Arnold Terriers (1951)

Time for another trip through the football graveyard, this time with a defunct school. 

Finding info on Arnold College is like looking for a lucky call from a referee. According to this page, Arnold was a physical education school that started in Brooklyn, N.Y. and moved to New Haven, Conn. before settling down in nearby Milford in 1929. Thanks to financial struggles, the school — and, thus its sports teams — were swallowed up by the University of Bridgeport in 1953. (I profiled a couple Bridgeport teams here. The Knights dropped football after the 1974 season.)

The 1951 Arnold Terriers, not long before the school
— and the team — bid farewell. 

Arnold, despite an enrollment of about 500 students, fielded a football team from 1927-41 and again from 1947-52. It's most famous football alumnus, by far, is Pro Football Hall of Famer Andy Robustelli, a six-time All-Pro defensive end who won an NFL title with the New York Giants in 1956. Not bad for a 19th-round draft pick. But the Terriers achieved only three winning seasons, which makes one think football was always an uphill battle for such a small school.

Andy Robustelli in his Arnold days. Not just a wearer of the gold jacket,
but also a member of the Varsity Club Dance Committee!

Thankfully, the University of Bridgeport has Arnold yearbooks online through 1952. (With the school closing in '53, I wonder if the school bothered with a "farewell" edition that year?) This uniforms above are from the program's next-to-last team in 1951, which beat Bridgeport and King's of Pennsylvania. (Minor grammar rant: I always prefer using "next-to-last" to "penultimate," which sounds like it should mean something BEYOND ultimate.) 

Other foes that year included Wagner (still kicking around in the NEC), Moravian (D-III school in Pennsylvania) and fellow football dropees Adelphi, Rider, Brandeis and Saint Michael's (Vt.). Most of Arnold's opponents historically would be considered Division II or III today, but the Terriers occasionally played current D-I schools such as Rhode Island, Maine and Northeastern. 

Arnold's 1951 defense (top) and offense (above). I guess the 
Terriers' defense was so ferocious they needed to use only seven guys.

The uniforms are typical for that period; plain jerseys and helmets with some "Northwestern" stripes on the sleeves. The basic pattern is actually similar to Bridgeport's from that era, only with red instead of purple. 

More info on Arnold's sports teams can be found here.