The Team: Following back-to-back Yankee Conference titles and NCAA Division II playoff appearances, the 1977 New Hampshire Wildcats fell to "only" 8-2 and settled for third in the Yankee Conference with a 3-2 mark. UNH still finished 12th in the final D-II rankings. (In 1978, the YC teams and a few dozen others broke away from D-II to form Division I-AA.)
The Wildcats started the season 7-0 before suffering a 21-20 loss to upstart Rhode Island, which went 6-5 in '78 after going 5-13 over the previous two seasons. After crushing Springfield the next week, the season came down to a winner-take-all showdown with UMass on Nov. 12 at Cowell Stadium. A win would give the Cats a share of the YC title and a likely NCAA playoff berth. A loss would give UMass the outright title and a playoff spot.
A crowd announced at 20,000 (I know UNH tends to exaggerate attendance figures, but by all accounts this one was legit; the Boston Globe and Massachusetts Daily Collegian photos from the game show fans practically sitting in the end zone) packed Cowell Stadium to see UMass pull out a 19-6 victory as UNH senior quarterback Jeff Allen threw three interceptions -- all to UMass' Dave Croasdale -- in Allen's final game. After the game, UNH coach Bill Bowes walked in to the Minutemen locker room and personally handed them the YC's Bean Pot trophy.
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| This Massachusetts Daily Collegian photo shows UMass celebrating its 19-6 season-ending win over UNH. |
The Players: Check out the All-Yankee Conference first (and only) team here. A mere 20 of the 22 players listed came from either UNH or UMass. (Rhode Island, despite placing second in the league, placed only one player; the other spot went to UConn). Were UNH coach Bowes and UMass mentor Dick MacPherson the only people to vote or something?
Anyway, the Cats placed four players on offense: Allen (QB), Bill Burnham (RB), Lee Pope (WR) and Grady Vigneau (T). Burnham and Vigneau also were named D-II All-Americans. All four players are in the school's hall of fame, and Burnham's No. 36 has been retired by the school. Bill Dedrick (DE), Dick Duffy (CB) and Mark Etro (S) were all-YC defensive selections.
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| Bill Burnham hurdles a UMass defender in 1977 (Granite yearbook). Note how No. 71's name is presented, with the last name before the first; I've never seen that anywhere else. |
The Coach: Bill Bowes is, of course, one of New England's all-time coaching legends. He went 175-106-5 over 27 seasons, and made four NCAA tournament appearances. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2016, which I believe makes him the only person inducted based upon his time at UNH.
True fact: The UNH women's hockey team has a longtime assistant coach named Bill Bowes, who I don't believe is any relation.
The Uniform: I previously wrote about the Wildcats' uniforms here. One year earlier, UNH introduced the uniform that went virtually unchanged until 2000, except for a sleeve trim alteration in '78 and other minor things, such as the size on the "NH" logo or the name/number fonts. As I've mentioned before, there's a bit of a Buffalo Bills vibe to it. I'm guessing younger fans would be surprised to see the red trim, especially since they've gone so long with silver, which also was a major part of the 1950s-60s uniform.
The Aftermath: The Wildcats continued to churn out one winning season after another (really, except for a dry spell in the late 90s-early 2000s, they've been a consistent winner since the mid-70s, an amazing run of excellence), but didn't reach the NCAA playoffs again until the 1991 I-AA tourney. UNH finished nationally ranked eight more times during Bowes' tenure.
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