Brown Bears (1957)

Time for another dip into the bag o' random and see what we get ...

Brown, 1957. Let's do it!

The Team: The Bears went 5-4 for the second straight season and were 3-4 in Ivy League play, with the wins coming over third-place Yale, Harvard and Penn.

The Players: Here's an example of how much football has changed since the 1950s: Quarterback Frank Finney threw for two touchdowns and 11 interceptions ... and was still named to the All-Ivy second team in the backfield. Why? Well, he was also a pretty good defensive back and held the school record for career interceptions at one time. The 5-foot-10, 175-pounder (!) had a better passing season in '58, when he led the league with 982 passing yards. Did I mention football has changed since the '50s? Anyway, Finney left Brown with several career passing marks and was inducted into the school's hall of fame in 1971.

Two of Finney's blockers, linemen Don Warburton (first team) and Gil Robertshaw (second), also received All-Ivy nods.

Frank Finney in the air and on the sidelines.

The Coach: Alva Kelley guided the Bears to a 31-39-2 mark from 1951-58.He later coached at Colgate (9-18 from 1959-61) and Hobart (20-41-3 from 1963-70).

The Uniforms: Brown wore plain white helmets with a brown stripe framed by white and tan stripes. White, presumably plastic, facemasks were used, which was common in the late 1950s-early '60s. The brown jerseys had sleeve stripes that remind one of the 1960s Buffalo Bills. Tan pants (tan figured prominently in Brown's uniforms for many years) were worn home and the road. One nice touch: The sock stripes mirrored those on the jerseys, with a white set worn to match the white jerseys. This style was worn from 1957-58 (numbers were added to helmets in '58) and was discarded after Kelley left.

Brown, in white, surrenders a touchdown to Cornell.

The Fallout: Brown had its third straight winning season (6-3) in '58, after which Kelley left for Colgate. The Bears didn't have another winning season until 1964 and didn't have three straight winners until John Anderson's teams reeled off eight in a row from 1973-80. 

This, my friends, is FOOTBALL.
No superlatives or poetic pontifications needed.