UCSD Tritons

UC San Diego played football in 1968, going winless and losing to Cal Tech after Tech had failed to win a game in 25 outings and three winless seasons. The Triton program was canceled but restarted as a student club that played one game in 1997 and one in 1998. The UCSD football club team was organized by students who simply wanted to play. The founders of the team manned tables in the Price Center and in front of Center Hall to recruit students to be on the team.

According to early football club member Richard Downing, who graduated from Roosevelt College in 1998, their recruitment and organizational efforts met with some success and some hardship in the beginning.

“Overall, we had a lot of support from the student body and even some of the administration,” Downing said. “But at times it could get pretty frustrating when we’d hear students laughing, or when people would come up to the table and ask ‘Is this a joke?'”

The team received little funding from the school, and the players had to pay for almost all the expenses.

The club ended up playing two games — one in 1997 and one in 1998, both against Cal Lutheran University.

The 1997 game featured a Triton squad 35-strong and ended with UCSD losing 0-66.

According to former club team member Brian Halderson, who graduated from Warren College in 1999, they came expecting to play third- and fourth-stringers from Cal Lu.

“I guess they thought we would be bringing out a bunch of ringers, so we ended up playing their first string the first half,” he said. “The second half wasn’t nearly as bad [as the first].”

The second game also ended with a Triton shutout, but the margin was not nearly as wide, with Cal Lu coming out on top 35-0.

After its original organizers graduated, the UCSD football club did not return in 1999, and there has been no UCSD full-contact football team since. (Guardian)

DI 23 sports teams Location: La Jolla

Total student population: 43,381 (fall 2023), undergraduates 33,792, graduates 9,589