The 1959 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, United States. Established in 1889 and opened three years later, it was the state's sole university for 71 years, until 1963. The un ...

in the

1959 college football season The 1959 college football season was the 91st season of intercollegiate football in the United States. It concluded with two teams having claim to the major college national championship: * Syracuse compiled a perfect 11–0 record, including a ...

. Led by sixth-year head coach Skip Stahley, the

Vandals The Vandals were a Germanic people who were first reported in the written records as inhabitants of what is now Poland, during the period of the Roman Empire. Much later, in the fifth century, a group of Vandals led by kings established Vand ...

were an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

in the NCAA's University Division and had a 1–9 record. Two home games were played on campus at

Neale Stadium Neale Stadium was an outdoor athletic stadium 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 season; the track team moved to ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, with one in

Boise Boise ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho. As of the 2020 census, there were 235,685 people residing in the city. Located on the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and nor ...

at old Bronco Stadium at

Boise Junior College Boise State University (BSU) is a public research university in Boise, Idaho, United States. Founded in 1932 by the Episcopal Church, it became an independent junior college in 1934 and has been awarding baccalaureate and master's degrees It ...

. The

Pacific Coast Conference The Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) was a collegiate 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 (includin ...

disbanded in the spring, and Idaho was an independent in football for the next six seasons. They played ten games for the first time; the first six were on the road, and two games were played at night (at

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

and

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

). The Vandals suffered a fifth straight loss 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 ...

with neighbor

Washington State Washington, officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is often referred to as Washington State to distinguish it from the national capital, both named after George Washington ...

; Idaho led at halftime, but fell at Rogers Field in Pullman. In the rivalry game with

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

at Neale Stadium, the Vandals narrowly retained 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, both members of the Big Sky Conference. The trophy is, as the name im ...

in the finale to avoid going winless. After this season, Stahley took on the dual role of

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches a ...

Schedule

Coaching staff

* Don Swartz, line * Ed Knecht, backs * J. V. Johnson, ends *

Wayne D. Anderson Wayne Delbert Anderson (December 10, 1930 – January 16, 2013) was an American college basketball coach, the head coach for eight seasons at the University of Idaho, his alma mater. He was also the head baseball coach at Idaho for nine seasons, ...

, freshmen

All-Coast

No Vandals made the All-Coast team or the second team. Honorable mention were end Jim Norton and tackle Jim Prestel; both went on to lengthy pro careers.

NFL draft

Two seniors from the 1959 Vandals were selected in the

1960 NFL draft The 1960 NFL draft in which NFL teams take turns selecting amateur college American football players and other first-time eligible players, was held at the Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia on November 30, 1959. Many players, including half of thos ...

: One fifth-year senior was previously selected in the

1959 NFL draft The 1959 NFL draft had its first four rounds held on December 1, 1958, and its final twenty-six rounds on January 21, 1959. Both sessions were held at the Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia. With the first overall pick in the draft, the Green Bay Pa ...

References

External links

''Gem of the Mountains:'' 1960 University of Idaho yearbook
– 1959 football season
Go Mighty Vandals
– 1959 football season
Official game program: Idaho at Washington State
– October 24, 1959

– student newspaper – 1959 editions {{Idaho Vandals football navbox

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

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 ...