The green "V" on the Bulldogs' helmets, uniforms, and playing field symbolizes California's Central Valley , specifically the San Joaquin Valley , the agricultural valley from which they draw their support. Football was first played on the Fresno campus in , and for its first year it played as an independent. The Bulldogs joined the California Coast Conference, which included several regional opponents the next year, and moved to the Northern California Athletic Conference of which it was among the charter schools in The NCAA began classifying schools into University Division and College Division groups in , and the Bulldogs, along with the other major college schools in the conference, broke off into the California Collegiate Athletic Association in , a conference it remained in until joining the Pacific Coast Athletic Association , later known as the Big West Conference , in Notable coaches during this period include Cecil Coleman , who during his five years at Fresno State had a.
Coleman took the team to an undefeated season, capped by a 36—6 Mercy Bowl victory over Bowling Green State. Fresno State football experienced a stretch of seasons hovering around the.
Yet despite also having a number of winning seasons, including two where the Bulldogs went undefeated, they only participated in two University Division bowl games before the s. In , Jim Sweeney took over a Bulldog squad that had had 8 winning seasons since its last bowl bid, and promptly took the squad to a 9—2 record in his second year as head coach.
The Sweeney era bristled with confidence as the Bulldogs became, along with rival San Jose State, the class of the Big West, earning postseason bowl berths four times in the s. Sweeney's squad is particularly memorable for Bulldog fans, as the team finished as the only unbeaten Division I-A team in the country, ranked 16th in the coaches poll.
The squad did not, however, finish untied, after a 24—24 tie at home against the Rainbow clad Warriors of Hawaii. The lone blemish to a perfect season, coupled with the difficulty either team has had in winning in the other's home stadium, has led the Warriors and Bulldogs to contend for one of the WAC's fiercest rivalries. The face of Fresno State football changed with the construction of Bulldog Stadium for the season. Before then, the Bulldogs played their home games in Fresno City College's Ratcliffe Stadium , which seated approximately 13, fans.
