The Southwestern Moundbuilders football team represents Southwestern College in

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Conference affiliations

History

The team began in 1903 with 9 wins, 5 losses, and 1 tie under coach J. J. Thiel. Since then the Builders have posted three undefeated seasons: 1913, 1918, and 1967. There has never been a season of Southwestern College Football without at least one victory.

Coaches

:''See also List of Southwestern College Moundbuilders head football coaches'' The current head football coach is Brad Griffin, who took over the program in 2015. Griffin was the defensive coordinator for eleven seasons with William Penn University prior to his arrival to Southwestern College. Other coaches during the program's history include

Art Kahler Arthur Daniel Kahler Sr. (December 27, 1897 – April 23, 1982) was an American college football and basketball player and coach. He was listed in "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" as only person to coach at two different major colleges at the same t ...

, Harold Elliott, and

Dennis Franchione Dennis Wayne Franchione (born March 28, 1951), also known as Coach Fran, is a retired American football coach. He is the former head football coach at Texas State University, a position he held from 1990 to 1991, when the school w ...

Conference championships

Southwestern football teams have won the

Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference The Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). The KCAC is the oldest conference in the NAIA and the second oldest in the United Stat ...

eleven times since 1929: 1964, 1967, 1968, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2021. They also were declared the Kansas State Champions in 1913.

Post-season and bowl games

Southwestern has participated in 4

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

s with an overall record of 2 wins and 2 losses. The team has also advanced to the

NAIA Football National Championship The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Football National Championship is decided by a post-season playoff system featuring the best NAIA college football teams in the United States. Under sponsorship of the National Associa ...

five times, with a record of 2 wins and 5 losses. The Moundbuilder's total post-season record is 4 wins and 7 losses in 11 post-season games. In 1982, head coach

led the Moundbuilders to 9 wins and 2 losses, with a conference championship and a win in the Sunflower Bowl.

Charlie Cowdrey Charles E. Cowdrey (November 16, 1933 – January 18, 2011) was an American football coach. Cowdrey served as a head high school coach for nine years, head coach at Fort Scott Community College for three years, assistant coach at University of Mi ...

followed up the next year with an appearance in the Sunflower bowl, and then again in 1985. 1984 was the first year that Southwestern qualified for the

. The first round the team defeated conference rival

Bethel Bethel ( he, בֵּית אֵל, translit=Bēṯ 'Ēl, "House of El" or "House of God",Bleeker and Widegren, 1988, p. 257. also transliterated ''Beth El'', ''Beth-El'', ''Beit El''; el, Βαιθήλ; la, Bethel) was an ancient Israelite sanct ...

17–14, but then lost to Northwestern College by a score of 45-23. 1996 saw Southwestern post its second bowl victory in the

Wheat Bowl The Wheat Bowl was the only National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics endorsed pre-season bowl game that operated from 1995 until 2006. The Wheat Bowl Football Classic was headquartered in the Central Kansas town of Ellinwood and was play ...

, defeating

Baker University Baker University is a private university in Baldwin City, Kansas. Founded in 1858, it was the first four-year university in Kansas and is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Baker University is made up of four schools. The College of Art ...

28-20 under head coach

Monty Lewis Monty Lewis (born January 2, 1963) is an American football coach. Is the head football coach at Winfield High School in Winfield, KS. Lewis served as the head football coach at Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas from 1993 to 2001 and F ...

. After the 1997 regular season, the team played in the National Championship, losing 53–28 to

Doane College Doane University is a private university in Crete, Nebraska. It has additional campuses in Lincoln and Omaha, as well as online programs. History Doane College was founded on July 11, 1872, by Thomas Doane, chief civil engineer for the Burling ...

. It was in 1998 when Southwestern saw some post-season success once again and advanced to the quarterfinals of the

. The Moundbuilders defeated the

Lindenwood Lions The Lindenwood Lions and Lady Lions are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Lindenwood University, located in St. Charles, Missouri, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the NCAA Division I ranks, primarily competing in the ...

12–10 in the first round and then lost 52–6 to Si Tanka (SD). For the 1999 NAIA Football National Championship, the team lost in the first round to Northwestern Oklahoma State by a score of 44–10.

References

{{Southwestern Moundbuilders football navbox