Maine Black Bears (1985)

Well, it's the ol' blog's 200th post, so let's celebrate with a Maine uniform, shall we?

Under new coach Buddy Teevens in 1985, Maine ditched the dull Penn-State style uniforms worn from 1976-84 in favor of a home shirt reminiscent of of what the Black Bears wore in the late 1950s-early 60s. Player names, absent since 1980, returned. The road shirts had to wait another year to change (a frequent occurrence at Maine), but they also received the name-on-the-back upgrade.

Maine RB Doug Dorsey on the cover of the 1986 media guide.

Maine QB Bobby Wilder -- now the head coach at Old Dominion --
with rookie coach Buddy Teevens in 1985. If you look really closely,
you can spot a paw dotting the I on the helmet.

The helmets are the Maine helmets I recall most spending the Saturday afternoons of my youth watching the Bears on Portland's Channel 6 instead of doing something constructive, like go on hikes or dates. The "MAINE" in an arc is rather homely, but it holds some sentimental value to me. You can't really see it in the graphic above, but the "I" is dotted with a paw. Pretty neat! (Triviata: Maine's swim team used the same logo on their swim caps when I attended the school many moons ago.)

The '85 road jerseys continued the 1984 look for another year.

Teevens -- who recently coached his alma mater, Dartmouth, to a share of the Ivy League title -- led Maine from 1985-86, and the Bears achieved their first back-to-back winning seasons since the 1960s. (Triviata 2: Teevens was the youngest D-I football coach in '85. Maine's new coach, Joe Harasymiak, currently holds that distinction.) 

Can't bear to be without Black Bear uniforms? Here are some more: 2015, 2014, 2011-13, 1997-99, 1976-84, 1975, 1974, 1965, more 1965, 1957-59, 1949-50, 1928-29. Rivalry week: Maine-New Hampshire.

My copy of the '86 media guide, signed by Buddy Teevens in 2008.
Damn right it's framed.