Colgate Raiders (1964)

 

All right, we're overdue for a reach into the bag 'o random, and we pull out the 1964 Colgate (Red) Raiders. 

The Team: The 'Gate went 7-2, good enough for third place among "major" independents, although six of the Raiders' nine foes are FCS teams and a seventh (Merchant Marine) currently plays in Division III. And speaking of the Mariners, the sons of King's Point fell to Colgate 21-0 in the first college football game played at Shea Stadium. According to this list, only five other college games were ever played at the old home of the J-E-T-S. 

Not your typical team photo, as the Raiders line up 
in a "V" formaton.

Colgate gets defensive against Merchant Marine at Shea Stadium.

The Players: Quarterback Gerald Barudin threw for 605 yards and ran for 200 more, while Lee Woltman ran for 402 yards and caught for 192 more. Peter Beaulieu had a team-high 347 receiving yards in that run-first, pass-later era.

The Coach: Hal Lahar was in his second stint at Colgate following a .500 run at Houston; he apparently was the first coach in "major" college history to serve two separate stints at the same school, not counting guys like Frank Leahy who served in World War II. He was 53-40-8 at Colgate from 1952-56 and 1962-67 before he stepped down to become athletic director.

The Uniforms: Were it not for the white shoulder stripes on the home jerseys, Colgate's unis would almost be dead ringers for Alabama's. It's definitely one of the simpler styles of that era, even by 1960s standards. The Raiders wore sleeve numbers on the road, but not at home. 

Colgate (in white) chases down Holy Cross in '64.

The Fallout: The 'Gate went 6-3-1 in 1965 and 8-1-1 in '66 (future Oakland Raider running back Marv Hubbard was the Colgate Raiders' big star) before collapsing to 2-8 in '67, when Lahar stepped down.