Catholic Cardinals Football

The Catholic University Cardinals football team represents the Catholic University of America in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III college football competition as a member of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC). The team played its first game in 1895 and was a major college team in the first half of the 20th century, into the 1940s. The football program was put on hiatus during World War II, and then discontinued shortly afterwards. In 1965, football returned to the university at the club level, and, in 1977, re-entered NCAA competition as part of Division III. The Cardinals have participated in the Division III playoffs three times in the late 1990s and have secured two Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) championships. The head coach is Mike Gutelius.

History

Catholic's first known intercollegiate football game came on Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1895, in Emmitsburg, Maryland. They faced Mount Saint Mary's, of which six of the eleven Catholic players were alums. A contemporary article in ''The Mountaineer'', the Mount Saint Mary's student newspaper, described it as being "rather warm for hard foot-ball playing, and consequently neither team seemed to play with much snap or vim." The Mountaineers scored a touchdown immediately before halftime to take a 4–0 lead. Catholic recovered a blocked field goal attempt and ran it back 92 yards for the equalizing score. Mount Saint Mary's later pulled away with a safety and a touchdown with two-point kick. The final result was 12–4.

In the 1920s, the Catholic "Red and Black" became known as the "Cardinals", sometimes expanded to the "Flying Cardinals" or, less often, the "Fighting Cardinals". Brookland Stadium/ Killion Field opened on October 4, 1924, and helped to increase the prominence of the football team. In 1930, Catholic secured former Minnesota assistant Arthur "Dutch" Bergman as their new head coach. During his tenure, Bergman scheduled teams farther afield such as , , , and .Varsity Success
, Catholic University of American, retrieved March 16, 2009.

In 1935, the Cardinals finished the regular season with a 7–1 record. The Catholic defense recorded three shutouts, allowed only 34 points, and no rushing touchdowns. The performance impressed the Orange Bowl committee enough for it to extend an invitation to play against Mississippi in the 1936 Orange Bowl. During the game, Bill Adamaitis caught a pass for the first touchdown and then threw for another score. He became the first of only three players to score both receiving and passing touchdowns in the same Orange Bowl. Ole Miss responded when Ned Peters ran for a 67-yard touchdown for a 13–6 halftime mark. In the second half, the Cardinals blocked a punt and returned it 20 yards for the score. Ole Miss recorded two more touchdowns, but missed the penultimate extra point, which proved Catholic's margin of victory