Stadium Size, Football Droppers, and Deemphasizers: Gonzaga
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.
Although I spend significant time reading about football events from long ago, I popped my head into reality yesterday to learn that Gonzaga may join the Pac-12 conference. While I had planned on reviewing Denver as the sixth football dropper, I remain sufficiently light on my research feet to swap Gonzaga for Denver, so here is a late-breaking story on the history of the gridiron Bulldogs.
It is clear that Gonzaga's attraction to the Pac-12 results from the strength of its basketball program, not its football program, but, as you will soon see, there is at least one grand connection between their football and basketball histories.
Gonzaga was a mediocre program throughout its football history, playing a schedule dominated by Northwestern teams. Crosstown rival Washington State, plus Idaho, Montana, Portland, and one or two games per year in exotic locations like Arizona, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Detroit, allowed the lads to see new parts of the country.
Gonzaga’s physical commitment to football came in 1922 when they built Gonzaga Stadium, which sat 12,000 and once packed in more than 25,000 with temporary bleachers for a high school tournament.
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