Harvard Crimson (1957-58; 1971-72, 75; 1994)

Stability is a funny thing in football. Some teams change head coaches more often than their jockstraps (Columbia pre-Al Bagnoli, Maine pre- and post-Jack Cosgrove come to mind), while others have the same coaches year in, year out. New Hampshire recently hired Ricky Santos as its new coach; he's just the Wildcats' third leader since 1972. The Pittsburgh Steelers have had only three coaches since 1969. 

Which brings us to Harvard.

The Crimson have enjoyed the services of three coaches since 1957, 65 years ago as of this writing. Sixty-five years before 1957 was 1892, the heyday of helmetless players, the flying wedge and mass-momentum plays. John Yovicsin, Joe Restic and Tim Murphy have been pillars of stability in Cambridge during that time and — not coincidentally — have won plenty of Ivy League titles (17 through 2021, roughly one every four years). 

Let's take a look at the uniforms the Crimson wore during the early seasons of each coach's reign, as they all made some changes upon or soon after their arrival.

John Yovicsin was hired in 1957 from Gettysburg, his alma mater, where he went 32-11 over five seasons. After a couple rough seasons at Harvard, Yovicsin guided the Crimson to a 6-3 mark in '59 and Ivy titles in 1961, '66 and '68. His high point as a coach was probably the 29-29 "win" over Yale in 1968 that's been the subject of just a few books and flicks over the years. He retired after the 1970 season because of heart issues. 

John Yovicsin's bio from the 1963 Harvard media guide. 

Harvard (in white helmets!) faces off with Yale in 1958.
Note the black-and-crimson stripes on Harvards jerseys.

Yovicsin's first-year unis stayed the course from previous seasons, but took a left turn in '58 with the addition of white helmets after decades of crimson lids. In '61 Harvard took it to another level with bizarre half-crimson, half-white helmets before returning to crimson in '64.

Speculation was abound over Yovicsin's possible successor. The Jan. 4, 1971 Harvard Crimson newspaper said "a relatively unknown man" would be hired as coach that day, and noted the rejected candidates were Ralph Jelic, Yovicsin's defensive coordinator, and Frank Ryan, the Cleveland Browns quarterback-turned math professor (fitting for an Ivy school, of course).  

The relative "unknown" turned out to be Joe Restic, formerly the head man of the CFL's Hamilton Tiger-Cats (22-17-3 record). Restic soon became very well known around Harvard, going 117-97-6 from 1971-93. He won five Ivy titles and went 10-13 against Carm Cozza and Yale (the 26-year war?). His "multiflex" offense, a whirlwind series of complex plays, formations and last-second shifts, was later the subject of its own class at Harvard.

Harvard's 1971 media guide heralds the arrival of 
new coach Joe Restic, in groovy Helvetica font.

The first-year Restic uniforms were identical to the later Yovicsin versions, put replaced the jersey number with a plain "H" in 1972. In '74, Harvard wore helmets with the "Real Football Centennial" logo (designed as a raspberry to rival Princeton, by my guess) and switched to the H-in-a-hockey-rink logo in '75, albeit with the logo on only one side for couple years. In 1980, the classic jersey with the school seal on the shoulders debuted; the 1988 unis can be found here.

After Restic's retirement in 1993, Harvard turned to Tim Murphy, who had turned around Cincinnati from back-to-back 1-win seasons in 1989-90 to an 8-3 mark in '93. Despite the success story in Cincy, Murphy departed the FBS Bearcats for the FCS Crimson, a curious decision not unlike Joe Yukica's decision to leave Boston College for Dartmouth in 1978.

But there's no arguing with the results. Murphy is by far and away Harvard's winningest coach, with 186 wins and nine Ivy titles, including three undefeated seasons. Murphy also is the fifth-winningest coach in FCS history (210 wins between Harvard and Maine). A few more big seasons, and the FCS record of 242 victories might be in sight.  

Tim Murphy's Harvard debut was a 39-32 win at Columbia.

Murphy made one significant change to the uniforms upon his arrival: He ditched the hockey rink logo for a more modern H, black and bold and serifed. The height and width of the H changed a few times and the helmet stripes eventually departed, but the rest of the uniform remained largely the same until 2021's overhaul. 

Joe Yukica 1931-2022

Joe Yukica, who coached New Hampshire, Boston College and Dartmouth from 1966-86 and quickly improved the fortunes of all three programs, died recently at the age of 90. Having worked in Dartmouth's backyard for more than 15 years, I heard many stories about Yukica, particularly concerning his messy departure from the Big Green. (Long story short: He was asked to resign in 1985 with a year left on his contract, he took Dartmouth to court and got JOE PATERNO to testify on his behalf; in the end, Yukica was allowed to coach Dartmouth in '86 and finish his contract.) 

My old Valley News colleague Jim Kenyon, who covered the Big Green in the '80s, wrote this excellent profile on him a few years ago.

Anyway, I thought I'd take a look at the uniforms of Yukica's teams, as he made significant sartorial changes to all of his teams upon taking over. Much of this has been repeated elsewhere on this little ol' blog, so you'll have to bear with any redundant redundancies. 

New Hampshire, coming off a winless 1965, hired Yukica from Bob Blackman's staff at Dartmouth, where he coached the Big Green ends for five seasons. 

Yukica turned the Wildcats around, going 2-6 in 1966 and ending an 11-game losing streak in week three (against Maine ... of course). The '67 bunch improved to 5-3, with the losses coming by a combined nine points, causing the Granite yearbook to comment that students "may even come to realize what a rally should be like. The first one last fall was so poorly attended that the students barely outnumbered the players." (Of course, this was 1967, and students were too busy concerning themselves with evil and social injustice to worry about a little ol' football team.)

A 1966 article from The New Hampshire student paper
introduces Wildcat fans to Joe Yukica.

New Hampshire ends a long losing streak against Maine in '66.

The uniforms underwent some modifications from '65's winless team, most notably with the road jerseys, which lost the contrasting blue sleeves. The helmet numbers, meanwhile, were moved to the sides from the back. (In '66, the numbers were only on the right side of the helmets.) In fact, the uniform has a very Penn State look to it. Care to guess where Yukica played his college ball? Judging by photos I've seen, the striped socks weren't worn as much as the short, white models.

After Yukica engineered such a quick turnaround in Durham, it was only a matter of time before a bigger school came calling, and he took the 75-mile trip south to Boston College, coming off back-to-back four-win seasons. Yukica won six games his first season at The Heights, and had only one losing season in 10 years while going 68-37. Yukica also upgraded the Eagles' schedule, adding meatier fare such as Texas and Notre Dame after BC had spent years playing small Jesuit schools like Detroit Mercy and Marquette, both of whom dropped the sport in the '60s.

A sampling of Boston College's uniforms during the Yukica era.

The BC uniforms under predecessor Jim Miller (1962-67) had a USC look to them: Red shirts with big, yellow numbers and thick, yellow-and-white stripes. Yellow (or, if some of you prefer, gold) pants complete the look. In 1966-67, the jerseys had a uniform number on one sleeve and an eagle on the other. In '68, Yukica went to a very plain design with jerseys that look more at home on a practice field. Like the schedule, those eventually got an upgrade and evolved into the style very similar to those used in the Flutie years.

A Boston College punter boots away in '68.

BC coach Yukica and quarterback Frank Harris
chat in the locker room after a 1970 win over Holy Cross. This and
the photo the top of this post come from Digital Commonwealth, one of the best
time-killers you'll ever find. Note the plainness of the BC jersey.

By '77, the jerseys fairly resembled the versions
from the '80s glory years.

BC's lack of bowl bids and a 1977 loss to hated Holy Cross had the alumni howling, and Yukica turned down a new contract offer from BC to take the top job at Dartmouth — a curious decision, as the Ivy League was well on its way toward what eventually became Division I-AA/FCS as BC was returning to the national scene. 

Dartmouth hits pay dirt in 1978 against Boston U. ...

... and thwarts Brown QB and future coach Mark Whipple (5).

While Dartmouth was a winner under predecessor Jake Crouthamel, the Big Green hadn't won an Ivy title since 1973 and Crouthamel left after '77 to become athletic director at Syracuse (where he was partially responsible for the creation of the Carrier Dome and the Big East Conference, y'know, nothing too big).

Although the Boston Globe picked Dartmouth to finish fifth in the Ivies in '78, the Big Green shocked the world — OK, maybe just a few Northeast hamlets — by winning the Ancient Eight title outright behind the arm of quarterback Buddy Teevens (who succeeded Yukica as coach in 1987), the legs of running back Jeff Dufresne (730 yards, eight TDs) and the hands of receiver Dave Shula (49 catches, 656 yards). 

The 1978 Dartmouth commemorative book.

Inside the book, a bio of Yukica and a portrait of his staff.

The Blackman-Crouthamel uniforms, with super-sized numbers on the jerseys, had been unchanged since the 1960s, except for the "D" replacing the Native American head on the shirt sleeves. While Yukica kept the classic helmets in '78, the rest of the uniform was more streamlined, with smaller numbers and more stripes on the sleeves and socks, all capped with black trim. This look was used until Yukica's departure in '86.

Not the best picture, but Joe Yukica's final game
as a head coach, a 28-6 thumping of Princeton, 
graced the front page of the Valley News in 1986.

Dartmouth Big Green (1934-40)

I previously wrote about the Dartmouth 1930s uniforms here. Well, after some further research (or as you kids like to call it these days, a "deep dive"), you can take that post and toss it into the virtual recycling bin.

When doing research, it's always fun to discover something you didn't know. It's also frustrating when you deal with conflicting evidence and you're forced to make the best judgment based on what's in front of you. Such is the case with Dartmouth under the stewardship of coach Red Blaik, who was a very good coach with the Big Green and an all-time legend at Army.

After wearing a fairly drab uniform in 1933 with dark green helmets and jerseys and brownish pants, Blaik called for an overhaul in '34, introducing brighter jerseys (which lasted only one year), shiny satin pants and striped helmets. We know the jerseys were green, but the color of the helmets and pants are a matter of dispute. Well, this Dartmouth Alumni Magazine article from '34 tells us the following (key parts highlighted):

A Boston Globe article by Mel Webb*, on the other hand, offers something different:

"Tight-fitting as the proverbial paper on the wall?" Ol' Mel should see today's unis. 

Anyway, we have disputes as to the color of the pants and the helmets. Silver and bronze are completely different things, whether in fashion or at the Olympics. 

We have a possible, clue, however, even though it's from a few years later. Here's a still image from a YouTube video of a 1938 Dartmouth-Cornell game. Actually just watch the video first, because it's pretty damn cool:

Here's a close-up of a Dartmouth player:

As you can see, the helmet clearly has a silvery top and the pants are more of a pale gold, almost tan ... maybe even gray/bronze/brown?

What I've decided to do is to make the pants bronze/gold with a silvery tint, which may explain why the Dartmouth Alumni writer called them silver. Whether this is what Dartmouth really wore in the 30s, we'll likely never know. (But hey, if anyone out there has a 1930s Dartmouth uni sitting in an old attic, I'd love to know about it!) And there's always the case I'm overthinking this whole thing. Geez, and I think it's crazy when people obsess about the jersey placement of the St. Louis Cardinals' birds-on-bat logo over the years or the color of the damn bird's beak ... who am I to judge? 😎

The Red Blaik era was an amazing time for Big Green football, with nationally ranked teams, a Heisman Trophy contender, that fifth-down game against Cornell ... and the 12th-man game against Princeton. Which means I likely haven't written the final word on this era and will have more opportunities to waffle about Dartmouth's unis.

Below are the other Big Green uniforms from the Blaik era. Numbers were added to the front in 1936, and the number of helmet stripes were reduced in '39, a look Dartmouth kept through 1954.

* Nothing to do with football, but Mel Webb later became (in)famous as the guy who allegedly left Ted Williams off his 1947 AL MVP ballot and allowed Joe DiMaggio to take the award by one point. This has been disputed, however, and some claim ol' Mel didn't even have a ballot that year.