The Nevada Wolf Pack football program represents the University of Nevada, Reno, in college football. The Wolf Pack compete in the Mountain West Conference at the Football Bowl Subdivision level of the NCAA Division I. It was founded on October 24, 1896, as the Sagebrushers in Reno, Nevada.
The Wolf Pack's home field is Mackay Stadium, located at the north end of its campus in Reno, having been moved from it original location which opened on October 23, 1909. The "new" Mackay Stadium saw its first game on October 1, 1966 with a seating capacity of 7,500 and has undergone several renovations. The stadium seats 27,000 and has played to crowds in excess (see attendance records), but decreased its capacity from 30,000 to 26,000 by the 2016 season to increase the quality of the experience in the stadium and later increased its capacity to 27,000 by the 2017 season. The elevation of its playing field is above sea level.
Nevada has had three individuals inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. They are coach Chris Ault, running back Frank Hawkins, and former coach Buck Shaw. Fullback Marion Motley is the only Nevada player to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Three-time Super Bowl champion Charles Mann played for Nevada from 1979 to 1982 while being named Most Valuable Defensive Lineman in 1982. Mann was inducted into the Nevada Athletics Hall of Fame in 1995. Another Nevada alumnus with a long career in the NFL was free safety Brock Marion. He was selected in the seventh round of the 1993 NFL draft by the Dallas Cowboys where he played most of his career, and won two Super Bowls. Marion was selected to three Pro Bowls and one All-Pro team.
Nevada has not fielded a Heisman Trophy winner; however, Stan Heath was fifth in Heisman voting in 1948 and Colin Kaepernick (QB) was eighth among 2010 candidates. Nevada football's rich tradition has produced 40 All-Americans and 45 All-American selections. Nevada's only consensus All-American was Matt Clafton (LB) in 1991, which was Nevada's last year in the Division I-AA; the Wolf Pack is awaiting its first FBS consensus All-American. The Wolf Pack has also produced two Academic All-Americans: David Heppe (P, 1982) and Erick Streelman (TE, 2002)
History
Early history (1896–1958)
Nevada's football history began on October 24, 1896. However, there was no football program from 1906 to 1914 (only rugby), in 1918 (due to World War I) and in 1951.
In 1896, the university, at that time the only institution of higher learning in the state of Nevada and called by the moniker Nevada State University, investigated the possibility of adding football to their short list of athletic programs and hired Frank Taylor from the University of California, Berkeley for the purpose of developing and fielding the U's first gridiron squadron. They played only three games that year, the first was Wadsworth AC and the second of which was scheduled against the Belmont preparatory school to take place on "the hill" at the original Mackay Stadium, located in the depression at the middle of campus where the Mack Social Sciences, Reynolds School of Journalism and the auspicious Lecture Hall currently exist. The result was a complete debacle as Belmont relentlessly thrashed the hapless Sagebrushers (later Wolf Pack) by the tally of 70–0. "But," the University of Nevada yearbook Artemesia would report five years later, "the team learned something about football by watching the Belmont boys play." Two weeks later and the 'Brushers met up with the Berkeley "Second Eleven" with much more favorable results (with NSU only giving up forty points). "Thus the initial chapter of the athletic history of the University was one of defeat", according to the 1901 Artemesia.
From 1901 to 1903, Allen Steckle served as the head football coach at the University of Nevada. In 1903, he was also appointed to the position as the university's physical director. In his three seasons as the head coach, he compiled a 6–9–2 record. When Steckle's Nevada Sagebrush team defeated the University of California in 1903, it was the cause of a statewide celebration. The entire front page of the Daily Nevada State Journal was given to coverage of the game, and the banner headline read: "California's Proud Colors Lowered by the Doughty Eleven from Sagebrushdom". Steckle's picture appeared on the front page, and the paper praised his efforts in turning Nevada into a football power:Out of the eighty students of the N.S.U. have been selected eleven young men who were moulded into shape by Dr. Steckle, the best football coach who ever came to the Coast. He made of them the peers of the flower of the California universities. The victory of a university with only 80 students over the University of California with its 3,000 students was hailed as a historic accomplishment, and "Coach Steckle's brand of 'roughhouse'" play was given much of the credit.
Steckle's star players at Nevada from 1901 to 1903 were his younger brother Ivan X. Steckle, who played halfback, and Abe Steckle, who played tackle. Ivan Steckle was reportedly "the hero of all Nevada during the football season of 1903, when in a game with the University of California on the U.C. field, he grabbed the football close to the Nevada goal line and made a wonderful 86-yard run to the California goal line, scoring a touchdown for the Sagebrush players and bringing victory to the team." Ivan left Nevada after the 1903 season to follow his older brother to the University of Michigan Medical School. Ivan died from typhoid fever in 1909, and Steckle accompanied his brother's body to the family's old home in Freeport, Michigan.
In 1919, a Nevada newspaper rated Steckle as the best football coach Nevada ever had and described his accomplishments as follows:It was under the coaching of Dr. Steckle that Nevada was able to defeat the University of California and play a tie with Stanford as well as bang it over the crack athletic club teams that San Francisco boasted when the great college game was in its hey dey. He was rated at that time as one of the best coaches in the West. Steckle was also remembered at Nevada for his ability to instill "college spirit" in the school's student body. In 1919, a Nevada newspaper noted that "there was more enthusiasm displayed in college athletics while he was coach than there has been in all the years since he left." As a medical doctor and athletic coach, Steckle was also known for his belief in physical conditioning. He was known to require every athlete to be in perfect physical condition before playing in any intercollegiate or "big" game. After his success with the 1903 Nevada team, Steckle was offered a higher salary to take over as the football coach at Oregon State.
In April 1919, Ray Courtright was hired to serve as director of athletics and head coach of the football, basketball, baseball and track teams. Courtright was Nevada's football coach for five years from 1919 to 1923. During his years at Nevada, Courtright was "affectionately known as 'Corky'."("The climax of his work in Nevada came during the past season when the Wolf pack held California to a 0 to 0 tie.") In his first year as Nevada's coach, Courtright led the team to an 8–1–1 record, doubling the highest season win total of any prior Nevada football team. The only loss came in the first game of the season, a 13–7 loss to the California freshman team. Courtright's 1919 Nevada team outscored its opponents 450 to 32, including scores of 132–0 over Pacific, 102–0 over the Mare Island Marines, and 56–0 over UC Davis. At the time, Courtright called the 1919 Nevada team "the best team I ever had," and others called it the "best team that ever played on Mackay Field." At the end of the 1919 season, the Reno Evening Gazette wrote:It was a good move when the students and regents decided last spring to go east and get one of the best men to come to Nevada and build up a football team. In selecting a coach they also demanded an all-round man, who could coach basket ball, track, baseball and put into operation a regular system of physical culture for all the students as well. Coach Courtright fitted the requirements and the football season proves the wisdom of the selection ... In 1920, Courtright's team finished with a record of 7–3–1 with wins over both the Utah Utes (14–7) and Utah State Aggies (21–0), and losses to California (79–7), USC (38–7), and Santa Clara (27–21). Courtright never reached the same level of success after the 1920 season, finishing 4–3–1 in 1921, 5–3–1 in 1922 and 2–3–3 in 1923. However, his most notable game at Nevada was a scoreless tie with California on November 3, 1923. The 1923 California team was known as the "Wonder Team." It had gone through three full seasons without a loss, and had outscored its opponents 151 to 0 in the first seven games of the 1923 season. Nevada had only 15 men on its football team in 1923 and was considered to be a decided underdog. When Courtright returned to the Nevada campus in 1961, he was shown souvenirs of his time at the school. Ty Cobb, then a sports columnist, accompanied Courtright and wrote: "Courtright chuckled when he saw a huge framed layout of newspaper headlines from 1923 – when Nevada tied the great California 'Wonder Team.' 'Yep, that WAS quite a game,' he chortled." Courtright compiled a record of 26–13–7 while at Nevada, and his teams outscored opponents by a combined total of 993 to 464. Shortly before his resignation in 1924, the Nevada State Journal credited Courtright with having "brought the Nevada eleven from the class of a second rate team to its present rank among the best of the western college football squads."
Jim Aiken left Akron to take over Nevada's football program in 1939, and served as head coach for seven seasons, compiling a record of 38–26–4. Aiken resigned as head coach after the 1946 season to accept the head coaching position at Oregon.
Nevada experienced back to back nine-win seasons under Aiken's successor, Joe Sheeketski, 9–2 campaigns in 1947 and 1948, but the wheels came off the next two seasons as Nevada compiled records of 5–5 and 1–9, resulting in his resignation.
Jake Lawlor was the head coach from 1952 to 1954.
Gordon McEachron accepted the head coaching position at Nevada in 1955 for a $7,300 salary.McEachron Gets Nevada Grid Job, The Spokesman-Review, June 7, 1955. The university had demoted its football program from major college football status in 1951 due to a budget deficit and had struggled to remain competitive. In 1956, the Nevada alumni association raised $4,500 for a part-time work program for football players., The Modesto Bee, September 27, 1956. The initiative, however, failed, and in October 1957, McEachron supported the players in their petition for a renewal of free room and board for the team during the season. They offered to work part-time campus jobs in exchange. McEachron said, "We're not trying to go big-time again, just to compete on an equal basis."Nevada Gridders Win; Seek Free Room and Board, Eugene Register-Guard, October 16, 1957. McEachron offered his resignation on October 30, 1957, which reportedly "came as a complete surprise" to the athletic director. Art Broten said, "But I am totally indifferent—Mac took the job with the understanding we gave no aid to athletes."Nevada Coach Offers to Quit, Lewiston Morning Tribune, October 30, 1957. McEachron remained on for one more yearNevada's Grid Fortunes Near Folding Point, Eugene Register-Guard, September 6, 1958. and resigned in 1959. He had compiled a 6–23–1 record at Nevada.Trachok New Coach of Nevada's Eleven, The New York Times, April 12, 1959.
Dick Trachok era (1959–1968)