University of Colorado Football - History

The history of Football at the University of Colorado dates all the way back to 1884. Football has been played at the University of Colorado at Boulder practically since the game was created. A long history of winning seasons has placed Colorado football at an impressive sixteenth place on the all-time list of most wins for a program.

For over seventy-five years the University of Colorado athletic programs have gone by the nickname the Buffaloes since the term was first suggested in 1934. A man by the name of Andrew Dickson is credited with officially coming up with the nickname when his suggestion was the winner of a contest held by a student newspaper. The compensation Mr. Dickson received for imagining the nickname that now moves millions of dollars of merchandise was five dollars - the amount awarded for winning the campus newspaper challenge.



The beautiful Folsom Field, located on the Boulder campus, has been the majestic home for University of Colorado football teams since the stadium was completed in 1924. The picturesque mountain backdrop offered at the on campus venue makes the stadium an unmistakable area landmark with local residents and alumni alike very proud of the 280 home games that have been won within the confines of Folsom Field. The natural grass field that sits almost exactly at one mile in elevation (5,360 feet) is third behind only the Air Force Academy and the University of Wyoming in terms of major college football stadiums at the highest elevations. The initial name of the 54,000 seat arena was Colorado Stadium before the name was replaced in 1944 with the current title to honor beloved Buffaloes coach Fred Folsom.

The Colorado Buffaloes football team and eleven other schools throughout the Midwest make up the highly regarded Big 12 Conference. The Big 12 came into being when the former Big 8 Conference adopted four Texas programs (University of Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor, and Texas Tech) on February 25, 1994. Today, the conference that the University of Colorado plays football in routinely has a representative competing in the national championship game. In fact over the last ten seasons a member of the Big 12 has played in a remarkable seventy percent of those national championship games, a stint of recent success that no other conference can claim.

Over the decades the University of Colorado football program has had the good fortune to see both its program as well as its individual players receive national recognition on a number of occasions. Among the most notable achievements are twenty-seven bowl game appearances, a collective thirty conference championships over the years, eight All-Americans, four College Football Hall of Fame inductees, a Heisman Trophy winner (Rashaan Salaam - 1994), and most importantly an Associated Press National Championship to their credit (1990).

Sam grew up a Colorado Buffaloes fan from the other side of the country. Despite the lack of an organic connection to Colorado a love of the ideals that the state represents prompted Sam to routinely have University of Colorado wallpaper up on his computer screen during his adolescent years. Sam now spends some of his free time promoting a website that offers free University of Colorado wallpaper backgrounds for laptops and desktops alike.