1942 Missouri Valley Vikings football team

{{short description|American college football season}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}

{{Infobox college sports team season

| year = 1942

| team = Missouri Valley Vikings

| sport = football

| image =

| image_size =

| conference = Missouri College Athletic Union

| short_conf = MCAU

| record = 9–0

| conf_record = 4–0

| head_coach = Volney Ashford

| hc_year = 6th

| captain =

| stadium =

| champion = MCAU champion

| next = 1946

}}

{{1942 Missouri College Athletic Union football standings}}

The 1942 Missouri Valley Vikings football team was an American football team that represented Missouri Valley College as a member of the Missouri College Athletic Union (MCAU) during the 1942 college football season. In their sixth season under head coach Volney Ashford, the Vikings compiled a perfect 9–0 record (4–0 against MCAU teams), won the MCAU championship, and outscored opponents by a total of 391 to 59.{{cite book|title=1942 - Missouri Valley|publisher=College Football Data Warehouse|url=http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/incomplete_data/game_by_game_current.php?teamid=2061&year=1942|access-date=2022-06-02|archive-date=2015-09-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150913011945/http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/incomplete_data/game_by_game_current.php?teamid=2061&year=1942|url-status=dead}}

Missouri Valley was ranked at No. 117 (out of 590 college and military teams) in the final rankings under the Litkenhous Difference by Score System for 1942.{{cite news|title=Litkenhous Rates Georgia No. 1, Ohio State No. 2|newspaper=Twin City Sentinel|author=Dr. E. E. Litkenhous|date=December 16, 1942|page=10|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/123106326/litkenhous-rates-georgia-no-1-ohio/|via=Newspapers.com}}

The season was part of a 41-game winning streak (1941–1942, 1946–1948) that still ranks as the fifth longest in college football history.{{#tag:ref|The United States Navy took over the Missouri Valley College during World War II. While the Navy fielded V-12 Navy College Training Program football teams under the Missouri Valley name in 1943 and 1944, the V-12 teams played with different coaches and players, and are not counted as part of the Missouri Valley Vikings football program's record.|group=note}} Coach Ashford, who led the team during the streak, was later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.{{cite news|title=Volney Ashford|publisher=National Football Foundation|accessdate=June 1, 2022|url=https://footballfoundation.org/hof_search.aspx?hof=2234}}