The 1925 Project (Part 2)

In Part 1 of this series, we looked back at the six New England state schools that played college football in 1925. Today, the spotlight shines on the non-Ivy, non-Moo U Division I teams. Part 3 will look at the Ivy League, back when Ivy football meant big-time football.

Boston College

High point: The Eagles ended the season with a 17-6 win over hated rival Holy Cross in front of 47,000 fans at Braves Field, back when BC-Holy Cross was one of the highlights of the New England sports calendar.

Low point: After a 5-0 start, BC fell to (distant) future Big East rival West Virginia to spoil any dreams of an undefeated season.

Other trivia: BC played its entire eight-game schedule at Braves Field. … Left halfback Jack Cronin went to play for the NFL’s Providence Steam Roller, who are the answer to a trivia question: What was New England’s only NFL championship team before Belichick and Brady came along?

Uniforms: Check out the Princeton-style striping on the sleeves. Otherwise, pretty basic stuff here.

Boston University

High point: The Terriers (or Pioneers; I’ve seen both names used for this season) defeated Providence 14-6 on Nov. 14 for their only win of the year.

Low point: All five BU losses were one-sided, but I can’t imagine a 51-7 loss to city rival Boston College was very fun.

Other trivia: The season was the fifth and final one for head coach Charles Whelan (three straight one-win seasons will do that to you). Whelan, a graduate of the Tufts School of Medicine, had been a chief radiologist and head of x-rays at multiple hospitals when not coaching.

Uniforms: I discussed the Terriers’ uniforms in this post. Note their use of white helmets when most other teams wore varying shades of tan and brown. Like their Commonwealth Avenue rivals, BU used Princeton-esque stripes on the sleeves.

Colgate

High point: On Nov. 14, Colgate defeated arch-rival Syracuse 19-6 in front of 30,000 fans at rain-soaked Archbold Stadium en route to its first undefeated season since 1892. All-American halfback Eddie Tyron scored two touchdowns and added a PAT.

Low point: A pair of ties against Lafayette (7-7) and Brown (14-14) were Colgate’s only blemishes on the season. 

Other trivia: Tyron, a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, scored 15 touchdowns and 21 PATs in 1925. Two years earlier, he scored seven TDs (still a school record) against Niagara. He was later a teammate of Red Grange on the New York Yankees of the original AFL and lead the one-and-done league in scoring in 1926.

Colgate was one of the powerhouses of this era, as touched upon in this post, especially after Andy Kerr became head coach in 1929. Dick Harlow, the coach from 1922-25, went 24-9-3 before leaving for something called Western Maryland (now McDaniel, a D-III school). He also coached Harvard from 1935-42 and 1946-47, going 45-39-7.

Uniforms: Pretty basic stuff here. Nary a front patch or friction strip to be found.

Delaware

High point: The Blue Hens defeated Upsala 24-7 on the strength of two blocked kicks for touchdowns. (Upsala, which closed in 1995, sounds like the name of a place you'd be sent to without a paddle.)

Low point: Delaware ended the season with back-to-back shutout losses.

Other trivia: Frazer Field, the Hens’ home field in 1925, opened in 1913 and I believe is still used today in some capacity or another. ... Delaware may be jumping to FBS in 2025, but the 1925 schedule was littered with decidedly small-time fare, including Ursinus, St. John's of Maryland, Juniata, Haverford and Dickinson.

Uniforms: Again, very basic, but easy to figure out from my end.

Holy Cross

High point: Holy Cross’ 7-6 win over Harvard on Oct. 17 marked the Crusaders’ first-ever win over the Crimson after nine losses dating to 1904.

Low point: BC’s high point, of course, would have to be Holy Cross’ low point.

Other trivia: This was the first Holy Cross team to bear the “Crusaders” moniker. As I noted in the last post, Vermont and New Hampshire added their current nicknames in 1926; I get the impression that the concept of schools having an official mascot took off during this period. According to Wikipedia (which means you know you’re getting the straight dope), Crusaders won a student poll over Chiefs and Sagamores.

Look at those numbers! They look perfect!

Uniforms: I noticed looking through photos how professional the numbers look on Holy Cross’ jerseys — big, sharp block digits. So many other teams in this period had a decidedly amateur look.

Providence

High point: Yup, Providence College — better known for its feats in basketball and hockey — once had a football team. On Oct. 17, the Friars beat St. John’s — another future basketball power — 14-6 at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field, speaking of entities not known for football.

Low point: PC lost to New England Jesuit rivals Boston College and Holy Cross by a combined count of 73-0.

Heck Allen is all like, "Helmets are for wimps, brain cells be damned."

Other trivia: PC was the anti-BC in another regard — the Friars played all nine games on the road. … Halfbacks Joe McGee, Junie Bride and Heck Allen are members of the Providence College Athletic Hall of Fame. 

Uniforms: I discussed them in the BU post linked above. All the Friars appeared to have friction strips and front patches to help grip the football better..

The 1925 Project (Part 1)

Nineteen twenty-five was a pretty memorable year in college football. Coming off a monumental 1924 season, Illinois’ Red Grange continued to run up, down and around hapless foes before he took his game to the NFL upon season’s end. Alabama upset Washington in the Rose Bowl to claim a share of its first national championship.

And with whom did mighty ‘Bama share the title? Dartmouth. Yes, that Dartmouth, granite of New Hampshire in their muscles and their brains and all that. It’s the first and only “natty” the Big Green has claimed to date.

I thought it would be fun to look back at the teams covered in this little ol’ blog (and a few that aren’t) and how they fared — and looked — a century ago. We’ll start with the six New England state schools that later made up the late, great Yankee Conference.  

As for the Big Green, I covered them in this post a while back; we’ll revisit them along with their Ivy League brethren down the road.

One major caveat: I am far from 100% positive on certain uniform elements, such as helmet colors, jersey trim colors or number fonts (or if some teams even used numbers on the back; that’s how long ago we’re talking here). Some yearbooks (like Vermont’s Ariel) give a pretty good pictorial account of the athletic teams; others, like Rhode Island’s Grist … well, I have to sort through the grist and make an educated guess. 

But if anyone out there has an old Rhode Island jersey buried in the attic … 

Connecticut

High point: The Aggies (a nickname used by UConn, UMass and other cow colleges in that era) opened the season Sept. 26 with a 7-3 win over in-state rival Wesleyan. The ‘Farmers” (hey, that’s what the Hartford Courant called them in its weekly accounts) had not defeated Wesleyan in any athletic contest since spring 1922.

Low point: Following the Wesleyan win, UConn was shut out in three straight games, all losses. 

Other trivia: Tackle Oscar Nanfeldt and quarterback “Wallie” Moreland was named to the Courant’s All-Connecticut Valley team (!).

The 1925 UConn Not-Yet-The-Huskies.

Uniforms: And the fun begins right off the bat. As noted in this post, UConn flirted with orange jerseys in the mid-1920s, and indeed, the season summary in the Courant yearbook covering the ’25 season notes the orange attire. But photos from UConn’s game against New Hampshire shows UNH’s players in white vests, presumably to differentiate themselves from the normal blue-attired Aggies. But if UConn wore orange jerseys, why would UNH bother? Like they said in those Tootise Pop commercials from the ’70s, the world may never know.

Maine

High point: A 28-14 win over hated rival Bowdoin on Nov. 7 before 7,500 fans in Orono gave the Black Bears the state title, which as hard as it is to believe now, was a huge deal back then.

Low point: It’s tempting to list the 56-0 loss at Dartmouth, but those guys probably spent the rest of their lives bragging to everyone how they shared the field with the national champs. I’ll go with the season-ending scoreless tie against New Hampshire, Maine’s most hated out-of-state rival, on Nov. 14.

Other trivia: Maine claimed a share of the New England Conference title with a 1-0-1 record, even though UNH was 3-0-1 in league play. I have the Bears down for second. … Maine end Fred Newhall and tackle “Ginger” Fraser were named to the Portland Sunday Telegram’s All-Maine team.

Uniforms: About what you would expect from this era. Many, but not all, jerseys had those “friction strips” that were popular then. Maine also wore white helmets when many teams wore brown or tan lids.

Massachusetts

High point: UMass (then known officially as Massachusetts Agricultural College, or MAC) had an annual rivalry with Tufts that lasted decades. (Strange, since another future NESCAC school, Amherst, was far closer.) On Nov. 21, the Aggies defeated the Jumbos by the baseball-like score of 6-4 for their first win in the series since 1921. The series ended in 1954 — with Tufts owning a 28-14-7 advantage. In fact, UMass beat Tufts only three more times after ’25. Strange, indeed.

Low point: The season ended with an 18-13 Thanksgiving Day loss at Springfield (just down the road from Amherst) when the hosts used a “shoestring” play, in the words of the UMass Index yearbook, to take the lead in the fourth quarter. From what I’ve gathered from multiple newspaper accounts, a Springfield receiver named Maddox lined up near the sideline, apart from his 10 teammates — almost as if he were busy tying his shoelace before joining his mates — and MAC was caught napping. Of course, Springfield threw the ball to Maddox and he took off 30 yards for the winning TD.

Massachusetts decided to wear hoodies for its team photo.
As you can tell, some schools took this exercise less seriously than others
back in the day. 

Uniforms: Classic maroon and little else. Like Maine, some shirts had friction strips and others did not. I’m not 100% on the numbers.

New Hampshire

High point: The Granite yearbook doesn’t have a season write-up, so it’s hard to determine. I’d say going 2-0-1 in New England Conference play and grabbing the league title is a pretty good accomplishment, though.

Low point: The Oct. 10 game against Colby was cancelled because of SNOW. I know Waterville can be a little chilly in October, but still.

Other trivia: This was the last season before UNH adopted the “Wildcats” nickname.

Uniforms: Largely the same as in 1924, which I wrote about here. 

Rhode Island State

High point: Going by the season summary in the Grist yearbook, it sounds like Rhody’s best game was a 12-7 win over CCNY (CCNY? Wasn’t that the school embroiled in a basketball scandal?) on Oct. 24. Kenneth Brown threw a TD pass and returned a kick 65 yards for another score.

Low point: Rhody got to play the role of loyal opposition in a season-opening 33-0 loss to Brown in which the Bears opened their new stadium, which they still use today. 

Other trivia: On Oct. 3, the Rams played Western Maryland (now McDaniel College) in Baltimore at the site of the future Memorial Stadium, the beloved old home of the NFL Colts and MLB Orioles.

A college football team, or a semipro all-star bunch?

Uniforms: Another tough one to decipher. Are the shirts pale blue or dirty white? Are the pants brown or dark blue?

The team picture above shows the Rams in a motley assortment of jerseys, some of them torn and dirty. I'm guessing this was taken after practice. From what I've been able to gather, the version with the five friction strips was the one worn during games.

Vermont

High point: Like Maine, UVM placed heavy emphasis on in-state rivals, and Vermont earned wins over Norwich (3-0) and Middlebury (7-6) to claim the state championship.

Low point: Vermont was shut out four times, including three straight to Syracuse, Dartmouth and Springfield by a combined score of 82-0. If you go by the write-up in the Ariel yearbook, UVM had to overcome insurmountable odds every Saturday because of injuries or size disadvantages.   

Even in 1925, that made for a tiny lineman.

Other trivia: This was the last season before Vermont adopted the “Catamounts” nickname. The state population of actual catamounts: Zero. … Vermont ended the season with a 7-0 loss to Saint Louis, which like UVM later dropped football and became a force on the soccer pitch. (The Billikens have won 10 NCAA titles; the Catamounts recently captured their first.)

Uniforms: As basic as you can get, which makes it easier (albeit less challenging) to figure out. The Ariel yearbook covering the ’25 season was loaded with bright photos. 

Boston College, UConn, UMass (2024)

We wrap up our look at the uniforms of 2024 with New England's three FBS teams. Frankly, nothing really new to report here, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Boston College changed a combo or two from 2023, but that was about it. 

UConn was in the same boat as BC, although the Huskies had some fun with a couple helmet designs. One, designed to honor America's armed forces, used a half-dozen different seals depending on the branch of the military (the example above uses the United States Army). Another, used as part of a cancer awareness promotion, used a multitude of ribbons, each capped with the UConn "C" (pink is used above).

I feel like I say this every year, but as bad as the on-field product has been for the last dozen years or so, at least UMass looks good while losing. The Minutemen, who will be rejoining the Mid-American Conference in 2025 with a new coach (Joe Harasymiak — if he can lead Maine to an FBS final four berth, he could very well give this program a pulse), revived the black alternate jersey and it fit in perfectly with the rest of the ensemble (bonus points for altering the helmet trim to make it match the jersey). Sadly, the '90s alternate logo was put on the bench.

Central Connecticut State, Colgate, Holy Cross, Merrimack, Sacred Heart, Stonehill (2024)

The review of 2024 uniforms continues with six FCS teams — two from the Patriot League, two from the Northeast Conference and two independents. Before we start, a minor rant about the two independents ...

Before the season, Merrimack and Sacred Heart left the Northeast Conference for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Since the MAAC doesn't sponsor football, the schools played as independents on the gridiron. Someone at one of these two schools had the bright idea of having these lonely hearts face off late in the season for the "Yankee Conference championship," complete with a replica of the old Bean Pot trophy last seen residing in the Willam & Mary trophy case.

Of course, this is completely ridiculous, as these schools have zero connection to the beloved and long-gone Yankee Conference of Maine, UNH, UMass and other New England cow colleges. (As a Maine grad, I can call them that.) This reminds me of a story I once read — perhaps apocryphal — about an obscure 1970s band that announced that since no one else was using the name, they were going to call themselves "The Beatles." (It went nowhere.) What's next, Texas State and Texas-San Antonio playing for the "Southwest Conference" championship? 

That said, if hell freezes over and the America East finally decides to sponsor football, I would be more than happy to have Merrimack and Sacred Heart as members.

OK, on to the unis:

Central Connecticut State, the NEC champion, didn't change a thing from '23, with the exception of the NCAA patch worn in the FCS tournament, where it almost upset Rhode Island. (Anyone remember when Rhody almost joined the NEC in a money-saving effort?)

Colgate also changed nada from the previous season, which is a good thing, says I.

Holy Cross made a couple minor changes. The Crusaders made slight alterations to their road jerseys, with wider numbers and a narrower wordmark, and the purple helmets used the "shield" logo in place of the big "HC" that had been used for more than a decade. (I prefer the "HC", but that's just me.) Holy Cross also dusted off the black alternate jerseys, last worn in 2022. The shirts were first worn in 2019 and thus had the college football 150th anniversary patch almost everyone else wore that year. Five years later, the patch remains!

Merrimack replaced the "MC" helmet logo with the school seal, a quite Ivy-ish move, if I say so myself. The Warriors covered up the NEC logo with an American flag patch.

Sacred Heart made a couple very minor changes. The star-spangled helmet, which is usually worn around the anniversary of 9/11, replaced the "SHU" logo with a script "Pios," short for Pioneers. (Funny, I always thought of them as the "'Neers." 😎) Like their "Yankee Conference" rivals, the Pioneers covered the NEC logo with the American flag.

For the second straight year, Stonehill wins the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid) award for the fewest uniform designs: The Skyhawks used the same three unis they wore last year.