Did some digging. Here's what I found.
The program started in 1897 and was one of the founding members of what was at the time known as the Wisconsin State University Conference that formed in 1913.
All that’s known about the team was that in their early years, they were better. They won 6 conference championships, the last of which taking place in 1946.
From 1922-1929, they were led by Ira Tubbs to a 37-19-6 record equaling a 65% winning percentage.
From 1930-1942, they were led by Ted Whereatt who ended up being the programs winningest head coach at 63 wins as well as amassing the highest win percentage of 67%
The program’s longest tenured coach was Mertz Mortorelli who despite being the second winningest coach of the program’s history, coaching from 1954-69 and then again from 1975-1983, also amassed the programs most losses at 172. That made for a win percentage of .263.
In fact, after the program moved to D3 in 1973, their winning percentage for nearly 20 years was 11.2 percent (22 wins vs 173 losses and a tie). You could have said they were one of the worst programs in the country.
The program shut down towards the beginning of the 1992 season due to injury and lack of players.
As to why the program sucked in the last half century, I’m not sure. But I have to guess that location was a factor. The 3 nearest schools to superior are all a 2.5 drive away.
But why wasn’t location a factor in the earlier years when cars were slower and we didn’t have the highway system??? Perhaps the earlier players bolstered some other breed of patience or something.
