Washington University Bears football
The Washington University Bears football team represents Washington University in St. Louis in college football. The team competes at the NCAA Division III level as an affiliate member of the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin. They are a primary member of the University Athletic Association, of which they were a founding member. They were previously a founding member of the Missouri Valley Conference whose bigger schools split into the Big Eight Conference and then added a few members to form the Big 12 Conference.
The school's first football team was fielded in 1887. The team plays its home games at the 3,300 seat Francis Field. Francis Field was site of the 1904 Summer Olympics. All of Washington's games in 1904 were at home and served as the home site for American football at the Summer Olympics as a demonstration programme along with Purdue-Missouri and Carlisle-Haskell games.
Former Washington University Bears football player and head coach Jimmy Conzelman is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Another former head coach, Weeb Ewbank, later coach of AFL, NFL, and Super Bowl champion teams is also in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Two former Washington University head coaches have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame: Bob Higgins in 1954 and Carl Snavely in 1965.
Two former Washington University players have also been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame: Harvey Jablonsky in 1978 and Shelby Jordan in 2013. Both Jablonsky and Jordan were All-Americans. Jordan went on to win Super Bowl XVIII with the Los Angeles Raiders.
Former Bears linebacker Brandon Roberts won the Vincent dePaul Draddy Trophy from the National Football Foundation as the nation's top football student-athlete in 2002. Roberts is the only non-FBS recipient of the award.History
Conference memberships
Seasons
†- Conference champions
‡- Conference co-champions
*- Playoff Appearance1937 — 9th Round, 3rd Pick, 83rd Overall — Chicago Cardinals — Dwight Hafeli — End
1938 — 3rd Round, 2nd Pick, 17th Overall — Philadelphia Eagles — Joe Bukant — FB
1942 — 3rd Round, 4th Pick, 19th Overall — Chicago Cardinals — Bud Schwenk — QB
1950 — 21st Round, 12th Pick, 273rd Overall — Cleveland Browns — Leroy Vogts — G
1955 — 20th Round, 1st Pick, 230th Overall — Chicago Cardinals — Jim Burst — HB
1973 — 7th Round, 1st Pick, 157th Overall — Houston Oilers — Shelby Jordan — TAll-Americans
1929 — Harvey Jablonsky
1933 — Glynn Clark
1934 — Harry Brown
1935 — Bob Hudgens ; Joe Bukant
1936 — Dwight Hafeli
1937 — Raymond Hobbs
1941 — Wilson “Bud” Schwenk
1956 — Ed Lind
1957 — Ed Lind ; Don Polkinghorne
1960 — Paul Isham
1962 — Paul Isham
1963 — Arnie Edwards
1964 — James Powers
1970 — James Marx
1971 — Stu Watkins
1972 — Shelby Jordan ; Stu Watkins
1973 — Stu Watkins
1974 — Marion Stallings
1981 — Dave Bolton
1988 — Paul Matthews
1989 — Eric Nyhus ; Stacey Hightower
1990 — Eric Nyhus
1991 — Michael Lauber ; Jeff Doyle ; Aaron Keen
1992 — Michael Lauber
1993 — Jeff Doyle ; Aaron Keen
1994 — Matt Gomric
1995 — Chris Nalley ; Josh Haza
1996 — Chris Nalley ; Joe El-Etr, Aaron Boehm.
1997 — Joe El-Etr, Brad Klein.
1999 — Tim Runnalls, Kevin Dym
2000 — James Molnar, Jonathan Feig
2001 — James Molnar
2003 — Rick Schmitz
2005 — Joe Rizzo, Brad Duesing
2006 — Drew Wethington
2010 — Brandon Brown
2015 — Alex Hallwachs, Quincy Marting
2016 — Matt Page, Kevin Hammarlund
2017 — Johnny Davidson
2018 — Hank Michalski