After ending the fall 1949 football season with a win against Lewis and Clark College, Pilot football players and fans were stunned in early February when University President, Rev. Theodore Mehling, C.S.C., announced the end of football on the Bluff. Financial resources were increasing but strained, and directed first toward meeting the extraordinary challenges of the enrollment bubble of World War II vets. Fr. Mehling’s letter cites limited funds and inadequate stadium facilities as prime reasons for not being able to support a first-class football program. An alumni group, “Pilot Booster Club”, with former football player, Emmett Barrett, ’41, as president, led a failed attempt to reverse the administration’s decision. The image of former football players at a football burial summed up the somber mood on campus.
More football trivia & history:
https://sites.up.edu/museum/up-trivia-bar-bets-football/
https://sites.up.edu/museum/exhibits/football/
(Gallery from the University Archives, click on image or text to enlarge)
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