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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Dear Gonzaga Football Fans,
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e are pleased to kick off the 138th season of Gonzaga Football! Each year our football season coincides with the beginning of our academic year – a time filled with optimism and anticipation about the growth and accomplishments that lie ahead. When it comes to the gridiron, the sense of teamwork, genuine support, and enthusiasm that is displayed by players AND fans at our games is remarkable and heartening.
“When it comes to the gridiron, the sense of teamwork, genuine support, and enthusiasm that is displayed by players AND fans at our games is remarkable and heartening.”
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On behalf of our Headmaster, Mr. Tom Every, our Athletic Director Mr. Terry Kernan ’08, and everyone on Eye Street, I express to all of those participating in Gonzaga’s football program this year my best wish for a successful season! Please know your hard work and dedication are both respected and appreciated. I hold particular appreciation for the families who do so much to help make Gonzaga the extraordinary school community we all know and value. In addition, I am grateful to the coaches who instruct, encourage, and guide our fine young men. Finally, as we remain extremely grateful to all those who helped make the new turf on Buchanan Field and the new track at Reyda Stadium possible, I pray that the spirit of St. Aloysius Gonzaga may inspire each and every student-athlete to do his best and to give his best, both on and off of the field, this fall and throughout the year. Go Eagles! Sincerely, Fr. Joseph E. Lingan, SJ ‘75 President
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Many thanks to all those who support Gonzaga Football. Scan the QR Code to see the full 2026 Media Guide.
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A Rivalry with Deep Roots by Bradley Todd (Parent ’28)
As war raged in Europe in the 1940s, Washington was transformed from a small town to a metropolitan capital. Young men in high school knew the battles they fought on the gridiron were just pre-texts for battles they would likely soon fight overseas. Schoolboy football in the District of Columbia in the 1930s was run by the squad referred to in local newspapers as “the Lincoln Parkers” – the Eastern High School Easterners. But the city was expanding and in 1940 a brand-new school on 5th Street in Takoma Park brought a new force to the gridiron: the Coolidge Colts. It did not take long for the Colts to become the public school antagonists to the Catholic League’s power – Gonzaga’s Eagles of Eye Street. While nothing could top the annual season-ending clash between Gonzaga and St. John’s at Griffith Stadium, the Colts-Eagles game became seen as the measure of public versus private ball. In 1945, only a pick-six with an 88-yard return by a backup safety could dent the scoreboard as Coolidge marred Gonzaga’s undefeated season. The next year, the Eagles got revenge 27-6 in a game billed as one of the city’s biggest behind “hot-tempered but talented Billy DeChard” at quarterback, manning a single-wing offense that out-performed what the papers called “a tricky Double-T” formation used by the Colts. That 1946 Eagles team was so good it earned a post-season spot in the Catholic Youth Bowl, played before 18,000 fans in New Orleans, foreshadowing the elite national schedule played by the Eagles of this era under Coach Randy Trivers. Over time the series with Coolidge stopped being an annual affair, but the schools had more than a few spirited clashes, including a 36-34 Colts win at home over a Gonzaga team coached by the beloved Joe Reyda in 2008. Our current 2026 Eagles made a surprise trip back to Takoma Park last Thursday due to construction at the stadium named in Reyda’s honor. After a physical and scoreless first quarter last Thursday, the Eagles used a punishing running game to take control and win 33-0.
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Gonzaga’s game with Eastern this week presents an unfamiliar opponent to modern-day Eagles’ fans, despite the fact that both institutions are icons on Capitol Hill, just 2 miles apart. But the oldest Eye Street alumni will remember that in the 1950s and 1960s, the Ramblers and Eagles vied for spots against each other annually in the city’s public-versus-private Turkey Bowl, which attracted crowds of over 20,000 people in Washington’s largest stadium. Eastern’s squad was dominant in the post-war period among public schools in the “Interhigh” league while Gonzaga wrestled with Carroll and St. John’s in what was then called the Catholic League. Eastern showed up on Gonzaga’s schedule early in the 2000s, a down period for the Ramblers, but the crew that rolls onto Buchanan Field at Reyda Stadium this week will be wearing the 2025 DCSAA Class AA Champions’ crown. The Ramblers’ Head Coach Roman Morris took over a winless program four years ago and has rebuilt it into a force. Eastern won the 2025 title over Coolidge with a stifling defense, an attribute Eagles fans have come to love about their own team. Both the Eastern and Gonzaga squads come off impressive wins, and neither has a blemish on its slate, so this home opener on newly-resurfaced and re-dedicated Buchanan Field should be a good one. gonzaga.org/football
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