Between 16 of years of Chief Boston and 27 years of Bill Bowes, New Hampshire burned through three coaches in seven years. Coaching instability can often bring out uniform instability, and the Wildcats were no exception to the rule (theory?).
After Joe Yukica, whose uniforms mimicked his alma mater, Penn Sate, left for Boston College in 1968, replacement Jim Root introduced a flashier set of jerseys with shoulder stripes and a neat, highly detailed Wildcat logo on the sleeve. While other Wildcat logos have been from a profile or a 45-degree angle, this Wildcat was in your face and not taking any ... er ... gruff from anybody. One oddity: While jersey sleeves around football were growing shorter, UNH's remained fairly long, which probably didn't help during those sweltering early-season games.
 |
| The UNH road jerseys at UMass in 1968. |
 |
| A color shot of UNH-UMass in '68, with good seats still available at McGuirk Stadium. These are both from the '69 UMass Index. |
The helmet numbers, meanwhile, switched to a blockier font and remained that way through 1975.
 |
| The home uniforms in 1970. "I see your Indian and raise it with a Wildcat!" Note that both teams have long sleeves, an increasing rarity for the period. |
 |
| A nice close-up of the 1970 jersey and helmet. |
Under Root, the Wildcats shared the Yankee Conference title in '68 and were 18-14-1 before he left for William & Mary in '72, where he replaced a guy named Lou Holtz.
 |
| Something about this picture reminds me of the cheerleader in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." |
No comments:
Post a Comment