Colgate Raiders (2014-19)

Starting with the 2021 spring season, I added Colgate to the list of teams covered in this little ol' blog, and I've done a few historical uniforms here and there. Here are all the Raiders' uniforms going back to 2014, the first year of this site. (Eight years? Already?) A few notes:

* Wow, that's a lot of uniforms. Although the 'gate never made wholesale changes, there were always some modifications year to year, much in the manner of English soccer kits. I have the Raiders down for nine separate jerseys and nine separate helmets over six years — a drop in the bucket compared with the Oregons of the world, but quite a few for the FCS level. Some of the helmets are flat-out bizarre: One is maroon with a black airbrush across the bottom; another is a while lid with a gray base that increases toward the back. 

* In 2019, Colgate's maroon was lightened to something closer to red, although a reddish helmet was introduced a few years earlier while the jerseys remained maroon.

* To celebrate the school's 200th anniversary in 2018, Colgate wore a special uniform honoring its most famous team, The 1932 bunch is remembered for the four "uns": Undefeated, untied, unscored upon and uninvited to the Rose Bowl. I plan on doing a writeup on this team eventually, but in short, Colgate in '32 outscored its opponents 264-0 and went home for the postseason anyway (a weak schedule may have had something to do with it). The throwback helmets use a sublimated leather pattern, and the numbers are heat-pressed onto honest-to-god burlap that was sewn onto the jersey, which was the practice in olden times, when teams didn't wear numbers for every game and they could be easily added or removed.  This great article goes into the making of the uniform.

The 2018 team did the '32 crew proud; the Raiders outscored their foes 324-112, including a 287-29 run with five shutouts through nine games, putting them into 1963 UMass territory in terms of defensive awesomeness. Colgate rolled to the Patriot League title before dropping its regular-season finale to Army — which finished ranked in the FBS top 25 polls — 28-14. The Raiders then upset James Madison (!), 23-20, in the second round of the FCS playoffs before falling to North Dakota State, 35-0, in the quarterfinals.

New Hampshire Wildcats (1994)

For its homecoming game this season, New Hampshire wore a retro uniform inspired by what the Wildcats wore in the 1980s and '90s. (You can see some pictures here. They don't look exactly like the vintage duds, but I have very low patience for people who whine about inaccurate throwbacks as if it's world hunger or something.) The unis were hyped with this awesome Twitter video showing lovingly grainy, fuzzy clips from the olden days. One of the clips was from their dramatic Yankee Conference-clinching win over Boston University in 1994 ... which bring us to today's topic.

The '94 Wildcats made the NCAA I-AA (FCS) tournament for the first time in three years — and the last time for another decade. Here is an excellent highlight video from that season. For all the Wildcats did in the Ricky Santos/David Ball era a decade later, the '94 bunch might have been the most entertaining team they ever offered to the public: Dramatic wins, dramatic losses, defensive players scoring all the time, a versatile QB ... the list goes on. 

Let's take a closer look:

The Team: UNH ran the table with an 8-0 YC mark, the first time the Wildcats had gone unbeaten in league play since 1975 and the last time until 2014. But nothing was decided until the season finale against BU; the Wildcats were 7-0 in the YC, the Terriers 6-1. A win would give UNH the YC's automatic NCAA berth. A loss, and hope the NCAA gods like you that day. James Madison, also in the NCAA hunt, lost to lowly Northeastern that day to fall to 9-2 overall, 6-2 YC, putting the Dukes on the bubble. (They got in and reached the quarterfinals.)

The Wildcats led the Terriers 24-10 in the second quarter, but were down 38-24 in the fourth. UNH scored two TDs to force overtime. (In 1994, only the YC and maybe one or two other leagues used OT. Elsewhere, tie games were still the law of the land.) In the first possession of the second OT, UNH took a 52-45 lead on a "Philly Special" when halfback Matt Mezquita threw a TD pass to quarterback Jim Stayer. BU scored a TD of its own in the "bottom" of the frame ... but its extra point attempt bounced off a Terrier helmet and the UNH fans stormed the field. 

"This is the most exciting game I've ever coached," misty-eyed UNH coach Bill Bowes told The Boston Globe after the game.

UNH was rewarded with a home game against Appalachian State in the first round of the NCAA tourney, the first home playoff game in program history. But the Wildcats let a 10-0 fourth-quarter lead slip away and the Mountaineers forced OT (which in the playoffs, of course, was and is the law of the land). Appy State took a 17-10 lead on its first possession and won the game by that score when UNH fumbled on its first play and the Mountaineers recovered. 

The Wildcats finished No. 12 in the I-AA rankings.

One odd tidbit: Of UNH's 12 opponents that year, four (UMass, UConn, Appalachian State, James Madison) have since joined FBS, while three others (BU, Northeastern, Hofstra) have long since dropped the sport.

UNH QB Jim Stayer could pass, run and even catch the ball,
as he showed in the regular-season finale.

The Players: In researching this bunch, what struck me was the players' versatility. Mezquita, a running back, ran for three TDs and threw for two more, including one in the BU game. All-YC linebacker Warren Armes scored three TDs as a running back, and all-American defensive end Mike Foley scored from the tight end spot in a 42-14 win over Richmond.

Stayer threw for over 2,000 yards and 12 TDs (and, of course, that TD catch against BU), while Avrom Smith ran for over 800 yards and 11 TDs, plus two more through the air and another via kickoff return. Foley, Armes, DL Joe Fleming and DB Jim Conannon were named to the all-YC first team. Foley also won the Bill Knight trophy given the to the MVP of the UMass game, the first defensive player to win the honor.

Defensive end Mike Foley (91) was a threat at tight end, too.

The Coach(es): I've probably mentioned head coach Bill Bowes in a million other posts, but here's the CliffsNotes version of his career:

• Went 175–106–5 at UNH from 1972-98; leads the program in seasons and wins;
• Won four Yankee Conference titles, making the NCAA playoffs each time (1994 was his last);
• Is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame;
• Played at Penn State from 1962-64;
• Had only five losing seasons; including his first two, while he was presumably rebuilding the program.

But check out Bowes' staff. Offensive coordinator Sean McDonnell succeeded Bowes as head coach and led the Wildcats to 14 straight NCAA tourneys; running backs coach Chip Kelly became McDonnell's OC, revamped the Wildcats' offense, and went to coach at Oregon and UCLA (sandwiched around a couple NFL stints); and offensive line coach Jack Bicknell Jr. was the head coach at Louisiana Tech for eight seasons (he is now the OL coach at North Carolina). That's a pretty stacked lineup.

This screen grab from UNH's 1994 highlight video shows, from left,
Sean McDonnell, Bill Bowes and (I think), Chip Kelly.

The Uniforms: As is the case with Bowes, I've discussed the classic UNH look in many other posts. In this day and age, when teams change their unis on a weekly basis, the Wildcats trotted out the same design with minimal changes for close to 25 years. As a Penn State alum, Bowes would be pretty familiar with maintaining tradition. Although I do wonder why UNH wore names on the home jerseys only. The Wildcats began wearing the Yankee Conference patch on the front  in 1993.

The Fallout: The good times form 1994 did not carry over into '95, as the Wildcats dropped their first three games out the gate (all against YC foes) and finished 6-5. The '96 team bounced back with an 8-3 record and a No. 18 ranking in the I-AA poll, but did not receive an NCAA invite.  

Vermont Catamounts (What If?)

It's time for the third and final installment in our "What If" series, imaging what uniforms of defunct college football teams would look like if they hadn't become defunct. This time, it's the University of Vermont, undefeated since 1975 and all that jazz. (And taking a glance at the recent Top 25 men's soccer rankings, I see the Catamounts aren't too shabby at that other football these days.)

Here's what UVM's unis looked like when the school gave up the sport in 1974.

Previous installments covered Boston University and Northeastern.

1975: After two years of going all green, UVM tones it down a bit and adds white pants while eliminating the horizontal stripes from the jerseys.

1978: The Catamounts do a total overhaul, with yellow taking prominence in the pants and numbers. The jerseys add a big "VERMONT" wordmark, and the helmets add yellow facemasks and an outline around the "V."

1983: The stripes and numbers on the socks and road jerseys are inverted.

1987: The deemphasis of yellow continues, as white pants return (again), and white numbers and stripes are used on the home shirts. The "V" on the helmet also changes.

1991: The "VERMONT" wordmark vanishes, as do half the sleeve stripes.

1995: The V-cat logo debuts on both the jerseys and the new white helmet, and the numbers gain a double outline. Also note the Yankee Conference patch, which the league's teams began to wear in 1993, and the small Russell logo on the sleeves.

1999: Green alternate pants are added, and the outline on the road shirts change slightly, making the numbers easier to read. In 1997, the Yankee Conference morphed into the Atlantic 10, and the patch on the jersey front reflects the move.

2001: The white pants are discarded. 

2004: Everything old in new again, and at UVM, it means the return if the all-green look, right down to the helmets.  Nike replaces Russell as the uniform supplier. Drop-shadow numbers, side panels and tiny wordmarks — uniform hallmarks of that era — also appear. The V-cat logo is modified, as it was in real life around this time.

2008: UVM continues to keep up with the joneses and add curved numbers — similar to what the hockey team wore around this time — and funky striping.

2011: A screaming yellow zonkers alternate is added. After facing a possible shutdown of the program due to the recent economic crisis, UVM moves to the lower-scholarship Northeast Conference for football only. (The real-life Catamounts dropped baseball and softball around 2009.)

2014: UVM switches from Nike to Adidas (which made the men's basketball uniforms during this period) and the uniforms return to a more basic look. The big "VERMONT" wordmark also returns. (You may notice many real-life Adidas teams have a big wordmark on the jersey fronts.)

2019: The Catamounts return to Nike and maintain the basic look — if you check UVM's website, you'll notice many of the their teams' uniforms aren't elaborate. The green helmets have a chrome look, while the jerseys and pants kinda resemble those of Princeton (another Nike team). The road uniforms are almost completely devoid of yellow. A 1960s throwback helmet is added in honor of college football's 150th anniversary.

2022: Some yellow is added to the white jerseys and pants, while an all-black alternate uniform debuts, with "CATAMOUNTS" up the side of the pants. (Well, I guess in this world, UVM does get elaborate.)

Football Scrapbook (1926)

This doesn't necessarily deal with football uniforms or even college football, but what the hey? 

I wrote an essay for Central Maine Newspapers (my current employer) on a tattered scrapbook from 1926 filled with 150 pages of football clippings, mostly concerning Maine high schools and colleges. It's amazing something like this survived the ravages of time. And you can read more about it here:

https://www.centralmaine.com/2022/10/01/old-time-football-1926-scrapbook-provides-revealing-look-at-maines-gridiron-history/