1955 Washington State Cougars football team

1955 Washington State Cougars football
ConferencePacific Coast Conference
Record1–7–2 (1–5–1 PCC)
Head coach
Home stadiumRogers Field
1955 Pacific Coast Conference football standings
Conf. Overall
Team W   L   T W   L   T
No. 4 UCLA $ 6 – 0 – 0 9 – 2 – 0
Oregon State 5 – 2 – 0 6 – 3 – 0
No. 16 Stanford 3 – 2 – 1 6 – 3 – 1
Oregon 4 – 3 – 0 6 – 4 – 0
Washington 4 – 3 – 1 5 – 4 – 1
No. 13 USC 3 – 3 – 0 6 – 4 – 0
California 1 – 5 – 1 2 – 7 – 1
Washington State 1 – 5 – 1 1 – 7 – 2
Idaho 0 – 4 – 0 2 – 7 – 0
  • $ – Conference champion
Rankings from AP Poll

The 1955 Washington State Cougars football team was an American football team that represented Washington State College during the 1955 college football season. In his fourth and final year, head coach Al Kircher led the team to a 1–7–2 record, 1–5–1 in the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC).[1] They played their three home games on campus at Rogers Field in Pullman.

The Cougars' sole victory was in the Battle of the Palouse over neighbor Idaho in Moscow; the Vandals had won the previous year in Pullman,[2] which was their first win in the series in 29 years.[3]

Days after the season ended, Kircher was relieved of his duties with a year remaining on his five-year contract, at $12,500 per year.[4][5][6] He opted to stay in Pullman and acquired a motel-restaurant, the Hilltop Lodge, in early 1956.[7][8][9] His successor was Jim Sutherland,[10][11] the Cougars' head coach for eight seasons, through 1963.[12][13][14]

Schedule

DateOpponentSiteResultAttendanceSource
September 17at No. 13 USC
L 12–5035,051[15]
September 24at Kansas*
L 0–1319,000[16]
October 1No. 7 UCLA
L 0–5519,000[17]
October 8at California
T 20–2033,000[18]
October 15at Idaho
W 9–013,000[19][20][21]
October 22at Oregon State
L 6–1417,000[22]
October 29at Pacific (CA)*
L 0–3012,000[23]
November 5Oregon
  • Rogers Field
  • Pullman, WA
L 0–359,000[24]
November 12San Jose State*
  • Rogers Field
  • Pullman, WA
T 13–131,600[25]
November 19at Washington
L 7–2730,000[26]
  • *Non-conference game
  • Homecoming
  • Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game
  • Source: [27][28]

NFL draft

Two Cougars were selected in the 1956 NFL draft, which was 30 rounds and 360 selections.

Player Position Round Overall Franchise
Arnie Pelluer End 16 192 Los Angeles Rams
Al Paulson Back 23 276 Los Angeles Rams

[29]

References

  1. ^ "2016 Media Guide" (PDF). WSUCougars.com. Washington State Cougars Athletics. p. 74. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 21, 2016. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
  2. ^ Boni, Bill (October 24, 1954). "Idaho thumps WSC, 10 to 0". Spokesman-Review. Spokane, Washington. p. 1, sports.
  3. ^ ""Win made us ball club", says Skip Stahley". Spokane Daily Chronicle. Washington. October 25, 1954. p. 17.
  4. ^ "WSC may revise policy on gridiron contracts". Spokane Daily Chronicle. Washington. November 22, 1955. p. 19.
  5. ^ Boni, Bill (November 23, 1955). "WSC opens coach hunt". Spokesman-Review. Spokane, Washington. p. 15.
  6. ^ "Cougars fire Kircher after miserable year". Eugene Register-Guard. Oregon. Associated Press. November 22, 1955. p. 3B.
  7. ^ Boni, Bill (August 2, 1960). "When Kircher scored all the points". Spokesman-Review. Spokane, Washington. p. 2.
  8. ^ "Kircher to run Pullman motel". Spokane Daily Chronicle. Washington. Associated Press. January 26, 1956. p. 17.
  9. ^ "Kircher has more at 'steak' now". Milwaukee Sentinel. Associated Press. March 13, 1956. p. 4, part 2.
  10. ^ "Sutherland named WSC coach". Spokane Daily Chronicle. Washington. January 18, 1956. p. 21.
  11. ^ "WSC hires Sutherland". Eugene Register-Guard. Oregon. Associated Press. January 18, 1956. p. 2B.
  12. ^ Johnson, Bob (December 6, 1963). "WSU in market for new coach". Spokane Daily Chronicle. Washington. p. 16.
  13. ^ "Sutherland out as grid coach". Eugene Register-Guard. Oregon. Associated Press. December 6, 1963. p. 2B.
  14. ^ "Sutherland out as football coach at Washington State". Lewiston Morning Tribune. Idaho. December 6, 1963. p. 14.
  15. ^ "USC wallops Wash. St., 50–12". The Times-Picayune. September 18, 1955. Retrieved January 18, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "Kansas wallops WSC, 13–0, ends 17 game famine". The San Francisco Examiner. September 25, 1955. Retrieved January 18, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ "Bruins paint 55 to 0 loss on Cougars". The Sacramento Union. October 2, 1955. Retrieved January 18, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "WSC ties Cal". Oakland Tribune. October 9, 1955. Retrieved January 18, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ "Cougars beat Idaho 9–0 in bruising Palouse battle". Lewiston Morning Tribune. Idaho. Associated Press. October 16, 1955. p. 10.
  20. ^ Boni, Bill (October 16, 1955). "Sarno sparks Cougars to 9–0 win". Spokesman-Review. Spokane, Washington. p. 1, sports.
  21. ^ "WSC to face Oregon State next, Vandals blanked 9–0 at Moscow". Spokane Daily Chronicle. Washington. October 17, 1955. p. 31.
  22. ^ "Washington State fumbles help Oregon State to a 14–6 victory". The Montana Standard. October 23, 1955. Retrieved January 18, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ^ "COP routs WSC for 5th in row". Oakland Tribune. October 30, 1955. Retrieved January 18, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ^ "Ducks clobber WSC 35 to 0". The Oregon Statesman. November 6, 1955. Retrieved January 18, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ^ Boni, Bill (November 13, 1955). "Cougars get tie in freezer". The Spokesman-Review. p. 1, sports.
  26. ^ "Richmond ace paces Huskies past Cougars". San Francisco Chronicle. November 20, 1955. Retrieved January 18, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. ^ "1955 Washington State Cougars Schedule and Results". SR/College Football. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved January 18, 2026.
  28. ^ "Schedule/Results (1955 Washington State)". NCAA Statistics. National Collegiate Athletic Association. Retrieved January 18, 2026.
  29. ^ "Al Paulson is picked by Rams in draft". Spokane Daily Chronicle. Washington. January 18, 1956. p. 15.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.