1979 University of Houston Football Media Guide

Continuing our trek through various categories of collectibles, let's move on to items that are created by the university. The first collectibles falling into that category that I'll examine are media guides.

Media guides, as the name implies, were originally created to provide background information for media members covering games. Guides date back to the 1930s. Somewhere along the way though, things changed. Media guides became promotional material, recruiting tools, and moneymakers. Some schools had guides over 400 pages long in the early 00s. In 2004, the NCAA mandated a maximum limit of 208 pages on media guides.

Today's collectible is a football media guide from 1979. I do have this guide in my personal collection, and the photos below are of mine. First of all, let me say that I love the cheerleader uniforms on the back of the guide. I love the helmets on the player and the helmet buggy. That was a classic uniform.

The 1979 team is one of the greatest in UH history. The Coogs tied their best winning percentage at 11-1 (with 1973) and had their second best postseason ranking at number 5 (The Coogs were ranked #4 in 1976). They ended the season by beating top 10 Nebraska in the Cotton Bowl.