland (41 of 79 for 420 yards, four touchdowns, five interceptions).

The team's rushing leaders were Ken Bolin (355 yards, 50 carries, 5.9 yard average), Billy Roland (288 yards, 108 carries, 2.7 yard average), Bobby Brezina (236 yards, 60 carries, 3.9 yard average), and Larry Broussard (213 yards, 65 carries, 3.3 yard average).

The team's receiving leaders were Bill McMillan (15 receptions, 244 yards) and Clem Beard (10 receptions, 124 yards).

Billy Roland and Larry Broussard tied as the team's leading scorers with 24 points each.

Editorial summary

“1961 Houston Cougars football team” enters the record as american college football season. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Houston, Cougars and football can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1961—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Houston, Cougars and football.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“1961 Houston Cougars football team” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Houston, Cougars and football provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q104848903. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1961.

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Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “1961 Houston Cougars football team” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.