1949 in football

American football

 * Cleveland Browns 21–7 San Francisco 49ers for the All-America Football Conference championship. After the 1949 season, the Browns, 49ers and original Baltimore Colts all joined the NFL for the 1950 season.
 * Philadelphia Eagles 14–0 Los Angeles Rams for the NFL championship.
 * The decades–long "color barrier" in athletics for the Big Seven Conference is broken by Harold Robinson, playing football for Kansas State. Robinson would go on to be named All–Conference in 1950.
 * Notre Dame Fighting Irish – college football national championship