1908

The team opened the season against the YMCA from Spokane. The Argonaut described the YMCA men as a individual stars who had not played together as a team prior to this season. The game was the inaugural performance on the “new” athletic field. The field, which predates even McLean Field was situated in a north-south orientation at approximately the location of the present day Education Building. As expected, the yet-to-be-named Vandals hardly struggled with the YMCA, winning by a score of 31-0.

The next game would be against the Bremerton Navy. This team was composed of “full grown men who are given three hours leave from duty each day that they may practice“.  The Bremerton team would face off against Idaho on Saturday, stay in Moscow for the week, and then play Washington State the following Friday. Idaho again handled their opponent with ease, defeating the Marines 32-0. The Bremerton team described Idaho as the fastest team in the northwest.

Idaho’s historic difficulty with the Oregon Ducks continued in 1908. The Arg described the game as “spectacular” but Idaho fell just short of Oregon and lost by the score of 27-21.

Because of Idaho’s strong performance in the first three games of the season it was expected that Idaho would prevail easily over Whitman next. But, the Missionaries surprised everyone and defeated Idaho 11-0. Idaho twice had the ball down to the Whitman 1 yard line but twice Idaho was denied. Falling to a record of 2-2 on the season, Idaho prepared next for Washington State. Then, as now, the entire season would be considered a success if Idaho could defeat the State College.

A huge crowd of 3,000 spectators witnessed the epic clash that would take place in Pullman. Neither team was able to cross the goal and the game finished a 4-4 tie. A pair of 4 point field goals in the first half was all the scoring that was allowed between the bitter rivals.

For the final game of the season Idaho would travel to Salt Lake to take on Utah. On a snowy field Idaho and Utah played to a 0-0 tie. The game was called an hour in because of weather. Still, 1500 brave souls witnessed the battle. Idaho was expecting to defeat Idaho easily but the silver and gold outplayed Utah, who was lucky to escape without a loss.