This Week in History: Remembering great seasons past

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Sep 5

TBA

Football

vs Wyoming

Sep 12

TBA

Football

vs Southern Utah

Sep 19

TBA

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vs BYU

Sep 26

TBA

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at UTSA

Oct 3

TBA

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vs Oregon State

FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- The 2019-20 school year marks the 150^th anniversary of the founding of Colorado State University. All year CSU will celebrate its heritage both in academics and athletics. The Rams will even wear a special 150^th anniversary helmet at the October 5^th homecoming game against San Diego State. For the 2019 football season, This Week In CSU Football History will follow four teams which mark anniversary seasons of their own.

It was 100 years ago when coach Harry Hughes and his Aggies won their third conference championship in the span of five years. Considering WWI prevented the top athletes from playing in 1917 and the Spanish Flu halted all-but two games in 1918, Colorado Aggies football had reached its heyday.

Harry Hughes' "Million Dollar Play" continued to fool opposing defenses, and men like William Nye, Charles Bresnahan and Duane Hartshorn dominated the gridiron at Colorado Field. The Aggies would go 7-1 in 1919, their only loss being due to a Thanksgiving Day blizzard in Colorado Springs when the team train arrived too late for the Aggies to prepare. This was also the one season when a black bear cub acted as the school's mascot following the untimely death of their beloved Peanuts the bulldog.

The 1934 Aggies won Harry Hughes' last conference championship 85 years ago thanks to a three-way-tie between two other Colorado schools. This team was led by the great Wilbur "Red" White, a halfback who could literally do everything on the field except paint the lines on the grass. His ability to pass, punt, kick and run earned him the right to become the first CSU football player in the NFL.

Modern day fans will cringe when they realize it has been 25 years since the great 1994 Rams took the field and made history by winning week after week. Led by quarterback Anthoney Hill and a defense that would shock the nation in Tucson beating No. 6 Arizona, coach Sonny Lubick did what no coach in CSU history has done before or since by winning a conference title in only his second year at the helm.

These were the days of late-night ESPN football games with temporary lights brought to Hughes Stadium where sold-out crowd after sold-out crowd packed the old concrete giant by the foothills. Who could forget Matt McDougal's fake punt against Wyoming before a nationally televised audience that ignited a come-from-behind victory over the Pokes? That great season to remember was capped by a win in Fresno and the presentation of the WAC Championship trophy that now sits in the Hall of Champions at Canvas Stadium.

Then there is the 1999 season, which was just a mere 20 years ago when the Rams won the first Mountain West Conference Championship. After spending 30 years in the Western Athletic Conference, CSU led the charge to split away from the WAC and form a new conference with larger and more competitive schools. The Rams, still riding the wave of the Lubick era, took control in 1999 in the first game of the season on September 4^th by thumping No. 14 CU at the second Rocky Mountain Showdown played in Denver. A little tear gas and pepper spray from the Denver Police could not damper this great win. That victory over CU, the first in 13 seasons, gained momentum for the Rams, and along with a five-game winning streak to end the season, allowed CSU to tie for the championship and play in the Liberty Bowl.

These four great seasons mark some of the finest football ever played in Fort Collins during the 150 years since the school was founded. Along with other milestone games, This Week in CSU Football history will bring our fans back to those great bygone days of bears as mascots and fans storming the field to tear down goal posts after great victories.

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