Holy Cross Crusaders (1967)

Our latest dip into the big o' random gives us the 1967 Holy Cross Crusaders.

The Team: The '67 'Saders went 5-5 against a hodgepodge of Ivy schools, small Eastern independents, Syracuse and Boston College, which beat Holy Cross 16-3 in the annual rivalry game. The 1968 Purple Patcher yearbook blames the mediocre record on injuries (of course) and the two-platoon system leaving the bench "thin and inexperienced." (Interesting, since college football was in its third year of unlimited substitutions, so you'd think The Cross would have been used to it by now.)

Holy Cross gets defensive against Villanova.

The Players: Someone at Wikipedia was nice enough to supply some stats for the team's summary page. QB Phil O'Neil threw for 1,378 yards and 10 touchdowns; running back Tim Hawkes ran for 458 yards and one TD and Bob Neary had a team-high 34 catches for 485 yards. Jon Vronis scored a team-high seven touchdowns.

One of the Crusaders' defensive backs was Pat Bourque, who later played parts of four seasons in Major League Baseball and even won a World Series ring with the 1973 Oakland A's.

I love photos like this one. Holy Cross's Pat Bourque (21) blocks a punt 
by Colgate's Mark Hubbard in 1967. Bourque later played Major League Baseball,
and Hubbard became a Pro Bowl running back for the Oakland Raiders
(who also had another Colgate RB, Mark van Eeghen). 

The Coach: First-year mentor Tom Boisture coached only two seasons in Worcester (1967-68), going 8-11-1. He later was a longtime scout for the New England Patriots and director of player personnel for the New York Giants.

A nice leaping catch on the road (Syracuse?)

The Uniforms: A new coach often means new uniforms, and 1967 Holy Cross was no exception. After several years with silver helmets, the Crusaders returned to purple lids and added a curved "HC" logo (a personal favorite of mine), which was abandoned in the 1970s and revived in 2015. The shirts had three stripes on the sleeves with numbers on the shoulders, a style made popular by the Dallas Cowboys in 1964. The socks also had three stripes. 

Not all the helmets had the HC logo, which is reflected in the graphic above.

The Fallout: Boisture left after the 1968 season for Tulsa, where he was an assistant for one season before joining the Pats. Bill Whitton took over in '69, when the infamous hepatitis outbreak damn near destroyed the program.