One of the projects the Sickos Committee on Substack will explore during this off-season is one where we will do a dive into the internet archives to find out the seemingly lost history of College Football teams who we used to have playing on Saturdays in the fall. We will explore universities and colleges who used to have football but then decided for whatever reason to end their football program. Then we will highlight their Best Season of all time in our however many part series called the Best Season of All Time for Schools Who Stopped Having A Football Team also known as the BSOATFSWSHAFT (shut your mouth! why? I am just talking ‘bout the BSOATFSWSHAFT). 

I’ll give you some background on the program if I can find it. Give you some basic history about the team, when they started playing and when/why they stopped playing and of course their best season in my opinion. Also, I’ll see if I can find a football helmet with the logo to show it to you here or other things I find interesting.

Now for the next team I wish to explore in this series…

The Gonzaga Bulldogs

Why did I choose this team?

With the crazy conference realignment drama that happened last year there were some brief rumors about Gonzaga joining the Big XII for basketball. Some of the weird rumors caused people to joke or suggest that Gonzaga should bring back football too. It’d be really insane for Gonzaga to come back and then be expected to get to a Big XII level of football as soon as possible. Well, let’s explore their football history to see just how insane it would really be to bring football back to Gonzaga. 

History of the team 

The Gonzaga football program was founded and coached by Dr. Henry Luhn in 1892. Luhn played for Notre Dame and was its captain in both 1887 and 1888. His time with Notre Dame led Gonzaga to be known as “Notre Dame of the West.” The moniker “Fighting Irish,” also after Notre Dame, was attached to the Gonzaga team as well in the early days. The Gonzaga Bulletin

The nickname changed relatively quickly to reflect the colors of the school and they were known as the Gonzaga “Blue and Whites”. Guess the name Fighting Irish didn’t fly too far in Spokane close to the turn of the century. 

Just four years later in 1897, the newfound game of football was suspended by the administration after a few students suffered serious injuries. Parents around Spokane objected to the game and the college obliged. State legislators also got involved and threatened to ban it at the state level if certain safety precautions were not made. 

For the next 10 years, the game of football matured with the addition of the forward pass and other rules, and Gonzaga welcomed football back in 1907.

In 1920, Charles “Gus” Dorais was hired as athletic director and head football coach. The team’s nickname changed to the Bulldogs in 1921. 

The football team played on a gravel-laden field for almost 15 years of its existence before additional funding was pumped in, and the next step in their development took place. Calls for a new stadium began in 1920 after a new athletic board was formed at the school which coincided with the hiring of Gus Dorais and taking football a little bit more seriously. Also, I don’t think anyone wants to be tackled on gravel. Ouch. 

On May 16, 1922, ground was formally broken and the estimated cost of the stadium was $100,000, which translates to about $1.2 million today. The Gonzaga Bulletin 

Gonzaga Stadium some time after 1931 with the lights installed. 

It was the victim of many acts of vandalism, it became too much of a hassle. So they tore down the stadium in 1949.

The Stadium is now the site of the Foley Center.

As for the football program, from 1892 to 1941, Gonzaga went 134–99–20 (.569) and they earned one bowl appearance, in 1922 in the San Diego East-West Christmas Classic.

The Bulldogs lost to the undefeated West Virginia Mountaineers 21-13 in their only bowl game. Gonzaga was down 21-0 at one point but fought back like determined “bulldogs” and the nickname really stuck once used in the San Diego newspaper. The Mountaineers claimed a share of the national title that season. (game picture above)

The .569 (nice) Winning Percentage would put Gonzaga in this range of teams nowadays. Also, Gonzaga football was an independent program for its entire history.

Gonzaga’s most notable football player was running back Tony Canadeo (1919–2003) from Chicago, who played in the NFL for the Green Bay Packers from 1941 to 1952 and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1974.

You couldn’t forget a face like that. 

or that kicking style..

Ray Flaherty joined him as another NFL Hall of Famer (as a head coach) in 1976 from Gonzaga. Flaherty was a player in the 1920s for Gonzaga (you may see him again shortly), was a coach of the Bulldogs in 1930 going 1-7-1. It was a weird break in his NFL Career, because he took a year off to coach Gonzaga but then returned to the NFL in 1931, won an NFL Championship as a player in 1934 with the New York Giants as a receiver, then won two NFL Championships in 1937 and 1942 as a Head Coach with Boston/Washington. As a player, he was a seven time All Pro and had his #1 Retired with the New York Giants. 

Just look at this form. 

Why did the football team get shut down?

You see, there was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand who was the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo in 1914 which eventually led to the outbreak of the First World War.

Wait, sorry it was the other World War, the one that happened after that one…

The final game in the history of the program came on Nov. 22, 1941 against Washington State. Gonzaga was embarrassed 59-0 in front of their home fans.

Then a little over two weeks later, the Attack on Pearl Harbor took place on December 7th, 1941.

Like many colleges, the Gonzaga football program went on hiatus during World War II. 

World War II cleared the men out of the school for a few years and by the time they came back in the late ’40s, football was already a distant memory for school administrators.

Also, there was that pesky money thing that you need to run a football program. The football program had some financial issues turning a profit. Their best season profit-wise was $2.70. Yes, their best season they earned a profit of Two Dollars and Seventy Cents. 

Their worst season dropped them around $70,000 in the red. 

In its final 10 years, the football team amassed over $350,000 in debt. Source: The Gonzaga Bulletin

That’s basically $7,614,262.41 in the red in 2024 money. 

So this thing called World War II, not having enough players to field a team and money caused Gonzaga Football to never return from its hiatus. Pretty understandable. 

Now time for their best team of all time…

The 1924 Gonzaga Bulldogs

The 1924 Gonzaga Bulldogs were coached by Gus Dorais. Dorais was formerly the quarterback and head coach of Notre Dame (Gonzaga had a lot of connections to the Irish) and it was there that he and teammate Knute Rockne essentially re-invented the forward pass. The Gonzaga and Notre Dame connection lives again!

The QB Dorais is listed at 5’ 7” 145 lbs.

Before Dorais came to Gonzaga, he and Rockne flipped a coin to see who would coach Notre Dame and Dorais lost, leading to his hire in Spokane. Imagine if that coin toss was different, Knute Rockne could have been the coach at Gonzaga…

In May 1920, Dorais was hired as the athletic director at Gonzaga University. He also served as the head coach of the Gonzaga football, basketball, baseball, and track teams for the next five years. He was the AD and basically the coach of everything.

Dorais earned $4,000 per year at Gonzaga and was kept for a fifth season in 1924 when boosters helped raise his salary to $7,000 to prevent him from leaving for Detroit. (He left next year for Detroit anyway)

You know, I think that extra $3,000 to keep Gus was worth it, since it produced Gonzaga’s best season of all time and their only Undefeated season. Also, it helped him afford this stylish all gray sweatsuit to coach in.

Four of the 11 starters on the 1924 Gonzaga team went on to play in the National Football League: left halfback Hust Stockton (1925–29); end Ray Flaherty (1926–1935); tackle Tiny Cahoon (1926–1929); and guard Hector Cyre (1926–1928).

Well you already know about Ray Flaherty, so let's talk about Hust Stockton. Houston aka Hust Stockton came from St. Mary’s College in Oakland (now in Moraga) as a triple-threat offensive player and transferred to Gonzaga in 1922.

He was the team captain in 1924.

He was brought in to play quarterback, running back and punter. On the defensive side of the ball he also served as a linebacker. For as good as he was on offense, his defense was just as good if not better. Oh yeah, he was the father of Jack Stockton and grandfather of NBA Half of Famer and Gonzaga great John Stockton.

The prospects of the 1924 season were not always too bright and expectations seemed to be low.

Well, I guess returning talent is not a guaranteed measure of everything!

Their first game of the year, they took on Cheney Normal aka Eastern Washington. You could say they eased into the year with an FCS team. They handled Cheney easily 27-0.

Apparently, they used the forward pass “in pinches”.

In my head, I am imagining “oh no the Bulldogs find themselves in a jam” but in all actuality it’s really like 3rd and 8. Then they pass the ball like all teams do nowadays.

Their next game was against their rivals, Idaho. Now, this was Pacific Coast Conference Idaho. A crowd of 6,000 filled the stands in Spokane.

The game ended in a scoreless tie but the Bulldogs almost lost the game on a safety. Instead of falling on the ball in the end-zone, Ingram picked it up on a bounce and actually ran it out to the 15 yard line.

Gonzaga was now 1-0-1. Then they faced another rival in Washington State. They traveled for their first road game of the season down to Pullman.

Gonzaga used that new fangled forward pass and lept out to a 14-0 lead. Then had to hang on defensively but managed the 14-12 win.

*remembers to refer to Washington State as the Pullmanites from now on*

They then battled the Multnomah Athletic Club of Portland. This seemed to just be a private club team in Portland not affiliated with any school.

Stockton had a great day completing seven passes for 168 yards and also caught a 15 yard touchdown. The Bulldogs romped 14-0.

Their next game, they traveled to Montana to take on the Grizzlies in their second road game of the year.

Gonzaga was down 14-0 at halftime after giving up two long runs on the muddy and slippery field. Love the yearbook saying Coach Dorais “he told the boys many things they never had thought of before.”

Gonzaga really dominated Montana on the stat sheet too. The yearbook says Gonzaga had 613 yards from scrimmage, while the Montana paper said 513 yards from scrimmage. They only differed by two yards for the Montana total. But they at least agreed Gonzaga won 20-14. So who really knows the yardage totals. The Bulldogs were now 4-0-1. (This was a photo from a game in 1925 but thought it looked cool)

Next up was Whitman and the Bulldogs had no problem. They won 63-0.

The yearbook said it was 66-0 but again who knows what was accurate.

Gonzaga racked up 875 yards of offense in the drubbing of the Whitman Missionaries.

The Final game of the season saw Gonzaga playing the Pullmanites again!

This time Washington State and Gonzaga tied 0-0. The yearbook placed much of the blame on the groundskeeper

Old Sol apparently made a mess of the field. Also this yearbook says they were tied with Idaho for first Conference Honors?? But they weren’t in a conference and Idaho was in the Pacific Coast Conference. Time to find another source.

The Oregon Statesman Journal doesn’t mention the groundskeeper but does say it was a muddy field. They also credit Gonzaga with a last minute goal line stand to preserve the undefeated season and 0-0 tie.

Gonzaga finished the season with a record of 5-0-2 and the only undefeated season in program history!

Any chance of the program coming back?

It really doesn’t seem likely…

“The school was just rock-solid about quitting it. The best boxing team they ever had was co-national champions, but they dropped that as well because it was too expensive to keep up,” Jack Stockton said. The Gonzaga Bulletin

The administration wasn’t able to afford having a football team after scholarships, equipment, travel and game fees and they were extremely in the red in 1941.

“I doubt very much because now it is way higher (costs) than it ever was. Even the state schools are having a tough time,” Jack Stockton said. The Gonzaga Bulletin

It’d be great to see that Bulldog on the side of a helmet but I am not sure it will ever happen but who really knows for sure…