Seating capacity 11,600 Location Long Beach, California Bowl record 0–0–1 (.500) Last season 1991 Home ground Veterans Memorial Stadium | Field surface Grass All-time record 199–183–4 (.521) Founded 1955 Conference Big West Conference First season 1955 | |
 | ||
Head coach Willie Brown (final 49ers head coach)
1 year, 2–9–0 (.182) | ||
The Long Beach State 49ers football team represented California State University, Long Beach from the 1955 through 1991 seasons. The 49ers originally competed as an Independent before joining the California Collegiate Athletic Association in 1958. By the 1969 season, the 49ers would join the Pacific Coast Athletic Association (now the Big West) as a founding member, where they remained until the program was suspended following the 1991 season. Long Beach played its home games at multiple stadiums throughout their history with the most recent being Veterans Memorial Stadium, in Long Beach, California. During their 37 years of competition, the 49ers compiled an all-time record of 199 wins, 183 losses and 4 ties.
Contents
History
The Long Beach State football team traces its roots to 1955 when looking to capitalize on the boosters for both USC and UCLA who resided in Long Beach, the 49ers program was established. The program would see modest success, culminating with conference titles following both the 1970 and 1971 seasons, including the 49ers lone bowl, the 1970 Pasadena Bowl. Between the 1977 and 1982 seasons, Long Beach played the majority of their home games at Anaheim Stadium prior to moving back to Veterans Memorial Stadium for the 1983 season. The 49ers would again win the PCAA championship following the 1980 season.
Following the only undefeated home schedule in the history of the program under George Allen for the 1990 season, Allen would pass away on December 31, 1990, leaving the future of the program in doubt. On December 10, 1991, University President Curtis McCray announced the 49ers football program would be disbanded immediately. Disbanding the football team was carried out due to financial shortfalls resulting from California's budget crisis, coupled with increased costs of operating the program and declining fan support.
Although the 49ers have not played a game since 1991, Long Beach is still the NCAA record holder in several categories. These records include: the most passes caught by a running back for both a single game and season with 18 and 99 respectively by Mark Templeton, during the 1986 season, and leading the nation in total offense with an average of 326.8 yards per game for the 1982 season.
Bring Back 49er Football
Student Efforts to revive a Division 1AA Football program began in April 2008 at CSULB. Jason Aula, Courtney Day, and Chris O'Brien were the student leaders that lead the campaign until the referendum that took place in March 2011. Bring Back 49er Football gathered 2,200 signatures well over the 5% needed to legally warrant a campus wide vote according to the ASI constitution. The signatures were submitted to the CSULB Dean of Students in December 2010. Thereafter the Dean of Students notified the ASI Executive Director that in fact a referendum would have to take place. The Referendum took place March 21-March 24 online, only current CSULB students were able to cast a vote on this matter. 3084 people voted total with 52% of the student body voting "no" and 48% voting "yes".