New Haven Chargers (1972, 2024)

New Haven? New Haven, you ask? Yes, New England's other UNH is moving on up to Division I from D-II this fall as a member of the Northeast Conference, bringing the number of active D-I football schools in New England to 17. Not bad for a region not known for college football in the grand scheme of things. (Six non-New England schools are also covered by this little ol' site.)

Looking over the Chargers' season-by-season history, I was struck by their long list of notable coaches:

• Larry McElreavy (1983-85, 12-18 record) later coached Columbia during their dark ages (going 2-28). When I lived in the Upper Valley, he coached Newport (N.H.). High to a state title or two.
• Chris Palmer (1986-87, 16-4) coached at Boston University for in 1988-89 and later was the first coach of Cleveland Browns 2.0 (1999-2000). He was New Haven's athletic director from 2018-19.
• Mark Whipple (1988-93, 48-17) coached four years at Brown, then led UMass to a I-AA (FCS) national title in 1998.
• Tony Sparano (1994-98, 41-14-1) went on to coach the Miami Dolphins to an AFC East title in 2008 during the thick of the New England Patriots' heyday. (Yeah, it was the season when Brady was hurt, but the Pats still went 11-5 with Matt Cassel at QB.)
• Darren Rizzi (1999-2001, 15-14) coached a year at Rhode Island (2008, 3-9) and was the interim head coach of the New Orleans Saints in 2024.

No matter their record, there's something to be said about a D-II/III program with three NFL head coaches among their ranks.

Another quirk about New Haven: The school dropped the program after the 2003 season and revived it in 2009. UAB, Villanova and Maine Maritime are other schools that eliminated the sport only to being it back in short order.

After fielding a club team for several years, the Chargers joined the varsity ranks in 1973 and promptly dropped their first 18 games before they finally tasted victory on Sept. 20, 1975 with a 13-7 win over Curry. The 1973 uniforms, shown above, are pretty basic with the exception of the triangles on the upper sleeves. The Pittsburgh Steelers wore something similar in the preseason during the 1960s.

A couple shots from New Haven's first varsity season in 1973.
The "field" looks more like a vacant lot on the outskirts of town.
Gotta start somewhere.

New Haven's 2024 uniforms rotated blue, yellow and white jerseys and pants. Not many teams in this site use yellow as a primary color, so hopefully the Chargers will break out the Screaming Yellow Zonkers look a few times this fall.