Buddy Teevens: Rookie coach

Dartmouth coach Buddy Teevens, who became a national name in football circles after abolishing live tackling in favor of robotic dummies in an effort to prevent head trauma, recently lost a leg following a cycling accident. Here's a column I wrote for Central Maine Newspapers on how Teevens turned around a stagnant Maine program in the mid-1980s. 

A while back, I wrote about the changes Teevens made to Maine's uniforms here.

Football Scrapbook (1926)

This doesn't necessarily deal with football uniforms or even college football, but what the hey? 

I wrote an essay for Central Maine Newspapers (my current employer) on a tattered scrapbook from 1926 filled with 150 pages of football clippings, mostly concerning Maine high schools and colleges. It's amazing something like this survived the ravages of time. And you can read more about it here:

https://www.centralmaine.com/2022/10/01/old-time-football-1926-scrapbook-provides-revealing-look-at-maines-gridiron-history/

Dartmouth Hockey

No, I'm not turning this into a hockey site. ... yet. But I did compile an informal history of the Dartmouth hockey jersey, er, sweater, for today's Valley News (my longtime place of employ). Above are a couple samples, and you can check out the rest here. Enjoy!

Dartmouth Big Green (1944)

This past weekend, Notre Dame "hosted" Boston College at Boston's Fenway Park, the baseball shrine that housed plenty of college and pro football games until the late 1960s. In 1944, the Fighting Irish played their first-ever game in Boston at Fenway ... against the Dartmouth Big Green (a.k.a. Indians). This game and the 1945 rematch in South Bend marked the only times these schools squared off on the gridiron (World War II made for some strange football bedfellows). 

The Valley News, where I work as a sports guy, did a fun story on their historic encounters a few years ago, with plenty of cool pictures and memorabilia.

As the for the uniforms ... This was when Notre Dame wore green, not blue, jerseys at home. Although Dartmouth was technically the home team, the Irish apparently insisted on wearing the green shirts. According to the Oct. 14, 1944 Boston Globe:

"One team will be Notre Dame, in this corner, wearing a fetching Kelley green jersey ... The other team will be Dartmouth, attired in white above the waistline, but festooned with deep green satin pants ... thereby salvaging its traditional color scheme for the day."

The 1944 Dartmouth Big Green/Indians, decked out in all green.

From research, it appears Dartmouth also wore gray (possibly tan) pants that year, too, at least with the white jerseys. I have no record of the Big Green wearing the green pants before or after '44 ... at least until 2005.

Dartmouth, in white shirts and light-colored pants, takes on
Holy Cross in 1944. These pix are from the phenomenal
Dartmouth College Photographic Files.

As for the game, it was pretty much over before the coin toss. Notre Dame won, 64-0. The Irish also took the '45 game in South Bend, 34-0.

Some other Big Green unis we've profiled: 2014, 2013, 2005-06, 2003-04, 1978-86, 1970, 1955-56, 1951-54, 1936-38. Rivalry week: Dartmouth-Princeton.

Dartmouth Big Green (1936-38)

This is the uniform Dartmouth wore during one of the most successful eras in Big Green history, which is saying something when you look at the team's history. Dartmouth went on a 19-0-3 run during this period, went undefeated in 1937 (7-0-2) and boasted the school's only Heisman Trophy candidate, running back Bob MacLeod, who you can read more about here. The ESPN College Football Encyclopedia (in my meager opinion, one of the five best sports books ever) named MacLeod the greatest player in Dartmouth history.

Bob MacLeod (No. 53; you don't see that number on a running back these days)
takes on Columbia in 1937. The B/W pics here are from eBay listings.

The helmet with gold panels and six green stripes was first introduced in 1934, the year Earl "Red" Blaik -- later the coach of Army's 1940s uber-juggernaut -- became Dartmouth coach. Numbers were added to the jersey front in '36. In 1939, the gray helmet with four stripes was introduced and, with only a few modifications, was worn by Dartmouth through 1954.

Dartmouth and Princeton duke it out n 1937.
Those Tiger unis are pretty sweet.

I touched upon this uniform last fall when writing about the Big Green's uniform history here. And hey, you can see clips of the '38 Big Green in action here.

Dartmouth and Cornell in glorious color (1938).
A screen grab from the above link.

Some other Big Green unis we've profiled: 2014, 2013, 2005-06, 1970, 1955-56, 1951-54.

Dartmouth Big Green (2005-06)

This is hopefully our last holdover post until my computer is fixed. 

When Buddy Teevens returned as Dartmouth's head coach (2005), he changed the uniforms, ditching the 2003-04 black pants for green versions and introducing flashy new jerseys with "DARTMOUTH" across the front in big letters and early 2000s-era stripes down the front and sides. In 2007, white pants were phased in and the green pants were entirely gone in 2008, when Dartmouth went 0-10. In 2009, the uniforms were replaced with these versions -- a big improvement.

If you haven't down so yet, you can read more about Dartmouth's unis here.

Dartmouth Indians/Big Green (1955-56)

My computer remains on the DL, but I do have several Dartmouth files untouched, thanks to this Valley News blog post I wrote pre-crash on the history of the Big Green uniforms. There are plenty of styles that have never been featured here, so check it out!

***

When Bob Blackman became Dartmouth coach in 1955, he gave the uniform a dramatic overhaul: The green-and-gray leather helmets of the Tuss McLaughry era were ditched for white, plastic shells. The gray pants became white, and the jerseys featured larger numbers -- and more stripes, especially on the roads.

In 1956, the second and final year of the design, Dartmouth achieved its first winning season since 1949 ('55 and '68 were Blackman's only losing seasons in his 16 years in Hanover). By '57, curved, UCLA-style numbers were creeping onto the jerseys and the helmets featured numbers on the side.

The cover of the 1956 Dartmouth media guide, taken from an eBay listing.
Fifty-six also marked the debut of formal Ivy League play.
The Big Green players are in white.

The '55 Big Green in action at Memorial Field.
This picture is from the incredible Dartmouth Digital Library Collections,
and also appears in the  '56 Aegis yearbook.
It's guaranteed to subsist any Ivy League fan through the long off-season.

A special thanks to the very patient folks at the Baker-Berry Library, who let me pore through several Aegis yearbooks on a rainy October afternoon.

Opening Day!

... for Dartmouth and the rest of the Ivy League, that is, three weeks after almost everyone else kicked off. This is a gallery of Dartmouth uniforms I made as part of the team's season preview in the Valley News. I also wrote an essay about the team's media guides here. 
   We'll get these individual unis on the blog eventually. From left: 1965, 1970, 1973, 1978, 1987, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2014.
   The Big Green opens the season tonight against Central Connecticut at Memorial Field.