Milwaukee Panthers football
| Milwaukee Panthers football | |
|---|---|
| First season | 1899 (Varsity) 2003 (Club) |
| Last season | 1974 (Varsity) Present (Club) |
| Head coach | Dave Mogensen |
| Stadium | Shorewood Stadium |
| Field surface | Field Turf |
| Location | Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
| Conference | National Club Football Association |
| Division | Great Lakes |
| Colors | Black and Gold |
| Fight song | UWM Fight Song |
| Mascot | Pounce the Panther |
| Marching band | Panther Band |
| Website | Official website |
The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee has had a varsity program that was terminated in 1974 and traces its lineage back to 1899. In 2003 football returned as a club status program, in 2013 the club joined the National Club Football Association.
Milwaukee Normal School, an early predecessor of UWM, fielded its first varsity football team in 1899. Clad in green and white, the team had no official nickname, but newspapers commonly referred to them as "Milwaukee Normals," This was a generic naming convention for normal colleges at the time, akin to "Aggies" for agricultural schools or "Miners" for mining schools. Other times they were simply referred to as "The Milwaukeeans."
An early football star for Milwaukee was Robert Zuppke. Known as "The Little Dutchman," during his days at Milwaukee, Zuppke would go on to his greatest fame as head coach at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, coaching them to four national titles. He is also credited for innovations such as the flea flicker and the huddle.
In 1913, Milwaukee along with seven other colleges, formed the Wisconsin Normal Conference; the original incarnation of what is now known as the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
In 1927, the Milwaukee Normal School became the Milwaukee State Teachers College and adopted its first official nickname, the "Green Gulls." The name was chosen because the students were often greeted by seagulls from nearby Lake Michigan as they returned to campus in the fall. They were also referred to as the "Peds," a common nickname for teachers colleges at the time.
Herman Kluge, an East Milwaukee native and former Green Gull football player who graduated from Milwaukee State in 1928, returned to his alma mater as head coach in 1931. That season, the Gulls captured their third straight undisputed conference championship, a feat not repeated in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference for 62 years (UW-La Crosse in 1991, 1992 and 1993). Under Kluge, Milwaukee State would also go on to capture titles in 1938, 1939, 1942, 1946, and 1947 for six of their eight total conference championships.
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Wikipedia