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.

Holy Cross Crusaders (1967)

Our latest dip into the big o' random gives us the 1967 Holy Cross Crusaders.

The Team: The '67 'Saders went 5-5 against a hodgepodge of Ivy schools, small Eastern independents, Syracuse and Boston College, which beat Holy Cross 16-3 in the annual rivalry game. The 1968 Purple Patcher yearbook blames the mediocre record on injuries (of course) and the two-platoon system leaving the bench "thin and inexperienced." (Interesting, since college football was in its third year of unlimited substitutions, so you'd think The Cross would have been used to it by now.)

Holy Cross gets defensive against Villanova.

The Players: Someone at Wikipedia was nice enough to supply some stats for the team's summary page. QB Phil O'Neil threw for 1,378 yards and 10 touchdowns; running back Tim Hawkes ran for 458 yards and one TD and Bob Neary had a team-high 34 catches for 485 yards. Jon Vronis scored a team-high seven touchdowns.

One of the Crusaders' defensive backs was Pat Bourque, who later played parts of four seasons in Major League Baseball and even won a World Series ring with the 1973 Oakland A's.

I love photos like this one. Holy Cross's Pat Bourque (21) blocks a punt 
by Colgate's Mark Hubbard in 1967. Bourque later played Major League Baseball,
and Hubbard became a Pro Bowl running back for the Oakland Raiders
(who also had another Colgate RB, Mark van Eeghen). 

The Coach: First-year mentor Tom Boisture coached only two seasons in Worcester (1967-68), going 8-11-1. He later was a longtime scout for the New England Patriots and director of player personnel for the New York Giants.

A nice leaping catch on the road (Syracuse?)

The Uniforms: A new coach often means new uniforms, and 1967 Holy Cross was no exception. After several years with silver helmets, the Crusaders returned to purple lids and added a curved "HC" logo (a personal favorite of mine), which was abandoned in the 1970s and revived in 2015. The shirts had three stripes on the sleeves with numbers on the shoulders, a style made popular by the Dallas Cowboys in 1964. The socks also had three stripes. 

Not all the helmets had the HC logo, which is reflected in the graphic above.

The Fallout: Boisture left after the 1968 season for Tulsa, where he was an assistant for one season before joining the Pats. Bill Whitton took over in '69, when the infamous hepatitis outbreak damn near destroyed the program.

Yale Bulldogs (1940)

We're deep into the offseason, so it's time to pull out a team at random, and 1940 Yale is the "winner."

The Team: Yikes. The Bulldogs won one game, a 13-7 win over a decent Dartmouth team. Yale scored only 43 points all season and allowed 162. (By today's standards, 162 points allowed in eight games is great. Back then, it was 112th out of 121 "major" teams, per sports-reference.) The Bulldogs were shut out three times — including a 28-0 home decision to Harvard in The Game — and never scored more than 14 points in a game.

These photos from the 1941 Yale University yearbook show off
those old-fashioned photos labeling the players and dashed line following the path of the ball.

The Players: Yikes, Part 2. It's hard to find much info about a one-win team from 83 years ago, so instead I give you the starting lineup for the Bulldogs' game against Harvard, from the Yale Daily News:

The Coaches: I wrote about Ducky Pond in this post on Bates, where he coached after his time at Yale ran its course.  You can also read more about him here. The backfield coach, Earle "Greasy" Neale, left after the season to become head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, only to join the Philadelphia Eagles when the teams' owners swapped franchises. Neale won two NFL titles was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1969. He's also in the college football hall for his time as head coach at Virginia, West Virginia and Washington & Jefferson. (Quick quiz: which of those three teams went to the Rose Bowl under Neale? Hint: It wasn't the first two.) 

This photo ran in the Yale Daily News the day of the Harvard game in 1940.
Ah, the days when student papers engaged in unabashed boosterism.

The Uniforms: Yale wore a lighter shade of blue than the more familiar navy of today, and the pants were gold or tan. The helmets were white with a navy blue base and a wing pattern on the front. Even by 1940s standards, the look is a total mishmash.

The Fallout: 1940 marked the end of Ducky Pond's time in New Haven. Yale went 1-7 under one-year coach Spike Nelson, before Howie Odell went 35-15-2 from 1942-47.

Hi, Doggie!

I like the cartoons! They make me laugh!

A long time ago, long before memes or YouTube videos with thumbnails featuring shocked faces, emojis and arrows, athletes and sporting events were regularly portrayed in newspaper cartoons. (For those reading in 2053, this is what a newspaper was.) Papers big and small supplemented their articles, box scores and photos with illustrations of everyone from Joe DiMaggio to high school swimmers. They added a welcome dimension to the sports pages, and unfortunately the concept seemed to die with the '60s.

New England college football was no stranger to the cartoonists' pen and ink, so let's look at some vintage 'toons, shall we?

Perhaps New England's most famous sports cartoonist is Phil Bissell, who designed the New England (nee Boston) Patriots logo in 1960 and was recently revived for a couple of throwback games. Bissell drew for a number of newspapers from 1949-87, including the Boston Globe from 1953-65. His work also illustrated classic American Football League programs and media guides for Boston University and the University of New Hampshire.

The three cartoons above served the preview the weekend's college action. The first and third illustrations are from 1954; the second is from '55. About 4-5 games were typically highlighted, with the secondary games (Bridgeport-Brandeis?!?) written at the bottom on something resembling a royal scroll. The mascots and their natural habitats often made for easy subject matter. (Some, like Dartmouth and UMass's long-discarded Native American mascots, wouldn't fly today.) Boston University's terrier lives in a dog house, Princeton's tiger resides in the jungle, Boston College's eagle hangs out in a nest ... you get the idea.

After the game, a cartoon naturally wrapped up the weekend's action, often focusing on one game. Case in point, this Boston College win over Miami from 1958. (BTW, 6-2 wasn't BC's record, it was the final score. Old-time football, baby!) A cartoon would try to give a summary of the game for those who couldn't bothered to read the game story or watch the highlights on the nightly news, not that game highlights were a common thing in '58. Anyway, Bissell manages to squeeze in six key points in just a few columns of space, no small feat.

During the week, cartoons might focus on one or two players. This example from 1954 focuses on BC's Tom Magnarelli, who won the O'Melia Trophy for the MVP of the annual Boston College-Holy Cross game (once one of the highlights of the New England sporting year).

Let's take a gander at some other cartoonists. Frank Lanning was a longtime illustrator for the Providence Journal whose artwork for Brown and Rhode Island football (and their opponents) graced the paper's pages for decades.

This one highlights a Rhody win over Boston University in 1945. Eight key moments are shoehorned into one cartoon, anchored by Sal Vento, the "scatback from Saugatcuk."

Lanning goes off the board for this cartoon, which previews the 1965 Maine-East Carolina Tangerine Bowl. Linebacker John Huard, a two-time Little All-America, is generally considered the G.O.A.T. of Black Bear football players. 

Hubert Bushey's illustrations of University of Vermont sports appeared in the Burlington Free Press for years, and he even designed the old Charlie Catamount mascot (since replaced by Rally Cat). His most famous work might be from 1974, when the school pulled the plug on football after 77 seasons. The "30" was old-time newspaper jargon marking the end of a story, and, well, the Catamounts got hit with the "30" on the gridiron. (Baseball, which got the ax in 1971, was revived in 1978 and canceled again in 2009.)

From somewhat happier times, this cartoon previews UVM's '69 season. Bob Clifford, the head coach, resigned after a 3-6 season and threats of a player revolt.

And now, some miscellaneous cartoons:

This one is actually from Dartmouth's 1942 media guide. Dartmouth's "hometown" paper, the Valley News (where I worked for many years), wasn't born until 1952 and I don't think they ever did any Big Green cartoons.

Not sure where this one came from, but it illustrates Dartmouth's legendary "Fifth Down" game against Cornell in 1940. (Long story short: Cornell trailed 3-0 late in the game and threatened near the Dartmouth goal line, got an inadvertent fifth down from the refs and scored a walk-off TD to win 6-3. The Big Red "forfeited" the game a couple days later after reviewing the film, expecting Dartmouth to decline the forfeit. Of course the Big Green accepted and was declared a 3-0 winner.)

Not sure who drew this, but it highlights 1960s UMass stars Milt Morin and Bob Meers; Morin later was a star tight end for the Cleveland Browns. 

From The New Hampshire student paper, 1947 Glass Bowl coach Biff Glassford is profiled. I presume Vern Hall is the author.

I think this is from Daily Princetonian, but it illustrates Princeton's 14-0 win over Brown in 1964, when the Tigers went 9-0 and outscored their foes 216-53.

And last but not least, this piece of irreverence from the Yale Daily News in 1985, when Yale and Dartmouth played to a 17-17 tie. Alas, the Big Green's iconic Keggy was a long ways away. 

Cornell Big Red (1945)

OK, it's been a while since the last post. Let's rectify that, shall we?

One of my favorite "unheralded" football books is the Quarterback Abstract (2009), which attempts to grade more than 360 quarterbacks from the throughout the long history of pro football. While the usual legends are covered in depth, the real gems are the more obscure passers. While thumbing through the book recently, I came upon an entry for one Al Dekdebrun of Cornell University, who was a journeyman's journeyman in the NFL and AAFC before finding a home in Canadian football, where he won a Grey Cup for the Toronto Argonauts. 

Sounds pretty straightforward, right? But check out these nuggets from the QB Abstract: 

* Dekdebrun led the nation in passing yards as a junior in 1945 (1,227 yards!), "but was declared ineligible for his senior season because he had played four minutes in a game for Columbia in 1942 although (he) never enrolled there a student." And you thought the tramp athlete went the way of the flying wedge and mass interference plays.

* In four pro seasons between the NFL and AAFC, Dekdebrun threw for 1,224 yards, or three fewer than in his final year with the Big Red.

* In Canada, Dekdebrun led Toronto to the 1950 Grey Cup title in what became known as the "Mud Bowl." From the Abstract: "Using his Ivy League education, he taped thumbtacks to his fingers to improve his grip on the slippery ball and scored the only touchdown of the game." Sounds more like a tactic from a graduate of the School of Hard Knocks.

After football, Dekdebrun was either mayor or town supervisor of Amherst, New York (depending on your source) and was inducted into the Cornell Hall of Fame in 1982.

I've touched upon Cornell's unis from this era before, but the big thing to take away is the inconsistency in regard to the helmets; at least four patterns were used, including a Princeton/Michigan-esque winged design and a Dartmouth-looking lid with multiple stripes around the crown. With the dust still settling from World War II, teams may not have wanted to spring money on new helmets for everyone; if they were close enough, that was A-OK. (If the internet or social media were around in 1945, can you imagine the outrage?)

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. 

Colgate, Holy Cross (2022)

OK, enough procrastinating. Let's take care of a couple more teams as we look back at the uniforms on 2022. This time around, it's a pair of Patriot League schools.

Colgate added a home jersey to match the road version that debuted in 2021, and the Raiders eliminated those odd stripes that wrapped around the front of the pants. I still prefer the 'gate' logo on the helmets to the generic "C."

Holy Cross didn't make any changes from 2021, but did revive the black jersey last worn in 2019, and even retains the college football 150th anniversary patch! The Crusaders wore a blue NCAA patch for their FCS tournament games.

Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island (2022)

 The review of 2022 uniforms rambles on with the four Colonial Athletic Association teams covered on the little ol' blog.

Delaware made some minor changes to the road jerseys and the pants, otherwise the Blue Hens stood pat. The new pants have a good-sized hen logo about halfway down the right leg. and the white jerseys continue college football's recent trend of returning to traditional stripes. Delaware (and UNH) also wore blue NCAA patches for their FCS tournament games. 

Maine (2-9? Really?) made a few minor changes, as well. The Black Bears returned their logo to both sides of the helmet after having a number on one side the last couple seasons, and they added a light blue alternate jersey — fitting, since coach Jordan Stevens played at Maine when they had a light blue alternate c. 2010. The alternate uses a different template than the navy or white jerseys, but I like it; I wouldn't mind seeing them worn with the light blue pants in 2023.

As you can see, there's a lot to unpack here with New Hampshire, which wore 11 different styles in 13 games. 

First, the Wildcats introduced a white alternate helmet with the Wildcat logo on each side. 

Second, UNH added a new white jersey and a gray alternate. I like how each shirt has a different wordmark on the front — blue, UNH; white, New Hampshire; gray, Wildcats. 

Third, the white pants now have "WILDCATS" down the side; as I said about Sacred Heart's pants, they resemble something out of pro wrestling. 

Finally, the Wildcats wore a retro uniform for Homecoming, complete with red trim and the vintage "NH" logo on the helmets. It's not exactly like what they wore in days of yore, but it's a start. UNH wore the NCAA patch for for its first-round FCS tourney game, but not the second-round game at Holy Cross.

Rhode Island didn't change anything from 2021, as the Rams continued to mix and match their three jerseys and four pants, including those gray camos. Really, nothing to complain about from this end. (Hey, it's laundry we're discussing, not world affairs, right? 😎)

Bryant, Central Connecticut, Merrimack, Sacred Heart, Stonehill

Let's continue our look back at the uniforms of 2022 with four Northeast Conference teams, plus one that departed the NEC.

Bryant is the oddball of the bunch, having ditched the NEC for the Big South (well, Bryant is in southern New England, at least); the remainder of its athletic teams left the NEC for the America East Conference. The move is reflected with the addition of the Big South patch on the jerseys. The Bulldogs replaced Adidas with New Balance as their uniform supplier, but as they still used some of the older Adidas gear, they had to cover up the logo. (Look closely at the graphic above, especially the pants; you'll see a faint square where the Adidas logo used to live.) Bryant added a nice-looking gold alternate jersey, but resisted the urge to wear them with the gold pants.

OK, onto the NEC ...

Central Connecticut kept everything very simple this year; I think the three uniform combos are the fewest of any team covered in this little ol' project. The Blue Devils even passed on the breast cancer awareness helmets from last year. When that's the biggest change, you know there's not much going on here. Ah, for a simpler time ...

Merrimack kept things on an even keel as well. The Warriors' white pants and jerseys continued the recent trend of traditional stripes, a welcome return if there ever was one. Sadly, they didn't continue the screaming yellow zonkers look from last year.

Sacred Heart's biggest change was the addition of new pants, which have "PIONEERS" running down the sides. Frankly, they kinda resemble pro wrestling pants to me. Old favorites such as the star-spangled helmet and the all-gray alternate uniform returned for another year.

Finally, we have the new kid on the Division I block, Stonehill. The Skyhawks played only nine games this year (I wonder if that had something to do with their move up from D-II?) and won four, pretty respectable for a first-year D-I program. Stonehill kept its uniform pretty simple, rotating between two jerseys and two sets of pants. The helmets have a logo on one side and a number on the other; I'm not a fan of that look, but let's face it — there are more important things to worry about, right?