A playing field was leveled by a highway crew working nearby and uniforms were purchased for the players. Three games against local colleges were scheduled, the last of which marked the beginning of a rivalry with the Oregon Normal School, which was later renamed Western Oregon University. SONS shutout their first two opponents and defeated the Oregon Normal School 19-12, giving them an undefeated season and the unofficial title of Oregon teachers' colleges champion. In its second season, the college won only one match in a five-game schedule. However, more significant than that was the death of star freshman Max Newsom; he died shortly after a game against Oregon State JV from cerebral hemorrhaging after collapsing on the field from injuries sustained making a tackle. Newsom was the only Southern Oregon player ever killed during a game. The 1929 season saw slight improvement behind the efforts of Cylde Hines, SONS's first African American student. While Hines was accepted by the school, segregation and racist attitudes from opposing fans created problems for the team. The actions shown to the team by rival Oregon Normal School led McNeal to suspend competition between the schools for two years. McNeal guided the program to winning seasons the following two years, including an unbeaten record in the latter. Before the start of the 1932 season, McNeal retired from the coaching position and took a job as professor of geography at the school. Howard Hobson, a high-school basketball coach, was hired to fill McNeal's positions. He apparently lacked any knowledge of the sport and was hired primarily to assist the basketball program. Despite Hobson's lack of experience, SONS was very successful in the 1932 season, losing just one game. The style of play under Hobson relied heavily on trick plays to make up for the lack of proper coaching instruction. Success continued in 1933, when, against their largest schedule yet, SONS lost only two games and defeated Oregon Normal School for the first time since 1927. However, this did not continue. Hobson progressively devoted more of his time and the athletic budget to the basketball program and began to actively recruit players away from football. He left after a poor 1934 season to coach the University of Oregon basketball program, which he would later lead to a national championship. The school hired Jean Eberheart, a former basketball player, to fill Hobson's positions. Eberheart also focused on the basketball program; after consecutive winless seasons in 1937 and 1938, school officials suspended the football program indefinitely. In 1940, they shut it down entirely due to World War II.