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Houston Cougars football

Houston Cougars
2016 Houston Cougars football team
Houston Cougars logo.svg
First season 1946
Athletic director Hunter Yurachek
Head coach Major Applewhite
1st year, 0–1 (.000)
Stadium TDECU Stadium
Year built 2014
Seating capacity 40,000
Field surface Artificial
Location Houston, Texas
NCAA division Division I FBS
Conference The American
Division West
Past conferences C-USA
(1996–2012)
Southwest
(1976–1995)
I-A Independent
(1960–1975)
Missouri Valley
(1951–1959)
Gulf Coast
(1949–1950)
Lone Star
(1946–1948)
All-time record 426–356–15 (.544)
Bowl record 11–13–1 (.460)
Conference titles Missouri Valley: 4
Southwest: 4
Conference USA: 2
American: 1
Heisman winners 1
Consensus All-Americans 7
Colors Scarlet and Albino
         
Fight song Cougar Fight Song
Mascot Shasta
Marching band Spirit of Houston
Rivals Rice Owls
SMU Mustangs
Historic:
Texas Longhorns
Texas A&M Aggies
Website UHCougars.com

The Houston Cougars football program is an NCAA Division I FBS football team that represents the University of Houston. The team is commonly referred to as "Houston" or "UH" (spoken as "U of H"). The UH football program is a member of the American Athletic Conference West Division. Since the 2014 season, the Cougars have played their home games on campus at TDECU Stadium, which was built on the site formerly occupied by Robertson Stadium, where they played home games from 1941 to 1950 and from 1997 to 2012. Over the history of the program, the Cougars have won eleven conference championships and have had several players elected to the College Football Hall of Fame, including a Heisman Trophy winner.

In 1941, Johnny Goyen, then sports editor for The Cougar, and Jack Valenti, president of the sophomore class, began a petition for an official intercollegiate football team at the university. The next year, the two called a student body meeting to organize another petition. This petition's purpose was to challenge Rice Institute (later known as Rice University) to a football game. The Rice Owls were an established program, having played since 1919 as a member of the Southwest Conference.

In August 1945, the University of Houston announced that the school would field a football team for the first time. Following the announcement, the Lone Star Conference, spearheaded by Theron J. Fouts of North Texas and Puny Wilson of Sam Houston State, extended an invitation for Houston to join on October 25, 1945.


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