If you've seen the banners in the Carmody Center, you likely know Gonzaga had one of its more memorable football seasons in 1959 that culminated with a City Title.

But unless you were there, you probably don't know the crazy sequence of events from November 22, to November 27th. Three football games in six days! All at the legendary Griffith Stadium (where Howard University Hospital is today). Wait until you hear about the round robin tournament, the tie-breakers, and finally a draw from a hat decided who would face the vaunted Eastern Ramblers.

Quite a few future College and NFL Stars would play that week, including our guests from Gonzaga's Class of 1960: Jon Morris (15 years AFL/NFL Lineman 7 time All Pro selection), Darryl Hill (recruited by Lee Corso to join the Maryland Terrapins in 1963 becoming the first African-American college football player in the South). Also joining the Zoom are teammates Charles Shields, Henry Partridge, and Brendan O'Neill, Sr. All these guys were great friends who loved being around each other, and playing hard for each other.

With the Gonzaga Smoker coming up, we also asked about their classmate, the late Stu Long '60. For information about this years in person gathering click here.

Epilogue:

1959 was a different time to be sure. The 1954 Brown v Board of Education ruling made school segregation illegal, but five years later, progress was slow. Gonzaga was ahead of most prep schools of that era, as Dr. Gabe Smith '54 became the first African American to graduate from Eye Street. Gabe paved the way for young men like Darryl Hill '60 to feel welcomed at Gonzaga. Hill would go on to break the ACC football color barrier at Maryland.

The City Championship game in basketball continues to this day, but the City Title football game  was discontinued after race riots broke out following the 1962 game. The integrated but mostly white St. John's team won against an outmatched Eastern team.

With over 50,000 in attendance at D.C. Stadium (later renamed RFK), 400 people were injured. D.C. area writers like John Manasso (1994) and Dave McKenna (2011) both wrote compelling pieces that looked back at the 1962 game and wondered if the City Title Football game would be revived. Click the links to read on more.

Thanks to Will Morris '67 for his research assistance in putting this episode together.

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As mentioned at the end of the episode: We want to hear from you!

For our Christmas week episode, we want to include your voices sharing Christmas greetings. Use your voice memo device, record this:

Hey, this is ____________ from the Class of ___

wishing all my Gonzaga friends a Merry Christmas from _________ (where u live)

(feel free to ad lib if you like and name check some classmates)

then send the voice memo to podcast@gonzaga.org

Thanks!