Football Wichita State Shockers

1 football

1.1 football team plane crash
1.2 bowl games
1.3 notable players
1.4 experimental game

football

wichita state university fielded football team 90 years before cut in 1986 due poor attendance, financial red ink, ncaa recruiting violations, , state of disrepair of cessna stadium. followed missouri valley conference ending sponsorship of football in 1985, left wichita , tulsa remaining @ division i-a level (now known fbs), rest of schools either dropped division i-aa (now fcs) or division ii. program saw great deal of success in years, after moving university division , joining missouri valley conference in 1947, program became known 1 of worst in nation, 3 of 15 coaches had on period posting winning records. nevertheless, wichita managed play in 3 bowl games. on jan. 1, 1948, lost in raisin bowl pacific. in december 1948, wichita played in camellia bowl, fell hardin–simmons. not participate in bowl game until 1961, when lost villanova in sun bowl. wichita state won 4 missouri valley conference football titles, in 1954, 1960, 1961, , 1963.

football team plane crash

on october 2, 1970, first, or gold plane (the twin plane second, or black, plane) carrying players , staff of wsu football team took off colorado airport after refueling, bound logan, utah game against utah state university. flew mountain valley narrow enable turn , smashed mountainside, killing 31 of 40 players, administrators , fans near ski resort 40 miles (64 km) away denver. president richard nixon sent president of university note read, our thoughts , prayers go out in time of sorrow.

bowl games

notable players

legendary nfl coach bill parcells linebacker @ wsu in 1962 , 1963 before serving graduate assistant in 1964. wichita state university first division i-a school hire black head coach in college football, willie jeffries in 1979. in 1978 place kicker joe williams tied university of arkansas all-american kicker steve little , university of texas kicker russell erxleben longest kick in ncaa history after kicking 67-yard field goal. record still stands today. defensive end jumpy geathers last wsu football player play in nfl , had longest nfl career. career spanned 1984–1996, playing new orleans saints, washington redskins, atlanta falcons, , denver broncos. won super bowl xxvi redskins.

experimental game

see 1905 washburn vs. fairmount football game

on december 25, 1905, washburn university played fairmount college (former name of wsu) in experimental game testing rule forcing offense earn first down in 3 plays instead of four. experiment considered failure.