[2] The nickname was selected by the campus newspaper in a contest with a $5 prize in 1934 won by Andrew Dickson of Boulder.

The university participates as a member of the Big 12 Conference at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).

Rick George was announced as the sixth athletic director in program history on July 17, 2013,[3] following the resignation of Mike Bohn, and after an interim appointment by former Women's Basketball Head Coach former deputy athletic director Ceal Barry.

Early games, which bore more resemblance to rugby than modern football, were played against the School of Mines and Utah.

[5] On July 27, 2023, the Buffaloes announced that they would rejoin the Big 12 Conference in all sports beginning in the 2024–25 academic year.

[7] Women's lacrosse now competes in the Big 12, following the conference's decision to add the sport starting in the spring 2025 season.

CU does not have a women's softball program, one of five Big 12 members (Cincinnati, Kansas State, TCU, West Virginia) opting not to participate.

Bill McCartney is the most famous head coach, leading Colorado to its only national championship in 1990.

Current head coach Deion Sanders was approved by the university's board of regents in December 2022.

They play at the CU Events Center on campus and are 465–179 (.722) at home, through the 2020-21 season, including 139–24 (.853) in 11 years under coach Tad Boyle.

Colorado has had 105 individual national champions, including Magnus Boee men's Nordic titles in 2021(2), and 2024 (20k), Cassidy Gray winning the women's GS championship in 2021, and Magdalena Luczak sweeping the alpine events in 2024.

[9] Boulder's high elevation of 5,400 feet (1,650 m) adds aerobic stress to distance runners and is known to produce a competitive edge when altitude-trained athletes compete at sea level.

[13] The Buffaloes are led by head coach Murray Wallace, assisted by John Barkmeier Chris Dyas, Justin Holshuh, Conor Sears, and Steve Brown.

[18] In the 2012–13 season, Colorado defeated Wisconsin 54-24 to advance to the national D1-A quarterfinals, before losing to St.

[19] The Buffs also won the plate final in the 2015–2016 season at the Las Vegas Invitational 7s tournament in the college bracket.

Most recently the Buffs lost in the plate final to Clemson in the inaugural international Red Bull University Sevens tournament.

[20] Founded in 1983 by Jim Castagneri, the cycling team was taken to the national championships in 1987 by 1992 Olympian John Stenner.

A founding club member of the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Cycling Conference,[22] the team is open to any student who pays annual dues and meets a minimum amount of credits during the semester.

Specifically, to qualify for road or mountain nationals, a rider must have enough high race results to upgrade to "A" category in the USA Cycling rankings.

The oldest, "Glory Colorado", is sung to the tune of "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and has been around nearly as long as the school.

The calf was the son of Killer, a famed bison at Trails End Ranch in Fort Collins, Colorado.

It took the cowboy and four students to keep the calf under control on the sidelines during the game, a 7–0 win at the University of Denver on Thanksgiving Day.

The official school colors are silver and gold, adopted in 1888 as a symbol of the mineral wealth of the state.

During a difficult 1-10 season in 1984, football head coach Bill McCartney employed black "throwback" jerseys for an emotional lift for the games against Oklahoma and Nebraska, without success.