Gonzaga College started in 1881 with $936 in hard silver dollars. It bought Gonzaga¡¯s founder, Father Joseph Cataldo, S.J., 320 acres of land and water, what people then referred to as ¡°the old piece of gravel near the falls.¡± Six years later, the College officially opened the doors of its only building for ¡°young Scholastics, whose ambition it is to become priests.¡± Exclusively for boys, the College was under the charge of the Jesuit priests. Enrollment for the 1887-88 academic year was 18 boys and young men.