The 1956 Washington State Cougars football team was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

team that represented

Washington State College Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant univer ...

during the

1956 NCAA University Division football season The 1956 NCAA University Division football season saw the University of Oklahoma Sooners finish a third consecutive season unbeaten and untied to again win the national championship. The 1956 season saw the NCAA split member schools into two divi ...

. Led by first-year head coach

Jim Sutherland James Swanson Sutherland (August 20, 1914 – June 21, 1980) was an American football player and coach. the head coach at Washington State University in Pullman from 1956 to 1963, with a record in eight seasons. An innovator, Sutherland ...

, the team posted a 3–6–1 overall record, and were 2–5–1 in the Pacific Coast Conference. Hired in January, Sutherland was previously an assistant at rival

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

for a season under head coach

John Cherberg John Andrew Cherberg (October 17, 1910 – April 8, 1992) was an American politician, football coach, teacher and television executive. He served as the 13th Lieutenant Governor of Washington from 1957 to 1989, a longer tenure than any other lie ...

, preceded by two years at

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

under

Pappy Waldorf Lynn Osbert "Pappy" Waldorf (October 3, 1902 – August 15, 1981) was an American college football player and coach. He received the first national collegiate football coach of the year award in 1935. Waldorf became known for his motivational coa ...

. His initial contract with the Cougars was for three years, estimated at $12,000 per year, and he led the program for eight seasons, through

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Co ...

Schedule

NFL Draft

One Cougar was selected in the

1957 NFL Draft The 1957 National Football League draft had its first four rounds held on November 26, 1956, at the Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia and its final twenty-six rounds on January 31, 1957 at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel also in Philadelphia. This wa ...

, which was thirty rounds (360 selections).

References

External links

Game program: Stanford vs. WSC at Spokane
– September 22, 1956
Game program: Oregon State at WSC
– October 20, 1956
Game program: USC at WSC
– November 3, 1958
Game program: Washington vs. WSC at Spokane
– November 24, 1956

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 ...

Washington State Cougars football seasons Washington State Cougars football {{Collegefootball-1950s-season-stub