About Michigan State Spartans
Football arrived to Michigan State in 1896 with basketball arriving very shortly after, in 1898. Initially played their games as independent but since forties the Spartans have been members of Big Ten Conference, East Division, NCAA Division I (FBS for football).
The university colours are green and white and the college is represented by various versions of muscular male Spartan warrior or athlete named Sparty.
The Spartans arch enemies are Michigan Wolverines; Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Indiana Hoosiers belong to Michigan State rivals.
Football programs at the university have had some success, especially in the fifties and sixties when they claimed 6 national titles.
The Spartans have all- time record of 681-441-44, 11 conference titles, 3 division titles and they appeared in 26 Bowl games including five appearances in Rose Bowl where they won four games to losing one. Altogether their combined efforts during Bowl games netted them 11-15 record.
There have been quite a few Spartans making a successful transition into NFL including players like Morten Andersen who played as placekicker for several teams, mostly for two divisional rivals, the Saints and the Falcons.
He has been voted to Pro Bowl 7 times and he was named All- Pro 6 times and he is a holder of many NFL records including most points in career (2544), most games played in career (382) and most consecutive games played by a placekicker with 248 among many others.
There are several players hailing from Michigan State currently in NFL including Kirk Cousins, Washington Redskins’ quarterback who led the league in completion percentage in 2015. He also holds Redskins franchise record for most completions in a game with 33 among few others.
Basketball has not been staying behind the football and the Spartans won two national championships and were also once the runner ups.
The Spartans took part in 30 NCAA tournaments including a streak of 18 which is the third longest active streak in college basketball. They have been five times conference tournament champions and 13 conference regular season champions.
The most famous Spartan among NBA players has been Magic Johnson who spent his all career playing for Los Angeles Lakers where he won five NBA titles, was named the finals MVP three times as well as being the NBA MVP three times too.
Johnson led the league in assists four seasons and he also led NBA in steals two seasons. He is a gold medallist from Olympic Games in 1992 as well as Basketball Hall of Famer.
It is really easy to see that sports, especially football and basketball are a successful endeavours at Michigan State university and it doesn’t look like matters will change any time soon.
