The Southern Utah Thunderbirds football (also referred to as the SUU Thunderbirds) program is a

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 ...

team that represents

Southern Utah University Southern Utah University (SUU) is a public university in Cedar City, Utah. Founded in 1897 as a normal school, Southern Utah University now graduates over 1,800 students each year with baccalaureate and graduate degrees from its six colleges. ...

(SUU). With a history dating back to 1963, SUU currently competes in the

NCAA Football Championship Subdivision NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athleti ...

as a member of the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington (state), Washington, and Texa ...

. The Thunderbirds play their home games on campus at

Eccles Coliseum Eccles Coliseum is an 8,500-seat multi-purpose stadium in the western United States, on the campus of Southern Utah University the home venue of the Southern Utah Thunderbirds football team of the United Athletic Conference and track and field ...

Cedar City, Utah Cedar City is the largest city in Iron County, Utah, United States. It is located south of Salt Lake City, and north of Las Vegas on Interstate 15. It is the home of Southern Utah University, the Utah Shakespeare Festival, the Utah Summer Gam ...

, and have been led by head coach

DeLane Fitzgerald DeLane Fitzgerald is an American football coach and former player. He is the head football coach at Southern Utah University, a position he has held since 2022. Fitzgerald served as the head football coach at Frostburg State University from 2014 t ...

History

Southern Utah fielded their inaugural team in

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cov ...

with Bruce Osborne as head coach, remained an NAIA

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

through

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – "Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * Januar ...

, then became a charter member of the

Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC), commonly known as the Rocky Mountain Conference (RMC) from approximately 1910 through the late 1960s, is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (N ...

(RMAC). The Thunderbirds were members of the RMAC from 1969 to 1985, with an overall record of during After 1985, Southern Utah moved up to and joined the

Western Football Conference Western Football Conference may refer to: * Canadian Football League West Division, one of the two regional divisions of the Canadian Football League * Western Football Conference (United States) The Western Football Conference was an NCAA Divisi ...

While in the WFC from 1986 to 1992, the Thunderbirds' overall record was In 1993, Southern Utah moved up to and joined the

American West Conference The American West Conference (AWC) was a college athletic conference in the United States from 1993 to 1996. It consisted of schools in California and Utah. The charter members of the conference were California Polytechnic State University; ...

(AWC) as a The AWC folded after the 1995 season, and the Thunderbirds were overall in those three years. They were an

for then became a charter conference member again in 2004 with the

Great West Conference The Great West Conference (GWC) was an NCAA college athletic conference in the continental United States. Originally a football-only league, it became an all-sports entity during the 2008–09 season. The GWC stopped sponsoring football followin ...

(GWC). In November 2010, Southern Utah announced their admission to the

Big Sky Conference The Big Sky Conference (BSC) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I with football competing in the Football Championship Subdivision. Member institutions are located in the western United States in the eigh ...

, effective The Thunderbirds won their first Big Sky championship in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

, defeating

Northern Arizona Northern Arizona is an unofficial, colloquially-defined region of the U.S. state of Arizona. Generally consisting of Apache, Coconino, Mohave, Navajo, and Gila counties, the region is geographically dominated by the Colorado Plateau, the sout ...

in the regular season finale at Cedar City. They had an regular season, with losses to

Utah State Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public land-grant research university in Logan, Utah. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. With nearly 20,000 students living on or near campus, USU is Utah's ...

South Dakota State South Dakota State University is a public land-grant research university in Brookings, South Dakota. Founded in 1881, it is the state's largest and most comprehensive university and the oldest continually-operating university in South Dakota. The ...

, and

Portland State Portland State University (PSU) is a public research university in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1946 as a post-secondary educational institution for World War II veterans. It evolved into a four-year college over the following two decades ...

; their eight wins were by mostly large margins. With the success, head coach

Ed Lamb Claude Edward Lamb III (born March 4, 1974) is an American college football coach and former player. In December 2022, he was named as the head football coach at the University of Northern Colorado. Lamb served as the head football coach at South ...

joined the staff at

Brigham Young Brigham Young (; June 1, 1801August 29, 1877) was an American religious leader and politician. He was the second President of the Church (LDS Church), president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), from 1847 until his ...

in Provo and defensive coordinator

Demario Warren Demario Odell Warren (born April 20, 1985) is an American football coach and former player. He last served as the head football coach at Southern Utah University Southern Utah University (SUU) is a public university in Cedar City, Utah. Fo ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

, Southern Utah won their second Big Sky title, finishing the regular season at with wins over four

ranked A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of ...

(FCS) teams:

Northern Iowa Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...

Weber State Weber State University (pronounced ) is a public university in Ogden, Utah. It was founded in 1889 as Weber Stake Academy. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. History Weber State University was founded ...

Eastern Washington Eastern Washington is the region of the U.S. state of Washington located east of the Cascade Range. It contains the city of Spokane (the second largest city in the state), the Tri-Cities, the Columbia River and the Grand Coulee Dam, the Hanfor ...

, and NAU. The Thunderbirds earned the eighth seed in the

FCS playoffs The NCAA Division I Football Championship is an annual post-season college football game, played since 2006, used to determine a national champion of the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). From 1978 to 2005, the game was k ...

; Warren was the conference coach of the year and was a finalist for the

Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award The Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award is given annually to a college football coach by the Football Writers Association of America. The award honors Eddie Robinson, former coach at Grambling State University Grambling State Univer ...

. ;Football classifications * 1963–1985:

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic scholarships to its stu ...

* 1986–1992:

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

* 1993–present: NCAA Division I-AA/FCS

Conference affiliations

* Independent (1963–1968) *

(1969–1985) *

(1986–1992) *

(1993–1995) * I-AA Independent (1996–2003) *

(2004–2011) *

(2012–2021) *

(2022–future)

Championships

Conference championships

† Co-champions

Division championships

† Co-champions

FCS Playoffs results

The Thunderbirds have appeared in the FCS playoffs three times with an overall record of 0–3.

Head coaches

References

External links

* {{Western Athletic Conference football navbox American football teams established in 1963 1963 establishments in Utah