In June 1915, Ray Morrison took on multiple roles at SMU as the coach for football, baseball, basketball, and track, while also serving as a math instructor.

The football team was initially a member of the Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association (TIAA) and played at Armstrong Field.

Due to TIAA rules prohibiting graduate and transfer students from playing, the first season consisted solely of freshmen.

[4] In 1922, Morrison returned to SMU in 1920 to work in the physical education department before co-coaching the team starting in 1922 with former Vanderbilt teammate Ewing Y.

End Gene Bedford and back Logan Stollenwerck were named first-team All-Southwest Conference, becoming the first SMU football players to receive that honor.

In the 1923 season, the SMU Mustangs achieved a perfect 9-0 record, winning its first conference football title in school history.

In its first game at Ownby Stadium, the Mustangs defeated North Texas State Teachers College 42-0, led by quarterback Gerald Mann.

[9] For a chance to play in the Rose Bowl against the Stanford Indians football team for the unofficial national championship, SMU faced off against TCU, who featured two time All-American quarterback Sammy Baugh.

Walker won All-Southwest Conference honors his freshman year in 1945 and played in the East-West Shrine Game in San Francisco.

In the same season, the team played against the Penn State Nittany Lions in the Cotton Bowl Classic, resulting in a 13-13 tie.

[12] The 1949 season was both Doak Walker's and coach Matty Bell's last as part of SMU's varsity football team and program.

Bell left the head coaching position at SMU with a 79-40-8 record, including three Southwest Conference titles, a bowl game victory, and a national championship.

Russell previously served as quarterbacks and running backs coach from 1945 to 1949, and is credited with luring Walker away from the University of Texas.

Kyle Rote, who filled Walker's place on the team, led the Southwest Conference with 777 yards rushing in 1949, and was named an All-American following the 1950 season.

Benners connected on TD passes of 57, 37, 31 and four yards to four different receivers as the Mustangs beat the Fighting Irish in what was one of the highlights in a 3-6-1 season.

During the 1954 season, wide receiver Raymond Berry was elected as a co-captain, despite only catching 11 passes for 144 yards, winning All-Southwest Conference and Academic All-American honors, and later played in the NFL for the Baltimore Colts.

Woodard was replaced by Bill Meek in 1957, who was coming off a Missouri Valley Conference title-winning season with the Houston Cougars.

During Meek's time as head coach, quarterback Don Meredith earned All-American honors in 1958 and 1959, his .610 career completion percentage the best in SMU history, along with a tremendous running ability that increased the pressure on opposing defenses.

The Mustangs hosted the fourth-ranked Navy Midshipmen (including quarterback Roger Staubach) on October 11, 1963, at the Cotton Bowl.

The SMU defense, led by Bob Oyler, Martin Cude, Bill Harlan, Harold Magers, and Doug January, sent Staubach to the bench twice with a dislocated left shoulder.

After a pass interference penalty against Navy put the ball on the one-yard line, Gannon plowed over the right tackle for the winning touchdown with 2:05 left.

Fry faced backlash for recruiting a Black player, receiving hate mail and threatening phone calls.

His most notable recruits were future NFL running backs Eric Dickerson and Craig James before the 1979 season, as both their high school teams went 15-0 and won state championships.

[15] In 1987, SMU became the first and only football program in collegiate athletic history to receive the "death penalty" for repeated serious violations of NCAA rules.

Since many potential student-athletes came from lower socio-economic backgrounds, boosters had been inducing them to sign with SMU by offering them payments and expense coverage.

Forrest Gregg, an SMU alumnus who had been the head coach of the Green Bay Packers, was hired in 1988 to help rebuild the team.

SMU hired former Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris as head coach and announced his placement on December 1, 2014.

In 1918 both schools joined the Southwest Conference, and from 1926 they played every year except for 1987 and 1988, after the NCAA gave SMU's football program the "death penalty" following a cheating scandal.

Its name is derived from a challenge from then North Texas head coach Matt Simon issued in 1994 after a two-year break in the series, stating "I'd like to play because I think we could beat them, and my players feel the same way.

In 2009, the athletic departments of the United States Naval Academy and Southern Methodist University created the Gansz Trophy in honor of Frank Gansz who played linebacker at the Naval Academy from 1957 through 1959, was on the Navy coaching staff from 1969 through 1972, and the coaching staff at SMU for the 2008 season before his spring 2009 death.