The opening kick off against Central Methodist University in Fayette, Mo., on September 5 marks the start of the 100th official season of college football at Culver-Stockton.

Football, which has had its ups and downs at Culver-Stockton, started as a club sport in the 1870s, because somebody had a decent ball, according to the history books. When students tried to organize the first college team in 1899, the faculty was opposed and the college refused to be responsible for any injuries. It wasn’t until the 1903-04 catalog that football was officially mentioned as a student activity, and it wasn’t until 1909-10 that the first official football team photo made the catalog.

The college started keeping football records in 1907, even though it was sometimes challenged to find opponents within a reasonable travel distance.The Culver team competed against a variety of teams – high schools, other colleges, and even local service organizations. LaGrange College, just six miles away, was the most accessible, but the history books note that the two colleges refused to compete in any way against each other for seven years because they disagreed about the results of a debate between the schools in 1900.

By 1912, the Culver-Stockton football team had 22 men and held regular scrimmages. And, in 1932, when the college voted to drop football for financial reasons, the students marched in a peaceful protest through downtown Canton and raised enough money to fund the program. Although the game was dropped from 1943-45 during World War II due to a lack of male students, the game resumed after the war and construction began on the Ellison A. Poulton Memorial Stadium, which honors the former C-SC football player from Canton who graduated from C-SC in 1919 and from Harvard Law School in 1922.

Join us in celebrating 100 years of Wildcat football during the 2009 season.

Go Wildcats!