The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate athletic conference that has been affiliated with the NCAA's Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football conference, the Sun Belt began sponsoring football in 2001. Its football teams participate in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The 14 member institutions of the Sun Belt are distributed across the Southern United States.
George Preston Marshall was an American businessman best known for his ownership of the Washington Redskins, an American football franchise belonging to the National Football League (NFL). He founded the franchise as the Boston Braves in 1932 based on the remnants of the Newark Tornadoes, a defunct franchise which was sold back to the league in 1930. Marshall renamed the team "Redskins" in 1933 and relocated them to Washington, D.C. in 1937. He was its controlling owner until his death in 1969.
Marshall University is a public research university in Huntington, West Virginia. It was founded in 1837 and is named after John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
James Chadwick Pennington is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons. He played college football at Marshall University, where he won the Sammy Baugh Trophy, and was selected by the New York Jets in the first round of the 2000 NFL Draft. Pennington spent his first eight seasons with the Jets and was a member of the Miami Dolphins in his last three.
The MAC Football Championship Game is a football game between the winners of the East and West divisions of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) to determine the conference champion.
We Are Marshall is a 2006 American biographical sports drama film directed by McG. It depicts the aftermath of the 1970 plane crash that killed 75 people: 37 players of the Marshall University Thundering Herd football team, five coaches, two athletic trainers, the athletic director, 25 boosters, and the airplane crew of five.
Marshall Goldberg was an American professional football player who was a back for the Chicago Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football as a halfback and fullback for the Pittsburgh Panthers. At Pittsburgh, Goldberg was twice recognized as a consensus All-American, and played on two national championship teams under head coach Jock Sutherland. Goldberg played for the Cardinals of the NFL for eight seasons between 1939 and 1948, with an interruption during World War II, and was a four-time All-Pro. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1958.
The Friends of Coal Bowl is the name given to the Marshall–West Virginia football rivalry. It is an American college football rivalry game played by the Marshall Thundering Herd football team of Marshall University and the West Virginia Mountaineers football team of the West Virginia University. The game was sponsored by the Friends of Coal, a coal industry trade group. Planned to be a seven-year series, the Friends of Coal Bowl was organized by the West Virginia Coal Association at the urging of West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin.
Joan C. Edwards Stadium, formerly Marshall University Stadium, is a football stadium located on the campus of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, United States. It currently can hold 30,475 spectators and includes twenty deluxe, indoor suites, 300 wheelchair-accessible seating, a state-of-the-art press-box, 14 concession areas, and 16 separate restrooms. It also features 90,000 sq ft (8,000 m2) of artificial turf and 1,837 tons of structural steel. It also houses the Shewey Athletic Center, a fieldhouse and a training facility. The new stadium opened in 1991 and replaced Fairfield Stadium, a condemned off-campus facility built in 1927 in the Fairfield Park neighborhood.
The 2001 GMAC Bowl, a college football bowl game held on December 19 at Ladd–Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Alabama, pitted the Marshall Thundering Herd, then of the Mid-American Conference, against the East Carolina Pirates from Conference USA. This game featured what was then the biggest comeback in NCAA Division I-A bowl history, as Marshall came back from a 38-8 halftime deficit to force overtime and eventually win 64-61 in double overtime. It was also the highest-scoring bowl game in history, breaking the previous record set when Texas Tech defeated Air Force 55-41 in the 1995 Copper Bowl. Although the record for greatest bowl comeback was broken by Texas Tech when it returned to the Copper Bowl, by then renamed the Insight Bowl, in 2006, the 2001 GMAC Bowl remains the highest-scoring bowl game ever.
The 1970 Marshall Thundering Herd football team was an American football team that represented Marshall University as an independent during the 1970 NCAA University Division football season. In its second season under head coach Rick Tolley, the team compiled a 3–6 record and was outscored by a total of 202 to 138. The team played its home games at Fairfield Stadium in Huntington, West Virginia.
The 1995 NCAA Division I-AA football season, part of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the Division I-AA level, began in August 1995, and concluded with the 1995 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game on December 16, 1995, at Marshall University Stadium in Huntington, West Virginia. The Montana Grizzlies won their first I-AA championship, defeating the Marshall Thundering Herd by a score of 22−20.
The 1996 NCAA Division I-AA football season, part of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the Division I-AA level, began in August 1996, and concluded with the 1996 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game on December 21, 1996, at Marshall University Stadium in Huntington, West Virginia. The Marshall Thundering Herd won their second I-AA championship, defeating the defending national champion Montana Grizzlies by a score of 49–29.
The Marshall Thundering Herd football team is an intercollegiate varsity sports program of Marshall University. The team represents the university as a member of the Sun Belt Conference East Division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, playing at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level.
Michael Payton was an American football quarterback. He played college football for the Marshall Thundering Herd at Marshall University. He was the recipient of the 1992 Walter Payton Award, which is bestowed annually upon Division I-AA's most outstanding player. After college, he played one season in the Arena Football League (AFL) for the Florida Bobcats.
Anthony Robert Petersen is an American college football coach and former quarterback. He most recently was the offensive coordinator at the University of Illinois. Petersen played college football at Marshall, where he broke school records and won Southern Conference Offensive Player of the Year award as a senior in 1987.
The Franklin & Marshall Diplomats football program represents Franklin & Marshall College in college football at the NCAA Division III level. The Diplomats have competed as members of the Centennial Conference since 1983 and play their home games at Shadek Stadium in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Tom Blumenauer has served as the team's head coach since 2022.
The Appalachian State–Marshall football rivalry, known colloquially as The Old Mountain Feud, is a college rivalry between the Mountaineers of Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, and the Thundering Herd of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. The rivalry is significant for the competitiveness of the contests, as well as its place in contemporary Appalachian culture. Both campuses residing in the Appalachian Mountains, the two public universities both were once teacher's academies.
