The 1978 Colorado Buffaloes football team represented the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...

in the

Big Eight Conference The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Associatio ...

during the

1978 NCAA Division I-A football season The 1978 NCAA Division I-A football season was the first season of Division I-A college football; Division I-A was created in 1978 when Division I was subdivided into Division I-A and Division I-AA for football only. With the exception of seven ...

. Led by fifth-year head coach

Bill Mallory William Guy Mallory (May 30, 1935 – May 25, 2018) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Miami University (1969–1973), the University of Colorado at Boulder (1974–1978), Northern Illinois Universi ...

, the Buffaloes compiled an overall record of 6–5 with a mark of 2–5 in conference play, placing seventh in the Big 8. Colorado played home games on campus at

Folsom Field Folsom Field is an outdoor college football stadium in the western United States, located on the campus of the University of Colorado in Boulder. It is the home field of the Colorado Buffaloes of the Pac-12 Conference. Opened in 1924, the ...

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a home rule city that is the county seat and most populous municipality of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th most populous city in Color ...

. Colorado again won its first five games, all at home, but then lost five of six and Mallory was fired on November 21 by athletic director

Eddie Crowder Eddie Crowder (August 26, 1931 – September 9, 2008) was an American football player and coach. He was an All-American quarterback (QB) and safety at the University of Oklahoma (OU) in the early 1950s and a successful head coach and athletic dir ...

, the previous head coach. Mallory was succeeded by

Chuck Fairbanks Charles Leo Fairbanks (June 10, 1933 – April 2, 2013) was a football coach who was a head coach at the high school, college and professional levels. He served as the head coach at the University of Oklahoma from 1967 to 1972 and at the Universi ...

, the head coach of the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) for six years and formerly at conference foe

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

. Colorado did not have a winning season until

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

Schedule

References

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

Colorado Buffaloes football seasons Colorado Buffaloes football {{Colorado-sport-team-stub