Ivy League 1956

And now, the Ivy League uniforms of 1956, the first year of formal Ivy competition. Some notes:

* In the first official league game between two Ivy teams, Brown defeated Columbia, 20-0, on Sept. 29, 1956. Use this info for good and not evil.

* Yale ran the table to win the first Ivy title; the Bulldogs' only loss to was to Colgate, 14-6.

* According to Mark F. Bernstein's book Football: The Ivy League Origins of an American Obsession, each Ivy team was required to have a dark jersey and a white jersey, which meant several teams -- Columbia, Harvard, Princeton and Yale -- added new shirts around this time, although Columbia, with its light blue scheme, eventually went back to wearing one top for several years.

* As noted in our last post, this was during the time teams were transitioning from leather helmets without facemasks to plastic shells with facemasks. The Ivies were ahead of the Yankee Conference in terms of modern helmet use; I believe Cornell was the last holdout to plastic shells.

* The first year of Ivy play was the final year for Columbia coach Lou Little, who retired after  the season with 110-116-10 record with the Lions, 131-121-12 overall. 

* Dartmouth's quarterback was future Cincinnati Bengals boss Mike Brown -- the son of legendary Cleveland Browns and Bengals coach Paul Brown. While the younger Brown's passing stats were modest, if that (530 yards, 6.8 YPA, 2 TDs, 6 INTs), his rushing numbers raise an eyebrow -- 56 attempts, 24 yards (remember, in college, QB sacks were counted against his rushing, not paying total) and TEN touchdowns. Brown appears to have been a short-yardage threat for the Big Green in '56, and would be considered a fantasy football "vulture" in today's game.