[2] The University of Connecticut began playing football in 1896 when the school was known as Storrs Agricultural College, and the team was known as the "Aggies."

Tragedy struck the team on September 27, 1919, when Gardner Dow died from injuries related to a flying tackle that he delivered in a game against New Hampshire.

[5] The team was proclaimed by The New York Times to be among the best in the country, and was led by the school's first All-America candidate in captain, Martin "Red" O'Neill.

In 2012, Bill Belichick stated in an interview on WEEI that in 1983 he applied for the Huskies' head coaching position but was eventually turned down in favor of an internal hire, Tom Jackson.

However, UConn was in the middle of a budget deficit and many faculty feared that an upgrade of the football program would result in a loosening of academic standards.

UConn officially began the upgrade process in January 1999 by applying to join the Big East football conference.

[11] UConn would become the first school to ever move from the FCS to the Bowl Championship Series as a member of the Big East after three years as an independent.

They closed Memorial Stadium in fashion by routing the last two opponents, Florida Atlantic and Kent State, by a combined score of 124–35.

Despite the stellar record, the Huskies were not invited to play in a bowl game, largely due to their lack of conference affiliation.

The Huskies played their first Big East conference game on September 17, 2004, when they dropped a 27–7 decision at Boston College.

[14] The 2007 season saw a quick turnaround with the Huskies' first ever Big East Conference football title, which they shared with West Virginia.

The team was hit hard in 2009 by the on-campus murder of junior cornerback Jasper Howard, who was stabbed by a non-student outside a dance following their homecoming game win over Louisville.

After a loss in the Fiesta Bowl, to Oklahoma, Edsall did not fly home with or tell his players that he was leaving the UConn football program.

Two teams departing to the ACC, Syracuse and Pittsburgh left the Big East with losing records against the Huskies in football.

Weist was named the interim head coach and finished the season strong on a 3-game winning streak after starting out 0–5 and totally revamping the offense free of Pasqualoni's control.

On December 26, 2016, UConn announced that Diaco, who posted his 3rd straight losing year with a 3–9 record would be fired effective January 2, 2017.

In 2019, after several years of losing records with a $41 million sports created deficit, UConn made the choice to leave the AAC and rejoin the current edition of the Big East.

[21] In 2010, Connecticut had 16 players named to the Big East All-Academic Football Team,[22] an honor which requires a cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA) of at least a 3.0 in a minimum of two semesters.

for academic achievement and the 990 single year APR score in 2014–15 under head coach Diaco was also the highest in school history.

The football rivalry dates back to 1897 and was centered around the Ramnapping Trophy after UConn students stole the URI mascot in 1934.

Once UConn moved up to the FBS, the teams seldom play as Rhode Island remains an FCS program.

[26][27] The teams were members of the old Big East until Syracuse left in 2012 to join the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in all sports.

However, in October 1997, the University of Connecticut Board of Trustees overwhelmingly endorsed, by a vote of sixteen to one, the football team's plan to upgrade the program to Division I-A status.

A proposed 70,000 seat, open-air stadium in downtown Hartford would also serve as the home of the Huskies football team.

Eventually, a new site emerged across the Connecticut River in East Hartford, when Pratt & Whitney donated land on the old Rentschler Airfield to the state for purposes of building an off-campus football stadium which is 20 miles away from the main campus.

The stadium played to an average of 97% near capacity crowds for eight years (2003–2010), prior to Paul Pasqualoni's arrival and during the Big East.

The Huskies on-campus home is at the Burton Family Football Complex on Stadium Road in Storrs, Connecticut.

[36] The training center was made possible by a $2.5 million gift from Connecticut businessman and UConn alum Mark Shenkman.

[37] Construction of the Mark R. Shenkman Training Center and the Burton Family Football Complex were handled in tandem by HOK Sport (now Populous) and JCJ Architecture.

It honors the former UConn Husky and former New York Giants, Atlanta Falcons, and Washington Redskins tight end, Brian Kozlowski, who through hard work, effort and dedication has been able to have a lengthy NFL career.