Vermont Catamounts (What If?)

It's time for the third and final installment in our "What If" series, imaging what uniforms of defunct college football teams would look like if they hadn't become defunct. This time, it's the University of Vermont, undefeated since 1975 and all that jazz. (And taking a glance at the recent Top 25 men's soccer rankings, I see the Catamounts aren't too shabby at that other football these days.)

Here's what UVM's unis looked like when the school gave up the sport in 1974.

Previous installments covered Boston University and Northeastern.

1975: After two years of going all green, UVM tones it down a bit and adds white pants while eliminating the horizontal stripes from the jerseys.

1978: The Catamounts do a total overhaul, with yellow taking prominence in the pants and numbers. The jerseys add a big "VERMONT" wordmark, and the helmets add yellow facemasks and an outline around the "V."

1983: The stripes and numbers on the socks and road jerseys are inverted.

1987: The deemphasis of yellow continues, as white pants return (again), and white numbers and stripes are used on the home shirts. The "V" on the helmet also changes.

1991: The "VERMONT" wordmark vanishes, as do half the sleeve stripes.

1995: The V-cat logo debuts on both the jerseys and the new white helmet, and the numbers gain a double outline. Also note the Yankee Conference patch, which the league's teams began to wear in 1993, and the small Russell logo on the sleeves.

1999: Green alternate pants are added, and the outline on the road shirts change slightly, making the numbers easier to read. In 1997, the Yankee Conference morphed into the Atlantic 10, and the patch on the jersey front reflects the move.

2001: The white pants are discarded. 

2004: Everything old in new again, and at UVM, it means the return if the all-green look, right down to the helmets.  Nike replaces Russell as the uniform supplier. Drop-shadow numbers, side panels and tiny wordmarks — uniform hallmarks of that era — also appear. The V-cat logo is modified, as it was in real life around this time.

2008: UVM continues to keep up with the joneses and add curved numbers — similar to what the hockey team wore around this time — and funky striping.

2011: A screaming yellow zonkers alternate is added. After facing a possible shutdown of the program due to the recent economic crisis, UVM moves to the lower-scholarship Northeast Conference for football only. (The real-life Catamounts dropped baseball and softball around 2009.)

2014: UVM switches from Nike to Adidas (which made the men's basketball uniforms during this period) and the uniforms return to a more basic look. The big "VERMONT" wordmark also returns. (You may notice many real-life Adidas teams have a big wordmark on the jersey fronts.)

2019: The Catamounts return to Nike and maintain the basic look — if you check UVM's website, you'll notice many of the their teams' uniforms aren't elaborate. The green helmets have a chrome look, while the jerseys and pants kinda resemble those of Princeton (another Nike team). The road uniforms are almost completely devoid of yellow. A 1960s throwback helmet is added in honor of college football's 150th anniversary.

2022: Some yellow is added to the white jerseys and pants, while an all-black alternate uniform debuts, with "CATAMOUNTS" up the side of the pants. (Well, I guess in this world, UVM does get elaborate.)

Northeastern Huskies (What If?)

The second installment of our "What If?" series continues with Northeastern, which has been "undefeated" since it dropped the program after the 2009 season. As I've wisecracked before, the school probably dumped football only when it realized it still had a football team. I'm not sure in anyone on Huntington Avenue misses football (like many New England schools, hockey dominates the conversation), but for anyone who does, here's what the Huskies' uniforms might have looked like had they stuck around. 

2011: Reebok continues to make the Huskies' unis — they were one of the last teams to use Reebok at the time of the program's cancellation —  and they give Northeastern a template similar to the CFL's Montreal Alouettes (Reebok also made the CFL unis around this time).

2014: Nike takes over and makes some adjustments. The Huskies switch to the Nike Pro Combat template, but the jerseys retain some elements of the 2011 look. The "N" on the helmets is replaced by a paw, and the "retro" Husky (used on the hockey sweaters during this period) appears on the sleeves. Nike also introduces a unique dark gray-and-black alternate uniform, because Nike. A breast cancer awareness uniform features pink helmet trim and socks.

2017: The uniform becomes more streamlined and the jersey fonts are altered. A new black uniform with minimal red elements is added, with an oversized retro Husky on the helmet.

2019: The Huskies celebrate college football's 150th anniversary with a retro helmet and jersey honoring the 1963 Eastern Bowl team, which lost to East Carolina in Allentown, Pa.

2021: Under Armour, which makes Northeastern's hockey uniforms, takes over for football and gives the Huskies a uniform based on their hockey sweaters. The new Husky head logo blends into the black helmet. A rather bizarre all-white alternate uniform is added, with gray numbers, outlined in black, on an icy-white jersey.  

Boston University (What If?)

One of my favorite uniform sites is Steven Grant Design, which features a treasure trove of ice hockey concepts, plus blank templates for those who wish to make and submit their own jersey designs. (Someday, I should unleash my Hockey East concepts!) Grant recently did a series of "What If" concepts for defect NHL teams like the Minnesota North Stars had they stayed put, while capturing the NHL's (often hilarious) fashion trends over the last 30 years. What does this have to do with football? Well I naturally began thinking about applying Grant's concept to defunct college football programs, which leads to this post.

What follows is a fictional timeline of what Boston University's uniforms might have looked like had the school decided to spare the program in 1997. You can check out the final-year unis here. I hope to eventually add Vermont and Northeastern. 

2000: The Terriers do some minor changes, making the sleeve logo match the official one (the '97 version had a more homemade look) and adding a tiny "BOSTON" wordmark. Russell replaces Wilson as the uniform supplier.

2005: Nike replaces Wilson, but few changes are made other than the "BU" replacing the uniform number on the helmets. (If you so a search for BU basketball and hockey, you'll see BU's uniforms across the board are pretty conservative.) The Terriers also sport a 1950s throwback uniform in honor of legendary football and baseball star Harry Agganis, who died 50 years earlier.

(I just realized I've never done the Agganis-era uniform for this site. I'll have to change that eventually.)

2008: The piping craze overtakes college football by this point, and BU is no exception, although the Terriers try to keep it classy. (Penn had a similar pattern around this time.) By this time, the red pants are gone, and the CAA patch replaces that of its predecessor, the Atlantic 10.

2014: Piping becomes as passe as it was trendy just a few years earlier, and BU ditches the weird stripes in favor of contrasting sleeve panels, a la New Hampshire. The Terriers also join the trend of placing a logo on one side of the helmet and a uniform number on the other. And speaking of trends, BU unveils a special breast cancer awareness uniform, along with a pink-tinged helmet.

Also note the addition of the Patriot League logo; the real-life Terriers joined the PL in 2013, and it's a safe bet they would have joined in football, too.

2015: Nothing changes except for the addition on an all-black alternate. The reaction from fans and alumni is swift and severe, and the unis are worn for only game before they are discarded and sold off at a spring cleaning sale a few years later.

2019: By this time, Under Armour is making the Terriers' uniforms, as it does for their other sports in real life. The contrasting panels are replaced by shoulder stripes, which makes the unis resemble Cornell's from about a decade earlier. An alternate helmet has a slightly oversized Terrier head. and a 1969 throwback uniform honors the 150th anniversary of college football and the 50th anniversary of BU's Pasadena Bowl team.

2021: Most of the designs, including the popular throwback, are still around, but a new alternate uniform replicates the BU hockey design, right down to the pants and socks. Which goes to show that even if football had stayed on Commonwealth Avenue, hockey likely would remain the top dog.