Harvard Cimson (1988)

OK, time for another spin o' the random number generator and another pull from the hat to see what random team from a random season we randomly come up with ...

1988 Harvard? Eh, work with what you got, I guess ...

The Team: The '88 Crimson went 2-8 overall, 2-5 and tied for sixth in the Ivy League just one year after going 8-2 and winning the Ivy crown (the fifth and final title for famed coach Joe Restic). Columbia and Brown were the lucky victims.

The Players: Quarterback Tom Yohe threw for 1,677 yards, about 500 fewer than his '87 total. He was the Crimson's all-time leader in passing yardage at the time of his graduation, and is still fourth today; he's also sixth all-time in TD passes. Yohe later was a Fox Sports producer before he passed away in 2014 after battling pneumonia. Defensive linemen Jim Bell and Don Peterson were first-team all-Ivy, while WR Neil Philips and OL Sean Sensky were second-team selections.

A 1988 Harvard schedule.

The Coach: Joe Restic is the second of only THREE coaches to patrol the Harvard sideline since 1957 (after John Yovicsin and before Tim Murphy), lasting from 1971-93 while going 117-97-6. He designed the "multiplex" offense, a game plan based on multiple formations and shifts designed to conjure opponents. From Wikipedia: "In 1979, a professor and former Harvard quarterback, Larry Brown, created a class titled Fundamentals of Multiflex Offense to explain the maneuvers of the strategy. Some of the students included the Crimson's defensive players." Before arriving at Cambridge, Restic coached the CFL's Hamilton Tiger-Cats from 1968-70, going 22-17-3.

The 1988 Harvard-Yale program,
with ticket stub to boot. Yale prevailed, 27-17,
at Harvard Stadium.

The Uniform: The jerseys and pants, of course, look a lot like what the Crimson wear now, pre-Nike Pro Combat and the ilk. I never cared for the helmet, though, with the bland "H" inside a hockey rink, first used in 1975 and modified in '80. Murphy changed the logo to a black block "H" in 1994, which, with a few modifications, Harvard has worn to this day.

The Aftermath: Harvard never had another winning record under Restic, who retired after the '93 season. Under Murphy, the Crimson has won or shared nine Ivy titles.

Northeastern Huskies (2001)

We're going to try something a little different. For the next few posts, I'll pull a school out of a hat, then use a random number generator to pick the year, and then write about that team and uniform. Let's see that we get ...

2001 Northeastern? Geez, one year later and I would have had a good team to write about. (The '02 Huskies won the only conference title in their history.)

Anyway, here goes...

The Team: The '01 Huskies went 5-6 overall, 4-5 in Atlantic 10 play for their fourth straight losing season.

A 2002 Northeastern schedule shows the '01 uniform.

The Players: Running back L.J. McKanas ran for a Husky-record 1,756 yards and 14 TDs. Of course, with Northeastern having since dropped football, McKanas will continue to hold those records for some time. McKanas and defensive back T.J. Hill were first-team all-conference. Other all-conference selections were OL Jim Bode (second team), DL Steve Anzalone (second team), DB Art Smith (second team) and LB Liam Ezekiel (third team).

The Coach: Don Brown was in his second year at Northeastern and went 27-20 (one of only three Husky coaches to compile a winning record) from 2000-03, when athletic director Ian McCaw left for UMass and took Brown with him, resulting in an ugly dispute (and the beginning of the end for the program). These days, he's the defensive coordinator at the University of Michigan. 

Northeastern's jerseys, c. 2001.
Not mine, sadly; the pix came from a dealer's site.

The Uniform: Frankly, this might be the ugliest uniform Northeastern ever wore. The helmet logo, featuring the full Huskies logo rather than a paw or a letter "N" as in other years, is too detailed for a helmet and is hard to make out from a distance. The red shirts and black pants just clash (the Huskies went to an all-black ensemble the next year) and the drop-shadow numbers are DOA -- dated on arrival. The "NORTHEASTERN" wordmark, sporting a double outline, is hard to read. Otherwise, not bad. 😎

The Aftermath: As noted earlier, the Huskies shared the A-10 title in '02 and finished No. 11 (Sports Network) and No. 10 (USA Today) in the polls. The '03 team failed the make the tourney, but still finished No. 20/19 in the rankings. Brown left for UMass after the '03 season and led the Minutemen to the 2006 NCAA FCS title game. The Huskies never had another winning record before the program folded after the '09 season.