1942 Idaho Vandals football team

The 1942 Idaho Vandals football team represented the University of Idaho in the 1942 college football season. The Vandals were led by second-year head coach Francis Schmidt and were members of the Pacific Coast Conference.

1942 Idaho Vandals football
Conference	Pacific Coast Conference
Record	3–7 (1–5 PCC)
Head coach	Francis Schmidt (2nd season)
Assistant coaches	James "Babe" Brown Guy Wicks (freshmen)
Home stadium	Neale Stadium
Seasons ← 1941 1945 →

1942 Pacific Coast Conference football standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 13 UCLA $	6	–	1	–	0			7	–	4	–	0
Washington State	5	–	1	–	1			6	–	2	–	2
No. 12 Stanford	5	–	2	–	0			6	–	4	–	0
USC	4	–	2	–	1			5	–	5	–	1
Oregon State	4	–	4	–	0			4	–	5	–	1
Washington	3	–	3	–	2			4	–	3	–	3
California	3	–	4	–	0			5	–	5	–	0
Oregon	2	–	5	–	0			2	–	6	–	0
Idaho	1	–	5	–	0			3	–	7	–	0
Montana	0	–	6	–	0			0	–	8	–	0
$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

Idaho was ranked at No. 147 (out of 590 college and military teams) in the final rankings under the Litkenhous Difference by Score System for 1942.^[1]

Home games were played on campus in Moscow at Neale Stadium, with one game in Boise at Public School Field, the last in southern Idaho for five years.

Schmidt, age 56, was a longtime college football head coach, most recently in the Big Ten Conference at Ohio State University (1934–1940), where he was succeeded by a 32-year-old high school coach named Paul Brown.

Shortly before the start of the 1943 season, the Idaho football program (with Washington State and Oregon State) went on hiatus due to World War II;^[2][3] two seasons were missed and Vandal football returned in 1945.

Season

The Vandals were 3–7 overall in 1942 and 1–5 in conference play.

Prior to their second-ever night game, played at Gonzaga Stadium in Spokane against the Second Air Force on October 3, the Vandals practiced under the lights in Moscow with white and yellow footballs.^[4] They had won their first the previous year over Gonzaga,^[5][6] but lost to the military team, 14–0.^[7][8]

In the Battle of the Palouse with neighbor Washington State, the Vandals suffered a fifteenth straight loss, falling 7–0 on a soggy field at Neale Stadium in Moscow on November 14.^[9][10] Idaho's most recent win in the series was a 17 years earlier in 1925 and the next was a dozen years away, in 1954.

Two weeks earlier on Halloween, Idaho broke a rare three-game losing streak to Montana in the rivalry game for the Little Brown Stein with a 21-point shutout at Missoula.^[11][12] The Vandals turned the tables on the Griz, who had shut out Idaho the previous year in Moscow. When Montana was a member of the PCC (through 1949), the loser of the game was frequently last in the conference standings.

The final game was in Los Angeles on December 5, a 40–13 loss to the UCLA Bruins, the conference champions who were Rose Bowl-bound.^[13][14]

Schedule

Date	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
September 26	Oregon State	Neale Stadium Moscow, ID	L 0–32	7,000	^[15]
October 3	vs. Second Air Force*	Gonzaga Stadium Spokane, WA	L 0–14	7,000	^[16]^[7]^[8]
October 9	at Eastern Washington*	Cheney, WA	W 28–7	2,500	^[17]^[18]
October 17	at Stanford	Stanford Stadium Stanford, CA	L 7–54	5,000	^[19]
October 24	at Oregon	Hayward Field Eugene, OR	L 0–28	4,000	^[20]^[21]
October 31	at Montana	Dornblaser Field Missoula, MT (Little Brown Stein)	W 21–0	2,000	^[11]^[12]
November 14	Washington State	Neale Stadium Moscow, ID (Battle of the Palouse)	L 0–7	5,000	^[9]^[10]
November 21	Portland*	Public School Field Boise, ID	W 20–14	6,000	^[22]
November 26	at Utah*	Ute Stadium Salt Lake City, UT (on Thanksgiving)	L 7–13	12,500	^[23]
December 5	at UCLA	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA	L 13–40	25,000	^[13]^[14]
*Non-conference game Homecoming

• One game was played on Friday (Eastern Washington at Cheney)
  and one on Thursday (Utah at Salt Lake City on Thanksgiving)
• One game was played at night (Second Air Force at Spokane)

Conference opponents not played this season: Washington, California, USC

All-conference

No Vandals were named to the All-Coast team.^[24][25]

NFL Draft

Three Vandal seniors were selected in the 1943 NFL Draft, which lasted 32 rounds (300 selections).

Player	Position	Round	Overall	Franchise
Veto Berllus	End	20th	186	New York Giants
Irv Konopka	Tackle	26th	241	Detroit Lions
Pete Hecomovich	Back	30th	284	Chicago Cardinal

After the season

Like many colleges, the football program at Idaho was stopped during the war due to manpower shortages, made official in late September 1943.^[2][3] Schmidt continued to reside in Moscow, but his health began to fail in the spring of 1944. He spent his last three weeks at St. Luke's Hospital in Spokane, Washington, where he died on September 19 at age 58.^{[26][27][28][29][30][31][32]}

UI alumnus and assistant coach James "Babe" Brown, the acting athletic director and head basketball coach, became the interim head football coach for 1945 and the head coach in 1946.^[33]

References

1. Dr. E. E. Litkenhous (December 16, 1942). "Litkenhous Rates Georgia No. 1, Ohio State No. 2". Twin City Sentinel. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
2. "Idaho, Washington State, and O.S.C. withdraw from Northern Division football loop". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). Associated Press. September 24, 1943. p. 8.
3. Ashlock, Herb (September 24, 1943). "Hollingbery to stay "at present salary," but Schmidt's status not revealed". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). p. 9.
4. "Vandals drill under lights". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). Associated Press. October 1, 1942. p. 8.
5. Stark, Charles R., Jr. (October 11, 1941). "Idaho outplays Gonzaga before 8000 fans and wins football game". Spokesman-Review. Spokane, Washington). p. 9.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
6. Ashlock, Herb (October 11, 1941). "Schmidt's improving Idaho eleven defeats Gonzaga, 21-7". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). p. 9.
7. "Pullman car may be Vandals' hotel, Spokane, today". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). Associated Press. October 3, 1942. p. 12.
8. "2nd Air Force defeats Idaho Vandals, 14-0". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). Associated Press. October 4, 1942. p. 12.
9. "Officials' ruling on lateral saves Cougars from Vandal tie". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). Associated Press. November 15, 1942. p. 11.
10. "W.S.C. - Air Force game on Saturday looms all important". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). November 16, 1942. p. 13.
11. "Vandals aerial attack defeats Montana, 21-0". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). Associated Press. November 1, 1942. p. 13.
12. "Idaho puts Montana in conference cellar". Eugene Register-Guard. United Press. November 1, 1942. p. 18.
13. "Vandals game in losing to UCLA, 40-13, and crowd of 25,000 finds contest one of the season's best". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). Associated Press. December 6, 1942. p. 13.
14. "Bruins, Trojans win Coast tilts". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). United Press. December 6, 1942. p. 21.
15. Thomas, Jim (September 27, 1942). "Vandals lose to heavier OSC eleven, 32-0". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). p. 11.
16. "Second Air Force "Superbombers" (1942)". Greater Northwest Football Association. Retrieved November 20, 2016.
17. Stark, Charles R., Jr. (October 10, 1942). "Idaho defeats Eastern Washington in game which shows everything". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). p. 10.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
18. "Vandals click with Manson to trounce Cheney". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). Associated Press. October 10, 1942. p. 8.
19. "Cards trounce Vandals, 54-7". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). Associated Press. October 18, 1942. p. 9.
20. "Oregon defeats Vandals, 28-0". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). Associated Press. October 25, 1942. p. 11.
21. Strite, Dick (November 25, 1942). "Oregon swamps Idaho Vandals 28-0 for first win". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). p. 1.
22. "Vandals defeat Pilots, 20-14, in late rally". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). Associated Press. November 22, 1942. p. 11.
23. "Utah is victor over Idaho team". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. November 27, 1942. p. 10.
24. "Kennedy merits All-Coast spot". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). Associated Press. December 10, 1942. p. 14.
25. Newland, Rus (December 10, 1942). "Only two Northwest players on Coast conference all-star team". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). Associated Press. p. 10.
26. "Francis Schmidt dies in Spokane". Toled.o Blade. (Ohio). INS. September 20, 1944. p. 16. Retrieved May 1, 2012.
27. "Coach Schmidt dead, Spokane". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). Associated Press. September 20, 1944. p. 7. Retrieved May 1, 2012.
28. "Coach Schmidt of Idaho dies". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). September 20, 1944. p. 10.
29. "Schmidt dies". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). photo. September 20, 1944. p. 13.
30. "Death claims Francis Schmidt, ex-coach at the U. of Idaho". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). September 20, 1944. p. 13.
31. "Texas recalls Francis Schmidt". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. September 21, 1944. p. 10.
32. Blanchette, John (November 6, 2009). "Schmidt adds spice to UI's tale". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington).
33. "J.A. 'Babe' Brown resigns as head football coach at Idaho". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). Associated Press. November 30, 1946. p. 8.

External links

• Gem of the Mountains: 1943 University of Idaho yearbook – 1942 football season
• Go Mighty Vandals – 1942 football season
• Idaho Argonaut – student newspaper – 1942 editions
• College Football Data Warehouse 2016-01-06 at the Wayback Machine – Idaho Vandals (1940–44)