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 (right on). 

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, 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 or other cool stuff to show it to you here.

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

The Pacific Tigers 

Why did I choose this team?

You know the phrase “Go west, young man” associated with manifest destiny? Well, the westward call was heard, and I looked at my list of schools who used to have a football team. I narrowed it down to Pepperdine or the University of the Pacific. Then I remembered Pacific was in one of the early editions of the Bill Walsh College Football game in the early 1990s, and that broke the tie. I’ll probably do Pepperdine next anyway. 

History of the team

If you don’t know too much about the University of the Pacific, this program is littered with legends and has such a rich history. I don’t think I will be able to do it justice here, but I recommend diving into it. Also, remember why I am writing this: I want to tell the tale of the Best Season of All Time for Schools Who Stopped Having A Football Team. 

The Pacific Tigers football team represented the University of the Pacific and started in 1895, as an independent. In their first game in program history, the Tigers tied San Jose State 6–6 in January 1896. The game took place during the 1895 academic year, and they get credit for the 1895 season, even though they played their first game in 1896. I think this is the first football team I have come across with their first football game taking place in January. Maybe there are others, but that is another research project. 

Wikipedia has the program starting in 1895 also but there aren’t any records I could find for teams through 1900-1918, and neither could Wiki. 

Throughout the Programs’ history, they bounced in and out of Conference rather frequently. From 1895 to 1921, they were Independent, then they hopped into the California Coast Conference from 1922 to 1923, winning one Conference Championship in 1923. Then they went Independent again in 1924. Then they jumped into the Far West Conference from 1925-1942. They won five Far West Conference titles during this time period (1936, 1938, 1940, 1941, & 1942). An amazing stat for these conference titles; they were only above .500 for two out of the five! 

In 1942, they went 2-0 in the conference but finished 2-7-1 overall. But hey, their conference only had three teams at the time! 

Oh yeah, from 1933 to 1946, they were coached by Amos Alonzo Stagg (Stagg’s Wikipedia). An absolutely legendary figure in College Football and the University of the Pacific program. I probably should have mentioned that earlier. He ended his head coaching career at "College of the Pacific" in 1946, and donated the land for the stadium to be built in 1950.

In 1946, they joined the California Collegiate Athletic Association until 1948. Won their 7th and final conference title Then set out on a life of Independence through 1968. 

The aforementioned Pacific Memorial Stadium in 1950.

They finally settled in the Pacific Coast Athletic Association/Big West Conference through the end of their program's existence in 1995. 

They played in six “bowl” games in their history but only three of those were NCAA sanctioned bowl games.

The two Lodi Grape Bowls and Optimist Bowl were not sanctioned Bowl Games and they went 1-1-1 in those. 

The three NCAA sanctioned Bowls were the one Raisin Bowl and two Sun Bowls. They went 2-1 in those. And I don’t consider these teams the best season of all time. 

Also, there was another “Bowl” game in their history but we will talk about that one later…

Pacific Memorial Stadium was officially renamed Amos Alonzo Stagg Memorial Stadium on October 15, 1988. Just going to post stadium pics here now. 

Amos Alonzo Stagg Memorial Stadium was being used for Soccer and other sports before being torn down in 2014. 

The history of this program is incredible really, and I would have to write a separate post on this, but the program has three members in the College Football Hall of Fame:  Amos Stagg, Eddie LeBaron (you’ll meet him soon), and Wayne Hardin. The Program also boasts one member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, a coach for the Raiders, Tom Flores. They’ll likely get one more Pro Football Hall of Famers if/when Pete Carroll is inducted. Some more notable players and alumni include Jon Gruden, Hugh Jackson, Bob Cope (look at this phenomenal hat he wore while coaching the team!), Jim Fassel, Bruce Coslet and Ed Donatell. 

I am going to just photo dump here because this archive is marvelous, and I don’t want to leave!

Commence photo dump!

Thank you for allowing me to do that and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I could have done so much more.

When the program shut down in 1995 they had an overall record of 346–403–24 (.463). In actuality, not winning a conference title since 1947 put a drain on their overall record, and they’d currently be hanging around these two programs with this winning percentage.

Why did the football team get shut down?

On December 19, 1995, the Board of Regents voted to disband the team in order to save money for the athletic program, which was reported to have gone over $400,000 in debt. All scholarships were honored for current players of the team. 

Again, this pesky money thing. Another reason football started costing more. A ton of the schools nearest to the Tigers closed their programs down a few years earlier. “It was really a financial decision, and there were some external factors that went beyond our control,” said Cindy Spiro, who served as Pacific’s assistant athletic director at the time of the program’s disbandment. “Other factors include the loss of competition in the state of California.” (Source for quotes here What happened to the University of the Pacific’s football team? )

Between 1987 and 1992, four of Pacific’s traditional rivals dropped football, making it difficult for the program to have a geographically friendly schedule. Pacific’s rivals that dropped football around that time were California State University, Fullerton, Long Beach State (BSOATFSWSHAFT - Part 4 of ??? - The Long Beach State 49ers ), the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Santa Clara University. 

“In total, 22 have dropped football in the state of California. Basically, the loss of some natural rivals close by really impacted the financial situation at the University of the Pacific,” said Spiro. So, the rivals not being able to play football had a knock-on effect on the cost of football at Pacific, and then basically they had to shut the program down.

The 1949 Pacific Tigers

The 1949 Pacific Tigers were coached by Larry Siemering. He played college football at the University of San Francisco and professionally in the National Football League (NFL) with the Boston Football Team in 1935 and 1936. Siemering served as the head football coach at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, from 1947 to 1951 and at Arizona State University in 1951, compiling a career college football coached record of 41–8–4. Siemering front left below.

He also was the head coach of the Canadian Football League's Calgary Stampeders in 1954. In all, Siemering's football career as a player and coach lasted more than forty years.

Siemering did something that is very difficult to do at any time. He had to follow a legendary Head Coach and innovator of the game of College Football in Amos Alonzo Stagg, and he did it magnificently.

Pacific was Independent for this season and they couldn’t win a Conference Title but I don’t think this matters and why this team is their Best Team of All Time. As you can see from the picture, they set a National Collegiate Scoring record of 575 Points in a season.

The Tigers were led by Quarterback Eddie LeBaron (below), who was selected by both the Associated Press and International News Service as a first-team player on the 1949 All-Pacific Coast football team.

Also, LeBaron was a two-way, 60-minute player, as a quarterback on offense, safety on defense, and punter on special teams. He really did it all.

The season started slowly for the Tigers, and they narrowly defeated the San Francisco Dons 7-6.

Jimmy Ryan, the U.S.F. quarterback, scored for the Dons from four yards out on a sneak late in the fourth period, but linebacker Harry Kane broke through the Dons' forward wall to block tackle Joe Wozniack's try for the extra point, which proved to be the winning margin. This was by far their closest game of the year, as no other team got within 27 points of them for the rest of the year.

(Not the English striker who plays for Bayern Munich)

I am going to use the Pacific Year Book headlines for the narration here because the Tigers were about to start rolling and crushing teams:

• They “Licked the Lions” of Loyola 52-0.

• “Blasted the Bearcats” of Cincinnati 34-7.

• “Walloped the Wolf Pack” of Nevada, 47–6.

• “Pasted the Pilots” of Portland 75-20.

  • They set an all-time school scoring mark with 75 points and 11 Touchdowns in this game.

• “Anchored the Aztecs” of San Diego State 62–14.

• They "Speared the Spartans” their rival San Jose State 45-7.

  • After this win, they made it into the AP Poll at #19.

• “Undid the Utes” of Utah, 45–6.

  • They dropped out of the AP Poll, guess not enough style points undoing the Utes.

• “Bounced the Bulldogs,” another rival, Fresno State, 45-0.

  • They jumped back into the AP Poll at #11 after this win.

You know that record of most points in a game they set a few games back in this season? Well, the Tigers exceeded that 75 points in a game school record when they took on Cal Poly on the road in San Luis Obipso.

They “Massacred the Mustangs” 88-0.

I love the yearbook saying they needed 88 points to reach 500 total points for the season. They scored 13 touchdowns in this game, an astounding performance that only moved them up one spot to #10 in the AP Poll.

They had one last game this year in Honolulu against Hawaii. Now I know if you remember the beginning of this Best Season of All Time, you remember how many total points they scored on the season (don’t scroll up to cheat).

Well they “Plastered the Pineapples” by the score of 75-0.

Look the yearbook said thus ended Pacific’s greatest football season and long will be remembered the Titanic Tigers of ‘49. It really is a shame they didn’t get invited to a bowl game…well they did or at least of some sort.

Presenting what was known as the CASH BOWL. After the season, Fans and sports writers debated who was better between Cal star signal caller Bob Celeri and LeBaron after the 1949 season and game was set up.

The players were *gasps* paid cash to play in the game????!!!! *faints*

Eddie Jr. highlighted one of Lodi’s biggest sports moments by drawing over 24,000 fans to the Grape Bowl in 1950 in the media-spurred Celeri-LeBaron Game.

“Football in February—who would have believed it? (Well, I have some news 1950) Setting a completely new precedent for football all over the nation, two representative teams from the University of California and the College of the Pacific met to answer two great questions. . . Which was the better team, the 1949 Tigers or the Rose Bowl Bears? And which was the better quarterback, Eddie LeBaron or Bob Celeri?”

Actually, neither question was completely answered. (Dying laughing at the concept of this debate raging on to this day on First Take, LeBaron or Celeri)

“The LeBaron's annexed the tilt 7 to 6 in a stellar defensive battle that saw a soggy turf holding most of the vaunted runners in check and keeping the expected aerial battle down to a walk. Celeri threw plenty of passes, some of which were dropped by his flankers, and LeBaron had an injured shoulder (Skip Bayless would wind up being a LeBaron hater, I bet), which allowed him to toss out only six passes, two of which were caught. Celeri had more completions, but it was the tremendous line play of both aggregations that was the fine point of the game. The Celeri's probably fielded a stronger defensive unit in this game than they were able to muster in two Rose Bowl games, adding such defensive stalwarts as Frank Van Deren and Norm Pressley to their roster from the 48 Bears.”

“Bronco Bruce Orvis scored the LeBaron tally after setting up the score with two rambles, which led to the one-yard line Wayne Hardin converted out of LeBaron's fingertips early in the first period, giving the Stocktonians a lead that they never relinquished. The Celeri's scored in the final half but were unable to convert and was the difference between the two units.”

The 1949 Pacific team was so good that they won an All-Star game two months after the season ended.

Any chance the program returns?

I have lived in the University of the Pacific archives for the past two weeks, and I’ve fallen in love with the old program. I want it back and would love to see them back in the Big Sky, as they have an old rival in Sacramento State in that conference now. However, will they do it? I mean, can’t they just ask Pete Carroll for some money? Maybe hit up Jon Gruden for some cash?

Fact of the matter is that they are a private university with around 6,755 students. They would need a new stadium, and football is expensive. Maybe opening a Stagg Memorial Plaza honoring their football legacy will bring a renewed interest in football?

One can hope…