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those who just did it ...
The Athletics department at the University of Idaho
has seen some great athletes passing through the
last century. Most recently the Olympic Decathelete
Dan O'Brien. But a hundred years before O'Brien,
Idaho had its first future Olympic athlete in training.
A. C. Gilbert learned to pole-fault at the U of I in the
late 1890s and he won a Gold Medal in 1908, he
was the first in the sport to use a bamboo stick and a
box below the bar. The U of I had its first football
team in 1893, comprised of 12 men. Ten years
later audience members were still standing along a
fence and discussing the possibility of bleachers.
Today the U of I plays at Martin's Stadium on the
WSU campus to accomadate the increasing number
of spectators. Basketball came to the U of I in 1906.
By 1 908 the U of I had its own Cross-Country team
as well as another future Olympic runner named Hec
Edmunson. Edmunson went on to coach the 1917-
1 91 8 basketball team who were the first to be called
"Vandals" by the Argonaut sports writer Harry Lloyd
"Jazz" McCarty. The name was accidental but
eventually came to represent all Idaho athletic teams.
Other sports came and went, such as boxing which
was popular in the 1 930 and took place at Memorial
Gym. To name all the the amazing athletes to
compete for the U of I would be impossible for there
are decades worth of athletic excellence here.