College Football - Ohio Valley Conference
History - Important facts - Teams - Winners
The Ohio Valley Conference was first established in 1948 and its members cover the South and Midwest part of the United States. The conference headquarters are located in Brentwood, Tennessee.
For the 2007 season, the conference has a total of 11 members, but one of them participates in Football in the Pioneer conference . In the past, 13 teams have won or shared the Ohio Valley Conference’s football title, including Jacksonville State, which won back-to-back titles in its first two years in the Conference, Austin Peay and former member Youngstown State have one each.
During the period from 1948 to 1975, Ohio Valley Conference teams played in 15 bowl games, winning eight of them. Eastern Kentucky and Western Kentucky were also participants in the NCAA Division II playoffs in the early and mid 1970's prior to the NCAA's reclassification of football programs into Division I-AA.
In 1978 the first Division I-AA football playoff was held with only four teams. It is the only year u to this point that the Ohio Valley Conference did not field a playoff delegate.
One of Ohio’s coaching legends, Kidd, retired after 39 years at EKU. Upon retirement, he ranked sixth all-time among Division I coaches with 315 victories, earning him a spot in the College Football Hall of Fame.
In addition to Kidd, other well known legends in the Ohio Valley Conference include Charles (Bubber) Murphy, who coached at Middle Tennessee from 1947-1968, Western Kentucky’s Jimmy Feix (1968-83), Wilburn Tucker (1954-67) and Don Wade (1968-82) of Tennessee Tech, Bill Ferguson (1967-77) of Murray State, Guy Penny (1959-67) of Morehead State and Boots Donnelly (1977-78 at Austin Peay; 1979-1998 at Middle Tennessee).
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