Coe College was founded in 1851 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and is one of the oldest colleges in the United States west of the Mississippi.
Football has a long football history, with its first season starting in 1891. The 2025 season will be the 135th season of football for the Coe Kohawks.
In 1922, Coe College became a founding member of the Midwest Conference and started playing conference football. Over the past 103 years of conference football Coe has won 26 conference titles.
“The longest living rivalry west of the Mississippi”
It refers to Coe Colleges annual rivalry game with Cornell College.
As long as there has been football at Coe, there has been the rivalry between Coe and Cornell College, located in Mount Vernon, just a few miles east on Highway 30. The first game between the two teams was in 1891,
The 2016 Coe Football team holds the record for the most wins in a season at 11.
One interesting fact about Coe Football is that they have only had 14 head coaches over 135 years. Since the Division 3 Football playoffs began in 1973 – Coe has made 11 playoff appearances with a record of 3-11.
Coe College mens basketball was the third major sport to be added to the Coe athletic program. The first season was in the winter of 1900-01.
Coe College Women’s basketball team was a pioneering club sport founded in 1908. Women’s Basketball first non-club college season was in 1973. The Women’s Basketball team started competing as an NCAA team in 1977-78.