Maine Black Bears (1987-92)

The University of Maine is going where no other team has gone in its 127-year history: To the NCAA FCS semifinals.  (OK, FCS/Division I-AA has been around for only 41 of those years, but work with me here.) The Black Bears head to Eastern Washington and its red turf this weekend for a spot in the NCAA championship game. Let's take a quick look back at the first Maine teams to reach what was then called the I-AA tournament.

Despite coming off back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since the 1950s-60s (when it had 14 straight seasons of .500 or better football), the 1987 Black Bears were picked to finish seventh in the eight-team Yankee Conference, further proof the preseason polls don't mean squat (this year's team was picked to place eighth in the CAA). But in the season's second game, first-year coach Tim Murphy (yes, the longtime Harvard mentor got his start at Maine) made the controversial call to bench three-year starting quarterback and Maine native Bobby Wilder for big-armed sophomore Mike Buck. 

Although the change was not well-received by everyone -- one radio station even conducted a poll as to who should start at QB -- Buck led the Bears to a 31-14 win over UMass in his first start, back when wins over UMass were about as common as Halley's Comet appearances. The Long Island native went on set school records with 232 completions, 2,987 yards and 23 TDs as Maine marched to a share of the YC title (8-4 overall, 6-1 league) and a spot the NCAA tournament, where it lost to Georgia Southern in OT, 31-28.

Mike Buck calls the action against UNH.

Two years later and with a new coach (Tom Lichtenberg, who bailed for Ohio U. after one season and won fewer games in five years there than in his one year at Maine), the Bears shared another YC title (9-3 overall, 6-2 league) behind the arm of Buck (2,315 yards, 19 TDs, just 3 interceptions) and the legs of Carl Smith (1,680 rushing yards and 20 TDs, both still school records). Maine suffered another close loss in the NCAA tournament, this time a 38-35 decision to Southwest Missouri State on a field goal with 8 seconds remaining. Buck left holding 24 school passing records; he still holds three today, including career passing yards. 

Carl Smith runs over Rhode Island in 1988. He still holds school
single-season records for rushing yards and TDs.

For a time, it appeared as if football might share a spot with hockey as the king sport at Maine, but it was not meant to be. The Black Bears crashed to 3-8 under Kirk Ferentz (yes, the longtime Iowa leader got his start at Maine, too), the program's fifth coach since in a decade. Just when Ferentz got the team back up to respectability in 1992 (6-5), he left to become an assistant for Bill Belichick's Cleveland Browns. Jack Cosgrove took over in 1993 and stuck around for 23 years.

The uniforms themselves are nothing to write home about, but they're the ones I remember most growing up, as I mentioned here a while back. There's a weird-ass arched "MAINE" on the helmets, a basic jersey with Northwestern striping (which was used off and on from the 1950s through the early 70s, and made another comeback this year) and white pants with a thick blue stripe down the side, much like the Pittsburgh Steelers. Also note the use of names on the back, which seems to have been common in that era (Dartmouth and UNH, among others, wore names). When Cosgrove became coach in '93, the names were removed, and haven't been seen since.

Touchdown, Maine.

Maine's history has been rather cyclical over the last 35 years or so, with periods of mediocrity followed by short bursts of excellence. Here's hoping this year's Bears will mark the beginning of a much longer stretch in the FCS' upper tier. 

Can't bear to be without Black Bear uniforms? Here you go: 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2011-13, 2001, 1997-99, 1985, 1976-84, 1975, 1974, 1965, more 1965, 1963-64, 1957-59, 1949-50, 1939-46, 1928-29. Rivalry week: Maine-New Hampshire. Inside the jersey: 2010-13.