The 1934 Pittsburgh Panthers football team, coached by Jock Sutherland, represented the University of Pittsburgh in the 1934 college football season. The Panthers finished the regular season with eight wins and a single loss and were considered the champions of the East. According to a 1967 Sports Illustrated article, Parke H. Davis, whose selections for 1869 to 1933 are recognized as "major" in the official NCAA football records book, named Pitt as one of that season's national champions, along with Minnesota, six months after his death on June 5, 1934. The article contained a "list of college football's mythical champions as selected by every recognized authority [sic] since 1924," which has served as the basis of the university's historical national championship claims, with Davis being the only major selector for three of them, including the posthumous 1934 pick.

John Bain Sutherland was an American football player and coach. He coached college football at Lafayette College (1919–1923) and the University of Pittsburgh (1924–1938) and professional football for the Brooklyn Dodgers (1940–1941) and Pittsburgh Steelers (1946–1947). He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951.