First season 1878 Seating capacity 20,000 NCAA division Division I FCS | Athletic director Jack Hayes Field surface Grass Arena/Stadium Brown Stadium Division Division I (NCAA) League Division I (NCAA) | |
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Colors Seal Brown, White, Cardinal Profiles |
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 team plays its home games at the 20,000 seat Brown Stadium in Providence, Rhode Island. The Bears are coached by Phil Estes.
Contents
- Brown bears football norocea 47yd fg gets team out of conditioning
- History
- Brown players and coaches elected to the College Football Hall of Fame
- Notable former players
- Key
- Championships
- Harvard
- Dartmouth
- References

Brown bears football norocea 47yd fg gets team out of conditioning
History

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.
Brown players and coaches elected to the College Football Hall of Fame

Notable former players
Key
Notable alumni not in an NFL Draft include:
Championships

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 to 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.
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.
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.
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.
Harvard
The first game in the series occurred in 1893. Brown's record versus Harvard is 30-84-2. During recent decades the respective squads meet annually the first weekend of the Ivy League football season.
Dartmouth
Brown has a 31-57-4 record versus Dartmouth. Beginning in 2018 Brown will play New England Ivy League rival Dartmouth in their final game.