Stadium Size, Football Droppers, and Deemphasizers: Xavier
Stadium Size, Football Droppers, and Deemphasizers: Xavier
This series reviews the program history and stadiums of colleges that dropped or deemphasized football. Click here for the series introduction. The schools included in the review are listed below.
Xavier University of Cincinnati -St. Xavier College until 1930- started playing football in 1900, winning 57.3% of its games during the program's history. Other than the one-year coach who restarted the program after WWII, every Xavier coach had a winning record other than their last three, who had losing records in their five combined years at the helm. Through the years, their opponents were primarily composed of the equivalent of today's Group of 5. They seldom played up, other than regularly playing Kentucky, and sometimes played down one or two games per year.
Their best teams came in the 1940s and 1950s, including the 1949 team that beat a Woody Hayes-coached Miami team while losing at home to a Bear Bryant-coached and ranked Kentucky team. Their 9-1 record sent them to the Salad Bowl, where a 33-21 victory over Arizona State earned them their only 10-win season. The 1951 team went 9-0-1 but opted to stay home after earning another Salad Bowl bid.
Before 1929, the Musketeers played on campus in a stadium with 4,000 permanent seats supplemented by 2,500 more circus seats. With some rivalry games earning crowds that doubled or tripled the stadium's capacity, demand grew to build a stadium capable of handling their larger crowds.
A successful fundraising effort led to the 1929 opening of $300,000 Corcoran Stadium, which seated 15,000. Over the years, the stadium handled most home crowds well, so it never saw an expansion.
Xavier remained competitive during the 1960s but hit a rough patch from 1969 through 1971, going 1-9 in each of those years. The second loss of the 1971 season came at Marshall, marking their first win after losing the 1970 team in a plane crash.
Xavier hired a new coach after the 1971 season, who led them to a 3-8 record in 1972. After starting poorly in 1973, they finished the season with victories over Northern Illinois, Villanova, and Toledo to finish 5-5-1.
Despite having the program on the right path on the field, the school chose to drop football one month later, blaming the program's $200,000 annual deficit, an unacceptable amount for a school enrolling fewer than 6,000 students. (They also noted that their football costs had tripled in the last decade.) At the time, Xavier was one of two Division I schools that had never appeared on television, and they did not expect to receive future pots of television money. The Board of Trustees considered playing football at the non-scholarship level but determined that option was not financially viable.
Xavier demolished Corcoran Stadium in 1988, converting the space to a soccer field with limited stands. There have been muted efforts to bring back football, but none gathered strength. While Xavier could manage the Xs, adding too many Os in their athletic budget worries them, so Musketeer football is unlikely to return.
2024 Concept Uniform
My brother, Steve, dabbles in sports team logos and uniforms. Here are his concept uniforms for Xavier’s imaginary 2024 team.
Next up: NYU
Ranking by Stadium Size
Below are the schools reviewed to date, ranked by stadium size. The stadiums’ opening and demolition years (if applicable) are also noted.
Catholic (Brookland Stadium): 30,000 | 1924 | d. 1985
Marquette (Marquette Stadium): 24,000 | 1924 | d. 1977
Xavier (Corcoran Stadium): 15,000 | 1929 | d. 1988
Gonzaga (Gonzaga Stadium): 12,000 | 1922 | d . 1949
California State University, Fullerton (Titan Stadium): 10,000 | 1992 | still in use
Boston University (Nickerson Field): 10,000 | 1915 | still in use
NYU (Ohio Field): 5,000 (est.) | 1897 | d. 1947
Schools to Review
California State University, Long Beach
University of California, Santa Barbara
Carnegie Mellon
Case Western
Chicago
CCNY
Creighton
Denver
DePaul
Detroit
Drake
Loyola (Chicago)
Nebraska-Omaha
Pacific
St. Louis
St. Mary's
San Francisco
Santa Clara
Sewanee (University of the South)
Tampa
Vermont
Washington University in St. Louis
Wichita State
Football Archaeology is a reader-supported site. Consider becoming a paid subscriber or buying one of my books here.
Subscribe for free for limited content or gain full access with a paid subscription.