Timeline of college football in Kansas

Overview

College football in Kansas began in 1890 and has its roots in the formation of the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference. The first game was played on November 22 that year between Baker University and the University of Kansas. Games have been played in the state continuously every year ever since.

Timeline

Note: this timeline is incomplete. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

1890

February 15 – The Kansas Intercollegiate Athletic Association is formed.

November 22 – The first official intercollegiate football game in the state of Kansas is played in Baldwin City, between the University of Kansas and Baker University. Baker wins, 22–9.

1891

October 31 – The first playing of the "Border War" between Kansas and Missouri, in Kansas City, Missouri. Border War games are played Kansas City until 1911. In 1912, Kansas hosts the game for the first time in Lawrence.

1893

African American Ed Haney plays on the football team for the University of Kansas.

November 30 – Kansas State competes in its first football game, against St. Mary's College. The Manhattan Mercury reports afterward on its front page: "About 30 spectators and lovers of the game accompanied our college foot ball team to St. Marys on Thanksgiving day and witnessed the defeat of St. Marys' college team by a score of 18 to 10."

1902

October 4 – Kansas State and Kansas play the first game of their long rivalry, a 16–0 Jayhawk win.

1904

October 28 – Haskell College faces Carlisle at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, in front of a crowd of 12,000 people, in an early inter-sectional college football "championship" game.

1905

October 6 – Cooper College (Sterling) plays Fairmount (Wichita State) in a night game – the first night college football game west of the Mississippi River.

December 25 – Washburn and Fairmount play an "experimental" game to test new rules.

1908

November 26 – Kansas completes a 9–0 season and clinches the championship of the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the first major conference football title won by a state school. This was the last undefeated season for KU.

1911

November 25 – Over 1,000 people gather in downtown Lawrence to watch a live scale model reenactment of the Kansas Jayhawks game against Missouri. Game statistics were transmitted by telegraph.

1928

December 1 – The former Kansas Intercollegiate Athletic Conference disbanded to form the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference ("little six").

1939

October 28 – Kansas State's homecoming game against Nebraska is broadcast on W9XAK television. This is the first college football game broadcast in Kansas and the second anywhere in the nation.

1948

January 1 – Both Wichita State and Kansas play in bowl games on the same date – the first bowl appearances for any of the state's schools. Wichita State plays in the Raisin Bowl, while KU plays in the Orange Bowl. After the season ends, WSU's head coach Ralph Graham leaves to coach at his alma mater, Kansas State, which is at the time in the midst of an NCAA-record 28-game losing streak.

1949

September 24 – Harold Robinson plays his first game for Kansas State, breaking the modern "color barrier" in Big Eight Conference athletics, and also becoming the first ever African-American athlete on scholarship in the conference.

1951

September 14 – Head coach Harold Hunt of Southwestern gains national praise by rejecting a touchdown when he observes his ball carrier stepping out of bounds.

Former Washburn Ichabods and Bethany Swedes head coach Bennie Owen is inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Former Kansas head coach Fielding H. Yost is inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

1955

Former Haskell football head coach Matty Bell is inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

1957

December 21 – Pittsburg State wins its first NAIA national championship.

1961

Pittsburg State is voted the NCAA Division II national champion.

1966

Former Kansas State head coach Pappy Waldorf is voted in to the College Football Hall of Fame.

1970

October 2 – Approximately half of the Wichita State University football team dies in a plane crash on way to play a game against Utah State University.

December 1 – The first Boot Hill Bowl game is played.

1974

The College of Emporia closes, discontinuing its football program.

1978

Former Kansas State head coach Charlie Bachman is voted in to the College Football Hall of Fame.

1979

Willie Jeffries is named the head coach at Wichita State, the first African-American head coach of a NCAA Division-I program at a predominantly white school.

1980

November 20 – The first Sunflower Bowl is played.

November 21 – The final Boot Hill Bowl game is played.

1986

November 15 – The final Sunflower Bowl is played.

December 2 – Wichita State University discontinues its football program.

1992

Saint Mary of the Plains closes.

1995

October 28 – Kansas State and Kansas face each other as ranked football teams for the first time. KU comes into the game ranked #6 in the nation in the AP Poll, while KSU is ranked #14. KSU wins the game, 41–7.

The Wheat Bowl plays its first game.

1996

August 31 – Texas Tech plays at Kansas State in the first ever Big 12 Conference football game.

1998

November 9 – Kansas State rises to the #1 ranking in the Coaches Poll after improving to 9–0, the first time a state school is ranked first in the nation in the NCAA Division I college football polls.

2001

Former Kansas tackle/halfback and former head coach at Kansas, Washburn and Haskell John H. Outland is inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

2002

Former Wichita State head coach Marcelino Huerta is inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

2004

Charlie Richard, former head coach at Baker University, is inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame

2006

The final Wheat Bowl game is played.

2009

May 12 – The first Kanza Bowl is played

2010

Former Bethany Swedes head coach Ted Kessinger is inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, the second Hall of Fame coach from the small school in Lindsborg.

Former Wichita State head coach Willie Jeffries is inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

2012

November 15 – The final Kanza Bowl is played.

Former Haskell head coach William Henry Dietz is inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

2015

January 9, 2015 - Kansas State head coach Bill Snyder is inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame

May 22, 2015 - Haskell University suspends football for the 2015 season.