The Gallaudet Bison football team represents Gallaudet University in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III competition. It has been discontinued many times, and most recently restarted in 2007.[2][3] After an undefeated season in 2005, the first time such a season was achieved in the program's 122-year history, head coach Ed Hottle began his campaign to return Gallaudet to the NCAA ranks. With support from the Gallaudet administration, the Bison played their last season of club football in 2006 and played a full NCAA slate of eight games in 2007.[4] In the fall of 2013, Gallaudet's football program began a remarkable run for the Division III playoffs and garnering a considerable amount of publicity, winning the regular season with a 9–1 record, before falling to Hobart College in the first round of the playoffs and ending the season with a 9–2 (.818) overall record.[5][6]
Gallaudet football (2007)
After the 2009 football season, Coach Hottle left to become the first head coach of the first football team at Stevenson University. He announced his decision in a heart-felt meeting with the football team. Offensive Coordinator Chuck Goldstein was tapped to be the interim head coach of the football team. On December 17, 2009, the interim tag was removed and he is now the permanent head coach of the team.[7]
Gallaudet University's football team has a longstanding rivalry with Catholic University of America, another school in the Washington D.C. area. On September 7, 2012, Gallaudet University defeated Catholic University of America for the first time in the 106-year history of the rivalry between the two D.C. schools.[8]
The home stadium, Hotchkiss Field, was known as Garlic Field prior to 1924.[9]
History
The football team was organized in 1883 by coach John B. Hotchkiss. In the 1890s, the footballhuddle originated at Gallaudet.[10][11][12]QuarterbackPaul D. Hubbard noticed sign language signals could be read by opposing players, a particular concern when Gallaudet played other schools for the deaf. To remedy this, he had his players form a circle so that his sign language signals could be sent and received without anyone on the sidelines or on the opposing team seeing.[13]
Championships
Conference championships
Gallaudet claims 2 conference titles, the most recent of which came in 2022.
