1976 Idaho Vandals football team
American college football team season
The 1976 Idaho Vandals football team represented the University of Idaho in the 1976 NCAA Division I football season. The Vandals were led by third-year head coach Ed Troxel and were members of the Big Sky Conference, then in Division II for football. They played their home games at the Kibbie Dome, an indoor facility on campus in Moscow, Idaho.
Season
With quarterbacks Rocky Tuttle and Craig Juntunen running the veer offense, the Vandals were 7–4 overall and 5–1 in the Big Sky. The only conference loss was to Montana State in Bozeman; the Bobcats went undefeated in the Big Sky and won the Division II national championship.
The season opened with a road win over Boise State, the three-time defending conference champions, in the debut of Jim Criner as head coach of the Broncos. Originally scheduled for November 27, it was moved to the opener at BSU's request, so as not to interfere with the Division II playoffs. In the Battle of the Palouse, the Vandals suffered a ninth straight loss to neighbor Washington State of the Pac-8, falling 45–6 at Martin Stadium in Pullman on October 2. The Cougars were led by quarterback Jack Thompson and fullback Dan Doornink.
Outside of the 1971 season (8–3), the Vandals' 7–4 record in 1976 was the best since 1938 (6–3–1).
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “1976 Idaho Vandals football team” is american college football team season. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Idaho, Vandals and football, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “american college football team season” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q28447655. Authority coordinates are 46.726, -117.018. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1976, 1971 and 1938.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “1976 Idaho Vandals football team”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow 1976 Idaho Vandals football team primary sources, 1976 Idaho Vandals football team archive and Idaho research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “1976 Idaho Vandals football team”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “1976 Idaho Vandals football team” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.