The MIT Engineers football program represents the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

in the

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

intercollegiate sport. The team plays in

New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference The New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in the northeastern United States in the states of Connecticut, Ma ...

s (NEWMAC) and competes in Division III of the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

. Home games are played at Henry G. Steinbrenner '27 Stadium, located on the Institute's campus. The current coach is Brian Bubna.

History

The initial MIT football team, nicknamed the Techmen, recorded its first victory by defeating Exeter College, 2–0, in 1881. In 1901, the MIT student body voted 119–117 to discontinue the intercollegiate football squad. The university did continue to field sophomore and freshman football teams into the 1920s. The last game played against another university was the MIT sophomore team against the Harvard freshman team in 1901. In 1978, a group of students self-organized to re-establish the team, though none of the school's administration knew at the time. To raise funds, they refereed intramural games, sold hot dogs, painted hurdles for track meets, took grants from the school, and sneaked loans from their fraternity budgets. For their uniforms, the team repurposed those of Rochester Institute of Technology, whose own football program had recently been cut. Finally, the students met with then-MIT President Jerry Wiesner, who passed the issue toward MIT’s athletic board where Jack Barry, an assistant athletic director, recommended that MIT support the club for at least one season. Jay Glass, who covered the team for MIT’s newspaper, commented, “It was a hack on the university itself.” After a poor first season, the new MIT Engineers won their first victory in 1979 and went 6–1 the next year. In 1987, the club became a varsity program and joined the

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is the lowest division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that do not offer athletic scholarships to student- ...

. The next year, the team won its first varsity victory of the modern era, beating Stonehill, 29–7. Football vs

In 2014, the Engineers finished the regular season with a 9–0 record and won their first

New England Football Conference Commonwealth Coast Football (CCC Football) was a single-sport athletic conference that competed in football in the NCAA's Division III. It began play as CCC Football in 2017 after the New England Football Conference (NEFC) was renamed following ...

title. The team returned to the NCAA playoffs in 2018 and 2019, winning back-to-back NEWMAC Championships. The 2020 season was cancelled due to

coronavirus Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the comm ...

. In 2021, the Engineers finished the year with a 5-4 record.

References

External links

* {{Massachusetts Institute of Technology American football teams established in 1881 1881 establishments in Massachusetts