All photos from the University of Idaho Special Collections and Archives
In 1922, Idaho’s first season as a member of the Pacific Coast Conference, the football team got off to a dull offensive start, to say the least. The Vandals defeated Whitman College in their season-opener, 3-0, then were narrowly edged by Washington, 2-0 in Seattle. The caption of this Gerald Hodgins — the preeminent photographer for early 20th Century Idaho athletics — photograph reads: “Idaho leaves her mark after the ‘stunt.’” The “stunt” was an epithet of the annual Harvard Yell contest between Idaho and Washington State College, in which students from both schools performed competitive skits. Idaho may have lost the game 18-9, but the Vandals won the “stunt” with their tandem-waved yellow material, an emphatic rendition of “On Old Idaho” and a ground-etching of Idaho’s archaic symbol — the UI trident, which can now be seen pierced into the grass near Memorial Gymnasium.
Although not a traditional university-sponsored athletic event in the least, University of Idaho students once had their own head-scratching sporting practice — they were pitted against each other by class throughout several days of competitions, including an all-out fight. Based on clothing and the automobiles in the background, this capture can be placed somewhere in the early-to-mid ’20s. It features the annual “freshman-sophomore brawl,” a problematic practice by contemporary standards. First and second-year students gathered on the Administration Lawn to lay their claim as the transcendent up-and-comers in bouts of tug of war, races, and of course, differing forms of melees.
In the old days, the homecoming tradition of building a monstrous bonfire the night before the game was placed in the hands of only the youngest people on campus. Freshman were tasked with crafting a gargantuan burn-pit, and to use any incendiary material they could get their hands on. What appear to be outhouses and temporary shacks are precariously perched on top of another, making it comprehensible that the tradition was rectified about four decades later due to safety concerns. The Vandals lost to Gonzaga, 20-14 the day after this 1929 photograph was taken. They went on to finish the year 4-5 under first-year coach Leo Calland — a notable USC offensive guard in the early ’20s.
Before the University of Idaho Swim Center was constructed in 1970, Idaho swimmers used the natatorium in the basement of the Memorial Gym for meets, beginning in 1928. This 1932 photograph shows not just the swim team, but the “Helldivers” — the university’s former synchronized swimming team. For generations, the namesake was printed in the middle of a cross on each swimmer’s uniform. It was a co-ed troop, but the men’s team was discontinued after the 1986 season when the Big Sky cut swimming. Now sealed with cement, the natatorium was less than ideal for Vandal swimmers. It was cramped crudely in a basement, offered little room for spectators, and as one alum described it, “that old thing was nasty and cold.”
Pictured with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences building in the background are the members of the 1933 University of Idaho varsity fencing team. The school-sponsored sport was cut, along with wrestling and rifle, as a result of the United States’ participation in World War II. Before then, Vandal fencers wore only light cloth, business-casual style. While also donning leather helmets, insufficient of real facial protection, Idaho swordsmen parlayed against opponents on the hardwood of the Art and Architecture Building — at one point, the gym — until Memorial Gymnasium was completed in 1928. Nowadays, fencing is a club sport, but not a new or unimportant one.
Pictured here is Skip Stahley — the eight-year skipper for Idaho football and four-year athletic director — having a word with junior tackle Ron Ismael as the Vandal defense tries to stifle a stingy Washington State team during the 1960 Battle of the Palouse. Stahley assumed duties as head coach of the football team in 1954, and subsequently rose to Gem State stardom after leading Idaho to its first victory over Washington State in 29 years. Cougar fans were forced to march eight miles from Moscow to Pullman, as per tradition in those times, and that season’s dreary trek was even featured in Life Magazine. After the Pacific Coast Conference disbanded in 1959, Stahley struggled to field any meaningful teams as an NCAA Independent. He stepped down from coaching after the 1961 season to assume full responsibility as athletic director, and left the program in 1964. However, the late Stahley is a member of the Idaho Sports Hall of Fame and the university disperses a scholarship in his name.
Colton Clark can be reached at [email protected]