The (Somewhat) Complete Holy Cross Uniform History, Part II

OK, time to get off the couch and resume the history of Holy Cross uniforms. This time we'll go form the late 1940s through 1969.

Part I can be found here.

1946: For at least one game, the Crusaders wore the Orange Bowl-era uniform, with the silver helmet and plain jersey. But for the rest of the season, the helmets were white, the jerseys sprouted shoulder panels and the pants added stripes on the back.

1948: The 'Saders returned to a more conventional look, with all frills removed except for an alternate shirt with sleeve stripes. The silver lids also returned. And not much changed for a while.

1956: Plenty of changes here. Silver disappeared as a color, replaced with purple helmets and pants. Shoulder stripes were added the shirts; notice the Crusaders had a two-stripe pattern on the helmets, shirts, pants and socks, giving them a nice, consistent look that I'm sure the Fitton Field faithful noticed right off the bat. (OK, maybe not.)

This 1956 clipping from The Crusader newspaper 
note Holy Cross's new uniforms. "Dr. Eddie" is a reference
to Dr. Eddie Anderson, the Crusaders' longtime coach.

1957: Numbers were added to the helmets.

1963: By this time, Holy Cross has two white jerseys — a short-sleeved shirt for early-season games and a long-sleeved version for later in the fall. Against archival Boston College, Holy Cross wears silver helmets and pants. The new fashion statement works, as the 1-6-1 Crusaders upset the 6-2 Eagles, 9-0.

1964: The silver helmets and pants stick around, although the purple lids are dusted off for at least one game. The Crusaders wear numbers on the silver helmets for the BC game only.

1965: Holy Cross adds a purple short-sleeved jersey. Numbers are on the helmets except for the BC game (of course!), when the Crusaders replaced the digits with a small "HC" logo.

Holy Cross runs the ball against Northeastern in 1965. 

1966: The helmets are free of logos or numbers, and in some cases, stripes.

1967: The uniforms undergo a complete overhaul. Silver is dumped, and the purple helmets return, this time with an "HC" logo (similar to what the 'Saders have now). New jerseys feature three stripes on each sleeve and TV numbers on the shoulders. The socks also have three stripes.

1969: The season that wasn't. Holy Cross played two games, both losses, before a hepatitis epidemic on the team caused the rest of the season to be cancelled. The lower two uniforms were used only for pre-season publicity photos. Silver pants returned, as did a warm-weather short-sleeved jersey.

Holy Cross gets crunched by Harvard in its 1969 season opener.