BuffsPedia™ - The University of Colorado Buffaloes Encyclopedia

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University of Colorado Athletics - "Buffs" - "Buffaloes":
The University of Colorado at Boulder sponsors 16 varsity sports teams. Both men's and women's team are called the Buffaloes (Buffs for short) or Golden Buffaloes (acceptable, but rare). "Lady Buffs" referred to the women's teams beginning in the 1970s, but was officially dropped in 1993. The nickname was selected by the campus newspaper in a contest with a US$5 prize in 1934 won by Andrew Dickson of Boulder, Colorado. They participate in the NCAA's Division I (I-FBS in football), in the North Division of the Big 12 Conference. The University's current athletic director is Mike Bohn (since April 13, 2005). Colorado has won 22 National Championships in its history, with most in skiing. It was ranked #14 of "America's Best Sports College" in a 2002 analysis performed by Sports Illustrated. In June 2007, the Buffaloes were placed under probation for two years and fined $100,000 for undercharging 133 student-athletes for meals over a six year span (2000-01 to 2005-06) resulting in the major infraction. The football program, with 86 of the 133 student-athletes involved, also lost one scholarship for the next three seasons.

Football:
Football was introduced to the Boulder campus in 1890. Early games, which bore more resemblance to rugby than modern American football, were played against the School of Mines and Utah. The football stadium, originally named Colorado Stadium, was officially named Folsom Field in November 1944 to honor Coach Fred Folsom, one of the most respected college football coaches of his day.

In 1934 the University teams were officially nicknamed the Buffaloes. Previous nicknames used by the press included the “Silver Helmets” and “Frontiersmen.” The final game of 1934, against the University of Denver, saw also the first running of a bison in a Colorado football game. A bison calf was rented from a local ranch and ran along the sidelines.

The year 1947 marked key point in race relations on campus. In this year, the Buffaloes joined the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association, commonly know as the Big Six, then to be known as the Big Seven, and later the Big Eight. However, Missouri and Oklahoma had rules which would have allowed them to challenge teams with “colored” players. A student outcry, led by campus paper Silver and Gold, led to a movement against these Jim Crow restrictions which expanded to all the campuses of the Big 7 and eventually lead to their repeal.

Varsity Sports:
The University of Colorado was a member of the Colorado Football Association in 1893. Next, they became a charter member of the Colorado Faculty Athletic Conference in 1909 which changed its name a year later to Rocky Mountain Faculty Athletic Conference (RMFAC). Colorado left the RMFAC to become a charter member of the Mountain States Conference aka (Skyline Conference) in 1938. They then joined the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association, commonly know as the Big Six, in 1947 changing the common name to the Big Seven. In 1958 it became the Big Eight Conference. It remained the Big 8 until 1996 when four more universities were added to the conference and created the Big 12 Conference.

Men's Sports:
Basketball
Cross Country
Football
Golf
Skiing
Track and Field (Indoor)
Track and Field (Outdoor)

Women's Sports:
Basketball
Cross Country
Golf
Skiing
Soccer
Tennis
Track and Field (Indoor)
Track and Field (Outdoor)
Volleyball

Football:
The Colorado Buffaloes football team represents the University of Colorado at Boulder in the Big 12 Conference at the NCAA Division I-A level in college football. Dan Hawkins has been the head coach since the 2006 season. The football team has played at Folsom Field since 1923. The Buffs all-time record is 658-419-36 (.608 winning percentage) through the finish of the 2007 season. The football program is 16th on the all-time win list and 22nd in all-time winning percentage.

Men's Basketball:
The Colorado Buffaloes men's basketball team represents the University of Colorado at Boulder in the North Division of the Big 12 Conference in the NCAA Division I. The men's head basketball coach is Jeff Bzdelik.

The Buffaloes have competed in ten NCAA Tournaments,[1] making it to the Final Four once (1955). Colorado has played in eight National Invitation Tournaments, winning the tournament in 1940 and making the semi-finals in 1991.

Skiing:
The Ski team competes as a member of the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association as the Big 12 does not sponsor skiing. Colorado is one of the dominant programs in the NCAA in skiing winning 16 National Championships, most recently in 2006, and is always nationally ranked and the only Big 12 school to win. Having the Rocky Mountains in your backyard doesn't seem to hurt, along with the world-class ski resorts.

Cross Country:
Being at such a high altitude helps the runners in training. Colorado has won three NCAA Men's Cross Country Championships (2001, 2004, and 2006) and two NCAA Women's Cross Country Championships (2000 and 2004). The men's team also has won three individual titles (Adam Goucher, Jorge Torres, and Dathan Ritzenhein), while the women's side has won one (Kara Goucher). The men have also won all 12 Big 12 Conference Titles in the Conference's history. The women have won 11 of the 12 Conference Championships (all but 1998-99).

Traditions:
The University has had several fight songs that have lost and gained popularity over the years. The oldest, "Glory Colorado", is sung to the tune of "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and has been around nearly as long as the school. Glory Colorado is considered to represent all campuses of the University. "Go Colorado" was originally sung exclusively by the Glee Club at football games, though it is now played and known almost exclusively by members of the Golden Buffalo Marching Band. The most popular of the three fight songs and the most widely recognized is "Fight CU." Originally sung by the football team, the song has gained enough popularity that few people outside the band know that it is not the only fight song of the university. The original version included the line "fight, fight for every yard" but the line was changed to "fight, fight for victory" to allow the song to be used for all sports, not just football.

"Ralphie" - School Mascot:
The Mascot present at all football games is the Ralphie, a live buffalo, and Chip, a costumed mascot who was selected to the 2003 Capital One All-America Mascot Team. Ralphie is actually Ralphie V and leads the football team onto the field at the beginning of the first and second halves. The tradition begin in 1934 after the selection of Buffaloes as a nickname when a group of student paid $25 to rent a buffalo calf and cowboy as his keeper for the last game of the season. The calf was the son of Killer, a famed bison at Trails End Ranch in Fort Collins, CO. It took the cowboy and four students to keep the calf under control on the sidelines, a 7-0 win at the University of Denver on Thanksgiving Day.

Colors:
The official school colors are silver and gold, adopted in 1888 as a symbol of the mineral wealth of the state. In 1959, the athletic teams started using black and yellow because silver and gold ended up looking like dirty white and dirty yellow. The colors have stuck and most people don't even know the school colors are silver and gold.

On May 28, 1981, black was curiously replaced by "Sky Blue" by a mandate of the CU Board of Regents, to represent the color of the Colorado sky. However, this color was different than the blue uniforms of the U.S. Air Force Academy. After three years, the blue was changed in 1984 to a darker shade, though still unpopular. In black and white photographs the players' numbers are nearly invisible. During a difficult 1-10 season, football head coach Bill McCartney employed black "throwback" jerseys for an emotional lift for the games against Oklahoma and Nebraska, without success.

In April 1985, the CU athletic teams were given the option of blue or black. The football team chose to wear black, and at Folsom Field the background for the signature "Colorado" arc (at the base of the seats behind the south end zone), blue for four years, was repainted black as well. On the football uniforms, the blue was reduced to a stripe on the sleeve for three seasons (1985-87) before being dropped completely in 1988. In 2007, CU debuted new football jerseys that reintegrated silver as a uniform color.

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