Two University of Idaho athletics icons will be permanently enshrined in Big Sky Conference history this summer, as the league announced its fifth-ever Hall of Fame class on Thursday. Football coaching legend Dennis Erickson and track and field standout Jackie Ross Mattox — both already members of the Vandal Athletics Hall of Fame — will be honored at the Big Sky Football Kickoff Weekend in Spokane in July.
The eight-member class spans multiple institutions and celebrates athletes, coaches, and administrators whose contributions to the league have proven lasting. Big Sky Commissioner Tom Wistrcill called honoring the past essential to preserving the conference’s identity. “Honoring those who came before us is essential to preserving the history and spirit of this league,” Wistrcill said in a statement.
Erickson Built a Legacy Across Every Level of Football
Few coaches in Idaho football history command the same respect as Dennis Erickson, whose connection to Moscow spans multiple chapters of his career. A native of Ferndale, Washington, Erickson earned All-Conference recognition as a quarterback at Montana State before graduating in 1968. After brief stints as a graduate assistant and a high school head coach, he arrived at Idaho in 1974 as the Vandals’ offensive coordinator — work that helped pioneer what would become the spread offense in collegiate football.
His success as a coordinator led to opportunities at Fresno State and San Jose State before Idaho brought him back as head coach in 1982. The turnaround was immediate. After a 3-8 season the year prior, the Vandals posted nine wins in Erickson’s debut, captured the Big Sky Conference title for the first time in more than a decade, and returned to the playoffs. Quarterback Ken Hobart earned First-Team All-Big Sky honors, and Idaho finished above .500 in all four of Erickson’s seasons — a program benchmark not seen in the modern era before his arrival.
That winning track record made Erickson one of the most sought-after coaches in the country. He moved on to Wyoming and Washington State before taking over at the University of Miami, where the Hurricanes compiled a dominant 63-9 record over six seasons and appeared in a bowl game every year, winning three of them. Erickson then advanced to the NFL, serving as head coach for both the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers.
He returned to Moscow for one final college season in 2006 before later leading Arizona State and the Alliance of American Football’s Salt Lake Stallions. By retirement, Erickson had accumulated 179 collegiate victories and 42 NFL wins, with a .610 winning percentage as Idaho’s head coach that still ranks fourth-best in program history. He was inducted into the Idaho Athletics Hall of Fame in 2018 and recognized by the National Football Foundation the following year.
The Dome at Idaho recently unveiled a new digital athletics Hall of Fame display — a fitting backdrop as another chapter of Vandal legacy is formally recognized at the conference level. Read more about that installation here.
Jackie Ross Mattox Made History Before She Ever Set Foot in Moscow
Jackie Ross Mattox arrived at the University of Idaho in 1989 as a trailblazer in every sense of the word. Originally from Kingstown, St. Vincent, in the Eastern Caribbean, she had already made history for her island nation before accepting a scholarship to compete for the Vandals’ track and field program.
At 16, she won a bronze medal in the long jump at the CARIFTA Games. Two years later, a gold-medal performance with a 5.73-meter leap earned her a spot on St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ inaugural Olympic team — making her the first woman from her country to compete at the Summer Olympics when she appeared at the 1988 Seoul Games.
Her arrival in Moscow signaled the beginning of one of the most decorated athletic careers in Big Sky Conference history. She rewrote the school record in the indoor triple jump on her very first competitive attempt as a Vandal. By 1990, she held school records in both the indoor and outdoor triple jump and long jump. Both triple jump marks still stand today, and her long jump performances remain in the program’s top four.
Over her collegiate career, Ross Mattox captured ten Big Sky Conference championships — five indoor and four outdoor titles in the jumps, plus the 1991 indoor heptathlon. The conference named her its Outstanding Female Athlete three consecutive years from 1990 to 1992, and she earned a spot on the Big Sky’s 1990s All-Decade team. She was inducted into the Idaho Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014 and into the North Idaho Athletic Hall of Fame in 2024.
What Comes Next
Both Erickson and Ross Mattox will be formally inducted during the Big Sky Football Kickoff Weekend in Spokane this July. The ceremony marks the fifth installment of the conference’s Hall of Fame Gala, which has grown into one of the Big Sky’s signature annual traditions. Vandal fans looking for more news on Idaho athletics roster moves can follow ongoing coverage, including the addition of junior college big man Mo Diao to Pribble’s Vandals heading into next season.