100 years ago in Spokane: Gonzaga athletics officially entered its first big sports conference

The big news was about a subject at the forefront today – collegiate sports conference alignment.

Gonzaga was officially admitted to the Northwest Intercollegiate Conference.

The front-page banner headline in the Spokane Daily Chronicle read, “GONZAGA ENTERS CONFERENCE.”

The university had earlier been granted a trial period of two years, and now the organization found that Gonzaga had “lived up to conference rules and regulations regarding eligibility of its athletes and should automatically be admitted to the body.”

The Chronicle said that Gonzaga was “expected to secure considerable benefits in the way of schedule-making next year,” because it would now be eligible for games “with the more important institutions in the body.”

Those included the University of Montana, University of Idaho and Washington State College (now university).

Scheduling the University of Washington or the University of Oregon was still considered unlikely, however, at least until 1925.

All of the above-mentioned institutions were in the Northwest Intercollegiate Conference, as were Willamette University, Pacific University, Whitman College and Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University).

Somewhat confusingly, most of these institutions were also members of the Pacific Coast Conference.

From the shooting beat: John Todich (also rendered Tody) died at Sacred Heart Hospital of his self-inflicted wounds.

Todich shot Antone Jovick in a Spokane cardroom two days earlier, accusing Jovick of being a “stool pigeon.” Then Todich turned the gun on himself.