All-time EWU football teams to be announced

CHENEY - With over 1,600 football letter winners in school history, choosing the best is a difficult task. But Eastern Washington University will honor 219 of them when four All-Time teams are rolled out via GoEags.com. 

The first team to be announced was on Jan. 13, with the re-reveal of the "Z" Team from 1999, a collection of 36 football players chosen by Dick Zornes who made the largest contributions toward the 158 games Eastern won in the 26 years he was passionately associated with the football program at Eastern. He has the unique distinction of being a former Eastern player, assistant, head coach and administrator at EWU. 

Next to be announced on Jan. 20 will be the all-time team selected by former head coach Mike Kramer, who spent 11 total seasons at Eastern. He was head coach from 1994-1999, and also spent five previous seasons as an assistant under Zornes from 1989-93. Kramer's All-Time team consists of 36 players among the 256 total players who lettered during his tenure on the EWU campus in Cheney, Wash. 

Under Zornes, the Eagles won their first-ever Big Sky football title in 1992, and also secured their first two berths in the FCS Playoffs (then I-AA) in 1985 and 1992. With Zornes as an administrator and Kramer as head coach, EWU won another Big Sky Championship and had a "Final Four" appearance in the playoffs in 1997. Entering the 2020-21 school year, Eastern has now had 10 titles and 13 playoff appearances as a national football power. 

The next two squads announced will be two All-Time teams from the decades of 2000-09 and 2010-19. To be chosen to these teams, players needed to have earned at least third team All-Big Sky Conference honors, with other players automatically added by being named team MVP on offense, defense or special teams, or as an Academic All-American. 

The 2000-09 squad will be rolled out on Jan. 27, and includes 67 players who concluded their careers as Eagles between 2000 and 2009. Coached by Paul Wulff (2000-07) and later Beau Baldwin (2008-09), Eastern had a 67-49 record in those 10 seasons, including a 45-30 (.600) record in the Big Sky. Eastern won league titles in 2004 and 2005, and advanced to the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2009. 

Finally, on Feb. 3, the 2010-19 All-Time team will be revealed. From a decade that saw Eastern Washington University win nearly 100 football games, that squad consists of 80 total players who concluded their careers as Eagles between 2010 and 2019. 

Coached by Baldwin (2010-17) and later Aaron Best (2017-19), Eastern had a 97-35 (.735) record in those 10 seasons, including a 66-14 (.825) record in the Big Sky. Eastern won league titles in 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2018, and advanced to the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs those same six seasons. 

The Eagles won the NCAA Division I championship in 2010 and was the runner-up in 2018. Eastern's 97 wins were the third most in the NCAA Championship Subdivision in that decade, and the team's .735 percentage was fifth. Only North Dakota State (137) and Sam Houston State (99) had more victories than the Eagles. 

Moreover, the Eagles were nearly unbeatable at Roos Field, on the new red turf installed in 2010. Eastern won 57 of 67 games in the decade at "The Inferno," a winning rate of 85.1 percent that included a 44-6 record in the regular season (88.0 percent) and 13-4 (76.5 percent) in the FCS Playoffs. 

Overall, the Eastern football program has 1,608 all-time letter winners. Football on campus existed for 111 seasons encompassing 1,007 games, two national affiliations - NAIA and NCAA Division 1-AA/FCS - and seven different leagues. 

The program's successes include 10 Big Sky Conference titles and 13 berths in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs, all since 1984 after EWU moved from the NAIA to NCAA Division I. The Eagles won the 2010 FCS title and were the runner-up in 2018. 

Prior to that, Eastern won 20 different league football titles while in the Evergreen Conference (1969, 1967, 1966, 1965, 1950, 1949, 1948); Winco (1947, 1939); Tri-Normal (1937, 1936, 1935, 1934, 1932, 1925); Columbia Valley (1925, 1924; and Spokane Intercollegiate (1923, 1921, 1920).

Eastern was the 1967 runner-up in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).