The Cal State Fullerton Titans football program represented
California State University, Fullerton
California State University, Fullerton (CSUF or Cal State Fullerton) is a public university in Fullerton, California. With a total enrollment of more than 41,000, it has the largest student body of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) ...
from the
1970 through
1992 seasons. The Titans originally competed as a member of the
California Collegiate Athletic Association
The California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. All of its current members are public universities, and upon U ...
from 1970 to 1973 before moving to the
Pacific Coast Athletic Association
The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacific ...
(now the Big West) in 1974 where they remained through the
1991 season
File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, 1991 Russian presidential election, elected as Russia's first President of Russia, president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated ...
. The Titans would compete in their final year as an
I-A Independent prior to the program being disbanded. Fullerton played its home games at multiple stadiums throughout their history with the most recent being
Titan Stadium, in
Fullerton,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
.
History
Early history and success (1969–1984)
The
CSUF Titans football team traces its roots to 1969 when in May, former
USC assistant coach
Dick Coury
Richard P. Coury (September 29, 1929 – August 15, 2020) was an American football coach. He served as head football coach at California State University, Fullerton from 1970 to 1971, compiling a record of 13–8–1. Coury was also the head co ...
was hired as the program's first head coach.
The team would win their inaugural game against
Cal Poly Pomona
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona, CPP, or Cal Poly"Cal Poly" may also refer to California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in San Luis Obispo. See the ''name'' section of this article for more infor ...
by a score of 31–0 on September 19, 1970, and play to a 0–0 tie in their inaugural home game against
Cal Lutheran at
Anaheim Stadium
Angel Stadium of Anaheim is a baseball stadium located in Anaheim, California. Since its opening in 1966, it has served as the home ballpark of the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB), and was also the home stadium to the Los Angel ...
.
Following moderate success in the inaugural 1970 season with a record of 6–4–1, the 1971 season opened with a home game at
Santa Ana Stadium
Santa Ana Stadium, also known as Eddie West Field or the Santa Ana Bowl, is a city-owned and operated 9,000-capacity American football and soccer stadium located in downtown Santa Ana. The field was named after Eddie West, a writer for the Ora ...
versus
Southern Utah State with the rest of their home games played at Anaheim Stadium except for a matchup against the
Grambling State University Tigers played before their largest ever home crowd of 60,415 at the
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Just two weeks prior to the Grambling game, tragedy struck the program when a plane crash on November 13, 1971, resulted in the deaths of three Titan assistant coaches: Joe O'Hara, Dallas Moon and Bill Hannah.
Entering the 1972 season,
Pete Yoder
Peter Lampman Yoder (March 5, 1940 – January 30, 2006) was an American football coach. He served as a running backs coach at the University of Southern California (USC) under John McKay before accepting the head coaching position at California ...
started the season as the program's second all-time head coach and the team moved all home games from Anaheim Stadium to
Santa Ana Stadium
Santa Ana Stadium, also known as Eddie West Field or the Santa Ana Bowl, is a city-owned and operated 9,000-capacity American football and soccer stadium located in downtown Santa Ana. The field was named after Eddie West, a writer for the Ora ...
. After completing a pair of 7–4 seasons, the Titans would suffer their first losing season following a 4–7 campaign in the 1974 season.
It was during this year that Fullerton would make the move from the
California Collegiate Athletic Association
The California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. All of its current members are public universities, and upon U ...
into the
Pacific Coast Athletic Association
The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacific ...
(now the Big West).
For the 1975 season, Fullerton would hire former
Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...
assistant coach
Jim Colletto
Jim Colletto (born October 4, 1944) is a former American football player and coach. He attended Monterey High School (1958–1962) where he was an all conference baseball and football player and starter on the varsity basketball team. At UCLA Col ...
, as the third head coach in program history and the following season in 1976, the team moved their home games to
Falcon Stadium
Falcon Stadium is an outdoor football stadium in the western United States, on the campus of the U.S. Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs, Colorado. It is the home field of the Air Force Falcons of the Mountain West Conference, and also hold ...
at
Cerritos College
Cerritos College is a public community college in Norwalk, California. It offers degrees and certificates in 87 areas of study in nine divisions.
History
The college was founded in 1955. It was named after Rancho Los Cerritos, a local ra ...
. During the Colletto era, the Titans would not have a winning season, with the lone bright spot of his tenure coming in 1978 with
Obie Graves
Obie Graves is a former Citrus College and Cal State Fullerton football player, who played three seasons in the Canadian Football League.
Football career
While at Monrovia High School, he played for the football time in the halfback position fr ...
rushing for 1,789 total yards including 291-yards in a 34–9 upset of
Long Beach State.
Colletto would resign from his position following the 1979 season with
Gene Murphy being announced as the program's fourth all-time head coach on December 16, 1979.
Entering Murphy's first season in 1980, the Titans would move their home games to an on-campus stadium,
Titan Field
The Cal State Fullerton Titans baseball team represents California State University, Fullerton in NCAA Division I college baseball.
Along with the other CSUF athletic teams, the baseball team participates in the Big West Conference. Since its e ...
, and continue to not see success on the field with losing seasons from the 1980 through the 1982 seasons.
For the 1983 season, Fullerton split their home games between
Anaheim Stadium
Angel Stadium of Anaheim is a baseball stadium located in Anaheim, California. Since its opening in 1966, it has served as the home ballpark of the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB), and was also the home stadium to the Los Angel ...
and
Glover Stadium, while the team played in the 1983
California Bowl
The California Bowl (later the California Raisin Bowl) was a post-season college football bowl game played annually at Bulldog Stadium in Fresno, California, from 1981 to 1991. The game featured the champions of the Big West Conference (known p ...
after winning their first conference championship.
The Titans would build upon their successes in finishing the 1984 season again as conference champion with a record of 11–1, while moving home games back to
Santa Ana Stadium
Santa Ana Stadium, also known as Eddie West Field or the Santa Ana Bowl, is a city-owned and operated 9,000-capacity American football and soccer stadium located in downtown Santa Ana. The field was named after Eddie West, a writer for the Ora ...
. Following the season, Murphy was named UPI West Coast Coach of the Year and the Titans would finish in the final top 20 UPI poll.
Decline and cancellation (1985–1992)
The Titans would never again reach the highs of the 1984 season and would embark on a steady decline through the late 1980s and into the early 1990s.
By the late 1980s, the program was in financial trouble. The team played the 1992 season at on-campus
Titan Stadium, but during that year, the Fullerton Academic Senate voted 24–7 to recommend disbanding the program. That decision was halted by then-university president Milton A. Gordon on December 7, 1992 and Fullerton announced that it would suspend the program effective immediately for one year, with the intention of returning to play at the
Division I-AA
The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the Football Bowl Subdivision. Sponsored by the National Collegiate Athleti ...
level for the 1994 season.
However, citing budget restraints, Cal State Fullerton decided in February 1994 against bringing back football.
Efforts to reinstate football
By 1995, the notion of resurrecting the program began to take shape. In fall 1995, the Fullerton Students Athletic Advisory Committee asked the student body in an election if they supported Titan football. At that time, 89 percent of respondents voted favorably for the reinstatement of football.
Cal State Fullerton alumni established the organization Bring Back Titan Football in 2007 to advocate the return of the football program. In 2008, Cal State Fullerton established a task force exploring the feasibility of bringing back football.
NCAA records
Although the Titans have not played a game since 1992, Fullerton is still the NCAA record holder in several categories. These records include: both most fumbles and most fumbles lost for a single season with 73 and 41 respectively during the 1992 season;
[Fumbles](_blank)
"Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Records," NCAA, July 2008. p. 27. Accessed 2008-12-11 the most kickoff returns per game with an average of 7.3 per game for the 1990 season;
[Kickoff Returns](_blank)
"Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Records," NCAA, July 2008. p. 27. Accessed 2008-12-11 the 10th highest number of rushing yards in a single game with 357 by Mike Pringle on November 4, 1989, against New Mexico State;
[Rushing – Single Game Yards](_blank)
"Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Records," NCAA, July 2008. p. 34. Accessed 2008-12-11 and being part of the fourth highest combined score in a tied game with their 41–41 contest against
San Diego State
San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...
on September 23, 1989.
[Highest-Scoring Tie Games](_blank)
"Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Records," NCAA, July 2008. p. 128. Accessed 2008-12-11
Conference championships
Cal State Fullerton won two conference championships during their tenure as a football program. Both of these seasons had their record amended due to violations from
UNLV
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes th ...
that resulted in Cal State Fullerton gaining a win for both the 1983 and 1984 seasons. Due to this, the team went undefeated in conference play for both seasons.
Head coaches
Cal State Fullerton had four head coaches during their 23 seasons as a college football program.
Records
Seasons
Bowl games
Cal State Fullerton participated in two bowl games. They had a bowl record of 1–1, although only the first counted under NCAA standards.
Titans in the Pros
In the NFL
California State University, Fullerton has 22 alumni that have played 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 ...
.
In the CFL
In addition to the players that competed in the NFL, there have been several former Titans that have had significant careers in the
Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...
. The three players of note include:
Mike Pringle who is the league's all-time leading rusher,
Damon Allen
Damon L. Allen (born July 29, 1963) is a former professional quarterback who played in the Canadian Football League (CFL). He is currently fourth in all-time professional football passing yards and second in all-time CFL passing yards after he ...
, the league's second all-time leading passer and former
all-time pro football passing leader with 72,381 passing yards,
and
Allen Pitts
Allen Pitts (born June 28, 1964) is a former receiver for the Calgary Stampeders in the Canadian Football League from 1990 to 2000. He attended Cal-State Fullerton and played his entire professional career as a receiver for the Calgary Stampeders. ...
, the league's all-time leading receiver until 2008 when he was surpassed by
Milt Stegall
Milton Eugene Stegall (born January 25, 1970) is a former professional gridiron football player who played 17 years of professional football, three years in the National Football League with the Cincinnati Bengals and 14 years in the Canadian Foo ...
.
Amazingly, during the period between 2006 and 2008, the CFL all-time leaders in passing, rushing and receiving yardage were simultaneously former Cal State Fullerton Titans.
In the Arena Football League
*
Quinton Knight
Quinton Knight (born October 28, 1963) is a former American football lineman who played seven seasons in the Arena Football League with the New York Knights, Denver Dynamite, Orlando Predators, Detroit Drive, Massachusetts Marauders and Miami ...
, three time First Team
All-Arena selection
Stadiums
*
Anaheim Stadium
Angel Stadium of Anaheim is a baseball stadium located in Anaheim, California. Since its opening in 1966, it has served as the home ballpark of the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB), and was also the home stadium to the Los Angel ...
(1970–1971, 1983)
*
Santa Ana Stadium
Santa Ana Stadium, also known as Eddie West Field or the Santa Ana Bowl, is a city-owned and operated 9,000-capacity American football and soccer stadium located in downtown Santa Ana. The field was named after Eddie West, a writer for the Ora ...
(1971–1975, 1984–1991)
*
Falcon Stadium
Falcon Stadium is an outdoor football stadium in the western United States, on the campus of the U.S. Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs, Colorado. It is the home field of the Air Force Falcons of the Mountain West Conference, and also hold ...
(1976–1979)
*
Titan Field
The Cal State Fullerton Titans baseball team represents California State University, Fullerton in NCAA Division I college baseball.
Along with the other CSUF athletic teams, the baseball team participates in the Big West Conference. Since its e ...
(1980–1982)
*
Glover Stadium (1983)
*
Titan Stadium (1992)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cal State Fullerton Titans Football
American football teams established in 1970
American football teams disestablished in 1992
1970 establishments in California
1992 disestablishments in California