After it officially commenced classroom instruction in November 1889 with a total enrollment of 37 graduate students, The Catholic University of America wasted little time in turning its attention toward football. Six falls later, in 1895 — with a student population of 115 — CUA fielded its first-ever gridiron squad in a Thanksgiving Day battle against Mount St. Mary’s College in Emmitsburg, Md. The game took place just 10 years after Columbia, Yale and Harvard joined Princeton and Rutgers as the country’s first football programs, and it would still be 11 more years before the advent of the forward pass.

Thanks to that 1895 game, this year marks the 110th anniversary of Cardinal football.

The Flying Cardinals’ 12-4 loss in their first contest offered no indication of the success to come: 110 years and 78 actual football seasons later, the Catholic University football program has garnered 280 wins at the club, Division I and Division III levels. The university’s teams have beaten the University of Mississippi in the 1936 Orange Bowl, tied Arizona State in the 1940 Sun Bowl, ranked as high as No. 4 in the Division III national rankings (in 1997) and produced at least 10 players who advanced to the professional ranks (see story on Page 9).

By 1909, CUA’s squad was playing multi-game seasons. And in 1924, a stadium capable of seating 25,000 fans was dedicated on the grounds of the present-day Columbus School of Law.

Although the university emerged as a gridiron powerhouse during the 1930s, its appearance in the 1940 Sun Bowl would prove to be the final shining moment of that era, as World War II caused CUA and many other prominent schools to drop their football programs altogether.

In 1947 Catholic University returned to the sport. But depleted of its pre-war talent, the team found it difficult to compete against fully funded scholarship teams. Therefore, in 1951 the university again terminated its program. For the next 15 years Catholic University’s helmets and pigskins gathered dust.

The program bounced back in 1965, when Athletic Director Eddie LaFond recruited local auto-shop manager Ronnie McManes to serve as volunteer head coach of an experimental club team. The season produced only one game (a 28-0 loss to Saint Peter’s College), but CUA’s 4,000 yelling fans and a nine-float parade down Brookland’s 12th Street made it evident that Catholic University football was back to stay. Twelve years later, the program transitioned from the club level to NCAA’s Division III. In 1997 the team made its first of three consecutive appearances in the NCAA playoffs. In 1999 it joined the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, winning the conference championship that year.

The year 2005 marks the 40th anniversary of the 1965 club team that brought football back to the university after a 15-year drought. This fall, members of that historic team returned to campus where they were honored with a mid-game celebration during CUA’s Sept. 24 victory over Randolph Macon College.

A day earlier, on Sept. 23, the university hosted an event that will positively affect the future of CUA football. A groundbreaking ceremony was held for the planned installation of a new synthetic playing surface on the football/lacrosse field. The actual installation of the synthetic turf will begin in April 2006 and be completed by the
end of the summer. Unlike grass, the new playing surface will be able to stand up to day after day of practices and games. Thanks for the new field go to CUA alumni, who have been generously contributing to the university’s Competitive Edge athletic fundraising campaign.

The state-of-the-art playing surface “will help Catholic University recruit the best student athletes available,” says Athletic Director Michael Allen. – J.H.T.

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