Yale Bulldogs (1940)

We're deep into the offseason, so it's time to pull out a team at random, and 1940 Yale is the "winner."

The Team: Yikes. The Bulldogs won one game, a 13-7 win over a decent Dartmouth team. Yale scored only 43 points all season and allowed 162. (By today's standards, 162 points allowed in eight games is great. Back then, it was 112th out of 121 "major" teams, per sports-reference.) The Bulldogs were shut out three times — including a 28-0 home decision to Harvard in The Game — and never scored more than 14 points in a game.

These photos from the 1941 Yale University yearbook show off
those old-fashioned photos labeling the players and dashed line following the path of the ball.

The Players: Yikes, Part 2. It's hard to find much info about a one-win team from 83 years ago, so instead I give you the starting lineup for the Bulldogs' game against Harvard, from the Yale Daily News:

The Coaches: I wrote about Ducky Pond in this post on Bates, where he coached after his time at Yale ran its course.  You can also read more about him here. The backfield coach, Earle "Greasy" Neale, left after the season to become head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, only to join the Philadelphia Eagles when the teams' owners swapped franchises. Neale won two NFL titles was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1969. He's also in the college football hall for his time as head coach at Virginia, West Virginia and Washington & Jefferson. (Quick quiz: which of those three teams went to the Rose Bowl under Neale? Hint: It wasn't the first two.) 

This photo ran in the Yale Daily News the day of the Harvard game in 1940.
Ah, the days when student papers engaged in unabashed boosterism.

The Uniforms: Yale wore a lighter shade of blue than the more familiar navy of today, and the pants were gold or tan. The helmets were white with a navy blue base and a wing pattern on the front. Even by 1940s standards, the look is a total mishmash.

The Fallout: 1940 marked the end of Ducky Pond's time in New Haven. Yale went 1-7 under one-year coach Spike Nelson, before Howie Odell went 35-15-2 from 1942-47.

Hi, Doggie!