Fred Folsom (2019) - CU Athletic Hall of Fame - University of Colorado Athletics

Fred Folsom

Induction:
2019

The University of Colorado began its varsity football program in 1890, and went without a head coach for the first four years in its history, relying on team captains to guide the team … Harry Heller was CU’s first official head coach, but he would lead the team for just one year (1894) … CU’s 1895 captain, William Caley, formed a group to find CU’s second coach and quickly zeroed in on Fred Folsom … Fred Gorham Folsom was a 21-year old pre-law graduate from Dartmouth College, where he was an outstanding football and baseball player. Considered the finest end to play at Dartmouth to that point, he had led the Big Green to two straight league championships as a player-coach, a position which was common prior to the 20th century … One problem, though, was the fact that Folsom was ticketed for the University of Michigan, where he planned on enrolling in law school; CU assured him that he could do both, attend law school and coach the Silver & Gold (one of CU’s early nicknames, though the football teams of that era actually wore red jerseys and stockings) … His love for the game of football won out and he headed west … It was one of the first turning points in CU history, as landing Folsom immediately led to the program becoming a regional power … Folsom would put permanent roots in Colorado, sans a short time when he returned to coach his alma mater (1903-06, where his teams were 29-5-4), as he became a leader in athletic, university, legal, civic and state affairs until his death in 1944 (that same year, Colorado Stadium, which had been built to replace Gamble Field in 1924, was named for him) … Accounts referred to him as being a stern disciplinarian when it came to football, one who could install his schemes quickly and constantly tweaked them with innovative plays from his creative football mind … Away from football, one of his trademarks was possessing a keen sense of humor … Folsom coached CU for 15 seasons (still a school record), compiling a 77-23-2 record in three different stints as head coach (1895-99, 1901-02, 1908-15), winning nine conference championships in outscoring opponents by 1,813-555 … His 77 wins stood as the most in school history for 78 years, until Bill McCartney surpassed the total in his next to last season (1993) … He also coached CU’s baseball team over the 1898-99 seasons, his squads going 6-6 … Folsom earned his law degree from Colorado in 1899 and eventually taught at CU’s’ law school for nearly four decades (earning a chair on CU’s faculty), and had a distinguished career as a jurist … In many photos, Folsom wore a signature “D” lapel pin, honoring his alma mater from which he graduated in 1895 … He was born in Old Town, Maine, on November 9, 1873 and passed away on November 11, 1944 at the age of 71.