Southeast athletics opened with 2 sports

Southeast Missouri State University currently fields intercollegiate teams for men and women in 14 sports, but the school's early athletic years featured more humble origins.

Only two sports were up and running by 1913 -- football and men's basketball.

Football had the earliest start, apparently fielding a team for the first time in 1897, although the school's media guides only show team win-loss records beginning in 1904.

An article in the Southeast Missourian covering the 1930 opening of Houck Field stated that: "Veterans of the Teachers College football team dating back to 1897, the first year a football team represented the Cape College, were in the parade celebrating the opening of Houck Field."

Another Southeast Missourian article quoted many players from those early years, including the 1899 team that emerged as champions of Southeast Missouri. The article stated that Southeast -- then known as the Normal School -- "licked Farmington in two games, Marvin College of Fredericktown in one, Carbondale Normal for one and some other contests were won which are just now a little vague in the memory of the gridders of the past."

According to the Southeast media guide, in 1904 Cape Girardeau Teachers College -- as the school was then known -- went 2-0.

A 2-0-1 record ensued in 1905, but the next eight seasons featured a collective 10-18-2 mark, with no winning records.

In basketball, the program's first recorded season was 1906-07, when the squad went 0-2. A 3-0 record followed the next year and the squad also had plenty of success through 1913, with its best run being a collective 12-6 mark from 1909-1912.

One of the players on Southeast's early football teams ended up making quite a name for himself in the annals of the school's sports history. F.J. Courleux, who played from 1904 to 1907, coached the football team from 1915 to 1929, and he also had three stints as basketball coach: 1908-09, 1925 to 1928, and 1929-30. In addition, he coached baseball and served as athletic director.

Courleux was credited with having a 34-53-11 record on the football field and a 98-97 record on the basketball court. He still ranks fourth all-time in basketball coaching victories at Southeast. He is credited with laying the foundation for intercollegiate athletics at Southeast.