The Chicago Maroons football team represents the University of Chicago in college football. The Maroons, which play in NCAA Division III, have been a football-only member of the Midwest Conference since 2017.[3] The University of Chicago was a founding member of the Big Ten Conference and the Maroons were coached by Amos Alonzo Stagg for 41 seasons. In 1935, halfback Jay Berwanger became the first recipient of the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy, later known as the Heisman Trophy. In the late 1930s, university president Robert Maynard Hutchins decided that big-time college football and the university's commitment to academics were not compatible.[4] The university abolished its football program in 1939 and withdrew from the Big Ten in 1946. Football returned to the University of Chicago in 1963 in the form of a club team, which was upgraded to varsity status in 1969. The Maroons began competing in Division III in 1973.
The first team fielded by the University of Chicago in 1892The team that won its first Big Ten Conference championship in 1899
The program began play in 1892, with coach Amos Alonzo Stagg at the helm, where he would serve for until 1933. The team's name came about when Stagg decided the team needed to change in its color from goldenrod, with Stagg pointing out how the color soiled easily. On May 5, 1894, students and faculty met to determine the official color and nickname, with the result being the Maroons. The Maroons spent their first four seasons as an independent, with 1894 being a highlight year in which they went 10–7–1. They joined the Big Ten Conference in 1896. In 1899, they won their first Big Ten title, going 12–0–2 in regular play and 4-0 in conference play. Stagg formed a squad that would be fairly consistent for a quarter of a century, with the Maroons winning seven conference titles from 1899 to 1924, while managing to have four seasons in which they did not lose a game.
The Chicago football team has used the wishbone-C logo since at least 1898.[5]
Stagg retired from Chicago after the 1932 season, in which the team went 3–4–1 (1–4), and then coached at the University of the Pacific. Clark Shaughnessy took over as the Maroons football coach in 1933. In his seven seasons he led them to two .500 records, but no finish above 6th in the conference. In 1936, they beat Wisconsin 7–6. As it turned out, this was their last conference win as a Big Ten member. The team disbanded in 1939.
Chicago fielded a football team again for the 1969 season. The team struggled for a few years, not getting to .500 until 1976, with a 4-4 record, and not getting above 500 until 1985. The first few decades were marked by losing, with four winless seasons occurring from 1973 to 1991. In 1994, Dick Maloney was hired as coach of the team. His 1995 team went 8–2, the Maroons' most wins in a season since coming back as a team. In 1998, the Maroons won the UAA conference title, winning all four of its conference games. The Maroons won three more conference titles under Maloney, who retired in 2012. Chris Wilkerson was hired as coach in 2013. In his second season, he led them to a UAA title.
Chicago lays claim to two national championships. Although they do not compete in NCAA Division I FBS, they maintain claims to titles won at the highest level at the time.
Note: Michigan State, Oregon, Penn State, Nebraska, Maryland, Rutgers, Washington, UCLA, and USC were not members of the Big Ten when Chicago was a member.[9]
↑ Chicago did not fielded a football team from 1940 to 1962, and they had a club team from 1963 to 1968. The varsity football team was relaunched in 1969;55years ago(1969).
The University Athletic Association (UAA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference that competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III. Member schools are highly selective universities located in Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The eight members are Brandeis University, Carnegie Mellon University, Case Western Reserve University, Emory University, New York University, The University of Chicago, University of Rochester, and Washington University in St. Louis.
Amos Alonzo Stagg was an American athlete and college coach in multiple sports, primarily American football. He served as the head football coach at the International YMCA Training School (1890–1891), the University of Chicago (1892–1932), and the College of the Pacific (1933–1946), compiling a career college football record of 314–199–35 (.605). His undefeated Chicago Maroons teams of 1905 and 1913 were recognized as national champions. He was also the head basketball coach for one season at Chicago (1920–1921), and the Maroons' head baseball coach for twenty seasons.
The NCAA Division III football championship is an American college football tournament played annually to determine a champion at the NCAA Division III level. It was first held in 1973, as a single-elimination playoff with eight teams. Over the past 50 seasons, the number of participants has grown to 32, with the current bracket size dating from 2005. In 2023, 28 playoff bids went to conference champions via automatic qualification, leaving just four places for at-large selections.
Herbert Orin "Fritz" Crisler was an American college football coach who is best known as "the father of two-platoon football", an innovation in which separate units of players were used for offense and defense. Crisler developed two-platoon football while serving as head coach at the University of Michigan from 1938 to 1947. He also coached at the University of Minnesota (1930–1931) and Princeton University (1932–1937). Before coaching, he played football at the University of Chicago under Amos Alonzo Stagg, who nicknamed him Fritz after violinist Fritz Kreisler.
Amos Alonzo Stagg Field is the name of two successive football fields for the University of Chicago. Beyond sports, the first Stagg Field (1893–1957), named for famed coach, Alonzo Stagg, is remembered for its role in a landmark scientific achievement of Enrico Fermi and the Metallurgical Laboratory during the Manhattan Project. The site of the first artificial nuclear chain reaction, which occurred within the field's west viewing-stands structure, received designation as a National Historic Landmark on February 18, 1965. On October 15, 1966, which is the day that the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 was enacted creating the National Register of Historic Places, it was added to that as well. The site was named a Chicago Landmark on October 27, 1971.
Norman Carr Paine was an American college football and college basketball player and coach, athletics administrator, and physician. He served as the head football coach at Baylor University (1913), the University of Arkansas (1917–1918), and Iowa State University (1920), compiling a career college football head coaching record of 16–11–3. Paine was also the head basketball coach at Baylor during the 1913–14 season, tallying a mark of 1–8. He was the athletic director at Baylor from 1913 to 1914. Paine later practiced medicine in Los Angeles County, California.
The Chicago Maroons are the intercollegiate sports teams of the University of Chicago. They are named after the color maroon. Team colors are maroon and gray, and Phil the Phoenix is their mascot. They now compete in the NCAA Division III, mostly as members of the University Athletic Association. The University of Chicago helped found the Big Ten Conference in 1895; although it dropped football in 1939, its other teams remained members until 1946. Football returned as a club sport in 1963, as a varsity sport in 1969, and began competing independently in Division III in 1973. The school was part of the Midwest Collegiate Athletic Conference from 1976 to 1987, and its football team joined the Midwest Collegiate Athletic Conference's successor, the Midwest Conference (MWC), in 2017. In the 2018–19 school year, Chicago added baseball to its MWC membership, and elevated its club team in women's lacrosse to full varsity status, with that sport competing in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW).
The Wisconsin–Whitewater Warhawks are the athletic teams of the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater. Twenty Warhawk athletic teams compete in NCAA Division III. The Warhawks often rank among the top of NCAA Division III schools in the NACDA Director's Cup standings.
Richard Maloney is an American gridiron football coach. He is the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach for Augustana College, positions he has held since 2018. Maloney served as head football coach at the University of Chicago from 1994 to 2012. A five-time University Athletic Association (UAA) Coach of the Year, Maloney guided the Maroons to four UAA championships and notched a 94–82 overall record. His .534 winning percentage ranks second all-time at Chicago, trailing only the legendary Amos Alonzo Stagg. During his tenure, Maloney built a program recognized for not only athletic emphasis but academic excellence.
Walter E. Marks was an American football, basketball, and baseball player, coach, college athletics administrator, sports official, and university instructor. Marks played football, basketball, and baseball at the University of Chicago. Between 1927 and 1955 he served as the head football, basketball, baseball, and golf coach at Indiana State University, with hiatuses from 1930 to 1931, when he earned a master's degree at Indiana University, and from 1942 to 1945, when he served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. Marks was best known for his football and baseball coaching career(s); though his tenure as basketball coach was highlighted by the Sycamores' run to the semifinals of the 1936 U.S. Olympic Trials.
The Wisconsin-Whitewater Warhawks football program is the intercollegiate American football team for the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The team competes in NCAA Division III and is a member of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC). Wisconsin-Whitewater's first football team was fielded in 1889. The team plays its home games at the 13,500-seat Perkins Stadium in Whitewater, Wisconsin. Jace Rindahl has served as the head coach for the Warhawks since 2023, taking over for eight-year head coach Kevin Bullis.
The Chicago Maroons men's basketball team is an NCAA Division III college basketball team competing in the University Athletic Association. Home games are played at the Gerald Ratner Athletics Center, located on the University of Chicago's campus in Chicago.
The Carleton Knights football team represents Carleton College in college football at the NCAA Division III level. The program was started in 1883 and was very successful through the early 1960s, winning over 20 conference championships from 1895 to 1956.
The Case Western Reserve Spartans are the varsity intercollegiate athletic teams of Case Western Reserve University, located in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Case Western Reserve University competes at the NCAA Division III level. The Spartans compete in the University Athletic Association (UAA), except in football where the team competes as an associate member of the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC). The university offers 19 sports—10 men's sports and 9 women's sports.
The Roanoke Maroons are the athletic teams that represent Roanoke College, located in Salem, Virginia, a suburban independent city adjacent to Roanoke, Virginia.
The 1913 Chicago Maroons football team was an American football team that represented the University of Chicago as a member of the Western Conference during the 1913 college football season. In coach Amos Alonzo Stagg's 22nd year as head coach, the Maroons finished with a 7–0 record and outscored opponents by a total of 124 to 27.
The 1902 Chicago Maroons football team was an American football team that represented the University of Chicago as a member of the Western Conference during the 1902 Western Conference football season. In their 11th season under head coach Amos Alonzo Stagg, the Maroons compiled a 14–1 record, shut out 12 opponents, finished in second place in the conference, and outscored all opponents by a total of 297 to 32. The team's only setback was in the team's only road game, a 21–0 loss to national champion Michigan.
The 1924 Chicago Maroons football team was an American football team that represented the University of Chicago during the 1924 Big Ten Conference football season. In their 33rd season under head coach Amos Alonzo Stagg, the Maroons compiled a 4–1–3 record, won the Big Ten Conference championship, and outscored their opponents by a combined total of 88 to 40.
Greg Debeljak is an American college football coach and former player. He is the head football coach for Case Western Reserve University, a position he has held since 2004. Debeljak and his Spartans compete at the NCAA Division III level as a member of the Presidents' Athletic Conference and University Athletic Association.
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