Colorado Buffaloes

The Colorado football program is 16th on the all-time NCAA Division 1 win list and 22nd in all-time winning percentage (.614). Since Folsom Field was built in 1924, the Buffaloes have been 280-132-10 at home. The Nebraska game in 2006 was the school's 1100th football game. Bill McCartney is the most famous head coach, leading Colorado to its only National Championship Title in 1990. The current head coach, Karl Dorrell, was approved by the University of Colorado Board of Regents in March, 2020.[8]

Beginning competitive play in 1890, Colorado has enjoyed much success through its history. The team has won numerous bowl games (27 appearances in bowl games (12-15), 23rd (tied) all-time prior to 2004 season), 8 Colorado Football Association Championships (1894–97, 1901–08), 1 Colorado Faculty Athletic Conference (1909), 7 RFMAC Championships (1911, 1913, 1923, 1924, 1934, 1935, 1937), 4 Mountain States Conference Championships (1939, 1942–44), 5 Big Eight (Six) conference championships (1961, 1976, 1989, 1990, 1991), 1 Big 12 conference championship (2001), 4 Big 12 North Championships (2001, 2002, 2004, 2005), and an Associated Press national championship in 1990. The team holds rivalries with Nebraska, Colorado State, and Utah.

1906 Colorado Buffaloes basketball team.

They play at the CU Events Center on campus and are 401-166 (.707) at home, through the 2015–16 season, including 88-15 (.854) in six years under coach Tad Boyle.

¹ Invitations

Women's Basketball started at Colorado in 1975. The team has had seven coaches and the current coach is JR Payne.

The CU ski team competes as a member of the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association, as CU is one of two members of the Pac-12 along with Utah that competes in skiing. Colorado is one of the dominant programs in the NCAA in skiing, winning 20 total national championships, including 19 NCAA Championships, most recently in 2015. The Buffs have won three NCAA Championships since 2011, and have finished in the top four at NCAAs for 13 straight years with four championships (2006, 2011, 2013, 2015) in that span. The 13 straight top four finishes is the longest streak in the country. The Buffaloes have won 28 RMISA championships, most recently in 2017. The Buffaloes have had 53 individuals connected to the school participate in the Olympics 85 times. Colorado has had 94 individual NCAA Champions, including David Ketterer and Petra Hyncidova both sweeping their respective races in 2017.

The high altitude at Boulder, Colorado adds aerobic stress to distance runners and is known to produce a competitive edge when altitude-trained athletes compete at sea level. The 1998 cross country team was the subject of a book, Running with the Buffaloes, which documents the team's training regimen under long-time coach Mark Wetmore. Colorado has won five NCAA Men's Cross Country Championships (2001, 2004, 2006, 2013, and 2014) and three NCAA Women's Cross Country Championships (2000, 2004, 2018). The men's team also has won four individual titles (Mark Scrutton, Adam Goucher, Jorge Torres, and Dathan Ritzenhein), while the women's side has won two (Kara Goucher, Dani Jones).

The men won the first twelve Big 12 Conference titles in the conference's history and the women won 11 of the first 12 (all but 1998-99), with the two teams combining for 23 of the 32 championships awarded before the Buffs left the Big 12 in 2011 to join the Pac-12. Since joining the Pac-12 Conference, the Colorado men won their first six conference titles (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016) and the Colorado women have claimed four conference titles, including three consecutive following a shot lapse (2011, 2015, 2016, 2017).

The Colorado Buffaloes baseball team was discontinued after the 1980 season.[9] Baseball, wrestling, men's and women's gymnastics, men's and women's swimming, and women's diving comprised the seven programs that were discontinued on June 11, 1980, due to budget cuts.[9][10][11] Colorado is the only member of the Pac-12 without a baseball program.

The men's golf team won three Big Eight Conference championships: 1954, 1955 (co-champions), 1968. Hale Irwin won the 1967 NCAA Championship.

Colorado's rugby program was founded in 1967. The Buffaloes play in the Western Division of Division I-A, where they play against local rivals such as Colorado State and less localized teams like the New Mexico and Utah State.[12] The Buffaloes are led by head coach Murray Wallace, assisted by John Barkmeier Chris Dyas, Justin Holshuh, Conor Sears, and Steve Brown. Kevin Whitcher coaches the Buffaloes sevens team.[13] The Buffaloes have consistently been ranked among the top college rugby teams in the country.

Colorado's best run was 1984–1985, when it reached the 1984 national finals before losing 12-4 to powerhouse Cal, and finished third in the 1985 national playoffs losing again to eventual champion Cal, this time in the semifinals.[14] More recently, in 2008 the Buffaloes went 15-3 and reached the semifinals of the national championships.[15] Colorado won the 2011 Pac-12 rugby sevens tournament, defeating Utah 14–12 in the final,[16] to qualify for the 2011 USA Rugby collegiate rugby sevens national championship. Colorado finished the 2011–12 season ranked 14th in the nation.[17] In the 2012–13 season, Colorado defeated Wisconsin 54-24 to advance to the national D1-A quarterfinals, before losing to St. Mary's.[18] The Buffs also won the plate final in the 2015–2016 season at the Las Vegas Invitational 7s tournament in the college bracket. Most recently the Buffs lost in the plate final to Clemson in the inaugural international Red Bull University Sevens tournament.[19]

The Buffs are currently ranked 25th in the nation [20] with a competitive season ahead, and plans to travel further West in the spring.

Colorado has won 27 national championships.[21]

• Men's (16)
  • Cross Country (5): 2001, 2004, 2006, 2013, 2014
  • Skiing (11): 1959, 1960, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1982
• Women's (3)
  • Cross Country (3): 2000, 2004, 2018
• Co-ed (8)
  • Skiing (8): 1991, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2006, 2011, 2013, 2015
• see also:
  • Pac-12 Conference NCAA championships
  • List of NCAA schools with the most NCAA Division I championships

• Men's (1)
  • Football (1): 1990
• Women's (1)
  • Skiing (1): 1982 (AIAW)
• Note: Skiing was a men's NCAA sport from 1954–82 and became co-ed in 1983. The AIAW sponsored women's skiing and a national championship from 1977-82 before being absorbed by the NCAA at which time skiing became co-ed.

The two mascots present at all football games are Ralphie,[22] a live buffalo, and Chip, a costumed mascot who was selected to the 2003 Capital One All-America Mascot Team and won the 2009, 2010 and 2020 UCA Mascot National Championships. Ralphie is actually Ralphie V and leads the football team onto the field at the beginning of the first and second halves. A buffalo leading the team onto the field dates as far back as 1934 and the Ralphie tradition began in 1966. In 1934 after the selection of Buffaloes as a nickname when a group of students paid $25 to rent a buffalo calf and cowboy as his keeper for the last game of the season. The calf was the son of Killer, a famed bison at Trails End Ranch in Fort Collins, Colorado. It took the cowboy and four students to keep the calf under control on the sidelines during the game, a 7–0 win at the University of Denver on Thanksgiving Day.

The official school colors are silver and gold, adopted in 1888 as a symbol of the mineral wealth of the state. In 1959, the athletic teams started using black and yellow, because silver and gold ended up looking like dirty white and dirty yellow. The colors have stuck and many are unaware that the official school colors are silver and gold.

On May 28, 1981, black was curiously replaced by "Sky Blue" by a mandate of the CU Board of Regents, to represent the color of the Colorado sky.[2][23] However, this color was different than the blue uniforms of the U.S. Air Force Academy. After three years, the blue was changed in 1984 to a darker shade, though still unpopular. In black and white photographs the players' numbers are nearly invisible. During a difficult 1-10 season in 1984, football head coach Bill McCartney employed black "throwback" jerseys for an emotional lift for the games against Oklahoma and Nebraska, without success.

In April 1985, the CU athletic teams were given the option of blue or black. The football team chose to wear black, and at Folsom Field the background for the signature "Colorado" arc (at the base of the seats behind the south end zone), blue for four years, was repainted black as well. On the football uniforms, the blue was reduced to a stripe on the sleeve for three seasons (1985–87) before being dropped completely in 1988. In 2007, CU debuted new football jerseys that reintegrated silver as a uniform color.[24]