The early years BYU Cougars football

the school s first football team won regional championship in 1896.

byu traces football roots late 19th century. benjamin cluff became third principal of brigham young academy (the precursor byu) in 1892 (the school converted university in 1903) , influenced collegiate studies @ university of michigan bring athletic competition brigham young. first byu football team in 1896 played university of utah (winning 12–4), elks, crescents, ymca of salt lake city, wheel club of denver, , westminster college; , won championship. in second year of competition, bya football team won championship too, result of accidental football-related death in utah in 1900, football banned lds church schools until 1919.

after twenty-year ban on football, sport brought byu on intramural basis in 1919, , intercollegiate games resumed in 1920 under coach alvin twitchell. byu admitted rocky mountain conference in 1921 , had first winning year in 1929 under helm of coach g. ott romney, byu recruited montana state university year before. romney , successor eddie kimball ushered in new era in cougar football in team went 65–51–12 between 1928–1942. in 1932, cougars posted 8–1 record , outscored opponents 188–50, remains 1 of school s finest seasons on record. university did not field team 1943–1945 due world war ii, , in 1949 suffered winless season, going 0–11.

the team began rebuild in mid-1950s, recruiting university of rhode island head coach hal kopp lead cougars, whom achieved back-to-back winning seasons in 1957 , 1958, led southpaw quarterback jared stephens , nose tackle gavin anae. in 1961, eldon phantom fortie became school s first all-american, , in 1962, byu moved western athletic conference. in 1964, cougar stadium built, included capacity of 30,000, , in 1965, head coach tommy hudspeth led cougars first conference championship record of 6–4.