College Football: 6 defunct programs we’d like to see reborn
By John Scimeca
4. Saint Louis Billikens
Year started:1899
Last active season: 1949
Yes, many Jesuit schools cut football programs by 1966 because of the increasing maintenance costs (and that was more than 50 years ago!).
But didn’t a certain football team just leave “the Gateway to the West?” While the NFC champion Rams bask in the glory of a successful season, many fans from a metro area of 3 million are undoubtedly wondering what to make of their departed team.
Fear no more, righteously disgruntled Rams fans. Bring back Billiken football!
Right now, SLU supports nine women’s sports and seven men’s sports. A football team cut in the beginning of the Cold War might bring back the football spirit to a city that hasn’t seen a winning pigskin record since 2003 (yeah, I didn’t believe it until I checked it, either). St. Louis football fans had to endure 12 seasons of sub-.500 football before watching this year’s stars take the LA Rams to unprecedented heights.
Geographically, consider an SLU football program as an ideal replacement candidate for a cost-cutting MAC program that decides to drop out. If not, what if the Billikens footballers occupied a now-vacant spot between Missouri and Illinois that the Big 12 might covet?