Skip to main content

History and Context of College Football

This quiz tests knowledge on the history, context, and major elements of college football, including significant events, terminology, and championship systems.

#college football #sports history #NCAA #football championships #bowl games

1 Another similar game took place between Rutgers and ________ in 1870 and the popularity of intercollegiate competition in football would spread throughout the country.

2 The term "bowl" originates from the shape of the Rose Bowl stadium in ________, which was built in 1923 and looked like a bowl.

3 ________

4 ________ - college football in a worldwide context

5 In the past, the unofficial national champion was determined by various polls, such as the ________, Coaches Poll, and the United Press International Poll.

6 The postseason consists of a series of ________ that showcase the top 64 college teams.

7 The BCS replaced the ________ (in place from 1995–1997), which followed the Bowl Coalition (in place from 1992–1994).

8 Since 1998, the (still unofficial) National Championship has been determined by the ________ (BCS).

9 The game is played after completion of the BCS Bowls and the site rotates every year between the four BCS Bowls: the Rose Bowl, ________, Orange Bowl, and Sugar Bowl.

10 ________ * • Big 12 Conference * • Big East Conference * • Big Ten Conference * • Conference USA • Mid-American Conference • Mountain West Conference • Pacific-10 Conference * • Southeastern Conference * • Sun Belt Conference • Western Athletic Conference • Independents

💡 Interesting Facts

  • in 2007, Indiana University defensive end Greg Middleton led college football in sacks and broke a school record.
  • in 2008, college football running back Vai Taua and quarterback Colin Kaepernick became the first pair of Nevada players to both rush for more than 1,000 yards (910 m) in the same season.
  • in 2006, the Michigan State Spartans mounted the greatest comeback in top division college football history, but their coach was fired two weeks later.
  • in 2005, Appalachian State, led by quarterback Richie Williams, became the first college or university in North Carolina to win an NCAA national championship in football.
  • in 2003 Curtis Gatewood became the first college football recruit from Memphis to sign with Vanderbilt since 1997.
  • in U.S. college football, the 2010 East-West Shrine Game had the lowest attendance of any of the 85 East-West Shrine Games.
  • last week's first-ever football meeting between the University of Miami and Florida International University was marred by a massive brawl that led to the suspension of 31 players.
  • recruiting analysts thought Da'Rel Scott was too small for a college running back, but in 2008 he ran for more than 1,000 yards and led his conference in rushing for most of the season.
  • prior to the 1916 college football season, John R. Bender and Hall-of-Famer Zora G. Clevenger in effect traded jobs as head coach at Kansas State University and the University of Tennessee.
  • on November 3, 2007, Navy beat Notre Dame after losing for 43 consecutive years, ending college football's longest bilateral streak.
  • newly named U.S. Naval Academy head football coach Ken Niumatalolo is believed to be the first Pacific Islander American to be head coach at a major college football program.
  • former Virginia Tech running back Lee Suggs set the NCAA Division I-A record for consecutive American college football games with a rushing touchdown (27) in the 2002 San Francisco Bowl.
  • during their first football game against Yale in 1884, the Dartmouth Big Green were routed, 113–0.
  • after Harvard was defeated in the 1921 Centre vs. Harvard football game—one of the greatest upsets in college football history—MIT students celebrated the win by tearing down Harvard's goalposts.
  • after only six games in 2007, college football player Michael Crabtree (pictured) broke the record for most touchdown receptions in a freshman season.
  • a 42–3 win by the North Carolina Tar Heels in the 1998 Gator Bowl was the worst loss for the Virginia Tech Hokies college football team since a 45–0 shutout in 1983.
  • William H. Lewis (pictured) became the first African-American college football player in 1888 and the first African-American to serve as U.S. Assistant Attorney General in 1911.
  • Walter Hass, who helped reestablish the sport at the University of Chicago, played college football under three different Hall of Fame head coaches.
  • after three years as a back-up, college football quarterback David Johnson threw for 46 touchdowns in 2008 and led Tulsa to an 11–3 record.
  • at the same time Francis "Mother" Dunn was coaching Dickinson College's football team, he was also playing professional football for the Canton Bulldogs under Jim Thorpe.
  • during five years of college football, E. J. Kuale played at three different colleges.
  • despite playing the position of wide receiver in American college football, LaShaun Ward was the third leading rusher for the University of California Golden Bears in 2001.
  • despite only playing college football for two and a half seasons with the Northwestern Wildcats, Zak Kustok holds numerous rushing and passing records.
  • controversy erupted when Virginia Tech was selected to play in the 2002 Gator Bowl college football game instead of Syracuse, which had more wins in the regular season.
  • shortly after Appalachian State's 2007 college football upset of Michigan at Michigan, ecstatic Appalachian State students tore down a goalpost at their own stadium 600 miles (1000 km) away.
  • the 1906 firing of John McLean (pictured) for paying an athlete to play college football was called "the biggest scandal in the history of Missouri athletics".
  • the Alabama Crimson Tide college football team holds NCAA records for both bowl game appearances and victories with 55 and 31 respectively.
  • the Congressional Bowl is one of two new college football bowl games that will be played in the United States this year.
  • the 2007 Texas Longhorns football suspensions involved seven players, including one of the highest-ranking recruits for the Texas Longhorns college football team.
  • the 2006 Insight Bowl featured the biggest comeback in NCAA Division I-A football bowl history.
  • the 2005 Liberty Bowl was the first time Fresno State played a college football bowl game east of the Mississippi River.
  • the Platypus Trophy, awarded to the winner of the Civil War college football game between Oregon and Oregon State, was lost for more than 40 years before being found in a closet in 2005.
  • the Wabash College Little Giants were the only football team to defeat Notre Dame at home during a period of 29 years and 125 games.
  • when Minnesota Duluth coach Jim Malosky retired in 1998 he was the winningest football coach in Division II history and ranked 11th in wins among all college football coaches.
  • three trophies are given to the winner of the annual Red River Shootout, one of college football's oldest rivalry games, played between the Texas Longhorns and the Oklahoma Sooners.
  • thirteen-year-old David Sills has verbally committed to play college football for USC although he is not eligible to sign a letter of intent until 2015.
  • the World's Largest Texas Flag, measuring 23 metres by 38 metres (75 feet by 125 feet), is unfurled on the field by members of Alpha Phi Omega before Texas Longhorn football games.
  • the 2004 Texas Longhorn football team made college football history by being the first team to ever win the Rose Bowl Game as time ran off the clock.
  • the 2003 Insight Bowl, won by California 52–49 on a last-second field goal, was the second-highest-scoring regulation-length college football bowl game in history.
  • the 1896 Michigan football team (pictured) appeared in the first college football game played indoors and under electric lights.
  • the Michigan Wolverines are college football's most victorious program by total wins and percentage.
  • the Orange Bowl stadium (pictured) first hosted the college football bowl game of the same name in 1938.
  • the 1989 Glasnost Bowl was an attempt to schedule an American college football game in the Soviet Union.
  • the 1948 All-America team was the first to include separate offensive and defensive college football teams.
  • the 1971 Oklahoma Sooners football team set the all-time college football Division I record for rushing yards per game.
  • the 2001 Gator Bowl was the final collegiate game of American football star Michael Vick.
  • the 2001 GMAC Bowl set a record as the highest-scoring bowl game in college football history even before it went into overtime.
  • the 1985 Oregon State vs. Washington football game resulted in the biggest overcome point spread in college football history when the Beavers beat the Huskies, 21-20.
  • the 1973 Rose Bowl holds the attendance record in American college football bowl games at 106,869.
  • Robert Park acted simultaneously as a professor, a college football coach, and a minister.
  • Paul Posluszny, a linebacker for Penn State's football team, was recently named college football's best defensive player of the year.
  • Michigan fullback Everett Sweeley set a college football record in 1902 when he kicked the ball 86 yards.
  • Michigan's James Duffy (pictured) played seven years of college football and set a world record by drop kicking a football 168 feet, 7-1/2 inches.
  • Liz Heaston was the first woman to score points in a college football game when she kicked two extra points for the Willamette Bearcats in 1997.
  • Johns Hopkins and Maryland, which compete in what has often been called the greatest rivalry in men's college lacrosse, actually first played football three years earlier in 1892.
  • Dayton Flyers coach Mike Kelly has the fourth best winning percentage (81.9%) of all time among college football coaches with at least 25 years of experience.
  • Oklahoma Sooners football head coach Barry Switzer won eight consecutive Big Eight Conference college football championships in his first eight years with the 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, and 1980 teams.
  • quarterback Steven Threet began his college football career at Georgia Tech, played for Michigan in 2008 and is now a member of the 2010 Arizona State team.
  • Michigan's 1901 "Point-a-Minute" team (pictured), rated one of the greatest college football teams of all time, outscored its opponents 550–0 and beat Stanford 49–0 in the first Rose Bowl game.
  • University of Maryland athletic director Dick Dull, who resigned after the death of Len Bias, hired a "no name" head football coach: Bobby Ross.
  • tight end Dennis Pitta put his college football career on hold for two years to serve in a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints mission in the Dominican Republic.
  • radio station WMSP in Montgomery, Alabama, broadcasts the college football games of both the Alabama Crimson Tide and arch-rival Auburn Tigers.
  • college football's 2007 Holiday Bowl featured a bizarre play, involving a non-player staff member of the Texas Longhorn team.
  • college football wide receiver Torrey Smith of the Maryland Terrapins set the Atlantic Coast Conference record for single-season kick return yards, including a 99-yard return in a bowl game.
  • college football running back Butch Woolfolk was named MVP of both the Rose Bowl and the Bluebonnet Bowl in the same year.
  • college football cornerback Kevin Barnes of Maryland delivered a tackle hard enough to cause Heisman Trophy prospect Jahvid Best to vomit on the field, footage of which became a viral video.
  • American football head coach Skip Holtz is the son of the famed college football coach Lou Holtz.
  • American football defensive tackle O'Brien Schofield, who completed his college career for Wisconsin in 2009, is a cousin of the National Football League veterans Vonnie Holliday and Bobby Engram.
  • college football tailback Mikell Simpson of Virginia ran for a 96-yard touchdown in the 2008 Gator Bowl, which is the longest rush by a running back in an NCAA bowl game.
  • college football coach Bo Schembechler died the day after attending the funeral of his 1971 quarterback Tom Slade and urging the football team to be "as good a Michigan man as Slade".
  • college football player Bob Ward is the only player to have been selected by the Associated Press as a first-team All-American in both an offensive and defensive position.
  • college football coach Don Brown led the UMass Minutemen to their best five-year record in school history.
  • college football coach Billy Laval modified his team's jerseys to help a color-blind quarterback find his receivers.
  • college football coach Jim Tatum secured a national championship without a single losing season in his nine years at Maryland, but was called a "parasitic monster" by one student newspaper.
  • Brett Swenson of Michigan State, one of college football's top placekickers, was passed over for the 2008 Lou Groza Award after missing three consecutive field goals against Michigan.
  • Cedric Griffin, the only University of Texas football player ever to return a blocked field goal for a touchdown, was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings.
  • Kenny Tate, one of college football's top wide receiver recruits in 2008, was ultimately switched to the position of strong safety.
  • Kevin Newsome was a two-time state champion hurdler at Western Branch High School before he enrolled at Penn State to play football.
  • Johnny Rodgers was voted the University of Nebraska's college football "Player of the Century" and College Football News called him "the greatest kick returner in college football history".
  • "The Great Gilroy", the leading scorer in college football in 1916, was charged in 1940 with stealing 35 shoe stitching machines from a Massachusetts factory.
  • John Idzik, University of Detroit head coach until it discontinued its football program, was fired by the Baltimore Colts, along with the entire coaching staff, on two separate occasions.
  • Larry Blakeney, the current head coach of the Troy Trojans football team, is one of only two men to take a college football team from Division II to Division I-AA and then Division I-A.
  • Leo Paquin, one of the Seven Blocks of Granite on the 1936 Fordham University football team, was nicknamed "Twinkletoes".
  • Parke H. Davis, who retroactively named the American college football national champions between 1869 and 1933, was the only historian to select college champions based on research.
  • Mike Ayers coaches the smallest school in the highest division of NCAA college football.
  • "Ma" Newell (pictured), one of the few four-year All-Americans in college football history, was run over by a railroad engine on Christmas Eve 1897.
  • Luv Ya Blue was the term given to a 1970s movement by fans of the Houston Oilers that featured fight songs, pom-pons and other gimmicks more reminiscent of college football than the NFL.
  • Horace Prettyman (pictured) played eight years of "college" football for the University of Michigan from 1882 to 1890, some when he was in his 30s and no longer a student.
  • Homer Paine was one of several college football players that Oklahoma Sooners head coach Jim Tatum lured away from the school's rivals after World War II.
  • Don Durdan was selected as the most valuable player of college football's Rose Bowl in 1942, and six years later, won a professional basketball championship with the Portland Indians.
  • Craig Rundle, a college football head coach for 24 years, led Albion College to the 2001 MIAA championship with his sons playing at quarterback and tight end.
  • Georgia Tech lured away Clemson's head football coach, John Heisman, by offering a US$450 pay increase.
  • Charles Leigh played six seasons as a running back in the National Football League despite never playing college football.
  • Donold Lourie, a former Princeton University football star, was appointed to a State Department post by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
  • Earl Sprackling, who was selected as the best college football player of 1910, gained 456 total yards and kicked three field goals in one game.
  • Guilian Gary, a former college wide receiver, says he has few "fond football memories" of the season in which he made a conference championship-winning reception.
  • Giles Pellerin, known as the Super Fan, attended 797 consecutive USC football games over a period of 73 years.
  • Fred K. Nielsen, a legal official of the U.S. State Department, served as the part-time head football coach at four different Washington, D.C. colleges.
  • Eric Hamilton, the youngest American college football head coach when hired by Trenton State College at age 23, has held the same job for 33 years.
  • 2009 Michigan Wolverines senior running back Brandon Minor rushed for 209 yards in his first high school football game and 24 yards in his first college football carry.
    • Previous Quiz Next Quiz

    Related Quizzes

    The 1936 Summer Olympics: A Historical Quiz

    #1936 Summer Olympics #Olympics #Berlin #sports history #Jesse Owens #Nazi Germany #Olympic torch relay

    2008 Summer Olympics Quiz: Test Your Knowledge

    #2008 Summer Olympics #Olympics #Sports History #Michael Phelps #Beijing #Olympic Records

    All-American Sports Quiz

    #sports #quiz #All-American #education #high school sports #NCAA

    Association Football Quiz: Test Your Knowledge

    #Association Football #Soccer #FIFA #Olympics #Sports History

    Quiz on Australian Rules Football: History and Gameplay

    #Australian Rules Football #AFL #Sports History #Team Sports #Australian Culture

    Baseball Knowledge Quiz

    #Baseball #Sports History #American Culture #Statistics #Quizzes

    Test Your Knowledge of the Big Ten Conference

    #Big Ten Conference #college sports #sports history #NCAA #rivalries #stadiums #universities

    Understanding the History and Fundamentals of Boxing

    #Boxing #Sports History #Martial Arts #Athletes #Sports Regulations