Rhode Island State Rams (1931-32)

This uniform is a personal favorite that I've never gotten around to discussing. So let's discuss!

Back when most teams wore jerseys that were either plain or had friction strips on the front (a few were just starting to add numbers), Rhode Island State (the "State" went bye-bye around 1951) added some flair with a big ol' "RI" logo on the front, very similar to the one the Rams use today.

The 1931 Rhode Island (State) Rams strike a pose.
With only 16 players, I'm guessing these are just the lettermen
and not the full varsity.

Rhody wore this style from 1929-33 (I have only 1931-32 listed here because I'm uncertain about the helmets for the other years), then reduced the size of the "RI" to make room for a number, ditching the friction strips along the way.

A Rhody player goes airborne against Providence in 1931.
This is one of the better photos I've seen from this era, when so many
seem to be taken from three miles away and you have no idea which team is which.

Another unique bit about this uniform is the pants: While most other teams dressed in tan, brown or gray pants, Rhody came decked out in navy blue, a sharp contrast to the jerseys and helmets, which had no navy to speak of. (Something tells me the interwebs would go bonkers if a team did that today.)

Rhody and Maine butt heads in 1932.

I'm not always crazy about the modern phenomenon of college-football-as-fashion-show, but at least you can tell which team is which upon first glance. In the 1920s and '30s, an era of mostly plain, drab unis depicted in grainy black-and-white photos, Rhode Island is one of the few teams that stand out.

Ram on with more Rhody unis: 

2021 (spring), 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2003-07, 1997-99, 1983-92, 1982, 1976-82, 1967-71, 1966, 1963-65, 1962, 1957-61, 1955, 1951, 1947-50, 1936-39. Rivalry Week: UConn-Rhody. Yankee Conference: 1996, 1974, 1969, 1956, 1947.

Colgate (1975); Holy Cross (1976)

This post will overlap with this one from several years back, but I wanted to illustrate how coaches used to take their "pet" uniform designs with them from one place to another. Neil Wheelwright coached Colgate from 1968-75, posting an unremarkable record 41-37-2. In 1973, the Gate unveiled uniforms with numbers on the helmets, jerseys with a big "COLGATE" on the front and socks that went halfway up the calves, augmented by two thin stripes. (This style was worn only at home in '73, a matching road outfit arrived a year later.) 

This Colgate photo is actually from 1973, but it gives me an excuse
to use an image of future Oakland Raiders star running back Mark van Eeghen (32).
He won two Super Bowls in Oakland and is their second all-time leading rusher
behind Marcus Allen.

A close-up of the 1974 Colgate road jersey.  I wonder if any unscrupulous
memorabilia dealers tried to pass off that helmet as coming from Alabama? 

In '76, Wheelwright moved on to future Patriot League rival Holy Cross, where he posted an unremarkable record of 20-35 from 1976-80. The Crusaders, who had worn white helmets with an "HC" on the sides and plain jerseys that looked like something you'd wear in practice, changed to unis bearing more than a passing resemblance to Colgate's: Numbers on the helmets, "HOLY CROSS" on the jersey front and even the same style of sock worn by the Raiders. The one notable difference was the silver pants, which retained Colgate's basic pattern with two stripes down the side.

Holy Cross' 1976 uniform, a carryover from Colgate's 1975 outfit.
The numbered helmet, though, was used on-and-off from the 1950s into the 2010s.

Meanwhile, under new coach/athletic director Frederick Dunlap, Colgate overhauled its uniform, switching to a Cornell-style "C" in 1976 and the iconic "'gate" logo in 1977. You can read more about that team here.

And hey, check out Colgate's home jerseys this year. Don't they look a tad familiar?

UMass Redmen (1959)

This is kind of a random team to profile at first glance, but the 1959 UMass Redmen (Minutemen) marked the end of an era: This was the last year of UMass' decades-long stretch as a plodding, so-so program before it became a New England powerhouse for the next 40-plus years. 

A cool shot of Alumni Field, UMass' old stadium, in 1959.

The Team: UMass went 3-5-1, 2-2 in Yankee Conference play (oddly, only YC champ UConn had a winning record in league play, at 4-0), with the wins coming over Maine, Brandeis (its final year fielding a football team) and New Hampshire. The tie was a nil-nil draw with Northeastern.

'59 UMass in action. 

The Players: Halfback Tom Delnickas was the only UMass player to make the YC all-conference first team, which named only 11 players in those one-platoon days. Jerry Cullen (G), Ralph Maloney (E) and Will Reynolds (E) were named to the second team. Reynolds led the team with 399 yards running and six TDs.

The 1959 UMass coaching staff. Dick MacPherson
went on to coach the Minutemen from 1971-77, winning 
four Yankee Conference titles.

The Coach: "Chuckin'" Charlie O'Rourke was one of the greatest players in Boston College history (you can read more about his teams here and here), but he could not translate his playing success to the sideline, going only 21-39-4 from 1952-59 with one winning season.

The Uniforms: This was the last year UMass wore gold as a primary color (other examples can be found here, here and here), as the gold pants were dumped after the season. (As I've said a million billion times before, they make the players resemble Boston College.) This also was the second and final year the Redmen wore a white helmet with a number on the side; they went to blank white lids in 1960 and blank maroon headgear in '63.

A nice close-up of the '59 UMass road uniform.

An aside: I haven't kept track, but UMass might hold the record (at least on this project) for most jersey colors (white, maroon, gold, black and gray). 

The Fallout: In 1960, Chuck Studley took over as coach and guided UMass to a 7-2 record in his only season before leaving for Cincinnati. His successor, Vic Fusia, went 59-32-2 from 1961-70 and won five Yankee Conference titles to establish a long, long run of excellence.

Looks like this young UMass fan is trying to
kidnap the Rhode Island goat. Maybe give it to UConn?

Connecticut Aggies (Huskies; 1926)

I've been meaning to do this one for a while, ever since I came across this amazing article detailing UConn use of orange in football games in the 1920s. While UConn's official colors were (and are) blue and white, those colors were shared by many of the its football rivals, including Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Trinity. To avoid confusion in the marketplace in an era when few teams wore contrasting white jerseys on the road, the Aggies (UConn didn't become the Huskies until the 1930s) wore orange uniforms for football only from 1921-28.

The Sept. 21, 1922 issue of the Connecticut Campus
explains why the Blue and White have gone orange.

Thus, the orange-clad Connecticut Aggies instead of the blue-and-white UConn Huskies. 

A collection of headlines and articles notes
UConn's use of orange on the gridiron.

What makes it even stranger is that some articles continued to refer to their blue hues, such as in this Oct. 19, 1922 Connecticut Campus article, which used blue and white in the headline, but referred to the orange at the end:

By the mid-1920s, the Aggies had added friction stripes to the jersey front and sleeves, resulting in a uniform that might resemble the graphic above. I'm less certain about this uniform than anything else I've done on this little ol' blog; when the only evidence is some scratchy black-and-white photos, you sometimes have to rely on guesswork. Besides, check out the pictures below: You just can't help but imagine those jerseys being blue, especially since they appear to be darker than orange. 

Members of the 1927 Connecticut Aggies line up for a photo
(from the Connecticut Digital Archive).
Trying, trying, trying to imagine those jerseys as orange ...

UConn in action against an unidentified opponent
(perhaps Maine, which wore white helmets) in 1928.
No. 6, in the darker helmet, is likely a Husky Aggie.

According to the UConn Today article, there was a campus debate as to whether the school should switch colors, but a proposal never came to pass. By 1929, the Aggies were again wearing blue jerseys -- augmented with a series of white stripes -- on the gridiron.

On the field, Connecticut had a pretty good run, going 25-11-6 from 1924-28. The 1926 bunch took the New England Conference title, with its only setback coming at Maine. (The 1924 team went undefeated, but I couldn't find enough good pictures for a graphic.)

The Sept. 28, 1929 issue of the Campus makes note
of UConn's return to blue. "The boys looker pretty"?

UConn's black in blue and white 
and all is right with the world again.