The (Somewhat) Complete UConn Uniform History, Part I

Dear UConn football:

Hi, it's me again. I haven't been very kind to your program the last year or so, what with the cracks about going independent, going from the Fiesta Bowl to futility, how ESPN should do a 30-for-30 on your demise, how you should go back to FCS and reboot the Yankee Conference, blah-blah-blah. 

Well, you proved me and many other skeptics wrong. You reached bowl eligibility in your first year under Jim Mora and have the football world talking. I sincerely to apologize to you for questioning your program's direction, and I salute the Husky faithful who stuck through the team week in and week out over the years at The Rent.

I also made the following comment last year in regards to you and fellow FBS independent UMass: "If either team gets into a bowl game in the next few years, I'll be more than happy to do an "I WAS WRONG" post and blog endlessly about their uniforms for a whole month." Well, you're bowl eligible (not officially in a bowl, but good enough for me), and I was wrong. So I guess you know what that means. ...

Anyway, congrats on a great season, and hopefully this is just the beginning.

Sincerely,

Gridiron Garb

So yes, it's time to eat some Husky-flavored crow. Over the next month, I plan to do an overview of UConn's uniform history over the last century-plus. Many of these have been written about before; I'll supply linkage if that's the case. As I noted way back when, the Huskies have burned through tons of uniform designs, with some overhauls happening on a yearly basis. (Schools like Oregon, of course, make overhauls on a weekly basis.)

Part I of this series looks at the pre-Yankee Conference (1947) years. Part II will take us into the mid-60s, Part III will close out the FCS/I-AA era and Part IV will go over the FBS era. Sit back and enjoy!

1915: The earliest UConn photos have the players in a mishmash of uniforms, so I don't feel too comfortable trying to document them. By 1915, Connecticut Agricultural College appears to have worn navy jerseys (no numbers, I think) with leather helmets and brownish pants. Pretty basic for the era.

1919: I wrote about this team not too long ago and the tragic story of Gardiner Dow, for whom the old football facility was named. By the time, the jersey had sprouted Princeton-style stripes, and some, but not, all the players worse stripes on their socks.

1926: Yes, UConn really wore orange for a few years (likely 1922-28) while its other athletic teams continued to use blue. The move was done to avoid confusion when the Aggies played other blue-clad teams such as Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Trinity. By this time, the players wore numbers on the backs.

1929: By this season, blue was back in bloom. The not-yet-Huskies went all out with the stripes, even wrapping them all the way around, which made the numbers hard to read. White shoulder panels completed the look. (Fun aside: When researching this uniform in the old Nutmeg yearbooks, I discovered these jerseys were recycled by the hockey team that winter!)

1934: This was the year UConn adopted the "Huskies" nickname (or was it 1935? I've seen both), and with it came another uniform change. Judging by the few pictures I can find, it appears UConn had dishwater-gray jerseys with light blue trim, while the helmets were white with navy blue striping the style Princeton used in that era. This was also the year UConn kidnapped Rhode Island's ram mascot, giving birth to the "Ramnapping Trophy" series that continued through 1999.

1935: For whatever reason, UConn decided to return to its old jerseys, this time with a dark-colored helmet (likely blue) and tiny numbers on the front. In addition to the new nickname, the name "UConn" (or at least something similar, like "U-Conns") was being used in publications. Wonder if UConn was the first "U" school? Certainly, no one was using "UMass" or "UMaine" in 1935.  

1936: The stripes are dumped in favor of a plain jersey; again, it appears to be light gray (hey, could be tan or gold; we'll likely never know for sure). The Huskies also wore solid white socks, something you don't see much from this era. 

1937: A dark jersey is added with stripes placed at the sleeve, and striped socks return.

1942: UConn adds blue shoulder panels to the jerseys, and also rotates between white and blue helmets, a practice they returned to in the last decade. Tan pants are worn at least once. The number fonts change, but the alternate-colored shoulder panels remain for several years.