2017 marks the 30th anniversary of Cameron University’s final football national title – the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Division I National Championship in 1987 – when the team coached by Brian Naber went 11-2 and defeated Carson-Newman 30-2 in Cameron Stadium.
But Cameron’s legendary football program goes much deeper than the 1987 NAIA national title. During its junior college years, when the university was known as Cameron State Agricultural College, the Aggies captured four National Junior College Athletic Association crowns – 1931, 1941, 1960 and 1961 – and were runners up in 1947 and 1964. Along the way, they won five bowl games, including the Eastern Bowl in 1939, the Papoose Bowl in 1946 and two Boot Hill Bowls (1970 and 1980).
CSAC's undefeated 1961squad went to the Junior Rose Bowl where it topped Bakersfield College 28-20 in Pasadena, Calif., under head coach Leroy Montgomery. It marked the first junior college national title for an Oklahoma football team.
Cameron’s association with football extends back to its days as a high school. It was in 1912 – a scant four years after its founding – that the Cameron State School of Agriculture formed its first team, coached by school president Ralph Robertson. During those years, both Lawton High School and Fort Sill were opponents, as were other high schools in the region.
Cameron expanded its play when it transitioned to a junior college in the late 1920s and joined the Oklahoma Junior College Conference. Over a span of 17 years, the Aggies won 11 conference titles while losing only 25 games, creating excitement among students and community supporters – and a tradition of excellence that continued for decades. When Roosevelt Field – known to Lawton fans today as Ron Stephens Stadium – was built in the mid-1930s, it became home field for Aggie football until a stadium was built on campus.
Cameron transitioned to four-year university status in 1968, and that set the stage for its opportunity to win the NAIA title. In 1986, the Aggies were regularly listed in Top 20 polls, amassing 11 wins and finishing the season as the national runners-up to Carson-Newman. CU got its revenge the next year when it won the national title on its home field, easily beating Carson-Newman on a chilly December 19, 1987.
Faced with rising operational costs in the early 1990s, along with declining attendance tied to competition from Oklahoma’s two big-name football programs, cuts in state funding, the transition from the NAIA to the NCAA’s Division II, and a struggle to meet federal Title IX compliance, CU was forced to disband its storied football program at the conclusion of the 1992 season.
You're looking for a bison tube. Bring your own writing instrument. Be aware, Lawton high school teams play here on Thursday and Friday nights in the fall, so the muggle factor increases dramatically during those evenings.