Brown Bears football | |||
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First season | 1878; 146 years ago | ||
Athletic director | Jack Hayes | ||
Head coach | James Perry 3rd season, 7–23 (.233) | ||
Stadium | Richard Gouse Field at Brown Stadium (capacity: 20,000) | ||
Field surface | Turf | ||
Location | Providence, Rhode Island | ||
NCAA division | Division I FCS | ||
Conference | Ivy League | ||
All-time record | 607–565–40 (.517) | ||
Bowl record | 0–1 (.000) | ||
Conference titles | 4 (1976, 1999, 2005, 2008) | ||
Rivalries | Rhode Island (rivalry) | ||
Consensus All-Americans | 10 | ||
Current uniform | |||
Colors | Seal brown, cardinal red, and white [1] | ||
Fight song | Ever True | ||
Marching band | Brown University Band | ||
Website | BrownBears.com |
The Brown Bears football program is the intercollegiate American football team for Brown University located in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The team competes in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) and are members of the Ivy League. Brown's first football team was fielded in 1878. The Bears play their home games at the 20,000-seat Richard Gouse Field at Brown Stadium in Providence, Rhode Island. The team's head coach is James Perry, who was hired on December 3, 2018.
Brown University was slow to adopt football as an intercollegiate sport, compared to some other Ivy League schools like Princeton (1869), Yale (1872), Harvard (1873), and Penn (1876). [2] Brown president Barnas Sears banned the sport in 1862 "because of its violent nature." [2] It was introduced as an intramural sport in 1866, but Brown didn't play its first intercollegiate football game until November 13, 1878, losing a game against Amherst College. [2] Brown then played a rather sporadic schedule; they played (and lost) one game in 1880 against Yale; in 1886 played two games, losing one to Boston University and winning one against Providence High School. [2] Lack of campus interest in the sport led Brown to skip the 1887 and 1888 seasons entirely. [2] Future football legend John Heisman, frustrated by the lack of playing opportunity at Brown, joined a Pawtucket club team to get more time on the field. [2] He departed for Penn for the 1889 season. [2]
Fritz Pollard, “the human torpedo,” led Brown to the Rose Bowl in 1915 as a freshman. [3] In 1916 Pollard led Brown to an 8-1 record, including Brown's first win against Harvard. [3]
In the middle of the 1926 season, the “Iron Men” came into being when the same 11 players played against Yale for 60 minutes and a 7–0 win. The next week the same 11 players played without substitution against Dartmouth and won 10–0. Two weeks later the Iron Men played 58 minutes against Harvard, but in the last two minutes the substitutes came in to earn their letters. Brown won all its games that year until the Thanksgiving game against Colgate ended in a 10–10 tie. The famed “Iron Men” were Thurston Towle ’28, Paul Hodge ’28, Orland Smith ’27, Charles Considine ’28, Lou Farber ’29, Ed Kevorkian ’29, Hal Broda ’27, Al Cornsweet ’29, Dave Mishel ’27, Ed Lawrence ’28, and Roy Randall ’28. In the 1948 season, Brown fans were the originators of the popular "de-fense!" chant that spread to the NFL in the 1950s. Following the 1981 season, the Ivy League was reclassified to Division I-AA, today known as the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), Brown moved to Division I-AA play with the rest of the league. [4] Brown has 607 wins, making them tied for 72nd all time in wins among division one football programs.
In 1997, Phil Estes began a twenty-one year tenure as Brown's head coach, resulting in three Ivy League championships. In 2018, after two consecutive winless seasons in the Ivy League, Estes announced that he would be stepping down. [5] James Perry was named head coach in December 2018. [6]
Brown did not compete during the 2020 season as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent cancellation of the Ivy League season. [7]
The Bears have no national championships, though they do have one undefeated team, the 1926 team, also known as the Iron Men of 1926, finishing 9–0–1 (and winning all three of their Ivy League games), with a 10–10 tie with Colgate in the last game of the season.
The Bears have won the Ivy League title four times in their history. The Bears won their first Ivy League title in 1976, sharing it with Yale while finishing 8–1 on the season, clinching the title with a 28–17 victory over Columbia. [8] In 1999, the Bears went 9–1 (the most victories since 1926, along with a record seven game winning streak), while beating Columbia 23–6 to share the Ivy League title with Yale. [9] In 2005, the Bears finished 9–1, beating Columbia 52–21 in their final game in order to clinch their first ever outright Ivy League title and third overall. [10] In 2008, the Bears finished 7–3 (while losing only one Ivy League game), beating Columbia 41–10 to clinch a share of the Ivy League title, their fourth over conference title and third in nine years. [11] [12]
Year | Conference | Coach | Overall record | Conference record |
---|---|---|---|---|
1976 | Ivy League | John W. Anderson | 8–1 | 6–1 |
1999 | Ivy League | Phil Estes | 9–1 | 6–1 |
2005 | Ivy League | Phil Estes | 9–1 | 6–1 |
2008 | Ivy League | Phil Estes | 7–3 | 6–1 |
Brown has made one bowl appearance, garnering a record of 0–1.
Season | Date | Bowl | Coach | Opponent | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1915 | January 1, 1916 | Rose Bowl | Eddie N. Robinson | Washington State | L 0–14 |
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (September 2018) |
Brown leads the series with Rhode Island, their in-state rival, 73–27–2.
Frederick Douglass "Fritz" Pollard was an American professional football player and coach. In 1921, he became the first African-American head coach in the National Football League (NFL). Pollard and Bobby Marshall were the first two African-American players in the NFL in 1920. Football pioneer Walter Camp called Pollard "one of the greatest runners these eyes have ever seen."
The Harvard Crimson is the nickname of the intercollegiate athletic teams of Harvard College. The school's teams compete in NCAA Division I. As of 2013, there were 42 Division I intercollegiate varsity sports teams for women and men at Harvard, more than at any other NCAA Division I college in the country. Like the other Ivy League colleges, Harvard does not offer athletic scholarships. Athletics at Harvard began in 1780 when the sophomores challenged the freshmen to a wrestling tournament with the losers buying dinner. Since its historic boat race against archrival Yale in 1852, Harvard has been in the forefront of American intercollegiate sports. Its football team conceived the modern version of the game and devised essentials ranging from the first concrete stadium to a scoreboard to uniform numbers to signals.
The Harvard–Yale football rivalry is renewed annually with The Game, an American college football match between the Harvard Crimson football team of Harvard University and the Yale Bulldogs football team of Yale University.
Richard Gouse Field at Brown Stadium is a football stadium located in Providence, Rhode Island. It is the home of Brown University's football and outdoor track teams. The athletic teams at Brown University, known as the Bears, compete in the Ivy League. Brown was the last Ivy stadium with a grass playing field until the installation of a FieldTurf surface in 2021. The field is named for Richard I. Gouse '68, the primary donor of the turf field.
The Yale Bulldogs are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Yale University, located in New Haven, Connecticut. The school sponsors 35 varsity sports. The school has won two NCAA national championships in women's fencing, four in men's swimming and diving, 21 in men's golf, one in men's hockey, one in men's lacrosse, and 16 in sailing.
The Bryant Bulldogs football program represents Bryant University in college football. As of the upcoming 2024 season, the Bulldogs will be members of CAA Football, an NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) league operated by, but legally separate from, the multi-sports Coastal Athletic Association. Bryant had played the 2023 season in the Big South–OVC Football Association formed in that season as a football-only alliance, also operating at the FCS level, between the Big South Conference and Ohio Valley Conference. The team has played its home games at Beirne Stadium in Smithfield, Rhode Island, which opened in 1999 as Bulldog Stadium and received its current name in 2016.
The Yale Bulldogs football program represents Yale University in college football in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision. Yale's football program, founded in 1872, is one of the oldest in the world. Since their founding, the Bulldogs have won 27 national championships, two of the first three Heisman Trophy winners, 100 consensus All-Americans, 28 College Football Hall of Fame inductees, including the "Father of American Football" Walter Camp, the first professional football player Pudge Heffelfinger, and coaching giants Amos Alonzo Stagg, Howard Jones, Tad Jones and Carmen Cozza. With over 900 wins, Yale ranks in the top ten for most wins in college football history.
The Brown Bears are the sports teams that represent Brown University, an American university located in Providence, Rhode Island. The Bears are part of the Ivy League conference. Brown's mascot is Bruno. Both the men's and women's teams share the name, competing in 34 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I sports. In football, the Bears, along with all other the Ivy League teams, compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).
The Dartmouth Big Green football team represents Dartmouth College in NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) college football competition as a member of the Ivy League. The team possesses a storied tradition that includes a national championship, and holds a record 21 Ivy League Football Championships with 11 College Football Hall of Fame inductees.
The Princeton Tigers football program represents Princeton University and competes at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level as a member of the Ivy League. Princeton's football program—along with the football program at nearby Rutgers University—began in 1869 with a contest that is often regarded as the beginnings of American football.
The Bethlehem Bears were an early professional football team from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The team was initiated and formed by Michael "Gyp" Downey who served as player-coach and the team's manager. The Bears competed in the Eastern League of Professional Football in 1926.
William Earl Sprackling was an American football quarterback. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1964. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Sprackling was the quarterback for the Brown University football team in 1909, 1910, and 1911. He was selected as an All-American at the quarterback position in 1910 and has been rated as the best college football player in the United States in 1910.
Edward Thurston Towle was an American football player.
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The Yale Bulldogs Rugby Team, or simply, Yale Rugby is the rugby union team of the Yale University. Yale has fielded a team that has played using the rugby rules since at least 1876. The school competes in the Ivy Rugby Conference and in Division I-AA of USA Rugby's intercollegiate competition. The YRFC plays a fall and spring schedule, which includes both a 15s and a 7s program. The team has approximately 45 players and is coached by Head Coach, Craig Wilson and Assistant Coaches Brad Dufek, Alycia Washington and Greg McWilliams.
The early history of American football can be traced to early versions of rugby football and association football. Both games have their origin in varieties of football played in Britain in the mid–19th century, in which a football is kicked at a goal or run over a line, which in turn were based on the varieties of English public school football games.
The Princeton–Yale football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Princeton Tigers of Princeton University and the Yale Bulldogs of Yale University. The football rivalry is among the oldest in American sports.
The 2018 Brown Bears football team represented Brown University as a member of the Ivy League of the 2018 NCAA Division I FCS football season. Led Phil Estes in his 21st and final season as head coach, the Bears compiled an overall record of 1–9 with a mark of 0–7 in conference play, placing last out of eight teams in the Ivy League. Brown played home games at Brown Stadium in Providence, Rhode Island.
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