The 1925 Project (Part 5)

Part 5 of our look at the New England(-ish) teams and uniforms of a century ago continues with eight schools that today are part of NESCAC (New England Small College Athletic Conference), basically the Ivy League's Division III Mini-Me. (And if you don't believe it, just remember NESCAC decided to allow its football teams to compete in the NCAA postseason not long after the Ivies made the same decision.)

I'm not going to go in to mountains of detail on each team here, but I will leave a few notes:

• Amherst was coached by DeOrmond "Tuss" McLaughry, who left after the season for Brown. His time with the Bears is discussed here. He also coached at Dartmouth. Also, I don't believe the Mammoths/Lord Jeffs had an official nickname at this point, so that space in the graphic is left blank.
• Notice how in the cases of Amherst, Middlebury and Tufts, some helmets had stripes and others did not. I *think* this was done to differentiate players based on position (remember, this was before teams wore uniform numbers on the front), but I could be wrong.
• The Trinity uniform could be a mash-up (see note on the graphic).
• Middlebury might have had the toughest schedule of anyone here. The Panthers opened the season against Harvard and Yale and lost by a combined score of 121-0. Middlebury also lost 33-0 to NYU, a well-regarded program.

And at last, the uniforms:

Colby Mules (1972)

These days, I live about 20 minutes from Waterville, Maine, and Colby College, which, according to the townsfolk, is either singlehandedly leading the revival of downtown Waterville or is "that place on the hill" singlehandedly taking over the city, whether the residents like it or not.

One thing everyone can agree on is this: Colby is not known for football (well, outside of Baltimore Ravens GM Eric DeCosta). From 1962-78, the Mules had only one winning record and have had but two since 2000. Today, we're going to look at the 1972 bunch -- the lone winner in that aforementioned 17-year span. (I should eventually profile the 2000 team that shared the NESCAC title, which is kinda like Columbia winning the Ivy League or Rhody taking the CAA.) More importantly, the '72 Mules answer a question that has been on America's minds for decades: What if you mashed up the Baltimore Colts unis with those of the Detroit Lions?

About five years ago, I profiled the 1962 team that resembled the latter-day Baltimore/early Indianapolis Colts.

Colby players were full of joy in 1972.

The Team: Colby went 7-1, the Mules' best record since the 1940 bunch went undefeated (6-0-1), and their most wins since 1909 (7-0). Colby outscored its opponents 222-150; toss out a 49-0 loss to Hobart, and the margin is 222-101.

The Players: The leader of this team was sophomore Peter Gorniewicz, who set school records with 1,170 rushing yards, 15 touchdowns and 90 points scored. He finished his career with 4,114 yards, which apparently was a New England record at one point. QB Brian Cone, who was named team MVP, handed the ball off to Gorniewicz and also kicked field goals. Cornerback Aubrey Moore led the team in interceptions with four.

The Coach: Dick McGee guided the Mules from 1967-78, going 29-64 (the '72 team was his best, by far), and also was athletic director from 1974-87. He also did quite a bit for community sports in central Maine, as you can read here in this excellent tribute following his death in 2015 (and I'm not just saying that because I work for the Central Maine papers! 😎).

Colby players take in the action, 1973.

The Uniforms: Now, time to answer that question America was debating in '72. The result? Not bad. The blue seems to be a little darker than that used by the Lions or Colts (side rant: I've never liked the term "Honolulu blue" to describe the Lions' jerseys), but it works well. The horseshoe on the silver helmet doesn't look too much out of place; I found it odd only upon first sight. The striping, names and number fonts and pure Champion all the way, very similar to what Boston College had in the 70s. Interesting that the Mules wore names on the back; most teams (at least around New England) still eschewed the practice at this point in time.

True fact: The Maine Legislature outlawed
live animal mascots in the 1960s.

The Aftermath: Gorniewicz had another big season in '73, but the Mules fell to 1-7 and didn't  had another winning season until 1979.

(The bulk of the info on this team, plus the pictures, came from this excellent article from The Colby Alumnus, Fall 1972. Check it out.)

A headline from the Colby Echo describes Colby's lone
win of the '73 season, over Bates. So much for academic schools
having more intelligent humor.

Colby Mules (1962)

No, those are not mis-labeled Baltimore Colts uniforms you see, but Colby's early 1960s uniforms definitely hold more than a passing resemblance to the team that had recently won back-to-back NFL championships. 

Taking inspiration from the NFL continues at Colby to this day: The current uniform (which I like) is a fusion of the Chicago Bears (wishbone "C") and Detroit Lions (lightish blue and silver), who are normally hated rivals. There's probably a high school team out there called the Patriots that has the "Flying Elvis" logo on a green and white uniform.

The 1962 Colby road uniform, with the awesome horseshoes on the shoulders,
in action at Maine. From Maine's Prism yearbook. 

There's one thing that separates this vintage Mules uniform from the Colts' version, however -- the big ol' horseshoes on the shoulders, a very unique trait for that era. 

The '62 home uniform, actually taken from the Bowdoin Orient.
Wasn't Binky that clown on the old Garfield and Friends cartoon?

I think the Colts-style helmet continued into the 1970s, but I'm not 100 percent. Time for more research!

We'll dig up another Division III uniform later this week.