Brigham Young State University in Provo, Utah is represented by the Cougars in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. Teams included in this Division play in the Mountain West Conference. The Cougars have bagged 23 of these conferences. In addition the team has played in 28 various bowl events. The national championship in football was conceded to the team in 1984

Football did not get a foothold in Brigham until 1922. Previous to that, the school had introduced football in 1896 but the game was soon forgotten. In 1922, the school tried to revive the sport but its team did not make any significant progress or achievements. The change came when, in 1928, the school hired Mr. G. Ott Romney to coach the team. Under his coaching the team experienced its first small successes.

Briefly, in the period preceding World War II, the first significant achievements of the team were made. In that period, they attained to some prominence in the sporting world. In 1932, the Cougars scored a total of 188-50. Ten years after, they managed to defeat the University of Utah after a long succession of losses.. The match was a close one at 12-7.

The team had its first consecutive (back-to-back) victories in their division in 1957 and 1958. Their successes brought enthusiasm and community support with it and the home stadium was finished in 1964 with a seating capacity of 30,000. The team was honored with its first All-American player in 1961. The player was Eldon “The Phantom” Fortie, a running back.

1965 was a major turning point in the career of the team. That was the year that team garnered its first conference championship under the coaching skills of Tommy Hudspeth. Three more winning seasons were in store for the team before Hudspeth retired.

It was coach Lavell Edwards who brought the Cougars to the top of the roster. During his stint, the team experienced winning streaks in the Western Athletic Conferences which lasted from 1978 to 1985. In that same interval of time, however, they had their first losses in bowl events.

The team’s reputation continued on the increase until in 1996 it was able to come up with the best team it ever had. Shortly after that Coach Edwards retired. From 2001 to 2004, the team experienced many setbacks prompting the new coach to resign his post.

Despite their partial recovery from the slump in their performance from 2001 – 2004, the Cougars have not regained the effectiveness they had with coach Edwards. However, they have made considerable improvement as witnessed by their performance in the last years.

Among the many awards that the team has gathered in the course of its career are the National Championship Award, the Doak Walker Award, the Outland Award, the College Football Performance Award and the Heisman Trophy. The work of Lavell Edwards has also been recognized. In this regard, the team received trophies for that distinction.

Their current performance strongly indicates that the team has a very good chance of repeating their dominance of the game.

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