Brigham Young State University in Provo, Utah is represented by the Cougars in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. Teams included in this Division play in the Mountain West Conference. The Cougars have bagged 23 of these conferences. In addition the team has played in 28 various bowl events. The national championship in football was conceded to the team in 1984

In 1896, Brigham was still an academy. Football was introduced and played for a time but it was soon neglected. It was forgotten until 1922 when the school made its first fumbling attempts at playing it. G. Ott Romney was hired to coach the team by the school in 1928. Under their coach, the team tasted their first minor successes.

Briefly, in the period preceding World War II, the first significant achievements of the team were made. In that period, they attained to some prominence in the sporting world. In 1932, the Cougars scored a total of 188-50. Ten years after, they managed to defeat the University of Utah after a long succession of losses.. The match was a close one at 12-7.

In 1957 and 1958, the Cougars won back-to-back victories. Those victories encouraged the community to support the team and in no time, the Cougar’s home stadium was completed (1964). It had a seating capacity of 30,000. Previous to the completion of the stadium, the team received its first All-American player award. This was in 1961 and the distinction was given to running back, Eldon “The Phantom” Fortie.

The fortunes of the team improved again in 1965. In that year, it won its first conference championship with Tommy Hudspeth as its coach. Within the time of his stint with the team, Mr. Hudspeth would lead them through three more seasons of victory.

Under the succeeding coach, Lavell Edwards, the Cougars experienced their heyday. Their victories were almost continuous in the WAC during that period. However, their performance in the bowl games was not as satisfactory

In 1996, the Cougars were truly in no better shape as individual players and as a team. However, when Coach Edwards retired things changed for the worse. From 2001 to 2004, the team experienced a rash of losses and the coach who replaced Edwards quite his post.

Today, though they have recovered from that period of relapse, The Brigham Young University cougars are still feeling for their right style again. They have improved greatly since 2004 but they have not quite regained the stature and prowess they had with Edwards.

The team is multi-awarded. Among the distinctions they have received are the National Championship Award, the Doak Walker Award, the Outland Award, the College Football Performance Award and the Heisman Trophy. The team has also received recognition for the coaching skills of Lavell Edwards. They received the Amos Alonzo Stag Award, the AFCA(Koadk) Coach of the Year Award and the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award.

If we are to judge by the team’s present performance, we can expect that they are really on their way to making a spectacular comeback.

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Author Bio: Freddie Brister is a retired football coach who writes for SportsFanTreasures.com. Check out his Brigham Young Watch or his Kansas Belt or his Miami Belt.

Category: Sports
Keywords: National Championship,Mountain West Conference,Team Performance