The 1925 Project (Part 1)

Nineteen twenty-five was a pretty memorable year in college football. Coming off a monumental 1924 season, Illinois’ Red Grange continued to run up, down and around hapless foes before he took his game to the NFL upon season’s end. Alabama upset Washington in the Rose Bowl to claim a share of its first national championship.

And with whom did mighty ‘Bama share the title? Dartmouth. Yes, that Dartmouth, granite of New Hampshire in their muscles and their brains and all that. It’s the first and only “natty” the Big Green has claimed to date.

I thought it would be fun to look back at the teams covered in this little ol’ blog (and a few that aren’t) and how they fared — and looked — a century ago. We’ll start with the six New England state schools that later made up the late, great Yankee Conference.  

As for the Big Green, I covered them in this post a while back; we’ll revisit them along with their Ivy League brethren down the road.

One major caveat: I am far from 100% positive on certain uniform elements, such as helmet colors, jersey trim colors or number fonts (or if some teams even used numbers on the back; that’s how long ago we’re talking here). Some yearbooks (like Vermont’s Ariel) give a pretty good pictorial account of the athletic teams; others, like Rhode Island’s Grist … well, I have to sort through the grist and make an educated guess. 

But if anyone out there has an old Rhode Island jersey buried in the attic … 

Connecticut

High point: The Aggies (a nickname used by UConn, UMass and other cow colleges in that era) opened the season Sept. 26 with a 7-3 win over in-state rival Wesleyan. The ‘Farmers” (hey, that’s what the Hartford Courant called them in its weekly accounts) had not defeated Wesleyan in any athletic contest since spring 1922.

Low point: Following the Wesleyan win, UConn was shut out in three straight games, all losses. 

Other trivia: Tackle Oscar Nanfeldt and quarterback “Wallie” Moreland was named to the Courant’s All-Connecticut Valley team (!).

The 1925 UConn Not-Yet-The-Huskies.

Uniforms: And the fun begins right off the bat. As noted in this post, UConn flirted with orange jerseys in the mid-1920s, and indeed, the season summary in the Courant yearbook covering the ’25 season notes the orange attire. But photos from UConn’s game against New Hampshire shows UNH’s players in white vests, presumably to differentiate themselves from the normal blue-attired Aggies. But if UConn wore orange jerseys, why would UNH bother? Like they said in those Tootise Pop commercials from the ’70s, the world may never know.

Maine

High point: A 28-14 win over hated rival Bowdoin on Nov. 7 before 7,500 fans in Orono gave the Black Bears the state title, which as hard as it is to believe now, was a huge deal back then.

Low point: It’s tempting to list the 56-0 loss at Dartmouth, but those guys probably spent the rest of their lives bragging to everyone how they shared the field with the national champs. I’ll go with the season-ending scoreless tie against New Hampshire, Maine’s most hated out-of-state rival, on Nov. 14.

Other trivia: Maine claimed a share of the New England Conference title with a 1-0-1 record, even though UNH was 3-0-1 in league play. I have the Bears down for second. … Maine end Fred Newhall and tackle “Ginger” Fraser were named to the Portland Sunday Telegram’s All-Maine team.

Uniforms: About what you would expect from this era. Many, but not all, jerseys had those “friction strips” that were popular then. Maine also wore white helmets when many teams wore brown or tan lids.

Massachusetts

High point: UMass (then known officially as Massachusetts Agricultural College, or MAC) had an annual rivalry with Tufts that lasted decades. (Strange, since another future NESCAC school, Amherst, was far closer.) On Nov. 21, the Aggies defeated the Jumbos by the baseball-like score of 6-4 for their first win in the series since 1921. The series ended in 1954 — with Tufts owning a 28-14-7 advantage. In fact, UMass beat Tufts only three more times after ’25. Strange, indeed.

Low point: The season ended with an 18-13 Thanksgiving Day loss at Springfield (just down the road from Amherst) when the hosts used a “shoestring” play, in the words of the UMass Index yearbook, to take the lead in the fourth quarter. From what I’ve gathered from multiple newspaper accounts, a Springfield receiver named Maddox lined up near the sideline, apart from his 10 teammates — almost as if he were busy tying his shoelace before joining his mates — and MAC was caught napping. Of course, Springfield threw the ball to Maddox and he took off 30 yards for the winning TD.

Massachusetts decided to wear hoodies for its team photo.
As you can tell, some schools took this exercise less seriously than others
back in the day. 

Uniforms: Classic maroon and little else. Like Maine, some shirts had friction strips and others did not. I’m not 100% on the numbers.

New Hampshire

High point: The Granite yearbook doesn’t have a season write-up, so it’s hard to determine. I’d say going 2-0-1 in New England Conference play and grabbing the league title is a pretty good accomplishment, though.

Low point: The Oct. 10 game against Colby was cancelled because of SNOW. I know Waterville can be a little chilly in October, but still.

Other trivia: This was the last season before UNH adopted the “Wildcats” nickname.

Uniforms: Largely the same as in 1924, which I wrote about here. 

Rhode Island State

High point: Going by the season summary in the Grist yearbook, it sounds like Rhody’s best game was a 12-7 win over CCNY (CCNY? Wasn’t that the school embroiled in a basketball scandal?) on Oct. 24. Kenneth Brown threw a TD pass and returned a kick 65 yards for another score.

Low point: Rhody got to play the role of loyal opposition in a season-opening 33-0 loss to Brown in which the Bears opened their new stadium, which they still use today. 

Other trivia: On Oct. 3, the Rams played Western Maryland (now McDaniel College) in Baltimore at the site of the future Memorial Stadium, the beloved old home of the NFL Colts and MLB Orioles.

A college football team, or a semipro all-star bunch?

Uniforms: Another tough one to decipher. Are the shirts pale blue or dirty white? Are the pants brown or dark blue?

The team picture above shows the Rams in a motley assortment of jerseys, some of them torn and dirty. I'm guessing this was taken after practice. From what I've been able to gather, the version with the five friction strips was the one worn during games.

Vermont

High point: Like Maine, UVM placed heavy emphasis on in-state rivals, and Vermont earned wins over Norwich (3-0) and Middlebury (7-6) to claim the state championship.

Low point: Vermont was shut out four times, including three straight to Syracuse, Dartmouth and Springfield by a combined score of 82-0. If you go by the write-up in the Ariel yearbook, UVM had to overcome insurmountable odds every Saturday because of injuries or size disadvantages.   

Even in 1925, that made for a tiny lineman.

Other trivia: This was the last season before Vermont adopted the “Catamounts” nickname. The state population of actual catamounts: Zero. … Vermont ended the season with a 7-0 loss to Saint Louis, which like UVM later dropped football and became a force on the soccer pitch. (The Billikens have won 10 NCAA titles; the Catamounts recently captured their first.)

Uniforms: As basic as you can get, which makes it easier (albeit less challenging) to figure out. The Ariel yearbook covering the ’25 season was loaded with bright photos. 

Boston College, UConn, UMass (2024)

We wrap up our look at the uniforms of 2024 with New England's three FBS teams. Frankly, nothing really new to report here, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Boston College changed a combo or two from 2023, but that was about it. 

UConn was in the same boat as BC, although the Huskies had some fun with a couple helmet designs. One, designed to honor America's armed forces, used a half-dozen different seals depending on the branch of the military (the example above uses the United States Army). Another, used as part of a cancer awareness promotion, used a multitude of ribbons, each capped with the UConn "C" (pink is used above).

I feel like I say this every year, but as bad as the on-field product has been for the last dozen years or so, at least UMass looks good while losing. The Minutemen, who will be rejoining the Mid-American Conference in 2025 with a new coach (Joe Harasymiak — if he can lead Maine to an FBS final four berth, he could very well give this program a pulse), revived the black alternate jersey and it fit in perfectly with the rest of the ensemble (bonus points for altering the helmet trim to make it match the jersey). Sadly, the '90s alternate logo was put on the bench.

Wartime Football (Parts I-II)

Not too long ago, I posted a photo of Cornell's 1945 roster on this site's Facebook page (and if you haven't done so yet, crush that like button like you're crushing a blocking sled during two-a-days), which got me thinking about wartime football. World War II turned the game upside down, as manpower shortages forced some programs to shut down entirely during the war and others to play on a limited basis. Some, however, kept on going like nothing was amiss.

The Northeast scene was no different. Twenty-one teams covered by this little ol' blog had football teams at the time World War II broke out. The state of the programs during the prime war years (1943-45) can be divided into four categories:

1) Shut down entirely (no team from 1943-45)

2) Partially shut down (played at least one season from 1943-45)

3) Played on limited basis (played throughout 1943-45, but with small schedules against smaller schools/military camps/etc.)

4) Full speed ahead (played full schedules).

First, we'll get category No. 1 out of the way.

Shut down entirely

Central Connecticut, Northeastern, Vermont.

Maybe it's a coincidence, but two of those three programs later dropped the sport. CCSU soldiers on, however.

OK, on to group No. 2, the main subject of this post.

Partially shut down

Six schools covered by this blog fall into this category.

Boston University shut down the program in 1943-44, but threw together a 5-game schedule in '45 upon the end of WWII that summer. Perhaps the '45 Terriers should have stuck with intrasquad games: BU lost all five game by a combined score of 235-3. When you're losing 70-0 to Tufts, that's not a good sign. The Wikipedia season summary puts it best: "The season finale against Harvard was so one-sided that head coaches Dick Harlow and Walt Holmer elected to cut 5 minutes from each of the final two quarters." (And, as we'll see later on, it's not like Harvard was operating on all eight cylinders during the war.)

The Terriers' uniforms were identical to what they wore at the start of the war: Black helmets, red jerseys and socks at home; white shirts and socks on the road. I like how the stripes on the sleeves and socks are in sync.

Connecticut took only the 1943 season off, then played full eight-game schedules in '44 and '45, unlike most smaller schools in New England. A few liberties had to be taken, however, as the Huskies played Norwich, CCNY and Brooklyn twice. (And those mighty '44 CCNY Beavers went 0-8 and were outscored 333-0. As in ZERO points. Wonder how they would have fared against BU.) The '45 team faced more traditional foes such as Maine, Lehigh and BU. UConn went 7-1 both seasons.

I think I've talked about these uniforms before, but the jerseys are distinctive; I can look at an old photo from the '40s and can immediately tell it's UConn thanks to the shoulder panels and the stripes on the wrists of the sleeves.

Depending on your source, Delaware either shut down entirely or returned in 1945 for a four-game slate. (The late, great College Football Data Warehouse lists the coach as "unknown," which should tell you how informal this team was.) The Blue Hens defeated Drexel and Haverford, tied West Chester and lost to Johns Hopkins — their only defeat from 1941-46, when the Hens went unbeaten in '41, '42 and '46.

I can't find any decent photos of Delaware's uniforms from '45, so I offer the ones from '42. Note the use of plastic helmet shells, a rarity in that era. Plastic shells took off after the war and were worn by almost everyone by the mid-50s. Ironically, one of the last holdouts was Delaware, which appears to have worn leather lids into the '60s. 

Massachusetts (State, as it was called until 1947) played a brief schedule in 1945, beating Maine twice, tying Amherst and losing to Brooklyn.

The uniforms were largely similar to what the Statesmen (yes, that was their nickname; "Redmen" came a couple years later and "Minutemen" in 1972) wore in 1942, with tan/gold helmets replacing the maroon versions. Wonder how people would react if UMass wore all-mustard yellow unis today?

New Hampshire is an interesting case, for a couple reasons: 

1) The Wildcats had no football in 1943, brought it back in '44 and dropped it again in '45;

2) For years, the Wildcats' media guides said UNH had no team in '44. (And for years, UNH and its arch-rival, Maine, listed different records for their all-time series, since they faced off twice in '44.)

But UNH indeed fielded a team, dropping two games to Middlebury and going 1-1 against Maine — the last time the rivals faced off more than once in a season until 2013, when they met in the regular season and the NCAA playoffs, which I'd rather not discuss. 😁

The Wikipedia entry on this team is remarkably detailed, and it's worth a read.

I'm unsure what the Wildcats wore on the road, but the best guess is they used the same duds as in 1942, when they went undefeated. (The home unis bear more than a passing resemblance to what Maine wore in the 1950s.) Only one member of the '42 crew played for UNH in '44.

Rhode Island (State, as it was called until 1952) punted on 1943-44 but played three games against Maine, Boston University (both wins) and Rutgers (a loss).

The few photos I've uncovered of the '45 Rams are fuzzy and hard to make out, so again I offer you the 1942 uniform, which used four different shades of blue. The helmets are light blue, but the front leather portion is painted white. The jerseys have a pair of light blue stripes down the sleeves and the numbers are the only dark blue portion of the uniform. It's not a pretty uniform, but it's an interesting one.

Next up: Teams that played on an informal basis throughout the war.

Boston College, UConn, UMass (2023)

Enough procrastinating. (There's no nation like Procrastination, where the next game is always tomorrow.) Let's wrap up the uniforms of 2023 with New England's three FBS representatives.

Remember when Boston College was going to dump Jeff Hafley as coach and bring in Bob Chesney from Holy Cross? Instead, the Eagles had a winning record capped by a bowl win. BC made no changes from previous seasons, except for the all-maroon ensemble worn for the Fenway Bowl.

There might not be a more complicated team to keep track of than UConn. Even though the Huskies have only two jerseys and two pants, they trotted out seven different helmet designs, many of them with very minute differences; some weeks the helmets had stripes, some weeks they didn't. UConn also had two specialty helmets — a "Husky Heroes" lid with a red-white-and-blue logo and a cancer awareness helmet with the "C" logo in a variety of colors. 

I've said a million times before and I'll say it again: UMass may be bad, but at least the Minutemen look good while they're losing. The uniforms remained the same as in previous seasons, although UMass fiddled around with the facemark color a couple times. I wonder what it's like to be the equipment people, having to swap out 100-plus facefasks on short notice?

From Football to Baseball (Part I)

After last week's post on the 1967 Holy Cross team, which noted that defensive back Pat Bourque went on to win the World Series with the 1973 Oakland A's, I decided to round up a list of other college football players from teams covered on this site who went to play Major League Baseball. Part 1 takes us from the early 1920s through the early '50s. Part 2 will come ... eventually. 😎 

I've written about some of these teams before, and chances are I've missed a few guys along the way. The numbers in the uniform graphics are the ones worn by the profiled athletes (Harry Agganis wore 33 at Boston U, etc.).

Let's save the best for first, as in first base. Lou Gehrig (Columbia) is a legend for his Hall of Fame career with the New York Yankees, his consecutive-games streak and his death in 1941 from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (or was it something else?) Before the Yanks came calling, Gehrig was a two-sport athlete at Columbia, where he was a starting fullback and defensive tackle on the football team. With pro football in its relative infancy, though, his odds of playing football for a living were between slim and none, and slim just went out for a bathroom break. 

Lou Gehrig plows through Wesleyan's defense in 1922.

The uniform graphic above is a rough estimate, especially the font of the number on the back. It appears some, but not all, of the helmets had white stripes on the front and sides.

At the University of Vermont, football and baseball are just rumors (football was canceled in 1974, while baseball was dumped twice — in 1971 and 2009). But in the winter of 1941-42, Winooski's Ralph LaPointe was a star on the Catamounts' freshman football, basketball and baseball teams. In the fall of '42, LaPointe joined the football varsity and was on the the receiving half of the "Goal Dust Twins" with quarterback Norm Beaulieu. LaPointe scored a TD in every game that season, including one in the season-ending 18-7 won over Middlebury. (Thanks to World War II, it was UVM's last game until 1946.) 

After World War II, LaPointe signed with the Philadelphia Phillies' organization and made his major league debut on April 15, 1947 — the same day Jackie Robinson debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers — as a defensive replacement at second base. While LaPointe's MLB career was short (he his .266 in 143 games), he established his legend as UVM's baseball coach from 1952-67, going 216-127 in a region not exactly hospitable to baseball in the early spring. He also served as an assistant on the football team during that time.

As you can see by the caption, Ralph LaPointe
got married after the 1942 season.

UVM's uniforms were heavy on the yellow (color rush before color rush was cool), with slightly darker shades used for the jerseys and socks, which had matching green stripes. 

I noted the achievements of UConn end-turned-Red Sox first baseman Walt Dropo in this post. Suffice to say, he was an amazing athlete during a period when multi-sport athletes weren't uncommon. Something was lost when specialization became the norm in college sports; when you play different sports, it forces you to use body and your mind in different ways.

The uniform pictured is from 1946, Dropo's senior year. During this period, UConn mixed and matched their helmets, jerseys and pants something fierce. In '46, UConn wore white helmets and blue pants throughout but trotted out three different jerseys, each with contrasting shoulder panels and stripes on the lower sleeves. 

Growing up as a Red Sox fan in the 1980s, I knew the tale of Harry Agganis very well, even though he had died more than 30 years earlier. Lynn, Mass., native; two-sport star at Boston University; spurned an offer from the Cleveland Browns to sign with his hometown Sawx; played solidly as a rookie first baseman in 1954; got off to a strong start in '55; got sick and shockingly died from a pulmonary embolism. To this day, he and Tony Conligliaro are the ultimate "what might have beens" among the Sox faithful. 

At BU, Agganis set single-season school records for TD passes in 1949 (15!) and passing yards in 1951 (1,402 in only seven games, pretty impressive in that era). He missed the 1950 season when the U.S. Marine Corps came calling. Somehow, the '51 team was ranked No. 16 in the final AP poll despite a 6-4 record, which would be like a 7-5 MAC team landing in the top 25 today. Apparently, the writers were blown away by those wins over Camp Lejeune, NYU and Wichita State.

A 1950 magazine article notes Harry Agganis'
 induction into the U.S. Marine Corps.

BU's uniforms were pretty basic: White helmets, red jerseys and white pants; I believe the white jerseys were worn only at Louisville and Temple, which also wore red at home.

Boston College didn't have much to write home about in the early 1950s (other than a mega-upset of nationally ranked Holy Cross in 1951), but the Eagles did have a super end in Mike Roarke, who was known as "Mr. Captain" for his role as captain of the baseball and football teams. His career totals of 49 catches and 12 touchdowns won't cause Zay Flowers to lose sleep, but they were pretty darn good in those passing-challenged times. 

In baseball, he was a star catcher who after BC toiled for many years in the minor leagues before spending parts of four seasons with the Detroit Tigers (1961-64) as a backup. He went on to become a pitching coach for MLB several teams, most notably Whitey Herzog's 1980s Cardinals. (Much of the info here on Roarke was taken from his BC Hall of Fame bio.)

Mike "Rourke" was as adept at catching a football as a baseball.

BC's uniforms didn't change much during this era, with plain gold helmets, a maroon jersey with gold numbers at home and a white version with maroon numbers on the road, all with gold pants. On at least one occasion, the Eagles broke out striped socks to match the road jersey sleeves.

Boston College, UConn, UMass (2022)

We close out our look at the uniforms of 2022 with New England's three FBS schools. The results on the field vary, but I think these teams have some of the classiest unis around.

Tradition-minded Boston College didn't change a darn thing from 2021, other than the return of the dark red pants. The Eagles may not win much, but at least they look good while losing. 

Speaking of teams that used to look good while losing, UConn now looks good while winning; I apologized for my Husky-bashing here. First-year coach Jim Mora didn't change much from 2021 beyond a few helmet tweaks: A red-white-and-blue "C" logo (the only time the Randy Edsall-era big C was used) and a unique cancer ribbon helmet worn for a few October games. The example above is pink, but the Huskies made a dozen ribbon colors available, to "give players a chance to bring awareness to the specific form of cancer that has affected their lives and loved ones," according to a UConn media release.

UMass also had a new coach in 2022 (actually, new old coach: Don Brown was the head man when the Minutemen  reached the 2006 FCS title game), but changed zippo from '21, except for the 1990s-era logo seeing playing time on the maroon helmet for the first time. 

The (Somewhat) Complete UConn Uniform History, Part IV

Here we go: the final installment in our four-part series on the history of UConn's uniforms, in honor of the Huskies going from 1-11 to a bowl game in one year. It'll be better than most film franchises that make it to a Part IV ... I think.

Previous chapters: Part I, Part II, Part III.

2000: A new century (well, unless you're one of those ninnies who thinks 2000 belongs in the 20th century), and a new classification, as the Huskies play their first season at the FBS (I-A) level. Although UConn wasn't slated to join the Big East until 2005 (later moved up to 2004 after the team did so well as an independent "transitional" program), the team still added a tiny Big East patch to replace the Atlantic 10 version from '99.

2002: And so we begin another run of year-to-year changes. Red is dumped in favor of silver as a secondary color, a  block "UC" logo is used on the helmets for this year only, and the uniforms get a massive overhaul in favor of a new manufacturer: AEROPOSTALE, makers of fine clothing for mallrats everywhere. (They're still around, although shopping malls are going the way of the wishbone offense.) A small patch on the front celebrates the Huskies' first season at Rentschler Field, since renamed Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field, but known to everyone as The Rent.

I'll say this about the jerseys: They don't really resemble anyone else's design from the era, since UConn eschewed  any of the conventional suppliers of the day (Russell, Nike, Reebok, etc.). I don't think too many other teams were using Machine font for names and numbers, for example. 

2003: Another year, another overhaul. The "UC" on the helmet is replaced by a big "C," or as I call it, the "Randy Edsall C," in honor of the coach who introduced (and later revived) it. The numbers are in a narrower version of the font the Huskies use to this day. Aeropostale remains the supplier, thus the jerseys still look different from everyone else's; check out the "CONNECTICUT" in an arc (almost like a basketball or baseball jersey) and the sleeve striping with the "C" in the middle.

I am the proud owner of a 2003 UConn jersey, and I took a deeper look at it in this post.

2004: This was the year UConn formally joined the Big East, and won its first bowl game to boot. For all the talk of the Huskies' decline (OK, I was one of the talkers), It's amazing how quickly they went from FCS to bowl game while playing in a decent conference. UConn trotted out its fourth design in as many years, this time with Nike as the supplier. The number font and the "CONNECTICUT" wordmark are carried over form Aeropostale design. The most notable changes were in the shoulder and sleeve stripes, and some funky stripes were added to the pants.

2009: After several years of stability, UConn made some changes for '09: Silver pants, player names and the "CONNECTICUT" wordmark were all discarded, and the numbers were fattened to the version the Huskies have used ever since (albeit with many different designs). I always liked this streamlined look, although the striping is pretty dated today.

This also was the uniform UConn wore when it went to the Fiesta Bowl after the 2010 season, the unquestioned high point of its FBS existence.

2013: With Randy Edsall (and the glory years) in the past, UConn makes another overhaul, highlighted by a pair of  very bizarre helmets with a sliver of a husky head on the front, blank sides and a big "UCONN" on the back. Much of the striping from the 2009 uniform remains same, but red returns as a trim color. A "UCONN" wordmark is added to the jersey front, along with the logo for the American Athletic Conference, the successor to the Big East. 

2015: The Huskies change their look again, this time with something a little more conventional. The husky head is moved to the helmet sides and the weird striping is discarded in favor of a diagonal blue-and-white pattern on the sleeves. And speaking of weird, check out the all-gray alternate uniform. 

2018: Randy Edsall returned as coach a year earlier, and his big "C" helmet returns in '18, in both white and blue models. The rest of the uniform remains the same, although the gray alternate is discarded.

2019: The rest of the uniform is redesigned, bearing a passing resemblance to the 2009 version, but with more conventional striping — a pleasant uniform trend nationwide the last few years. Red is retired yet again. The Huskies wear both the "C" and husky head designs on white and blue helmets. This was the last year UConn wore the AAC patch before it went to independent status in 2020.

I'll get to 2022 after the Huskies' bowl game.