Idaho Vandals

Olympians

• Dan O'Brien (b. 1966), a hurdler on the UI track team in the late 1980s, won the gold medal in the decathlon at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, as well as multiple world championships. From Klamath Falls, Oregon, he received his bachelor's degree in 1993, and the outdoor track and field stadium where O'Brien trained for these world titles was named for him in September 1996.
• Joachim Olsen (b. 1977) of Denmark, the 2004 Olympic silver medalist (originally bronze) in the shot put, competed for the Vandals from 1999 to 2003, winning the NCAA outdoor title in 2000.[9][10][11] He was a ten-time All-American and never finished worse than third in the shot put in eight career NCAA outdoor and indoor appearances.
• Angela Whyte (b. 1980) of Canada was a four-time NCAA All-American and five-time Big West champion at Idaho, where she helped lead the women's team to 2001 and 2003 Big West team championships. She also earned Big West Female Athlete of the Year honors in 2001 and Big West Female Track Athlete of the Year honors in 2003. She was a member of Canada's 2004 and 2008 Olympic track teams.
• Hec Edmundson (1886–1964) was born and raised in Moscow and attended the UI's prep school. A 1910 graduate (agriculture) of the UI, he was the state's first Olympian, in 1912 at Stockholm.[12] Edmundson finished seventh in the 800 meters and sixth in the 400 meters. He later coached the Vandal basketball team, then moved to Seattle to coach the Washington Huskies in basketball and track. The UW Pavilion was named for him in 1948, known locally since as "Hec Ed."
• Alycia Butterworth (b. 1992) of Canada was an Honorable Mention NCAA All-American and two-time WAC Champion in the 3000m Steeplechase at Idaho. She also finished second in the WAC and the Big Sky in the steeple. She made the 2017 IAAF World Track & Field Championships in the 3000m Steeplechase. Alycia represented Canada at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games in her signature event, the steeplechase. She finished 10th in her heat, after falling during the race.

Both Idaho and Boise State discontinued baseball after the 1980 season, citing budget constraints.[13] Idaho State dropped its program six years earlier in 1974,[14] when the Big Sky stopped sponsorship of baseball and four other sports.[15][16][17]

Under head coach "Limehouse Lou" August, the Vandals won the NCAA boxing championship in 1940 and 1941,[18][19] and shared another national title with Gonzaga in 1950 under head coach Frank Young.[20][21] (The Inland Northwest was a hotbed of the sport as Idaho, Washington State, and Gonzaga had top programs and won national titles.)[20] Due to budget reasons, the program was dropped 69 years ago in June 1954.[22][23] Collegiate boxing fell from favor in the 1950s as more and more schools dropped their teams.[24][25] The NCAA ended its sponsorship in January 1961, following the death of a Wisconsin boxer in the 1960 championships.

The final season of women's field hockey was in the fall of 1980; it was discontinued that December.[26][27]

The final season for women's gymnastics was 41 years ago in 1982;[28] the program was cut during a state budget crisis.[29][30]

The Vandal ski team was eliminated 51 years ago in October 1972 to economize,[31] and the Big Sky dropped skiing in May 1974, along with four other sports.[32][33] UI's team dated back to 1941.[34][35]

The men's swimming program had a 58-year history; it was discontinued after the 1986 season, 37 years ago.[36][37][38] The Big Sky dropped swimming a dozen years earlier in 1974, along with four other sports.[32][33]

After over a decade as a varsity sport, women's swimming was cut after the 1985 season,[36][37][38] then returned 19 years later in the fall of 2004 under head coach Tom Jager.[39]

The last season for Vandal wrestling was 1973.[40][41][42]

Prior to World War II, Idaho also fielded teams in fencing and rifle.[35][43]

Since returning to Division I-A status for football in 1996, Idaho has rekindled its rivalry with Washington State, eight miles (13 km) to the west in Pullman. The annual game, usually played at Martin Stadium in Pullman, was renewed in 1998 after just two meetings in two decades, and is referred to as the "Battle of the Palouse." The Cougars hold an immense advantage in the series (71–16–3, .806), but the Vandals did win back-to-back meetings in 1999 and 2000, following 14 straight Cougar victories from 1966 to 1998. The last game played on the Idaho side of the border in this series was in 1966, a mudbath won by WSU late in the fourth quarter. This game followed consecutive Idaho victories in 1964 and 1965, which had been preceded by nine straight Cougar wins.[68] Two of the recent games played in Pullman (1999 and 2001) were designated as Idaho "home games" to help reach existing NCAA minimum attendance requirements. The 2004 game was a designated Idaho home game for revenue purposes.[69] The 2003 game was played in Seattle at Seahawks Stadium. The contests from 2005 on were all WSU home games.

The game in 2007 was a 45–28 WSU victory, their seventh straight over the Vandals. At the request of Vandals head coach Robb Akey, a former WSU assistant who became the Vandal head coach in 2007, the game will be played occasionally rather than annually. The teams did not meet again until 2013, another WSU victory at 42–0. They met in 2016 at Pullman, a 56–6 victory for the Cougars. The next meeting had been scheduled for 2020 at Pullman, but was canceled when WSU's home of the Pac-12 Conference announced that its members would only play conference games that season, if at all, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Boise is 300 highway miles (480 km) south of Moscow, and many UI students are from the Treasure Valley (greater Boise area), the major population area of the state. Idaho had a major in-state rivalry with Boise State since 1971; BSU joined the Big Sky in 1970 but the football teams did not meet that season. BSU moved up (& UI moved down) to Division I-AA in 1978, then both opted up to Division I-A in 1996, joining the Big West.

BSU was 8–2–1 in the first 11 meetings, including five in a row from 1977 to 1981. Idaho immediately followed with 12 straight wins from 1982 to 1993 and won 15 of 17 before Boise State began the last 12-game winning streak in 1999, in which BSU dominated the Vandals. The composite score for the last dozen games was 613–213, an average BSU victory margin of over 33 points per game, which ranged from 14 to 58 points. Boise State won 13 of 15 games over Idaho since both teams moved up to Division I-A (now FBS) in 1996. Beginning in 2001, the winner of the football game was awarded the Governor's Trophy; Boise State won it every year.

Boise State left the WAC after the 2010 season to join the Mountain West Conference, leaving no future for the football in-state rivalry. As of December 2016, the 2010 game was the last in the series, with no future games currently scheduled. In basketball, Idaho now plays Boise State in a neutral site game in the Boise area, away from the Broncos' ExtraMile Arena. This is a response to Boise State's refusal to schedule Idaho in football.

For most of its history, Idaho had an intense interstate rivalry with the University of Montana in Missoula, approximately 200 miles (320 km) east. The teams have met for football 84 times (second only to the 91 games with Washington State). Idaho and Montana first played in 1903, and played every year from 1914 to 1995 (except during the war years of 1918 and 1943–44, when neither school had a team). Montana was also a member of the Pacific Coast Conference until 1950, and a fellow charter member of the Big Sky in 1963. Idaho leads the overall series 55–27–2 (.667), but Montana has dominated the rivalry since 1991.[70] The Idaho–Montana rivalry was renewed as a conference rivalry in non-football sports when Idaho rejoined the Big Sky in 2014, and the football version was renewed in 2018 upon Idaho's return to Big Sky football.[71]

The teams played only five times between Idaho's departure for Division I-A in 1996 and its return to FCS (formerly Division I-AA) in advance of the 2018 season, with the I-AA Montana Grizzlies winning the last four, most recently in 2003. Since the departure of Idaho, Boise State, and Nevada from the Big Sky to Division I-A in the 1990s, the Montana Grizzlies have been the dominant I-AA/FCS football program in the West, though pushed strongly in the last part of the 2010s by Eastern Washington.

The winner of the Idaho-Montana game claims the Little Brown Stein trophy.

Idaho and Idaho State have enjoyed a moderate rivalry since 1963, the year ISU became a university and both schools joined the new Big Sky conference as charter members. The schools are separated by a significant distance, Pocatello in southeastern Idaho is over 500 road miles (800 km) from Moscow. Idaho has traditionally been dominant in this rivalry, particularly in football. The football rivalry was most intense and equal in the 1970s and 1980s, but the teams played only sparingly during Idaho's 1996–2017 absence from Big Sky football, with Idaho winning all four contests. Their last game before Idaho's return to Big Sky football was in 2008 in Moscow, with Idaho winning 42–27. The Vandals had won 11 of the 12 meetings between 1988 and 2017;.[72] Idaho State has won 2 out of the 5 games played since the Vandal's return to Big Sky football.