Throwback Thursday: Remembering Colorado State’s conferences of the past

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

There’s been a ton of talk about a conference move for your Colorado State Rams as of late. It isn’t even talk anymore, as CSU has already made its case to the Big 12 and the Big 12 has at least shown a willingness to flirt with the Rams. But, while it’s exciting to talk about the future (not to mention it creates lots of clicks and online debate), we thought on this “Throwback Thursday” we’d take a quick journey into the past at CSU’s conferences that were.

The football program for the then Colorado A&M Aggies started off in 1892 as an independent team. The program wasn’t active from 1895 to 1898, when the Aggies then found a home in the Colorado Football Association.

1898-1908: Colorado Football Association
The old Colorado Football Association was the program’s first home. Much of that 10-year stretch is lost to history, with even the full conference members being disputed online by different sources. Colorado School of Mines and Colorado largely dominated the conference’s 10-year stretch as the only two conference winners in that time, with Colorado College winning two championships at the start of the century and Denver University’s crown in 1908 before conference disbandment as the only exceptions.

The Aggies only winning record in this span (from what we can find) was in 1903, with a 6-1 overall record and a 1-1 split in conference play.

The other members of the conference, in the 10-year span the Aggies were part of it, were: The already mentioned Colorado Mines, CC, CU, and DU in addition to Utah, Utah State and Wyoming who all joined after 1902.

1909-1937: Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference
As the Colorado Football Association dissolved, Colorado A&M joined many of its former conference members to form a new conference, the then Colorado Faculty Athletic Conference. The CFAC’s original members were Colorado, Colorado College, Colorado School of Mines, and Colorado A&M. Shortly thereafter (in 1910) the Conference changed it’s named to the Rocky Mountain Faculty Athletic Conference (RMFAC) with the addition of Utah and Denver University. The conference kept the name until 1937 to finally change it to the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (the name that still stands today). The conference is still in existence and is the fifth oldest collegiate athletic conference, Colorado School of Mines is the one original member today.

The RMAC started much like the Colorado Football Association had with Mines, CC and CU ruling the way, with even DU and Utah stirring some feathers and winning some in the early going.

In 1915, the Aggies finally broke through in coach Harry Hughes fifth year at the helm, winning the conference championship and repeating in 1916. The 1915 squad is also the only team in school history to have gone undefeated and untied. With five conference titles from 1915 to 1927 and two more co-title winners in ’33 and ’34, Hughes lead the team to an unprecedented stretch of success and one that wouldn’t be replicated for many years later. While coach Sonny Lubick won six conference titles, he didn’t win them all in the same conference, making the RMAC the conference that CSU has experienced the most success in its history.

Current and old historic rivals would be added to the conference through the years like Utah State joining in 1914, Brigham Young in 1918 and Wyoming in 1921. By the end of the ’37 season, CU, CSU, DU, Utah, Utah St, BYU, and Wyoming all left the conference.

1938-1962: Mountain States Athletic Conference
The Mountain States Conference, also known as the Skyline Conference, was founded in 1938 with its original members being many of the same adversaries A&M had faced in its past groupings. With CU, DU, Utah St, CSU, BYU, Utah and Wyoming all starting off in the Mountain States at the same time. First to leave was CU who went on to join the Big Seven and eventually the Big Eight; this would be the last time CU and CSU would be intraconference rivals. The rest of the founding members would stay with CSU in the conference right up till 1962. From 1951 to 1962 two members were added in New Mexico and Montana. The conference fell apart in 1962 with some members chasing independence while others followed CSU into the WAC (only six years after the conference disbarred).

With Harry Hughes finishing his illustrious career in 1941 with an overall record of 126-92-18, the Aggies had huge shoes to fill and didn’t find anyone to reach Hughes standards. This lead to a rough 21-year stretch in which the Rams didn’t break through to win a conference crown until the 1955 team did so. Coach Bob Davis won his only title while with Colorado State that season, lead by All-American Gary Glick who was the star of the team and went on to be drafted first overall by the Pittsburgh Steelers that year (he remains the only defensive back taken that high).

1968-1998: Western Athletic Conference
The WAC is a conference that CSU joined and wasn’t a founding member of, unlike the previous conglomerates it had been a part of. The original members were Arizona, Arizona State, BYU, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. In 1968 after a brief period of independence CSU joined with the University of Texas El Paso (better known as UTEP). With the two Arizona teams abandoning the conference for a step up in the Pac-10 in 1978, three more members were added in the following years with Sand Diego State, Hawaii and Air Force all joining from 1978 to 1980.

Things changed around for the Rams in 1994, coach Sonny Lubick’s second season, leading them to the school’s first WAC title. A repeat was in order in 1995 with a third title to follow in 1997. Under Lubick, the Rams became one of the WAC’s premier teams with several Top 25 nominations in the last four years of the conference’s existence.

The conference expanded heavily from 1992 to 1996 adding Fresno State, UNLV, TCU, Rice, SMU, Tulsa and San Jose State in that span.

1999-Current: Mountain West Conference

In 1999, the Rams, with seven other members of the WAC, formed the Mountain West Conference, the conference the Rams still call home to this day. With CSU, the other founding members were Air Force, BYU, UNLV, New Mexico, Sand Diego State, Utah, and Wyoming.

In the conference’s first four years, three times the Rams either won or shared the title conference under Lubick. Since then, the Rams have yet to win another title.

Looking at this history, it won’t be easy to leave teams like Air Force, Utah State, and Wyoming that have been rivals of the Rams for incredibly large stretches of their football history. If CSU were to join the Big 12, that is.

The greatest lesson learned of all this Throwback Thursday is the importance of a great coach and how one can lead to unprecedented runs of success, much like Hughes and Lubick were able to do. Whether the Rams stay put or jump ship to a bigger conference is still unknown, but the importance of a great head man remains essential, however.