Memorable Moments: A Well-Earned Game Ball

A nearly 17-year span has filled the gap since CSU last played the BYU Cougars, but this week a rivalry which began in 1922 is renewed again. As we look back at the many games the Aggies and Rams have played against BYU, we can relive one game by looking at one football that is now on display in the Markley Family Hall of Champions for all to see. Perched on top of a mountain of footballs is a shriveled football with the score clearly reading, Colorado A&M 16, BYU 14.

In late January of 2026, Pam Decker, the daughter of former CSU halfback Joe Folsom donated a football to Colorado State University signed by all of the members of the 1949 Colorado A&M team. The ball is the game ball from the November 11, 1949, game in Provo, Utah against BYU that Folsom earned for a job well done in a close game. Looking back at the newspapers from that game, here is what that old ball, now a historic artifact, did on that day.

The Rocky Mountain Collegian serves as our vehicle to look back at this game, with the article written by Jack Snyder started out by saying, "Colorado A&M's Rams eked out a 16-14 victory over BYU's winless Cougars in a game played at Provo last Friday before 5,000 partisan fans. The Aggie victory came in the last 35 seconds of a ball game when Frank Faucett booted a field goal from 20 yards out."

That two-sentence statement may be all most fans need to know about this game, but when a player receives a game ball, it is for his achievements on the field. So why did Faucett, the kicker who won the game on a 20-yard field goal not get this ball? The answer is in the details of the game write up.

Joe Folsom, a senior on the 1949 team was reported to have been a standout all day in that game. Folsom's 40-yard pass to Faucett set up a third-quarter touchdown by Dassel Hallmark to finally get the Aggies on the board, Faucett's PAT was missed. BYU, was a 35-point underdog going into the game, led 14-0 at the half and were dominating the Rams all day. In the fourth quarter, with A&M trailing 14-6, Faucett grabbed a Statue of Liberty play and drove the Rams to the six-inch line where he dove into the end zone to score a touchdown on the next play and kick the extra point to make it 14-13 in favor of the Cougars.

Th real drama happened in a goal-line stand late in the fourth quarter when the Aggies held the Cougars on their own 1-yard-line, then drove the ball 90 yards down the field only to have the drive end with an interception. Later, Jack Christiansen's touchdown was called back and with little time remaining in the game, the Aggies had to try for the field goal with only 35 seconds left.

Folsom made the play of the day on the last drive by Colorado A&M when he took the ball around the end on fourth-and-8 and ran 36 yards for a first down and allowed the Rams to get into field goal position. It was this effort, along with the goal-line stand and passing by Folsom that earned him the game ball after the win.

While fans of today's football might ask why both players didn't get a ball for their efforts, in 1949, it was typical to only use one ball during the entire game. Today several balls are used during a football game, but in the days of leather-helmet football, there was usually only one ball used per game and only one ball was awarded by the head coach to the player he felt played the best that day. A tough decision considering Faucett scored 10 of the Rams 16 points that day but deserving to Folsom who was the workhorse of the team.

Faucett remembered this game in a 2008 interview and stated that despite winning on the last-second field goal, coach Bob Davis was unhappy with how his team performed against a team it should have easily beat. As soon as the team got off the plane from Provo, Davis gathered them around in a circle and told them to report for practice on Sunday, they needed work. That team went on to a 9-1 record, missed the conference championship by one loss to Wyoming and endured a season when their star halfback died suddenly after the season opener.

As you look at this football now resting in Canvas Stadium, remember that it is the ball which was used to score all of those points, was kicked for extra points and the game-winning field goal. One leather football, signed by players of the Colorado A&M team, as a trophy to just one football game played nearly 80 years ago. It was awarded to a player who played one of the best games of his career and he kept it in his home until his death in 2023. Both Faucett and Folsom died only two months apart, the last few members of this great era of CSU football.

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