St. Bonaventure changed its athletics moniker from "Brown Indians" to "Bonnies" in 1992, several decades after the football team played its last game.
In 1946, under the directorship of Anselm Krieger, St. Bonaventure made a major expansion of its football program to accommodate an influx of students following the war, and constructed Forness Stadium on the campus's eastern edge in an effort to establish the Brown Indians as a major football school.
[3] The team enjoyed substantial success in the six years of post-war football under former Notre Dame coach Hugh Devore and, after Devore left in 1950, former and future Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Joe Bach (Steelers owner Art Rooney and Krieger's successor as Bona athletic director, Silas Rooney, were brothers).
Despite the on-field success and frequent sellouts of the 12,000-seat stadium,[3] St. Bonaventure opted not to continue sponsoring football after the 1951 season, citing high expenses and the shutdown of the schools' biggest rival football programs at Niagara and Canisius.
[5] An attempt to launch a club football squad at St. Bonaventure in the late 1960s failed after three seasons due to lack of community interest.