The 1937 Idaho Vandals football team represented the

University of Idaho The University of Idaho (U of I, or UIdaho) is a public land-grant research university in Moscow, Idaho. It is the state's land-grant and primary research university,, and the lead university in the Idaho Space Grant Consortium. The University ...

in the

1937 college football season The 1937 college football season ended with the Panthers of the University of Pittsburgh being named the nation's No. 1 team (and "mythical national champion") by 30 of the 33 voters in the Associated Press writers' poll. The AP poll was in it ...

. The

Vandals The Vandals were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal Kingdom, Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century. The ...

were led by third-year head coach

Ted Bank Theodore Paul Bank (December 13, 1897 – June 3, 1986) was an American college football player, coach, and Bank was a starting quarterback for Fielding Yost's 1920 and 1921 Wolverine football teams. He graduated from the university in 192 ...

, and were members of the

Pacific Coast Conference The Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) was a college athletic conference in the United States which existed from 1915 to 1959. Though the Pac-12 Conference claims the PCC's history as part of its own, with eight of the ten PCC members (including a ...

. Home games were played on campus in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

at the new

Neale Stadium Neale Stadium was an outdoor athletic stadium in the northwest United States, located on the campus of the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. Opened in 1937 for college football, it was used for over three decades, through the 1968 football s ...

, with one in

Boise Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown area's ...

at Public School Field.

Season

Led on the field by passing halfback Hal Roise, Idaho compiled a 4–3–1 overall record and were in the PCC. The recently completed Neale Stadium hosted an upset homecoming win over favored

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...

, the first of four straight wins to open the venue. In the

Battle of the Palouse The Battle of the Palouse refers to an athletic rivalry in the northwest United States, between the Vandals of the University of Idaho and Cougars of Washington State University. The two land-grant universities are less than apart on the rur ...

with neighbor

Washington State Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

, the Vandals suffered a tenth straight loss, falling in the rain in Pullman on October 2. Idaho's most recent win in the series was a dozen years earlier in

1925 Events January * January 1 ** The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria. * January 3 – Benito Mussolini makes a pivotal speech in the Italia ...

and the next was seventeen years away, in 1954. The Vandals finished the season with a pair of 6–0 shutout victories over Gonzaga in

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...

, and

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

in Moscow. It was the only loss of the year for the Grizzlies and their only conference game scheduled. The team recorded four shutouts and yielded only 53 points in eight games, but tallied only 35 and went scoreless three times. The winning season was the first for Idaho football in a decade and it was followed up with a better record in

1938 Events January * January 1 ** The Constitution of Estonia#Third Constitution (de facto 1938–1940, de jure 1938–1992), new constitution of Estonia enters into force, which many consider to be the ending of the Era of Silence and the a ...

. Future coaches among the Vandal players included

Tony Knap Anthony Joseph Knap (December 8, 1914 – September 24, 2011) was an American football coach. He was the head coach at Utah State University (1963–1966), Boise State University (1968–1975), and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (1976–19 ...

Lyle Smith Lyle Hilton Smith (March 17, 1916 – July 26, 2017) was an American football and basketball player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Boise Junior College—now Boise State University&mdas ...

, and

Steve Belko Stephen Maxmillian Belko (February 14, 1916 – May 12, 2000) was an American college basketball coach at Idaho State College and the University of Oregon. He was later the third commissioner of the Big Sky Conference. Playing career The son of ...

Schedule

* The

Little Brown Stein The Little Brown Stein is a rivalry trophy awarded to the winner of the college football game between the University of Idaho Vandals and the University of Montana Grizzlies. The trophy is, as the name implies, a large stein mug with the results ...

trophy for the

game debuted the next year in

* One game was played on Friday (St. Mary's at San Francisco)

All-conference

No Vandals were named to the All-Coast team; honorable mention were end

, tackle George Thiessen, and guard Walter Musial.

References

External links

''Gem of the Mountains:'' 1938 University of Idaho yearbook
– 1937 football season
Go Mighty Vandals
– 1937 football season
Official game program: Idaho at Washington State
– October 2, 1937
WSU Libraries: Game video
– Idaho at Washington State – October 2, 1937

– student newspaper – 1937 editions {{Idaho Vandals football navbox

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

Idaho Vandals football seasons

Idaho Vandals football The Idaho Vandals are the college football team that represents the University of Idaho and plays its home games at the Kibbie Dome, an indoor facility on campus in Moscow, Idaho. Idaho is a member of the Big Sky Conference in the Football Cham ...