Football

WVU Mountaineers football has represented West Virginia University since 1891 and competes in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision as a member of the Big 12 Conference. Home games are played in Morgantown, West Virginia at 60,000-seat Milan Puskar Stadium, opened on September 6, 1980 and still known by its playing-surface name, Mountaineer Field; the venue honors pharmaceutical entrepreneur Milan Puskar, whose $20 million gift to the university came in 2004, and it holds a record crowd of 70,222 set in 1993.

The program carries deep championship heritage, with eight Southern Conference titles between 1953 and 1967, seven Big East Conference titles from 1993 through 2011, and a national title game appearance in the Fiesta Bowl following the 1988 season, plus rivalries that include the Backyard Brawl against Pittsburgh and annual grudge matches with Marshall and Virginia Tech.

Game day is defined by traditions Mountaineer Nation travels for: the Mountaineer Mantrip, named for the shuttle that carries coal miners underground, escorts the team on its walk to the stadium behind the buckskin-clad Mountaineer mascot, the cheerleaders and the Pride of West Virginia marching band; the stands answer with the First Down Cheer and tailgating; and after every home victory players and fans link arm-in-arm to sing John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads," a song played at every Mountaineers home game since 1972.