Gateway Development

The 2007 season marks the 23rd year for the Gateway Football Conference, one of the nation's top NCAA Division-I Football Championship Subdivision (fka I-AA) conferences. The original Gateway Conference was founded in 1982 as a women's athletic organization. Patty Viverito remains the conference's only commissioner currently, and historically. The Gateway Conference became the first and only woman's conference to sponsor football on August 21, 1985...it's original members were Eastern Illinois, Illinois St., Northern Iowa, Southern Illinois, S.W. Missouri St. and Western Illinois. In June of 1986, Indiana State became the seventh conference member. Also, in the same year, the NCAA I-AA play-off selection committee granted the Gateway Conference an automatic bid to the play-offs. In July of 1992, The Gateway Conference disbanded and became the Gateway Football Conference, an NCAA Division I-AA football-only conference. In 1995, Eastern Illinois left the Gateway to become a member of the Ohio Valley Conference. In 1997, the conference added I-AA independent Youngstown State as a seventh member. Then, in 2000, the GFC extended an invitation to Western Kentucky ...which brought the league membership to 8. Western Kentucky has left the Gateway (and I-AA/FCS) for 2007, as if has accepted an offer to move up to the IA/FBS level. Also, the conference has extended offers to the NDSU (N. Dakota St.) Bison and the SDSU (S. Dakota St.) Jackrabbits. The two schools have accepted the invitations which will bring conference membership to nine teams for 2008.

The conference has accomplished much in a relatively short period of time, and is consider by many to be the premier FCS/I-AA league. The 22-year history has included national championships, national players of the year, national coaches of the year, #1 national rankings, and a tremendous number of All-Americans. In fact, over the same 22-year period of time, 12 Gateway teams have made the trip to the semi-finals. The most recent was last season as YSU obtained this distinction. The GFC is the only conference to have had all of it's members (past and present) participate in the I-AA/FCS play-off. In the past 10-seasons alone, the Gateway has seen 8 semi-finalists, 4 finalists, and 2 national championships. There are also 4 other national championships in the conference, that were earned prior to admission; certainly making the the Gateway one of, if not, the nation's most powerful conferences. The Gateway's 23 play-off berths is second to only the Colonial with 26 ...this despite the fact that the GFC has had membership of as many a five fewer teams. Also in the past 10 seasons, the GFC has seen 57 victories over top-25 non-conference opponents.

Important Dates

• January 1985 - A Gateway Conference player is selected for the all-star game, as OT Jim Meyer of Illinois St. plays in the Blue-Gray game. In the same year, Meyer becomes the first Gateway player to be selected AP 1st-team All-American.
• November, 1989 - For the first time, two Gateway teams qualified for the field of 16  in the NCAA I-AA play-offs (Eastern Illinois and S.W. Missouri St.). Both teams advanced to the second round.
• October, 1992 - The Panthers of Northern Iowa become the first Gateway Conference team to attain a #1 national ranking; which it holds for 5 weeks.
• The year of 1991 - For the first time in it's history, the Gateway Football Conference has the best non-conference record in the nation at 24-12-2 against non-conference opposition (7 of those came again IA clubs).
• January 1996 - Eastern Illinois' head coach Bob Spoo is selected as the 1995 Hansen's National Coach-of-the-Year for I-AA. This is the first national award for any head coach in the conference.
• November, 1997 - Youngstown State Penguins win the NCAA I-AA title; the fourth for the storied program and first for the Gateway Football Conference.
• November, 1998 - Western Illinois linebacker, James Milton, becomes the first GFC winner of the the Buck Buchanan award as the nation's best defensive player.
• November 1998 - University of Northern Iowa's head coach, Terry Allen, becomes the Head coach of the Kansas Jayhawks. Coach Allen returns to the Gateway in 2007, as the head coach of the Missouri State Bears.
• September 1999 - Five Gateway teams appear in the top-25 for the first time.
• November 1999 - For the first time in conference history, 2 different teams (Illinois St. and Youngstown St.) appear in the semi-finals in the same year. Also, YSU reaches the final for the 6th time in the decade of the 90's.
• October 2000 - Former UNI coach Darrell Mudra is inducted into the College Football Hall-of-Fame. Also, a regular-season league record crowd of 21,119 see UNI @ YSU ...and the GFC has an average regular season attendance of over over 10k for the first time.
• April, 2001- Youngstown State University's Head Coach and Athletic Director, Jim Tressel, becomes the head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes.
• December, 2002 - The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, under coach Jack Harbaugh, win the 2002 NCAA I-AA National Championship in Chattanooga, TN. In the process, the Hilltoppers become first team in I-AA/FCS history to defeat the top-3 seeds in a single play-off.
• November, 2003 - For the first time ever, four teams from the same conference represent their league in the play-off. Those teams were Northern Iowa, Southern Illinois, Western Illinois, and Western Kentucky.
• November, 2005 - UNI becomes the fourth GFC team to reach the championship game since 1997.
• November 2006 - for only the second time in conference history, more than 2 Gateway teams are in the post-season, as 3-teams make the field of 16.

Conference Members

Illinois State University

• Location: Normal/Bloomington, IL
• Population: 106,500 (as of 2001)
• Enrollment: 21,035 (as of 2001)
• Non-football Conference(s): The Missouri Valley Conference
• Name: Redbirds
• Began Football: 1887
• Colors: PMS 186 (Red) & White
• Mascot: Reggie Redbird

Indiana State University

• Location: Terre Haute, IN
• Population: 54,585 (as of 2001)
• Enrollment: 11,484 (as of 2001)
• Non-football Conference(s): The Missouri Valley Conference
• Name: Sycamores
• Began Football: 1865
• Colors: Royal Blue & White
• Mascot: Sycamore Sam

University of Northern Iowa

• Location: Cedar Falls, IA
• Population: 34,884 (as of 2001)
• Enrollment: 13,800 (as of 2001)
• Non-football Conference(s): The Missouri Valley Conference
• Name: Panthers
• Began Football: 1876
• Colors: Purple & Gold
• Mascot: Tommy Cat (Panther)

Southern Illinois University

• Location: Carbondale, IL
• Population: 26,676 (as of 2001)
• Enrollment: 23,000 (as of 2001)
• Non-football Conference(s): The Missouri Valley Conference
• Name: Salukis
• Began Football: 1905
• Colors: Maroon & White
• Mascot: King Tut II (a Saluki). In case you are wondering ...a Saluki is the oldest known breed of dog in existence today. They were originally used in the corn fields of ancient Egypt. Thus ... "King Tut II".

Missouri State University

• Location: Springfield, MO
• Population: 156,335 (as of 2001)
• Enrollment: 19,371 (as of 2001)
• Non-football Conference(s): The Missouri Valley Conference
• Name: Bears
• Began Football: 1909
• Colors: Maroon & White
• Mascot: Boomer (Bear)

Western Illinois University

• Location: Macomb, IL
• Population: 18,069 (as of 2001)
• Enrollment: 12,500 (as of 2001)
• Non-football Conference(s): The Mid-Continent Conference
• Name: Leathernecks
• Began Football: 1903
• Colors: Purple & Gold (PMS 116 {gold} and Pantone Violet)
• Mascot: Rocky (English Bulldog)

Youngstown State University

• Location: Youngstown, OH
• Population: 87,405 (as of 2001)
• Enrollment: 12,000 (as of 2001)
• Non-football Conference(s): The Horizon League
• Name: Penguins
• Began Football: 1938
• Colors: Red & White
• Mascot: Pete Penguin