It doesn’t matter the conference or the size of the school, college football is always big in Texas. The Lamar Cardinals are living proof of that. The program was dismantled after the 1989 season, only to return in 2010. As an FCS program, it’s a little easier to find cheap Lamar football tickets than it is for some of the other programs in the Lone Star State. However, the Cardinals have been embraced by fans since their rebirth, and last-minute Lamar football tickets have never been in higher demand.

Once Upon a Time

As a four-year college, Lamar has been playing football since 1951. For the first quarter-century of that history, the Cardinals usually fielded competitive teams. Head coach Vernon Glass led Lamar to three straight Lone Star Conference titles from 1964 to 1966 and won another conference crown in 1971. However, it was all downhill from there for the Cardinals. From 1975 to 1978, Lamar won a total of seven games. The Cardinals had no winning seasons from 1980 until the program ended in 1989.

Alive Again

More than two decades after Lamar football was shut down, the Cardinals returned to the gridiron. The program played as an independent in 2010 before joining the Southland in 2011. While it was a struggle at first, the Cardinals made a major breakthrough in 2018 under head coach Mike Schultz, going 7-5 and making the program’s first-ever appearance in the FCS Playoffs. It was a new milestone for Lamar and a proud accomplishment for a program that didn’t even exist a decade earlier. More importantly, it was an example of what the Cardinals are capable of accomplishing.