Fairfield Stags (1998)

A glance at this blog's stats reveals that a years-old post on Fairfield's short-lived program recently generated a bunch of hits (well, a bunch of hits by this blog's rather modest standards), so let's take a look at the Stags' high point: The 1998 bunch that shared the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title.

The Team: In just its third year as a varsity program, Fairfield (just outside of Bridgeport, Conn.) went 9-2 overall, 6-1 in the MAAC (not to be confused with the Mid-American Conference or the Middle Atlantic Conference) to share the title with Georgetown, which Fairfield beat 24-17 in the regular season. The MAAC, which had eight or nine teams depending on your source (what is this, 1898?), almost resembles a football ghost town; only three of its teams in '98 (Georgetown, Marist, Duquesne) still have football in 2021. The MAAC ended its sponsorship of football after the 2007 season.

The Stags outscored their opponents 346-131, and the defense served up three shoutouts while allowing just 27 points over Fairfield's last six games. On Oct. 3 at Duquesne, Fairfield scored 14 points in the last 8:26 of regulation to defeat the Dukes in overtime, 23-20, on a QB sneak by Jim Lopusznick. A 48-0 thrashing of winless Saint Peter's on Nov. 14 gave the Stags a share of the MAAC crown. Alas, the non-scholarship MAAC did not have an automatic bid for the NCAA I-AA (now FCS) tournament, so Fairfield was shut out of the postseason.

The Players: Lopusznick threw for 27 touchdowns, ran for six more and was named MAAC player of the year. The junior also was the baseball team's center fielder. Teammates Marvin Royal (RB), Eric Wise (WR), Ben Harvey (OL), Steve Krines (DL) and Chris Silvestri (DB) were named all-MAAC, and Kevin Keisel was named co-coach of the year.

Fairfield quarterback Jim Lopusznick accounted for 33 TDs
and was the MAAC player of the year. This picture comes form the archives
of the Fairfield Manor student paper.

The Coach: Keisel coached Fairfield from 1996-2000, going 34-17, then left for Division II Millersville (Pa.; perhaps Keisel knew something was up at Fairfield?), going 15-27. He also coached at D-III Albright and Guilford; his career record is 88-93-1.

A 1998 photo of, er, #6 (or it that Mr. 6?) in action  
from the 1999 Fairfield yearbook.
I guess nobody had a roster handy.

The Uniform: Until the program's last couple years, Fairfield had the same standard uniform: White helmet with "STAGS" on the sides and red, white and black stripes down the middle; plain red jerseys with black trim; and white pants. The '98 jerseys had a teeny-tiny "COLLEGE FOOTBALL USA" patch just below the V-neck; the logo also was used on one of my favorite football video games of all time.

The Aftermath: The Stags went 9-2 again in '99 and 8-2 in 2000, when Keisel left after the season. Fairfield went 5-5 in 2001 and 5-6 in '02, and that was it for the Stags, who dropped football and men's ice hockey at the end of the school year. This article from 2009 sheds some light on the demise of the football program.

Fairfield Stags (2002)

Despite its relatively recent history, Fairfield is not the easiest team to research, perhaps because it pulled the plug just before anything and everything became digitized for posterity. It also doesn't help that the Stags' gridiron existence was only seven years (1996-2002) and it's likely few remember -- or care -- that Fairfield ever had a team.

Fans look on during Fairfield's final football season.
From the Manor yearbook.

So at long last, here's Fairfield uniform from the last season, when it went 5-6 and folded its tent anyway. The school overhauled its logos in '02, which is reflected in the helmets. Everything else remained the same, except for the removal of the MAAC patch on the shirts -- perhaps the equipment manager knew something was up?

A close-up of the final Fairfield helmet.
I ran this in my original post on Fairfield,
but here it is again.

You can find my only other post on Fairfield here.

Clean-Up Week (Part 1)

Hi, and welcome to Clean-Up Week, where we clean up some mistakes from the last seven months. The fixes you see here have also been made on the original posts. So, without further ado ...

Boston College (1984): Made front numbers larger; added Cotton Bowl uniform.

Boston College (1994): Made 125th anniversary patch larger.

Central Connecticut State (1968): Changed V-neck on back of home shirts.

Central Connecticut State (2013-14): Changed V-neck on back of home shirts. Weird I made the same mistake for two totally different shirts for the same school.

Columbia (1996): Changed v-neck on back of home shirts.

Cornell (1994): Made 125th anniversary patch larger.

Fairfield (1996 and 2001): Eliminated the right-side perspective helmet. I dunno, I just thought it looked weird.

More later this week!

Fairfield Stags (1996, 2001)

When I started this project, Fairfield University was about the last school I had on my mind — just another wannabe D-I school from a part of a state that barely qualifies as New England. After a little digging, two things surprised me about the football team at this Jesuit school on the Connecticut shoreline:

1. It lasted only seven years;
2. It was quite good for most of its short existence. Fairfield fielded a team from 1996-2002 and went 44-28 with only two losing seasons — its first (1-8) and last (5-6) years. Coach Kevin Kiesel seemed to have done a remarkable job putting together a competitive team in a short amount of time, capped by a MAAC (Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) co-championship in 1999. 

So why did it die? In short, the school grossly underestimated the cost of fielding a team, even a non-scholarship one, if this article gives any indication. But it seemed to be fun while it lasted.

A promotional poster for the first Fairfield varsity team, taken from an eBay listing.
Who knew the end would come so soon after the beginning?

***

Notes and other tidbits on Fairfield’s football uniforms:

• It appears only one jersey style — a basic red jersey with white numbers — was worn during the program’s existence.
• The “Stags” wordmark was used on the helmet until the last year, when a black “F” was used. The white helmets used a red stripe on one side and a black stripe on the other.
• No manufacturer’s logo was ever used.

***

The Fairfield yearbook is called the Manor, and has some nice color pictures from the program’s first couple years. The photos you see here are borrowed from the Manor.

The Fairfield mascot is supposed to be a stag,
though it resembles the moose from "National Lampoon's Vacation."

***

At the top of this post is the uniform from the inaugural season: Pretty simple, outside the unusual helmet striping.

Game action from 1996, taken from the 1997 Manor yearbook.

I don’t have a road uniform from the last year, 2002, so I’ll offer the 2001 uniform instead. I believe this was the only year the team wore a MAAC patch on the jerseys; the few pictures I have from the 2000 and ’02 seasons show no patch. The Stags helmet wordmark appears to be slightly enlarged by this point. 

The 2001 home uniform. Black pants were also worn that year.

2002: The caption on the left says it all. No, not the one about going for the kick.

***

Up next: The Boston University Terriers.