Gonzaga–Idaho Football Rivalry

The Gonzaga–Idaho rivalry was the football game between Gonzaga University and the University of Idaho. campuses, in Spokane, Washington, and Moscow, Idaho, are approximately apart.

The football teams met 28 times from 1910 to 1941 and Idaho held a slight advantage For the last twenty meetings, from 1921 on, the rivalry was exactly even at , and the final ten were split at five wins each. They did not meet in 1912, 1917, or 1926, and Idaho did not have a varsity team the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) in 1922, while Gonzaga remained independent.

Gonzaga's dominating wins in 1939 and 1940, both shutouts, were led by halfback Tony Canadeo, a future member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. With Canadeo in the NFL, Idaho rebounded in 1941 to win 21–7 in Spokane in what was the final game in

During World War II, Gonzaga did not field a team after 1941, while Idaho played in 1942 and went on hiatus in After the war, Idaho resumed football for the 1945 season, but Gonzaga opted not to, as its program had been in financial difficulty before

Game results

:
:

* The only one to serve as head coach for both programs was Matty Mathews,
who was 1–2–1 while with Idaho , and won during his only season with Gonzaga in 1929.
* Idaho's 1918 team was non-varsity, composed of Student Army Training Corps (SATC)
After the Armistice ended World War I on November 11, they played a limited schedule; the first two games were against Gonzaga.
The opener in Moscow on November 16 was a 13–7 Idaho win, and the next week in Spokane was a 7–7 tie.

Coaching records

From 1919 through 1941; Idaho

Gonzaga

:

Idaho

:

Other sports

Men's basketball

Idaho holds the overall lead at , but Gonzaga has won the last nine, most recently in November 2008 at home in the halftime was and it was the third consecutive non-competitive game in

Prior to both teams joining the new Big Sky Conference as charter members in 1963, Idaho had a large lead in the series at . foes, they met two or three times per season and Gonzaga led at , plus two wins in tournaments. After sixteen years in the Big Sky, Gonzaga left for the WCAC in the summer of 1979, but the rivalry continued as an annual game (and occasionally biannual). fifteen games through 1990, Idaho went but Gonzaga has since dominated at . The last seven games in the series have been played on the Gonzaga campus; the last in Idaho was in The Vandals' most recent win was in and they last won in Spokane in

After more than a decade, the teams were scheduled to meet in December 2020 in Spokane, but the game was canceled due to COVID-19 issues.

Game results

Since December 1979, Gonzaga leads , all non-league
:
:^ Two games were played at the Spokane Coliseum (Nov 1987, Nov 1988), both won by Idaho
:

Baseball

In the eleven seasons of baseball in the Big Sky (1964–74), Idaho and Gonzaga each won four league titles. The Vandals were champions in 1964, 1966, 1967, and 1969, while Gonzaga won in 1965, 1971, 1973, and 1974.

Baseball was one of five sports that the Big Sky stopped sponsoring in 1974, so both moved to the new Nor-Pac in 1975, and continued as conference foes until Idaho dropped its program in May 1980. The last eleven seasons of the baseball rivalry (1970–80) saw the Bulldogs dominate at .

See also

* List of NCAA college football rivalry games

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzaga-Idaho football rivalry
College football rivalries in the United States
Idaho Vandals football
Gonzaga Bulldogs football