As college football fans rev up for another season to experience what only college football can bring, some fans have only memories … recollections of what was but no longer is. College football, you see, is no longer played on many campuses. Once there. Then gone. Forever.
The college football season gets underway this week, and the game’s return is a welcome relief after the pandemic-ridden 2020 season. But as millions of fans get ready to cheer for their favorite teams, many more fans have only memories–of a game once played on their campuses but played no more. Once there. Then gone. Forever.
University of Vermont football, 1967 (courtesy brokenbatblog.com)
Even though there are more colleges playing football today than ever before, there was a time–decades-worth of time–when the number of football-playing colleges declined significantly. Why? It was about the paradigm that used to be, namely, that the cost of football was borne by allocations from the college general fund–just like everything else.
It wasn’t until the 1970s that the paradigm shifted. Donors, alumni especially, would be asked to make football a priority. With the benefits of playing the game acknowledged–and a financial strategy for playing it (including media revenue)–the number of schools playing it increased.
That said, for a very long time, “contraction” was the name of the game in college football. I started paying attention to this subject when I noticed that some larger schools had dropped the sport, the University of Vermont, in particular. The Catamounts dropped the game in 1974. And then I noticed that UVM wasn’t the only New England school to say no to football. Boston University called it quits in 1997, and Northeastern followed in 2009.
The Demise of Catholic College Football
Those are recent occurrences, and they certainly weren’t the first. Catholic colleges and universities figure prominently on the list. The game’s demise on those campuses represented a stunning turn of affairs because many of those schools were nationally prominent back in the day.
The Catholic exodus from college football began before World War II and continued for decades. It’s a long list, too (last year of play in parenthesis). DePaul University (1938), Providence College (1941), Gonzaga University (1941), and Creighton University (1942) came first. After the War, other Catholic schools followed, including St. Louis University (1949), St. Bonaventure (1951), Marquette University (1960), Xavier University (OH) (1973), Seton Hall University (1981), St. John’s University (2002). St. Mary’s University (CA) (2003). Notre Dame and Boston College are the only major Catholic schools playing the game today.
1950 Salad Bowl, Xavier v. Arizona State (courtesy snipview.com)
Younger fans may not realize just how good Catholic football was in the early to mid-20th Century. For example, in 1939, St. Mary’s CA beat Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl. In 1950, Xavier beat Arizona State in (the no kidding) “Salad Bowl.” Duquesne finished in major football’s Top Ten in 1941, and—for a time (mostly in the ‘30s)—the Dukes had one of the top winning percentages in the nation. St. Mary’s played marquee games against Notre Dame, California, UCLA, and Southern Cal. The Gaels finished #5 in the country in 1931. Marquette also played a national schedule, including Michigan State, Kansas State, Wisconsin, and Arizona.
That’s not the complete story, though. Several Catholic schools–Canisius College (Buffalo, NY) is an example—restarted programs, bringing back football and playing it at a lower level–at least for a time. Canisius dropped football a second time in 2002, and St. Mary’s exited in 2003. St. Mary’s followed suit. But many other schools—Duquesne University, for example—continue playing outside the bounds of major college football.
Who’s left today among Catholic schools playing big-time football? Only Notre Dame and Boston College remain active in major college football.
1939 Cotton Bowl: St. Mary’s beats Texas Tech (Photo courtesy Wikipedia.org)
“The Big Exit”: The University of Chicago
The football exodus of Catholic schools was dwarfed by the biggest storyline of the 20th Century. The University of Chicago left the Big Ten in 1939, citing irreconcilable academic issues with football. Chicago’s exit was a bold statement–an indictment of the game–led by then-president Robert Maynard Hutchins, who felt that football’s commercial nature (even back then) interfered with the fundamental purpose of higher ed. And Chicago wasn’t just another school leaving the game.
The Maroons were a juggernaut in college football. Chicago played in a large, on-campus stadium; competed as a charter member in the prime athletic conference of the day, had football players with national name recognition (e.g., Jay Berwanger won the first Heisman Trophy); and the school won two national championships and seven Big Ten championships. The Maroons brought back the game in 1969, albeit not at the major level. UC plays today as a member of NCAA’s Division III.
Courtesy swarthmore.edu
Other private schools followed Chicago’s lead. The list includes (last year playing football) New York University (1952), University of Denver (1960), Pepperdine University (1961), George Washington University (1966), Bradley University (1970), University of Tampa (1974), University of the Pacific (1995), University of Evansville (1997), and Hofstra University (2009). That list includes many liberal arts colleges, too, such as Clarkson University (1952), St. Michael’s College (1953), Haverford College (1971), and Swarthmore College (2000), which started playing intercollegiate football in 1878.
Finally, state schools joined the “drop” list, including Texas, Arlington (1985), Wichita State University (1986), Cal State, Long Beach (1991), and Cal State, Fullerton (1992).
College Football’s Resurgence
But as those schools turned away from football, tons of others embraced the game. That’s because it’s about what the game can bring, including students, alumni support, and enhanced press coverage. Kristi Dosh documents the advantages in her book entitled Saturday Millionaires: How Winning Football Builds Winning Programs. My alma mater, St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY, is an example. Fisher didn’t have a program until 1999 (the first year of competition). The Cardinals joined The Empire 8 Conference, have won numerous conference titles over the years, and have been become regionally/nationally competitive in Division III football. The football stadium and related facilities also serve as the pre-season home of NFL’s Buffalo Bills.
Fisher isn’t alone. About 180 new programs were started between 1978-2014. By 2015, there were nearly 780 programs, with 11 new programs added in ’14 and ’15 alone. Those additions include The College of Idaho, East Tennessee State, Kennesaw State, and Arizona Christian University. By 2019 (pre-COVID), the number had grown to nearly 900 schools.
And what happens these days when a university president tries to eliminate the sport–as Hutchins did at Chicago 80 years ago? The answer is “trouble,” and a case in point is Alabama-Birmingham. A president’s decision to drop football brought political turmoil—despite an enormous price tag for keeping the game alive. Alumni rallied, fundraised, and the sport returned to campus.
There’s something else, too. Many schools are upping the level of play, moving from a lower-to-higher division of NCAA play. Georgia Southern University is a good example. The Eagles went from a small college standing in the ‘20s to no football for 40 years to a resurrected program (1981). Since then, the Eagles have flown, nearly upsetting NC State and Georgia Tech over the past few years. This season, they’ll play Arkansas and BYU. College football has inarguably enhanced GSU’s name recognition and status–not just athletically but academically.
Personal Recollection: St. Bonaventure Football
Still, those campuses where football was, but no longer is today, stick out for me. I grew up in Western New York State and remember leafing through college yearbooks of the late ’40s and early ‘50s. St. Bonaventure was located about 50 miles from where I lived. I recall reading about the 1948 season when the Bonnies went 7-1-1, beating national power San Francisco, 20-14, and tying another national power, Boston College, 7-7. The lone blemish was an upset, 14-6, at the hands of archrival, Canisius.
Courtesy: franciscanpublications.com
But the end came soon thereafter–in 1951–following an otherwise good year. The big win came at home against the University of Louisville, 22-21. NFL Great-To-Be, Johnny Unitas, was a Cards’ freshman that year. In the season finale, the Bonnies finished a winning campaign, beating St. Vincent’s of PA, 28-13. And a finale it truly was.
When players walked off the field, they closed a chapter of school history: there wouldn’t be “next season.” “Disproportionate resources to maintain a football team at a small school” is how President Juvenal Lalor put it. St. Bona’s primary rivals—Canisius and Niagara—dropped football around the same time. Football’s “Little Three,” as it was called, was history.
College football has changed a lot since then–some of it is good, and other things I don’t care for at all. But one thing that will never change is the schools that used to play the game. Today, the annals of history are where they reside.
Once there. Then gone. Forever.
Those college yearbooks always featured Army and Navy squads with photos of Glenn Davis, Doc Blanchard and the their counterparts. Thanks fo researching and remembering.
You discuss “larger” schools, but one of my favorites was Trinity Bible College of a small town in North Dakota, who played until two years ago and then folded when, according to their news article, they were able to suit-up only about 25-30 players for a game. I’ve seen that in high school–a team playing in one of the highest classifications in the state, but fielding just enough for an offensive and defensive team and having maybe 2-3 extra players…just went to such a game last night, and the home team crushed them by close to 50 points.
One thing I’m noticing, too, here in Idaho, is when you read the high school scores in the paper (I still get a PAPER paper, if you know what I mean), one-half or more of the scores are blow-outs, which, to me, indicates that there may be a serious problem of participation at an increasing number of schools. Last night, for example, here in my state, the reported scores included 68-6, 88-8 (the losing team actually won a state championship in its classification as recently as about 5-6 years ago), 63-14, 69-7, 61-7 and 66-13. There were much-closer scores, but these scores I listed are becoming too typical, which to me suggests less kids are playing. Sad, but true (and I’m a Notre Dame graduate and I do like football).
Interesting. You mention Catholic college football programs that have been dropped. Your single line about University of San Francisco football, omitting the fact that the 1951 USF Dons were “undefeated and uninvited,” ostracized by a racist Orange Bowl invitation committee because USF had two (2) black players in Ollie Matson and Burl Toler. The year after USF was undefeated and ranked #14 in the country, USF dropped football.
And you literally don’t mention the University of Santa Clara football program at all. SCU still holds the singular record: they are the only D1 program that played all of its Bowl games on January 1 and WON ALL OF THEM, beating LSU in the Sugar Bowl twice in 1937 and 1938 and Bear Bryant’s Kentucky Wildcats in the 1950 Orange Bowl. They ended Oklahoma’s second longest winning streak, they were ranked as high as #5 in the country several times from 1936 through 1938 (19 times consecutively among those three seasons) and pretty much every year between 1934 and 1949.