The Clinch Valley College/UVA Wise football team was a long time in the making. From literally the first day of classes the question about whether football would come to campus was raised. In the summer of 1989 a committee was created by Chancellor Jim Knight to look into the feasability of having a team. After determining it was possible given the funding situation at the time (by law, athletics received no state funding -- that was changed some time later) they moved to create a program and hired local product and former NFL player Carroll Dale to oversee the creation of the program and as the school's first official full-time Athletic Director (up to that point the AD also was a coach, usually basketball or baseball). On June 13, 1990, the school publicly announced the program, which would initially be non-scholarship and not have a stadium and would begin play in the Fall of 1991.
On January 16, 1991, it was announced that long-time Wilmington (Ohio) College Head Coach Bill Ramseyer would helm the program. A few weeks later he brought his top assistant and Wilmington's baseball coach, Bruce Wasem, to Wise to coach the defense. The first recruit was a local product, J. J. Kelly all-state performer Jamie Bryant.
On Sept. 7 of that year the Clinch Valley College football team played their first game, a 13-8 win over Tusculum (who was playing their first game in over almost 40 years after restarting their program) at Carroll Dale Stadium on the J. J. Kelly campus in Wise. The team would play at several local high school fields (and at ETSU's Mini Dome on one occasion) until the on-campus stadium was built in 1999. September 11, 1999 was a big day on campus as the newly-christened University of Virginia's College at Wise (as of July 1, 1999) opened their new stadium with a 49-19 win over West Virginia Tech.Â
The team played as an NAIA Independent until joining the Mid-South Conference in 2002, earning two appearances in the NAIA National Tournament in 1995 and 1996. The 1996 team went through the regular season undefeated before losing in the first round of the NAIA Tournament in a game played in nearby Coeburn, Virginia. They competed in the MSC through the 2012 season, when they made the move to the NCAA Division II, first as a member of the Mountain East Conference (2013-18) and then in the South Atlantic Conference (2019-present).Â
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