Boston College Eagles (2021)

And so, we wrap up our glance at the uniforms of 2021 with Boston College, which had to cancel out of the Military Bowl because of COVID-19 issues. (True fact: The Eagles have been bowl eligible each of the last four seasons, but have completed just one bowl game during that time. The First Responders bowl after the 2018 season was canceled due to lightning and BC turned down bowl invites for 2020 because of COVID concerns.)

Last season, under first-year coach Jeff Hafley, BC wore its throwback alternates almost exclusively. This fall, BC changed its uniforms and kept the retro look (bringing to mind the late-80s design), even resuscitating the vintage BC logo of yore. This change isn't restricted to football; a glance over at beagles.com shows nearly ALL the Eagles' teams have gone retro, although the site still uses the "modern" BC logo. Maybe Definitely I'm showing my age, but it's nice to see someone go traditional in a world of ultra-modern uniforms ... although if everyone went traditional, it would make for a pretty boring blog over here.

The Eagles mixed and matched between white and gold pants, although I prefer the time when they almost exclusively wore gold pants at home and white on the road. Otherwise, there's nothing to complain about (drat!). BC twice wore the "red bandanna" uniforms, a tribute to 9-11 hero and BC alum Welles Crowther.

Bates Bobcats (1946)

Confession time: I like the proliferation of bowl games on TV, although I didn't always feel that way. But what would you rather watch during the holidays: A bowl game, or something else, like an ESPN/FS1 hot-take show or a Hallmark film? (What? You said Hallmark?!?) While many of today's games seem rather flimsy in nature, the fact is that oddball bowls have always been around ... there just weren't as many in the past. (And if you don't believe me about past oddball bowls, just Google "Raisin Bowl," "Salad Bowl," "Gotham Bowl," "Cherry Bowl," "Knute Rockne Bowl" and a million others. 😎)

A while back, I profiled New Hampshire's journey to the 1947 Glass Bowl, which is right up there  with the Refrigerator Bowl among bowl games that need to be brought back. But one year earlier, tiny Bates College of Lewiston, Maine made its own trip to the Glass Bowl and was the first team from the Pine Tree State to play in a bowl game. (UMaine is the only other team from Maine to make a bowl game, in 1965.)

The 1946 Bates Bobcats, the first team from Maine to play in a bowl game.
I always notice how tiny the players were in the old days.

The Glass Bowl was played from 1946-49 at the stadium of the same name in Toledo, Ohio. The Toledo Rockets played in all four games, losing only the 1949 finale against Cincinnati. According to Wikipedia, the game was canceled due a combination of Toledo's declining play, poor weather and a lack of interest by opposing teams, which makes you wonder how many schools hung up on the Rockets before Bates and UNH said yes.

Bates, which didn't play in 1945 because of World War II and won just one game apiece in '43 and '44, made up for lost time, winning all seven regular-season games — five by shutout in those low-scoring days — while allowing only 11 points. One of the wins was a baseball-esque 7-4 decision over Maine.

A page from the Bates yearbook shows some highlights of the Bobcats' season.
It looks like they celebrated their state title in a muddy basement.

In the Glass Bowl, Bates allowed nearly twice as many points as it had allowed all season in a 21-12 loss to Toledo in front of an announced crowd of 12,000 fans, a crowd that probably dwarfs  many of today's bowl audiences. Despite the defeat, Bates halfback Art Blanchard was named the game's MVP.

Another notable name for Bates was head coach Ducky Pond, who guided Yale from 1934-40 (among his charges were Heisman Trophy winners Larry Kelley and Clint Frank) and Bates in 1941 and '46-51. His career record was 52-55-3; I wrote a little about his Yale teams here. Pond was ninth in the national coach of the year voting in 1946 — can you imagine a small-school coach doing that now?

As you can see, Bates was mighty proud of its Bobcats in 1946.

Amazingly, Bates hasn't reached the seven-win plateau since the Glass Bowl season; the Bobcats have reached six wins five times — and zero wins eight times. 

The uniforms were pretty basic; the one curveball comes with the helmets: some had stripes and some were plain. The jerseys have a similar template as Maine's and Dartmouth's from this era. 

You can read more about this team in this excellent article, which has tons of great details and photos. I wrote about Bates' 1972 unis here.

James Madison Dukes (1972)

A James Madison profile? In a New England blog? Yup.

James Madison University is normally out of the milieux of this site, being based way down in Harrisonburg, Va. (Although from the places I've lived the last 15 years or so, hamlets like Durham, N.H., and Amherst, Mass., are considered "way down.") But JMU, a longtime member of the Yankee Conference/Atlantic 10/CAA, has been on the brain since it announced it was moving on up to the FBS and Sun Belt Conference, effective 2023. It's sad to see the Dukes leave, but since they play in a football-rich region and have a rabid fanbase, my guess is they'll handle FBS better than, well, these guys have. 

The school was known simply as Madison College when it fielded its first football team in 1972. According to Wikipedia (so it must be true),  the school's president wanted to attract more men and change its reputation as an all-women's teachers college. 

James Madison University's first football team in 1972,
when it was still known as Madison College. 
You've got to start somewhere. 

A newspaper article from 1972
heralds the arrival of JMU football.

Judging by the results and pictures, the Dukes appear to have been little more than a ragtag club team in '72; they were shut out in all five games, with the "highlight" a scoreless tie with the mighty Hampden–Sydney jayvees. The uniforms, as you might expect, were pretty basic; they look barely above the level of practice duds. JMU wore yellow helmets (gold didn't arrive until the mid-80s) with an extremely basic "MC" on each side.

A couple shots of the first-year Dukes from the 1973 Bluestone yearbook.
Note that one Duke has a white helmet, a reminder of the first-year team's ragtag nature.
(No, I'm not putting it in the uniform graphic. That's just getting silly.) 

The '72 Dukes under the lights.

After a rough start, MC/JMU took off pretty quickly, going undefeated in 1975 and winning the Virginia Collegiate Athletic Association title. (Two members of the spotless '75 team also were on the winless '73 bunch.) The Dukes joined I-AA/FCS in 1980 and the Yankee Conference in 1993, and won NCAA FCS titles in 2004 and '16.

For perspective, a shot of the undefeated 1975 team in action.
Note the turf field and fans in the larger stands.

So just think: Somewhere out there, some small school no one has ever heard of is borrowing pads and socks and scrambling to put a club football team together. And that obscure team today may be playing for a national title in front of 20,000 fans in 20-30 years.

I also took a brief look at JMU in this profile of the 1996 Yankee Conference teams.

Colgate, Holy Cross (2021)

The latest installment of 2021 uniforms comes from two Patriot League schools, Colgate and Holy Cross. 

Colgate had a new coach and new home jerseys, which vaguely recall the Raiders' mid-70s look. The road shirts carried over the design from the 2021 spring season. (Nothing says "FCS football" quite like home and road jerseys with completely different designs because you can afford to change only one set of shirts at a time.) Three different helmet designs were employed, two with the classic "'gate" logo and one with the school's official logo: A plain ol' "C." I wonder how long it took the marketing geniuses in Hamilton to come up with that one?

For a program as historically accomplished as Holy Cross, it's kind of a shock to learn the Crusaders never won a postseason game until this season's FCS playoffs. The Cross won its third straight Patriot title to continue the program's most successful run since the '80s glory years, when the then-Colonial League abstained from postseason play. After changing their road shirts last season, Holy Cross unveiled matching home versions this fall. The black pants, not worn since 2019, made a return. As I said after last season, those gorgeous white helmets should be worn full-time.

Bryant, Central Connecticut St., Merrimack, Sacred Heart (2021)

Time for the latest round of the uniforms of 2021, this time with a trip through the New England schools in the Northeast Conference. You can see the Ivy League here, the CAA teams here and the FBS indies here. The review will continue with Colgate and Holy Cross and wrap up with Boston College after its bowl game. 

Bryant made its most significant change since the program's founding in 1999, dumping the plain gold helmet it had worn since day one for a black version, with a number on one side and the bulldog logo on the other. The home and road jerseys also underwent a change and have a consistent look for the first time in a few years. The bulldog logo on the helmets and sleeves marks the first it has been featured on the uniform someplace other than the pants, a definite upgrade. (For a few years Bryant had a goofy-looking "B" in a shield on the sleeves.)

Central Connecticut State, which also has a logo on one side of the helmet and a number on the other, replaced the "CC" logo from seasons part with the blue devil head. CCSU, which sat out last season because of COVID-19, continued to wear all-blue at home and all-white on the road. The Blue Devils also wore a pink stripe down the middle of helmet for several games in October for breast cancer awareness. If you look closely, you can see the word "FIGHT" imprinted all over the stripe. 

Merrimack added some flair when it unveiled an all-yellow uniform at Homecoming, giving the Warriors three jerseys and two sets of pants. (Some teams, like Bryant, UNH and Maine, have two jerseys and three pants, which I don't understand. Third jerseys > third pants; you can make more fun combos.) The shirts retained the same basic pattern as the home and road versions, although the road whites continue to lack shoulder numbers. 

Finally, Sacred Heart, which won its second straight NEC title, trotted out eight different combos, including the star-spangled and gray alternate uniforms, which returned after a year's absence. The Pioneers also wore a helmet with a 9-11 tribute logo on the right side for their  first two games.

UConn, UMass (2021)

I ranted about the apes of UMass and UConn in this post and this post, and I really have nothing to add other than I think their coaching decisions (Don Brown for UMass, Jim Mora at UConn) were probably the best they could do under the circumstances. If either team gets into a bowl game in the next few years, I'll be more than happy to do an "I WAS WRONG" post and blog endlessly about their uniforms for a whole month.

Now, onto their uniforms for this season ...

UConn may be blah on the the field, but at least the Huskies look good while losing. They continued their look from 2019 (UConn didn't play in '20 because of COVID-19); there's a lot of mixing and matching going on, but every uniform is clean and simple. I wonder if Mora will keep the trend, or go for something new? 

UMass, like UConn, looks good even if the team plays no-so-good. After using only two styles during the COVID-abbreviated 2020 season, the Minutemen expanded to seven combos in '21, all pretty straightforward. I like the occasional use of the 1990s logo, although I wouldn't want to see it every game.