Few schools in this project say "continuity" like Yale. Slap a big ol' "Y" on the sides of the helmet, and these unis could almost pass off for the current model. In the current climate of flavor-of-the-week uniforms, it's a comforting thing. White helmets, white pants, blue shirts-n-socks ... you know what you're getting from the Bulldogs. (Of course, Yale switched to gold pants for a few years in the mid-50s, but that's for another post. Oh, wait ...)
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| Yale takes on Holy Cross in 1950 in a picture from the Yale Banner yearbook. |
Note that a white road jersey was worn only in 1952, as several teams, including Harvard, Yale and Boston University, wore a white jersey only when they absolutely had to, such as when they visited a team with a similar jersey color. (In Yale's case, it was a game at Navy.)
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| Not the best quality reproduction, but here's Yale in the rarely-worn white jersey at Navy in 1952. Yale Daily News pic. |
One of the more remarkable Yale players in history wore this uniform. New Haven native Levi Jackson became the Bulldogs' first African-American captain in 1949, an event that attracted front-page attention from the New York Times. After his playing days, he became an executive at Ford Motor Company (the first African-American to hold an executive title with Ford). You can read more about him here.
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| Levi Jackson graces the cover of a late-40s pulp magazine. There's something strange about a pioneer like Jackson sharing the cover with a pin-up girl, but oh well. |
