He was heralded by contemporaries as a "great coach" and one of the fiercest players on the field of the first two decades of football in the Pacific Northwest.

"[4] Bloss scheduled tryouts in the fall of 1893 in an attempt to cobble together a football team from a student body that counted just 148 men.

Getting to this end did result in a certain amount of fudging: four players were not even students, including Bloss himself, with one being a local high school junior and another a member of the faculty.

Over 500 spectators who paid a dime admission cheered on OAC (Oregon Agricultural College) to a lopsided 62–0 win.

[5] Burnett would score an astounding seven touchdowns on the day,[7] followed by six more in the team's second game, a 36–22 win on the road against Oregon State Normal School.

When Pacific University backed out of a "championship" game scheduled for Thanksgiving Day,[9] the Agrics were accorded the title "Champions of the Northwest.