The Northwest Missouri State Bearcats football team has appeared in seven NCAA Division II national title games (and won three) since going 0-11 in Mel Tjeerdsma's first season in 1994.
The Bearcats have made the playoffs in 15 seasons. They have also won or shared 23 MIAA titles.
Northwest plays its games at Bearcat Stadium, built in 1917, and the oldest NCAA Division II stadium still in use. The field was expanded to 6,500 seats and a video screen was added in 2003 after Tjeerdsma began his run.
It plays its games with Pittsburg State University at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri in the Fall Classic at Arrowhead. Pittsburg has made four national title appearances since 1991. The Oct. 17, 2002 game was witnessed by 26,695—the largest number in MIAA history.
Its best attended local home game was 10,805 on Oct. 2, 2010 against Missouri Western in the Northwest Missouri-Missouri Western football rivalry.
Read more about Northwest Missouri State Bearcats Football: Conference, Post Season Results, Record, Coaching Death, Notable Players and Coaches
Famous quotes containing the words northwest, missouri, state and/or football:
“I got my first clear view of Ktaadn, on this excursion, from a hill about two miles northwest of Bangor, whither I went for this purpose. After this I was ready to return to Massachusetts.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Then they seen it, the old Missouri River shinin’ in the moon and across it the lights of St. Louis.”
—Dudley Nichols (1895–1960)
“It is said that he once had a sore toe that so annoyed him that he went to the woodpile and chopped it off with an axe, quoting the Scripture, ‘If thy foot offend thee, cut it off.’”
—For the State of Rhode Island, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“You can’t be a Real Country unless you have A BEER and an airline—it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a BEER.”
—Frank Zappa (1940–1993)