Boston College Eagles (1933)

Our latest random team takes us waaaay back to the Depression years with a Boston College team that was hardly depressing. 

The Team: The Eagles went 8-1 in '33, but don't look for them in any national title discussions. Most of the wins were against small Jesuit schools such as Saint Anselm, Loyola (Md.), Georgetown, Villanova and Holy Cross. The other victories were against Centre (a short-term power in the 1920s out of Kentucky), Boston University and Western Maryland (which was rebranded McDaniel College in 2002 and plays a Division III schedule).

Maybe the foes weren't so great, but the nicknames were. Centre was known as the "Praying Colonels" (just plain Colonels today) and Western Maryland/McDaniel goes by the "Green Terror."

The lone loss was 32-6 to Fordham at the Polo Grounds in BC's only road game; Vince Lombardi was a Rams freshman.

BC punts away during its only loss of the season, 
to Fordham at the Polo Grounds.

The Players: It appears the Eagles' big star was Flavio Tosi, whom the Sub Turri yearbook claimed was the best end in the East; according his BC Hall of Fame profile, he registered TEN sacks in a season-ending 13-9 win over Holy Cross. After the season, he signed with the Boston Redskins, becoming the first Eagle to play in the NFL.

Star end Flavio Tosi, wearing the older BC uniform.
Check out the socks!

Among the other stars:

* Quarterback Johnny Frietas, who also was a pretty fair punter and kicker, with a 40-yard drop-kick field goal (!) in a season-opening win over St. Anselm. 

* Paul Flaherty also played some QB and his passing led BC to a 25-0 win over BU. 

The caption says it all. The official on the left appears
to be wearing pants about six sizes too large.

* Bobby Ott and Johnny Dougan handled the running chores, and Ott also was a standout linebacker. 

* Frank Maloney, the captain, was described the the Sub Turri as "our greatest defensive bulwark, his blocking ability and inspiring leadership paved the way for a successful season."

Tosi and Frietas are in BC's Varsity Club Hall of Fame.

The Coach: Joe McKenney also is a BC Hall of Famer. As a player, he quarterbacked the Eagles to an undefeated season in 1926 and also was a track and baseball standout. As coach, he led BC to a 44-18-3 mark from 1928-34. McKenney later served as the director of physical education for the Boston school system and was a linesman for college football, the NFL and AFL. And on top of all that, he led the fundraising drive for the construction of Alumni Stadium in 1957.

This cartoon from the Sub Turri touts Joe McKenney while 
he discusses his team's accomplishments.

The Uniforms: Keeping in mind that there may be mistakes in the above graphic thanks to dark, murky photos, it appears BC wore two different jerseys in '33 with maroon helmets and gold/tan pants. According to Reid Oslin's excellent Boston College Football Vault, the Eagles debuted maroon jerseys with gold stripes in '32. Against Fordham (which also wore maroon), BC sported gold jerseys with maroon shoulder panels and numbers on the back, but not the front. By '34, numbers were added to the front of the gold shirts and the maroons followed suit in '35.

The Fallout: BC fell to 5-4 in '34 in McKenney's last season. Two different coaches guided the Eagles in '35 before personal favorite Gloomy Gil Dobie arrived in '36.

Harvard Crimson (1966)

Our last post concerned the 1966 Yale Bulldogs, so for this one we'll take a glance at their Ivy League doppelgängers. 

The Team: Harvard went 8-1 and shared the Ivy title with Princeton and Dartmouth. (Trivia: From 1960-83, at least one school out of Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton or Yale won or shared the Ancient Eight title each season.) The Crimson's lone loss was an 18-14 decision to Princeton on Nov. 5 at old Palmer Stadium. The Tigers drove 93 yards in the fourth quarter for the go-ahead touchdown, then stopped the Crimson in the red zone on fourth down with less than 2 minutes left to seal the victory. To complete the circle, Princeton's lone Ivy loss was to Dartmouth and Dartmouth's defeat was against Harvard.

The Players: Quarterback Ric Zimmerman threw for a modest 639 yards with seven TDs and seven interceptions, completing just under half his passes in an era when a 50% completion percentage was pretty darn good. Senior Bobby Leo led the ground game with 827 yards and seven TDs, followed by sophomore Vic Gatto with 700 yards and three scores. Junior Carter Lord led the receivers with a whopping 19 catches for 248 yards. (Ah, the '60s.) As many of you probably know, future actor Tommy Lee Jones played for Harvard and was a sophomore guard on the '66 team.

Vic Gatto runs against Columbia in 1966. Note that 
both teams are wearing dark jerseys.

The Coach: I wrote a bit about John Yovicsin in this post. This was his 10th year at Harvard and his second of three Ivy titles. His career record was 78-42-5. This Harvard Crimson article from 1966 takes a first-hand look at his personality and coaching style.

The Uniforms: Harvard's look was largely unchanged from 1964-71: Crimson helmets with black-and-white stripes with white numbers; crimson jerseys with smallish white numbers (reversed on the road); and light gold pants. In later years, Harvard added striped socks to the ensemble. 

Harvard breaks out the white jerseys and long sleeves
for its late-season loss to Princeton.

Harvard played only two road games in '66 (Princeton and Columbia) and wore the white jerseys only once, at Princeton. (For whatever reason, Harvard wore the "home" jerseys even when Columbia wore the light blue shirts at home, although '66 marked the time in years the Lions wore white shirts on the road.) The white shirts were long-sleeved for the late-season game, but the homes went with short sleeves all season long.

The Fallout: Harvard slipped to 6-3 overall, 4-3 and tied for fourth in the Ivies in '67, then in '68 ... ah, you all know that. 😎

Sure, everyone knows Tommy Lee Jones played at Harvard,
but how many people know he was a star on the old soap opera
"One Life to Live" from 1971-75?

Yale Bulldogs (1966)

The latest dip into the bag-o-random gives us the 1966 Yale Bulldogs, a historically significant team for uniform-related reasons.

The Team: This was a fairly middling bunch, going 4-5 overall, 3-4 in the Ancient Eight. The Bulldogs' three Ivy wins were all against teams with the same record or worse in the standings (Brown, Penn, Columbia); the losses were all to teams that finished higher. Dartmouth, Harvard and Princeton all shared the Ivy title that year.

A Yale Daily News photo from Yale's season-ending 17-0 loss to Harvard.

The Players: Good news: This team had two all-time legends in quarterback Brian Dowling and running back Calvin Hill. Bad news: They were sophomores and did not play regularly. Dowling played mostly in the season opener — a 16-0 win over UConn — and tossed two TD passes. Pete Doherty was the starter in '66 and threw for 978 yards and 11 TDs. Hill ran for 369 yards in a time-share with Don Barrows (396 yards), Jim Fisher (262) and Chris Kule (147). Bob Kenney led receivers with 37 catches for 414 yards and four TDs.

A 1966 press photo of Brian Dowling, sans facemark.

The Coach: Carm Cozza was in the second season of his 31-year run in New Haven. A product of the Miami (Ohio) school of coaching legends, Cozza played quarterback for another pair of famed coaches, Ara Parseghian and Woody Hayes. Cozza was an assistant under John Pont at Yale and became the head man when Pont left for Indiana (where he guided the Hoosiers to their only Rose Bowl berth). Cozza, meanwhile, won 179 games and 10 Ivy titles.

The Uniforms: This was the season Yale placed the famed "Y" on the helmets, which remains there to this day. From 1997-2011, the Y had a double outline before the plain letter returned in 2012. The rest of the uniform was plain as plain can be; navy jerseys with white numbers and white pants with two navy stripes down the side. Except for some minor changes here and there, this look lasted through 1995.

The Fallout: Dowling took over as QB in 1967 and led the Bulldogs to Ivy titles in 1967 and '68, never losing a game (well, unless you count the '68 Harvard tie as a loss). Hill ended his Yale career with 1,512 rushing yards, 858 receiving yards ... and 298 passing yards. Yale won a third straight title without Dowling and Hill in '69.

Don't go to Benderly Kimberdict for betting tips.

Rhode Island Rams (1967)

College football is less than two months away. Let's get back into the swing of things and pull a team out of the bag o' random! This time, it's the 1967 Rhody Rams.

The Team: Between 1958 and 1972, Rhode Island has but one winning team, and this was it. Among the wins was a 28-17 opening-day shocker over Delaware in which Rhody scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns. (The Hens ended the season 2-7, their last losing season for 16 years.) Wins over Maine and New Hampshire and a scoreless tie against Vermont put Rhody in third place in the Yankee Conference.

The Rams take in the action from the bench.

The Players: In an era when passing was far more risky and interceptions far more common, Rhody QB Larry Caswell threw for 11 TDs and just two picks. He finished with 1,575 passing yards, a respectable total for that era. His favorite target was future NFL draft pick Frank Geiselman, who hauled down 48 passes for eight TDs. Brent Kaufman was the leading ground-gainer with 590 yards and eight scores. 

Frank Giesleman goes airborne to 
grab a pass against Maine.

The Coach: Jack Zilly was an All-American, national-title winning end at Notre Dame who played for the NFL's Los Angeles Rams and Philadelphia Eagles from 1947-52, winning an NFL title in LA in '51. At Rhody, Zilly installed a pro-style offense (which would explain the Rams' air attack), but, the '67 team was his only winner; his final record was 21-41-2 from 1963-69.

The Uniforms: I've written about these uniforms before, but they're among my favorites of the '60s. In '67, Rhody ditched the navy blue LA Rams knock-offs (here's another example) and returned to the light blue it had phased out earlier in the decade. The new unis had white helmets with light blue horns and little notches in the horns. Light blue jerseys and white pants were worn at home, and the colors were revered on the road. 

The Fallout: Rhody won only five games over the next two seasons and Zilly was let go in 69. His successor, Jack Gregory (1970-75), also had only one winning season. It would take the magic of Bob Griffin to turn the Rams into a consistent winner for the first time since the early 1950s.