Today's Tidbit... 1956 Pacific Coast Conference Press Book

I recently acquired a 1956 Pacific Coast Conference Football Press Book, which provides fun information about each member school, including rosters and conference records in a format I had not seen before.

The PCC was the best conference on the West Coast throughout its history. Cal, Oregon, Oregon State, and Washington formed the conference in 1915. Washington State joined in 1917, and Stanford followed in 1918. Idaho and USC came along in 1922, Montana in 1924, and UCLA in 1928. Montana dropped out in 1950, and the conference dissolved in 1959 due to the ongoing California versus Northwest split, cheating scandals, and good old academic and political battles.

The Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU) sprang from its ashes, then the Pac-8, -10, and -12. Despite the AAWU being an entirely new organization, it claimed the PCC's history and records as its own. With the pending dissolution of the Pac-12, the press guide representing one of the last years of the PCC illustrates how much college football has changed since then.

Roster Makeup

Football was a far more regional game in 1956 than today, at least based on team rosters. Today's college football rosters have strong representations of players from their home state and region, with numerous others from elsewhere in the country. But things were far more local and regional in 1956. For example, California's entire roster was from California, other than one Nevadan and a Hawaiian.