Emporia State Hornets football
| Emporia State Hornets football | |||
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| First season | 1893 | ||
| Athletic director | Kent Weiser | ||
| Head coach |
Garin Higgins 10th year, 64–52 (.552) |
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| Stadium | Francis G. Welch Stadium | ||
| Field | Jones Field | ||
| Year built | 1937 | ||
| Seating capacity | 10,000 | ||
| Field surface | Artificial | ||
| Location | Emporia, Kansas | ||
| NCAA division | Division II | ||
| Conference | MIAA | ||
| All-time record | 515–525–43 (.495) | ||
| Bowl record | 7–8 (.467) | ||
| Conference titles | 15 | ||
| Current uniform | |||
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| Colors | Black and Gold |
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| Fight song | Fight On, Emporia! | ||
| Mascot | Corky the Hornet | ||
| Marching band | Marching Hornets | ||
| Outfitter | Adidas | ||
| Rival | Washburn | ||
| Website | www.esuhornets.com | ||
The Emporia State Hornets football program is a college football team that represents Emporia State University, often referred to as "Emporia State" or "ESU". The team competes as a member of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA), which is a conference in the Division II of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The program began in 1897 and has fifteen conference titles. On December 15, 2006, former Hornet quarterback Garin Higgins became the team's 24th head coach, following the resignation of Dave Wiemers. Home games are played on Jones Field at Welch Stadium, located on the Emporia State University campus in Emporia, Kansas.
The most successful era for ESU football was from 1928 to 1954, when the program was coached by Fran Welch and posted an overall .578 winning percentage. From 1955 to 1982, the Hornets struggled to find success on the football field, as the team's overall winning percentage during that era slipped to .295 (74–182–8).
From 1983 through the 2013 season, ESU's winning percentage increased to .537 (182–157–0), and all five coaches at ESU during this era have either a winning record or a tied record. During the 2012 season, the Hornets competed in a postseason game for the first time since 2003 and placed second in the conference.
Until the 1930s, the Kansas State Normal/Kansas State Teachers College (now Emporia State University) didn't have an athletics nickname. In the early 1930s, the athletic teams were then known as the "Yaps". However, many people were not fond of the name, most notably legendary coach, Vic Trusler. Trusler suggested to a local writer, Cecil Carle of the Emporia Gazette, that the university's athletic teams should be called the "Yellow Jackets" but instead, the name was changed to "Hornets" due to the lack of newspaper space.
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