Cumberland Phoenix football

Cumberland football began on October 26, 1894^[2] with a 6–6 tie with Peabody and finished that first year with a 2–1–1 season record.

The early days of Cumberland football were very promising. The 1901 team played three games, with one recorded loss, but the following year, the 1902 team had a 3-5 record, with a victory over Mississippi A&M (now Mississippi State University).

The pinnacle of the early days of CU football was the 1903 team. The season that began with a (6–0) win over Vanderbilt then a (0–6) loss to Sewanee and continued with a five-day road trip with victories over Alabama (44–0) November 14, 1903, LSU (41–0) November 16, 1903, and Tulane (28–0) November 18, 1903. Cumberland would play a postseason game against Coach John Heisman's Clemson team on Thanksgiving Day that ended in an 11–11 tie and a record of 4–1–1 ^[3] which gave Coach A. L. Phillips and Cumberland University the Championship of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association.^[4][5]

The 1904 team went 3–1, a victory over Mississippi A&M (now Mississippi State University). The 1905 team had a 3–4 record, with victories over Georgia and Ole Miss.

The 1916 game against Georgia Tech is famous as the most lopsided-scoring game in the history of college football; Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland by a score of 222–0.^[6]

In 2001, Jacksonville State University Gamecocks placekicker Ashley Martin became the first woman to play and score in an NCAA Division I football game when she kicked an extra point in the first quarter of a game against Cumberland.^[7]

For the 2008 season, CU's football earned a share of the Mid-South Conference West Division.

In 2016, the team changed its name from Bulldogs to the Phoenix.^[8]

Cumberland Athletics Hall of Fame

• Joe Black Hayes
• Garland Morrow
• Thug Murray
• Red Smith

All-Southerns

• 1903: J. C. Anderson, halfback
• 1903: Marvin O. Bridges, guard
• 1903: Red Smith, center
• 1904: Willard Steele, halfback
• 1905: Red Smith, center