Grinnell Pioneers football
The Grinnell Pioneers football team represents Grinnell College in collegiate level football. The team competes in NCAA Division III as a member of the Midwest Conference.History
On a blustery November afternoon in 1889, Grinnell College beat the University of Iowa 24-0 in the first intercollegiate football game west of the Mississippi River. The team's first head coach was Theron Lyman. It was a member of the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association from 1918 to 1927 and its successor the Missouri Valley Conference from 1928 to 1939.
After starting 2019 at 0-3 and with only 28 of 39 healthy players, the team withdrew from competitive play and forfeited its remaining seven games of the season on October 1 in order to protect the health and safety of its student-athletes. The players had voted overwhelming to end the season as a protest over their perceived lack of support by the administration, which the team believed caused them to be undermanned over the past four seasons.
