Vermont Catamounts (1958-61)

Well, everyone in the Green Mountain State is abuzz over the Vermont men's basketball team laying everyone in its waste en route to an NCAA Tournament berth, so it's natural we talk about UVM football, right? ... All right, maybe not, but work with me here.

After many years of plain gold (yellow) helmets, the Catamounts shook things up by switching to green lids, with those oh-so-trendy numbers on the side. The green helmets were  eventually replaced by white ones, which were replaced by yellow ones, which were replaced by green ones again (see links below).

Vermont football in action at Centennial Field, 1961.
You may have heard Vermont's pretty in the fall.
These pix are all from the Ariel yearbook.

A nice close-up of the home jersey, 1959.

The most interesting aspect of the uniform is the socks: A yellow base with green tops and a strip of white in between. For the home unis, that's the only white on the entire getup. By '61 the socks appear to have vanished in favor of the traditional white stubs. 

Flying through the air with the greatest of ease ...
Check out the socks with the gold base on No. 22.

Senior gridders show off their road duds, 1961.
The roads have a completely different pattern from the homes.

One oddity about the team that has nothing to do with the uniforms: Although UVM was a member of the Yankee Conference, the Catamounts played nothing resembling a full conference schedule during this time period, with only five conference games (all losses) TOTAL over this uniform's life span. In fact, only Maine and Rhode Island played a full five-game league slate at any time before 1962, and full round-robin play wasn't instituted until 1966. You would think a small bus league like the YC would have no problem constructing a full league slate, but I guess Vermont was content to play the Middleburys and Rochesters of the world.

Want more uniforms from the ol' 802? Of course you do! 1940-42, 1946-48, 1962-63, 1964-67, 1968-69, 1970-74.

This photo, from an eBay listing, shows a Vermont player
holding the ball for Miss Vermont, 1961. I imagine when you're Miss Vermont,
you can have your pick of football players.