Gooding attended Ann Arbor High School where he played football.

As a junior, he was the starting right guard in all 12 games for the 1903 Michigan Wolverines football team that compiled a record of 11-0-1 and outscored its opponents 565–6.

[2] He contracted typhoid fever following a Thanksgiving Day game against the University of Minnesota in late November 1903.

[5] He was the first Michigan Wolverines football player to die while attending the school.

[3] Following his death, The Michigan Alumnus wrote: "He had striven conscientiously to perfect himself in the game and earned the respect of coaches, players and spectators.