Plymouth State Panthers (1985)

Some programs are defined by one player, no matter how many titles or award winners jam the trophy case (Boston College and Doug Flutie come to mind). Plymouth State, a Division III school tucked away in north-central New Hampshire (about a 45-minute drive from my place) is defined by running back Joe Dudek, who in 1985 broke Walter Payton's all-time NCAA touchdown record and became a bit of a nine-days-wonder after he famously received a Heisman Trophy endorsement from Sports Illustrated. C'mon, you remember the cover if you grew up in the 1980s. 

Yup, that cover.

You can read more about Dudek, his unlikely brush with national fame, and the aftermath here.

Like the Bates uniform we profiled earlier, Plymouth State's uniform used to have gold  (closer to yellow) accents before giving way to black some time down the road. Actually, this uniform resembled what Vermont might have used had the Catamounts kept football. Hmmm ... Note the blank helmets, which were unusual by the 1980s.

The one and only, from PSU's The Conning Tower yearbook.

Recent times have not been kind to the Panthers following their off-and-on New England D-III dominance in the 1980s and '90s, but hopefully the glory days of Dudek can make a comeback.

It's time for vacation, but in a couple weeks, we'll wrap up our profiles of New England D-III teams before we make a return to the D-I ranks.

Bates Bobcats (1972)

We complete our NESCAC tour of Maine with Bates, a school with only one winning football team since 1981. In '72, the Bobcats upset American International to snap a 25-GAME losing streak, thus the inclusion of the '72 Cats in our profile of Division III uniforms.

The Bates Student front page from Bates' 17-14 win over AIC that
snapped a 25-game losing streak. If I used "WE" in a headline, I'd be tossed on the street.

The '72 Bobcats home uniform. Also from the Bates Student,
a paper whose layout often resembled a '60s-70s rock fanzie.

The uniforms bear a stringing resemblance to 1960s-70s Harvard, right down to the white belts. The big difference is the white helmets; most (but not all) had a teeny-tiny bobcat mascot on the sides. It's interesting how gold was an integral part of Bates' color scheme for many years, until black took over some time in the 1970s-80s.

The '72 Cats at Colby. Note the SILVER Colts-style helmets on the Mules.
The Bates player doesn't have a helmet stripe, but that appears to be an exception.

We'll scrounge around and profile another D-III school next week.

You get the impression from this picture that football was a
laid-back affair at Bates in the early 1970s. 

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.

Bowdoin Polar Bears (1939)

Coupla confessions before we continue our tour of historic Division III uniforms:

1) Despite growing up just two towns over from Bowdoin's Brunswick, Maine campus, I have never gone between the pines to watch the Polar Bears at Whitter Field. I did watch them play a Middlebury a few years ago. 

2) OK, this isn't really my first Bowdoin post -- a while back, I showed off a 2004 Bowdoin uniform to highlight some of college football duller uniforms. (Thankfully, those generic things have long since been ditched.)

But there's nothing dull about these dandy Bowdoin pre-war unis: Striped helmets, striped shirts and striped socks. I don't think I've ever seen a jersey pattern like this one: 1940s-syle Philadelphia Eagles mixed with shoulder stripes that didn't see widespread use until the 1950s.

The 1939 Bowdoin Polar Bears. Bowdoin's website has an amazing
team photo archive going back to 1890, which will only
encourage me to post more Bowdoin uniforms.

Two '39 Bears. This is from the school's comprehensive Special Collections and Archives
site, which will only encourage me to post more Bowdoin uniforms.

I could be wrong, but I believe this was a one-year style. I guess the rest of the world wasn't ready for these uniforms. 

The '38 Polar Bears, BTW, went 5-1-1 and shared the Maine State Series title (don't laugh, but the State Series was a HY-OOGE deal in those days). Bowdoin scored only 72 points all season, but allowed a paltry 39. Yes, college football was a different beast then.

Bowdoin plays Bates in 1939. The credit reads Portland Press Herald,
but the clipping is from the Bowdoin Orient, whose archives are all online
and will only encourage me to ... ah, you know the rest.

Up next: We'll pay a visit to one of those aforementioned State Series rivals. ... but which one?

This is the only logo I've ever wanted to hug.

Williams Ephs (1957)

Since we showed an Amherst uniform last time, it's only fitting we profile its ancient rival, Williams. Like Amherst, the Ephs (named for founder Ephriam Williams) have worn purple since the 19th century. You can read more about the history of the name, colors and mascot here.

A couple nice shots of the Williams bench in 1957.
Note that not all helmets have numbers on the side.
These are from the delightful Williams College Memory Project.

The uniform above is a pretty snazzy model, with gold pants and unique thicker-than-usual numbers. The helmets are vaguely like Brown's from that era, but not all of them had numbers on the side. Note the use of sleeve numbers on the road shirts -- I think UNH is the only other team in this project that wore sleeve numbers that early.

The '57 Ephs went 6-0-1 and beat Wesleyan and Amherst for the Little Three title.

The '57 Ephs in white.

 Next up in our Division III tour: Another NESCAC school, this time in Maine.

Amherst Lord Jeffs (1984)

Our informal tour of Division III schools takes us to Amherst, where the Lord Jeffs (oh, wait, can't call them that anymore) displayed an amazing run of uniform consistency that blows away the likes of even Delaware and Yale.

The basic template -- white helmets, purple shirt with white stripes and white pants -- was used from the 1930s until 1993, when most of the stripes were eliminated and an old-english "A" was placed on the helmet. (For me, nothing says "elite private institution" like the color purple and old-English lettering.)

The Amherst players are all smiles during an undefeated season.
These pic are all from the '85 Amherst College Olio yearbook.

Anyway, this uniform rules, a Princeton that went through the wrong batch of laundry. The  looks is such a hardcore throwback that the numbers on the jersey front use that short, wide font that went out with the 60s. Several of the sleeves also remained pretty long.

The '84 team picture.

The folks at Gameface have tons of Amherst pictures you can find here. I chose 1984 because the site had images of home and road uniforms, but this image could really represent the whole decade. Also, the No-Longer-Jeffs went undefeated that season.

The '84 Jeffs in action.

Up next: Well, if we're going to do Amherst, then we should do its arch-rival in Wayoutwest, Mass. ...

I wonder what's the story behind this picture? Are they angry at the Lord Jeffs' name?
Or are they angry that Amherst is dropping the name?
Or maybe they see a purple cow on the horizon ...

Norwich Cadets (1953)

Time to shake things up on the blog a bit. 

While I'm not planning to do comprehensive histories for Division III schools -- after all, D-III teams are almost as common in New England as weeds -- I thought it'd be fun to try something different and add selected uniforms over the next few weeks.

We'll start with Vermont's Norwich University, since it's the inspiration for this mini-project.  It's a military school in the hippie capital of New England, but don't let it fool or scare you. It's a gorgeous campus with a fun atmosphere for football games. A Homecoming game I attended in 2012 drew something like 5,300 fans, which is 53,000 by D-III standards.

While at the post office a couple months ago, I saw this gem sitting at the top of the recycling bin:

Bliss.

And this is just the cover! The inside has a phenomenal article on Norwich athletic equipment then and now, with tons of illustrations. You can read (and see) the whole article here. And of course, there's a page devoted to football:

Bliss, part 2.

Some digging through Norwich's Archives and Special Collections filled in the blanks on the early 50s helmets and pants. Check out the photos below from the site:

A group of Norwich U. players, 1953. No. 89, second from right in the front row,
is wearing the jersey likely shown in the magazine article above.

The '53 Cadets, who went 4-4.

I couldn't find records of road jerseys, which doesn't mean they weren't worn ... just lost to history for now.

Later this week, we'll head to the wilds of western Massachusetts for some NESCAC fun.

Brown Bears (1973-74)

I feel like I've done this post before, but the records say I haven't, so let's carry on ...

Brown's uniforms took a curious left turn in 1973 upon the arrival of John Anderson as coach. First off, the gold helmets the Bears had worn since 1967 were replaced by silver versions. 

The use of either of these colors, especially in such a prominent role, has always been strange, since the team's official colors are brown, red and white. But then, Harvard has gold pants, and I don't think any of the Crimson's 40-something other varsity teams use gold in any capacity. It's a throwback to the days when uniforms weren't so, er, uniform and weren't dictated by focus groups and apparel contracts. 

Anyway, silver has been used on and off by the Bears ever since.

A 1974 Brown media guide.
That's a pretty neat logo.

Brown at home in '74 against Princeton in this Daily Princetonian pic.

Another unusual feature is the big, curved numbers, used by Vermont during the exact same period. Then there's the trim -- instead of two or three thin stripes, you have one big, thick-as-three-bean-chili stripe on each sleeve. All in all, it adds up to a fun, unconventional uniform.

The '74 Brown road uniform at Columbia.
Columbia Spectator pic.

In '75, Brown went to a more conventional uniform and wore that style to its first Ivy League title.

More unis from the sons of Bruno: 2014, 2012-13, 2004-08, 2001-03, 1997-2000, 1984-89, 1981-83, 1975-77, 1967-71, 1957-58.

New Hampshire Wildcats (1968-71)

Between 16 of years of Chief Boston and 27 years of Bill Bowes, New Hampshire burned through three coaches in seven years. Coaching instability can often bring out uniform instability, and the Wildcats were no exception to the rule (theory?).

After Joe Yukica, whose uniforms mimicked his alma mater, Penn Sate, left for Boston College in 1968, replacement Jim Root introduced a flashier set of jerseys with shoulder stripes and a neat, highly detailed Wildcat logo on the sleeve. While other Wildcat logos have been from a profile or a 45-degree angle, this Wildcat was in your face and not taking any ... er ... gruff from anybody. One oddity: While jersey sleeves around football were growing shorter, UNH's remained fairly long, which probably didn't help during those sweltering early-season games.

The UNH road jerseys at UMass in 1968.

A color shot of UNH-UMass in '68, with good seats still available
at McGuirk Stadium. These are both from the '69 UMass Index.

The helmet numbers, meanwhile, switched to a blockier font and remained that way through 1975.

The home uniforms in 1970. "I see your Indian and raise it with a Wildcat!"
Note that both teams have long sleeves, an increasing rarity for the period.

A nice close-up of the 1970 jersey and helmet.

Under Root, the Wildcats shared the Yankee Conference title in '68 and were 18-14-1 before he left for William & Mary in '72, where he replaced a guy named Lou Holtz.

There are plenty more Wildcat uniforms where this came from: 2014, 2010-13, 1998, 1975, 1966-67, 1950, 1947-48, 1938, 1936. Rivalry Week: Maine-UNH.

Something about this picture reminds me of the
cheerleader in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High."

Northeastern Huskies (1994-96)

Until the last decade, when college football uniforms morphed into a bizarre weekly fashion show for teens who are sucked into shiny objects, one telltale sign of a poor program was an inconsistent uniform design. Northeastern, with a mere six winning seasons over the last 30 years of the program, fell into this rut. Some years, the Huskies wore black jerseys, others red, which was the case in the mid-90s. The traditional "NORTHEASTERN" word mark was ditched for a big "HUSKIES" at home (and occasionally on the road; I suspect the "HUSKIES" roads may have been worn in '95 as well, but I have no visual proof yet).

A mid-90s Northeastern home shirt, taken from an online ad.

The Huskies' 97 sked shows off the 1996 uniform.

As the examples above show, not all the Yankee Conference patches (God, I love those) were in the same spot, and some -- but not all -- shirts had the college football 125th anniversary patch.

In '97, the Huskies returned to a black home jersey that closely mirrored the first 1995-96 road shirt.

As this image from the '97 Cauldron yearbook shows, the road shirts
also doubled as practice jerseys. Another sign your program's not doing well.

This Bangor Daily News photo shows Northeastern playing Maine in Portland
in 1996 -- a game I attended, for what it's worth.

Some more doggie treats from Northeastern: 2008-09, 1989-90, 1982-86, 1976-77, 1973-75, 1963-68.

Yale Bulldogs (1954-58)

In this little ol' blog, we've chronicled some schools that use colors not normally seen on their palettes: Witness Maine dabbling with red and black, or more recently, Dartmouth using gray and Harvard adding black to its crimson.

Yale was no stranger to a color change-up or two, either. In the 1950s, the Bulldogs donned gold pants -- which made them look as if they were aping hated Harvard -- and added gray trim to the jersey sleeves. According to Mark F. Bernstein's wonderful book Football: The Ivy League Origins of an American Obsession, new coach Jordan Olivar considered football a part-time occupation and returned to California each off-season to attend to his insurance business, but produced a winning team anyway. "That made it easier for the alumni to swallow a little of his California showmanship," according to Bernstein, "even the heretical of one putting gold trim on the Bulldogs' blue jerseys." He mixes up the colors (see the pictures below), but you get the idea. 

A pair of Yale programs in FULL COLOR.
I wonder what Handsome Dan is thinking in the top picture?
"Well, I don't see a fire hydrant anywhere ..."

Like some other Ivy schools, Yale wore one color jersey both home and away and didn't add a white shirt until '56.

Yale (in white) takes on Brown in 1958. Yale Daily News pic.

On the field, Yale went 8-1 in 1956 and 7-0 in the Ivy League to win the first formal Ivy crown, capped by a 42-14 rout of Harvard. The white pants -- and common sense -- returned in 1969.

One other note: You can see how rapidly uniforms were evolving during this period, with face masks and larger numbers taking hold. Others, like shorter sleeves and sleeve numbers, weren't far away.

Want more from the sons of old Eli? Look here: 2015, 2014, 2013, 1997-98, 1994, 1996, 1979-82, 1978, 1974-77, 1967-68, 1965, 1959-60, 1930. Rivalry Week: Harvard-Yale.