Cumberland football began on October 26, 1894 with a 6–6 tie with Peabody and finished that first year with a 2–1–1 season record. The early days of Cumberland football were very promising. The
1901 team played three games, with one recorded loss, but the following year, the
1902 team had a 3-5 record, with a victory over Mississippi A&M (now Mississippi State University). The pinnacle of the early days of CU football was the
1903 team. The season that began with a (6–0) win over
Vanderbilt then a (0–6) loss to
Sewanee and continued with a five-day road trip with victories over
Alabama (44–0) November 14, 1903,
LSU (41–0) November 16, 1903, and
Tulane (28–0) November 18, 1903. Cumberland would play a postseason game against Coach
John Heisman's
Clemson team on Thanksgiving Day that ended in an 11–11 tie and a record of 4–1–1 which gave Coach
A. L. Phillips and Cumberland University the Championship of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association. The
1904 team went 3–1, a victory over Mississippi A&M (now Mississippi State University). The
1905 team had a 3–4 record, with victories over Georgia and Ole Miss. The
1916 game against
Georgia Tech is famous as the most lopsided-scoring game in the history of college football; Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland by a score of 222–0. In 2001,
Jacksonville State University Gamecocks placekicker Ashley Martin became the first woman to play and score in an
NCAA Division I football game when she kicked an
extra point in the first quarter of
a game against Cumberland. For the 2008 season, CU's football earned a share of the Mid-South Conference West Division. In 2016, the team changed its name from Bulldogs to the Phoenix. ==222-0==