Stonehill Skyhawks (1970, 2013)

Stonehill, you say? Stonehill? Isn't it that goofy stone formation in England? Or an even goofier song by Spinal Tap? 

OK, enough with the silly wordplay; Stonehill College is a school in Easton, Mass., about halfway between Boston and Cape Cod. It's also the home of New England's newest Division I program, as the Skyhawks (known as the Chieftains until 2005) moved from the D-II Northeast-10 to the D-I Northeast Conference during the summer. And you know what that means — another football team to chronicle on this site, which I believe raises the total to 22. 

Stonehill first fielded a club football team in 1970. While the school's varsity teams wore purples and were called the Chieftains, this rogue outfit, which raised money by doing everything from holding raffles to washing airplanes, wore light blue and brown uniforms, bought secondhand from a defunct Long Island team, and dubbed themselves the Knights (the coach's name was David Knight). The team's lone win was against another club team, St. Michael's (Vt.), which had a varsity team on-and-off until the early 1950s.

I don't have any color images, so what you see above is a best guess based on the photo in the above link. The numbers vaguely resemble Clarendon font; Dartmouth's road jerseys used something similar in the early 1960s. The use of light blue, which contrast well with both dark and white jerseys, probably saved the team from holding a baker sale to buy a second set of shirts.

In 1988 the team graduated to varsity status and began playing in NCAA Division III that fall, moving up to D-II in 1997. The team has won three conference championships, most recently in 2013, when the Skyhawks shared the NE-10 regular season title with American International — only to lose to AIC in the league championship game. (Stonehill also lost to AIC in the regular season.)

The 2013 unis bear more than a passing resemblance to those of Holy Cross; that they both get their gear from Adidas probably is a factor.

Unfortunately, Stonehill has yet to put any old yearbooks online, so it may take a while for old uniforms to appear on this site. Although upon further review, I see some old media guides are online. ...