Delaware Fightin ' Blue Hens football The Delaware Fightin ' Blue Hens football team represents the University of Delaware in National Collegiate Athletic Association ( NCAA ) Division I Football Championship Subdivision ( FCS ) college football . The team is currently led by head coach K . C . Keeler and plays on Tubby Raymond Field at 22 , 000 - seat Delaware Stadium located in Newark , Delaware . The Fightin ' Blue Hens have won six national titles in their 117 - year history – 1946 ( AP College Division ) , 1963 ( UPI College Division ) , 1971 ( AP / UPI College Division ) , 1972 ( AP / UPI College Division ) , 1979 ( Division II ) , and 2003 ( Division I - AA ) . They returned to the FCS National Championship game in 2007 and 2010 . The Blue Hens are recognized as a perennial power in FCS football and are the only FCS program to average more than 20 , 000 fans per regular - season home game for each of the past twelve years . Delaware football has consistently outdrawn all college football programs in the Philadelphia metropolitan area , with one exception : Penn State at Temple University in 2007 . ( Attendance was more than double the normal average . ) History . The program ' s long history began in the late 1800s , but the tradition did not truly begin to take shape until the arrival of Bill Murray in 1940 . During his 11 seasons at the helm , the Fightin ' Blue Hens compiled a record of 49 – 16 – 2 with one National Championship in 1946 which culminated in a win over Rollins in the now defunct Cigar Bowl . That was good for an impressive . 747 winning percentage . After Murray departed to take over at Duke University in 1950 , David M . Nelson came on board as head coach . During his years at UD , Nelson developed the Delaware Wing - T offensive system . This system , strongly rooted in running the football and deceptive fake hand - offs , became the identity of Delaware football for nearly 50 years . Nelson also brought with him another icon of Delaware football : the " winged " helmet . The iconic " Michigan " style helmet was developed by Nelson ' s coach at Michigan , Fritz Crisler ( who first used the helmet design when he was head coach at Princeton ( albeit in black and orange ) ) . Nelson played for Crisler when Crisler was head coach at Michigan , and Nelson brought the helmet design with him where ever he coached ( Hillsdale College , Harvard , Maine and Delaware ) . Nelson stepped down as football coach in 1965 , and in his 15 years ( 1951 – 1965 ) , the Hens compiled an 84 – 42 – 2 ( . 664 ) record with one National Championship in 1963 and a bowl win over Kent State in the now defunct Refrigerator Bowl . In 1966 , an assistant football and baseball coach named Harold " Tubby " Raymond took over , and after a rocky start ( the team recorded a 2 – 7 record in his second season ) became the face of Delaware football for 36 seasons . While David Nelson developed the Delaware Wing - T , Tubby perfected it . In 36 seasons , the Fightin ' Blue Hens were always sure to provide an excitement filled game day experience for their fans . When he retired in 2001 , Tubby had racked up 300 wins against 119 losses and three ties , good for a . 714 win percentage . His teams earned 14 Lambert Cup Trophies ( as the best team in the east in a particular division ) , four national semi - finals , and three National Championships in 1971 , 1972 , and 1979 . His 300 wins account for nearly half of the 613 football victories in school history . These three men ( Murray , Nelson and Raymond ) are all enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend , Indiana . Georgia Tech is the only other school to place three consecutive coaches into the College Football Hall of Fame . The team has had much success on the field . In addition to the national championships listed above , notable program victories include multiple wins over Navy ( including a win at Navy ' s Homecoming game during a year when they went to a bowl game ) , Maryland , Rutgers , and Temple . Speculation regularly exists regarding whether the Blue Hens will " move up " to the Football Bowl Subdivision at some point , joining a league such as the Big East Conference . The University of Delaware has more than 60 wins against opponents playing at the highest level , whether that was FBS ( since 2006 ) , 1A , or the University level ( prior to 1978 ) . However , whereas most I - AA schools move up because of the perception of increased money and prestige , UD has an extremely profitable football program , and it is already well - regarded academically and athletically . " We ' re the LSU ; we ' re the Georgia , the Florida of Division I - AA , " UD Coach Keeler said in " American Football Monthly " . " We have every resource . There ' s some people who have better resources than we do , but in general , the college campus we have is in one of the greatest college towns in America , and the academics . . . we led the nation last year in out - of - state applications , more than Michigan or Texas . But that ' s what this school has become – everybody wants to come to school here . " UD football has a fan following that is just as loyal as many major FBS programs . While most schools at the FCS level can expect 8 , 000 – 10 , 000 fans for a football game on a good day , the Fightin ' Blue Hens can expect sellout crowds of over 22 , 000 at every home contest ; they have been among the top programs in attendance for over thirty years . Since Delaware Stadium opened in 1952 , it has undergone four major expansions to come to its current capacity of 22 , 000 . ( In the 1970s it actually seated over 23 , 000 , but subsequent modifications have reduced the capacity to the current number . ) The home attendance record was set in 1973 on October 27 against Temple University with 23 , 619 fans , and attendance has exceeded 22 , 000 fans frequently . When the Fightin ' Blue Hens have a home game , the stadium population becomes the fourth largest city in Delaware — behind Wilmington , Dover , and Newark itself . Delaware ' s fan support is so impressive that opposing coaches have said that playing Delaware at Delaware Stadium is the highlight of many of their players collegiate careers . In 2008 , based largely on the performance of the Fightin ' Blue Hens play in the 2007 season , " Sporting News " ranked Newark 186 in its list of the 400 Best Sports Cities . Intra - state games . Prior to the 2009 season , the University of Delaware had not scheduled a regular season game versus Delaware State University , the state ' s other Football Championship Subdivision team . A 2007 guest editorial at ESPN . com ' s Page 2 claimed that this has to do with the fact that Delaware State is a Historically Black College . Delaware has scheduled and played regular season games against several other Historically Black Colleges and Universities such as Morgan State University and North Carolina A & T . Delaware and Delaware State did play against each other on November 23 , 2007 in Newark , Delaware in the first round of the NCAA Division I National Championship Tournament . The Blue Hens defeated the Hornets 44 – 7 in front of 19 , 765 people , the largest playoff crowd in Delaware Stadium history . On February 25 , 2009 Coach K . C . Keeler joined Delaware State University Coach Al Lavan along with school officials and state politicians in Dover , Delaware to announce that their schools had signed on to play the first regular season game in their history . The game was played on September 19 , 2009 at the University of Delaware ' s Delaware Stadium , with the winning Blue Hens receiving the new traveling trophy , the First State Cup . Additionally , a three game series has been scheduled for September 2012 , 2013 , and 2014 . All games in the series will be held at Delaware Stadium in Newark , because its seating capacity of 22 , 000 is much larger than that of Delaware State ' s Alumni Stadium . The schools had been engaged in talks to play a game as early as 2009 , but Furman University , who had previously signed a contract to play a home and away series with UD , backed out of game two which was scheduled to be played at UD in order to play University of Missouri and garner a larger payday . This left the University of Delaware with an open date to fill with only a few months before the season started and the two sides quickly completed the deal . In 2011 , Delaware and Delaware State met for the second time during the regular season , with Delaware shutting out Delaware State 45 – 0 . Under K . C . Keeler . On June 19 , 2008 , Keeler was granted a 10 - year contract extension that will keep him on as head coach of the Blue Hens through the 2017 season . The Homecoming Game versus William & Mary on October 18 , 2008 marked the first time in 18 years that the Fightin ' Blue Hens did not score a touchdown in a home game . The final score of 27 – 3 also made Delaware ' s third straight loss scoring ten points or fewer for the first time since the end of the 1983 season . Delaware ' s eighth loss , to Villanova in the final game of the season , ended a season that saw it lose eight games for the first time in 117 seasons . The Fightin ' Blue Hens were one of only four teams in the NCAA to never lose eight games in a season , the others being Michigan ( which lost its 8th game a week before the Hens ) , Tennessee , and Ohio State .