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Northern Colorado Bears football

Intercollegiate American football team

Intercollegiate American football team

FieldValue
CurrentSeason2025 Northern Colorado Bears football team
TeamNameNorthern Colorado Bears
ImageUNC Bears.png
ImageSize250
HeadCoachEd Lamb
HeadCoachYear3rd
HCWins5
HCLosses30
StadiumNottingham Field
StadCapacity8,533
LocationGreeley, Colorado
NCAAdivisionI FCS
ConferenceBig Sky
FirstYear
WebsiteNameuncbears.com
WebsiteURLhttp://www.uncbears.com/sports/fball/index
D2NatlTitles1996, 1997
ConfTitlesRMAC: 1934, 1948, 1969, 1971GPAC: 1973, 1974, 1975NCC: 1980, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2002
DivTitlesRMAC Plains: 1969, 1970, 1971
RivalriesPortland State
ATWins456
ATLosses537
ATTies23

The Northern Colorado Bears football program is the intercollegiate American football team for the University of Northern Colorado located in Greeley, Colorado. The team competes in the Big Sky Conference at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level. The university's first football team was fielded in 1893. They joined Division I in 2004. The team plays home games at the 8,533 seat Nottingham Field on campus. The Bears announced the hiring of Ed Lamb on December 6, 2022, replacing Ed McCaffrey, who went 6–16 in two seasons.

Conference affiliations

Below is the list of conferences in which Northern Colorado has been a member.

  • Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (1923–1971)
  • Great Plains Athletic Conference (1972–1975)
  • NCAA Division II independent (1976–1979)
  • North Central Conference (1980–2002)
  • Great West Football Conference (2004–2005)
  • Big Sky Conference (2006–present)

Championships

National championships

Northern Colorado made two appearances in the NCAA Division II National Championship Game. The Bears defeated Carson–Newman, 23–14 in 1996, and later defeated New Haven, 51–0 in 1997.

Conference championships

Northern Colorado Bearsborder=0color=white}}"Conference ChampionshipsNorthern Colorado Bearsborder=0color=white}}"12

† Co-champions

Division championships

Northern Colorado Bearsborder=0color=white}}"Division ChampionshipsNorthern Colorado Bearsborder=0color=white}}"3

Playoff appearances

NCAA Division II

The Bears appeared in the Division II playoffs nine times with an overall record of 12–7.

2002First Round
Quarterfinals
SemifinalsCentral Missouri State
NW Missouri State
Grand ValleyW 49–28
W 23–12
L 7–44

Attendance

Highest attendance

Below is a list of the Bears best-attended home games at Nottingham Field.

Rk.DateOpponentAttendance
Highest attendance
1October 1, 2005Cal Poly9,145
2October 29, 2005Fort Lewis8,561
3October 2, 2010Montana8,105
4September 3, 2005Colorado School of Mines7,554
5October 23, 1998South Dakota7,520
6October 9, 1999Nebraska-Omaha7,499
7November 21, 1998North Dakota7,312
8September 20, 1998Texas State7,246
9October 19, 2002South Dakota7,198
10October 10, 1998South Dakota7,135

As of the 2014 season.

Yearly attendance

Source:

Below is the Bears home attendance by season at Nottingham Field.

SeasonTotalAverageHigh
Northern Colorado Bears
201825,2934,2155,672
201721,9174,3835,378
201624,4774,8955,476
201525,6124,2695,205
201421,0374,2076,348
201323,9903,9984,619
201221,2404,2485,136
201123,4283,9055,692
201027,9195,5848,105
200921,1113,5185,247
200821,6764,3557,246
200720,4414,0886,684
200628,8576,2194,810
200537,5497,5109,142
200427,3704,5626,481
200328,7305,7466,660
200234,8985,8167,198
200126,1534,3595,488
200029,1626,3524,860
199946,5526,6507,520
199840,6905,8137,312
199725,3024,2176,345
199627,2824,5476,318
199525,0674,3647,024

As of the 2015 season.

Notable former players

Notable alumni include:

  • Reed Doughty
  • Vincent Jackson
  • Dirk Johnson
  • Jeff Knapple
  • Bill Kenney
  • Corte McGuffey
  • Brad Pyatt
  • Tony Ramirez
  • Aaron Smith
  • Loren Snyder
  • Dave Stalls
  • Frank Wainright
  • Jed Roberts
  • Herve Tonye-Tonye
  • Cedric Tillman
  • Brian Scott
  • Kyle Sloter

Head coaching records in FCS

Since moving to the Big Sky Conference in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) in 2006, the Bears have struggled. Their FCS record since 2006 is 39–146 as of the 2025 season.

FCS head coaching records

  • Scott Downing: 9–47
  • Earnest Collins Jr.: 19–53
  • Ed McCaffrey: 6–16
  • Ed Lamb: 5–30 as of the end of the 2025 season

Team FCS record as of the end of 2025:

Future non-conference opponents

Announced schedules as of November 19, 2025.

Northeastern State

References

References

  1. "Big Sky Champion ed Lamb Named Head Football Coach at Northern Colorado".
  2. "Gameday at Northern Colorado". University of Northern Colorado.
  3. (December 2014). "Northern Colorado Record Book". Northern Colorado Bears Athletics.
  4. "Member Institutions". Big Sky Conference.
  5. "Northern Colorado Football Weekly Release, September 5, 2015". University of Northern Colorado Athletics.
  6. (2022-12-06). "Big Sky Champion Ed Lamb named Head Football Coach at Northern Colorado".
  7. (November 21, 2022). "McCaffrey will not return as Northern Colorado head football coach". [[Northern Colorado Bears]].
  8. "Football".
  9. "Northern Colorado Bears Football Future Schedules". FBSchedules.com.
Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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