NEWBERG, Ore. -- The 2024 football season marks the 10th full season of George Fox football since returning to play in 2014.

The university's board of trustees approved the reinstallation of football in March of 2010 after taking into consideration factors ranging from cost and enrollment impact to campus climate and the school's gender ratio. Aloha High School's Chris Casey was selected to be the Bruins' first (and so far only) head coach.

The Bruins became one of only three Christian colleges to participate in football on the West Coast at the time, joining Azusa Pacific University and Whitworth University; since then, the Azusa Pacific team has dropped the sport.
 
The return of football also broughtback a long-time tradition to the university's campus: George Fox, except for a brief period in the late 1920s and during World War II, fielded a football team from 1894 to 1968.

George Fox, then Pacific College. played its first intercollegiate football game on Nov. 17, 1894, against Willamette. The first home game occurred on Dec. 1, 1894, after the Willamette team arrived in Newberg by steamboat.

During the early years, Pacific College competed in the Collegiate Athletic Conference of Oregon, which later became the Willamette Valley Conference, then the Northwest Conference in 1926. In 1965, George Fox joined the Oregon Athletic Conference, which included Oregon College of Education, Southern Oregon College, Oregon Technical Institute, and Eastern Oregon.

With an enrollment under 400, George Fox faced institutional financial pressures and suspended the program after the 1968 season to focus its efforts instead on the development of a strong intercollegiate basketball program.

But in 2010, the move was made to bring back football — and by 2013, the Bruins had amassed 62 recruits for a zero-year season.

The Bruins' recruiting operations were the direction of defensive and recruiting coordinator John Bates, then the only full-time assistant coach employed by the university. Several other coaches assisted in the recruiting efforts but did not join the staff until later in the summer.

The early offensive roster of recruits showed eight quarterbacks, seven linemen, five running backs, three fullbacks, two tight ends, and nine wide receivers.  On defense, the Bruins had eight linemen, six linebackers, and 11 defensive backs.  A pair of kickers also dotted the roster. The 62 players became the first players in 45 years to don a George Fox helmet

Stay tuned each Wednesday of the football season as George Fox Athletics looks back at each of the past 10 years of Bruin football.