Over the history of the program, the Cougars have won 11 conference championships and have had several players elected to the College Football Hall of Fame, including a Heisman Trophy winner.

In 1941, Johnny Goyen, then sports editor for The Cougar, and Jack Valenti, president of the sophomore class, began a petition for an official intercollegiate football team at the university.

[4] In September 1946, the team became a reality after Harry Fouke, UH's first athletic director, hired successful high school coach Jewell Wallace, and tryouts were held.

During the spring training for the first team, Goyen and Valenti's petition was finally answered, as Coach Wallace arranged a small practice game between Rice and Houston.

In 1964, Yeoman broke the color barrier for major Texas football programs when the University of Houston signed San Antonio's Warren McVea to a scholarship.

Pardee was a former NFL All-Pro linebacker who had previously held head coaching positions with the Chicago Bears, Washington Redskins and the USFL's Houston Gamblers.

Andre Ware continued his dramatic development as a passer and posted unprecedented passing statistics en route to winning the 1989 Heisman Trophy.

Pardee was later considered as a returning head coach for the Cougars after Art Briles left the program, but was eventually passed over in favor of Kevin Sumlin.

Jenkins ascended to the helm at UH with a reputation as a brash, innovative young coach, considered by many the brains behind the high-powered Run & Shoot offense.

The controversial Jenkins resigned under pressure on April 17, 1993, after a group of departing players including Trey Hooper, Tim Woods, Geoff Tait, Christopher Tuffin and star receiver Tracy Good contacted legendary sports columnist Dick Schaap, who arranged for an investigative team from ESPN to look into long-rumored NCAA violations allegedly being committed by their former head coach (the story went on to win ESPN a 1993 Sports Emmy).

After the controversy and NCAA sanctions of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the UH athletics administration was determined to remake the football program into one founded on sound discipline and transparency.

Helton eschewed the program's long-time reliance on local talent and instead began heavily recruiting junior college players from Florida, Georgia and Mississippi.

Attendance had slipped slowly downward throughout the decade, and the team often played in front of home crowds of fewer than 20,000 fans-a total that looked even smaller in the cavernous Astrodome.

The Cougars fared better in the 2002 season, but new athletic director Dave Maggard made it clear that he expected significant progress in the program's performance on the field.

Led by senior quarterback Kevin Kolb, the Cougars romped to a 9–3 regular season record and a spot in the Conference USA Championship game against Southern Miss.

Despite the rancor surrounding the departure of Art Briles, his coaching tenure had been the most successful at UH since Jack Pardee departed for the NFL almost 20 years before.

After the Cougars routed their first two opponents, star quarterback Case Keenum suffered a season-ending ACL injury, and backup QB Cotton Turner was also lost for the season, being injured in the same game against UCLA.

But the Cougars' dreams were dashed as the Golden Eagles defeated UH 49–28 at Robertson Stadium, amid rumors that Sumlin was already being courted and had accepted the head-coaching position at Texas A&M.

Houston scored over 70 points three times during Sumlin's tenure and broke numerous offensive passing records behind the NCAA's all-time leading passer, Case Keenum.

In Levine's first season as a head coach, Houston suffered a crushing home loss to the Texas State Bobcats, who were playing in their first game as a Division I FBS team.

[28] Tom Herman was hired on December 15, 2014, to replace Levine, after winning the Broyles Award as the nation's top assistant coach while serving under Urban Meyer at Ohio State.

[31] The excitement surrounding Houston football reached a fever pitch in the Fall of 2016 with a top 6 ranked Cougar team that was simultaneously touted as the leading Big 12 expansion candidate.

Tom Herman led the Cougars to a convincing opening-game win over the third-ranked Oklahoma Sooners at the AdvoCare Texas Kickoff in Houston.

The team went on a five-game winning streak, earning national recognition and prospects of competing in the 2016 College Football Playoffs, until losing to Navy and later to the SMU Mustangs in early October during the same week the Big 12 denied Houston entrance into the Conference.

Before losing at Memphis, Houston re-entered the rankings and achieved a resounding second signature win over the fifth-ranked Louisville Cardinals in mid-November before a packed home crowd.

Applewhite made his Houston coaching debut in the Las Vegas Bowl with a skeleton staff, which the Cougars lost to the San Diego State Aztecs by a score of 34–10.

The 2018 season saw Houston get off to a 7–1 start, but ended with the Cougars losing four of their final five games due to mounting injuries, including All-American defensive lineman, Ed Oliver.

Despite their slide, at 8–4, the Coogs were tied for first place in the American West Division with the Memphis Tigers, but would miss out on the conference championship game due to a head-to-head record tie-breaker.

Houston, with a depleted roster and staff, lost 70–14 to a historically good Army team in the Armed Forces Bowl to post a final record of 8–5.

The hype, returning talent, and positive end to 2021 led Houston to be projected as the conference favorites in their last year playing in the American Athletic and a preseason ranking in the top 25.