location: Santa Clara, California
current conference: West Coast
last football season: 1992
bowl games: 1937 Sugar Bowl
1938 Sugar Bowl
1950 Orange Bowl
NCAA playoffs: 1980 (Division II)
hall of fame: Len Casanova (coach)
Nello Falaschi
Tom Fears
Brent Jones
Buck Shaw (coach)
Santa Clara played at Buck Shaw Stadium, which became the training camp home of the San Francisco 49ers in 2003. Coincidentally, the stadium was named after a man whose career included coaching stints with both Santa Clara and the 49ers.
After dropping its major college program in the early 1950s, the school resumed football in 1959 at a lower level. Santa Clara football was classified in Division II during its final season.
Discontinuing football coincided with an NCAA rule change that stopped Division I schools from playing football at lower division levels. Of 27 Division I schools affected by the rule change, only Santa Clara did not return to the gridiron the following year. The remaining 26 teams moved up, most without offering football scholarships.
Explaining the decision to drop football, the university president claimed he tried to find a "realistic cost-containment league" for the program. But Santa Clara wasn't interested in joining the nonscholarship Pioneer Football League, which includes the University of San Diego.
In 2006, the president vowed football "won't be back this century."
Will a change in the university's administration enable Santa Clara to bring back football? A new president will reportedly take over during the 2008-2009 school year.
LetThemPlay.com--Supporting the Return of Football to Santa Clara