The (Somewhat) Complete UConn Uniform History, Part II

Time for Part II of the history of UConn's uniforms, a part-tribute, part-apology following the Huskies' shocking rise from 1-11 to bowl eligibility. This chapter chronicles UConn's look from the start of the Yankee Conference through 1967.

Part I can be found here.

1947: UConn continues its basic design dating to the early 1940s, with contrasting shoulder panels and three stripes on the lower sleeves.

1948: The shoulder panels disappear and the helmets go to blue from white. The Huskies flip-flop between blue and white lids over the next several years.

1949: UConn dumps leather helmets for plastic versions en route to the first of 15 Yankee Conference titles. 

1952: Gold pants debut and remain part of the Huskies' ensemble into the 1960s.

1957: Numbers appear on the helmet sides. By this time, most players are wearing facemasks and low-top shoes. The '57 Huskies won the second of five straight Yankee Conference titles.

1964: Here's when the Huskies start changing outfits like actors backstage at a play. Big, curved numbers replace the block digits and the helmets have a big "C" in a football shape. A white jersey with shoulder stripes and block numbers is worn for late-season games (heavier material for the cold weather, perhaps?). Note the blue trim on top of the low-cut socks.

1965: Ah, a true Bizarro World classic. The helmet retains the logo of '64, but is white on one side and blue on the other! The rest of the uniform remains the same from '64. I wrote about this design here. College football has seen tons of wacky uniforms in recent years, and nothing, not even from Oregon's wildest fever dreams, approaches UConn's two-toned helmet. The Huskies need to bring this back just once!

The C-in-a-football logo was used only during the two-year reign of head coach Rick Forzano (who later coached the Detroit Lions in the 1970s); coaching turnover can certainly play a role in uniform changes, as each new leader wants his own look. ... But then Forzano's successor, John "As AD, I Put UConn in the Big East and Hired Auriemma and Calhoun, You're Welcome" Toner, burned through a few styles quickly, so who knows? 

1966: Maybe in an overreaction to the wild '65 helmet, UConn switches to a plain blue lid. The helmets had one stripe early in the season, then grew to three later on. The jerseys, with block numbers and contrasting shoulder panels with TV numbers, are worn this season only. Most of the pants had one stripe, but ones with two or none have popped up in photos.

1967: Hey, how about another overhaul? Why not! The curved numbers return to the jerseys, although the striping is slightly different from 1964-65. A unique "UC" logo that resembles a pair of interlocking horseshoes is used this season only. The white late-season alternate jersey with the block numbers returns. 

The (Somewhat) Complete UConn Uniform History, Part I

Dear UConn football:

Hi, it's me again. I haven't been very kind to your program the last year or so, what with the cracks about going independent, going from the Fiesta Bowl to futility, how ESPN should do a 30-for-30 on your demise, how you should go back to FCS and reboot the Yankee Conference, blah-blah-blah. 

Well, you proved me and many other skeptics wrong. You reached bowl eligibility in your first year under Jim Mora and have the football world talking. I sincerely to apologize to you for questioning your program's direction, and I salute the Husky faithful who stuck through the team week in and week out over the years at The Rent.

I also made the following comment last year in regards to you and fellow FBS independent UMass: "If either team gets into a bowl game in the next few years, I'll be more than happy to do an "I WAS WRONG" post and blog endlessly about their uniforms for a whole month." Well, you're bowl eligible (not officially in a bowl, but good enough for me), and I was wrong. So I guess you know what that means. ...

Anyway, congrats on a great season, and hopefully this is just the beginning.

Sincerely,

Gridiron Garb

So yes, it's time to eat some Husky-flavored crow. Over the next month, I plan to do an overview of UConn's uniform history over the last century-plus. Many of these have been written about before; I'll supply linkage if that's the case. As I noted way back when, the Huskies have burned through tons of uniform designs, with some overhauls happening on a yearly basis. (Schools like Oregon, of course, make overhauls on a weekly basis.)

Part I of this series looks at the pre-Yankee Conference (1947) years. Part II will take us into the mid-60s, Part III will close out the FCS/I-AA era and Part IV will go over the FBS era. Sit back and enjoy!

1915: The earliest UConn photos have the players in a mishmash of uniforms, so I don't feel too comfortable trying to document them. By 1915, Connecticut Agricultural College appears to have worn navy jerseys (no numbers, I think) with leather helmets and brownish pants. Pretty basic for the era.

1919: I wrote about this team not too long ago and the tragic story of Gardiner Dow, for whom the old football facility was named. By the time, the jersey had sprouted Princeton-style stripes, and some, but not, all the players worse stripes on their socks.

1926: Yes, UConn really wore orange for a few years (likely 1922-28) while its other athletic teams continued to use blue. The move was done to avoid confusion when the Aggies played other blue-clad teams such as Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Trinity. By this time, the players wore numbers on the backs.

1929: By this season, blue was back in bloom. The not-yet-Huskies went all out with the stripes, even wrapping them all the way around, which made the numbers hard to read. White shoulder panels completed the look. (Fun aside: When researching this uniform in the old Nutmeg yearbooks, I discovered these jerseys were recycled by the hockey team that winter!)

1934: This was the year UConn adopted the "Huskies" nickname (or was it 1935? I've seen both), and with it came another uniform change. Judging by the few pictures I can find, it appears UConn had dishwater-gray jerseys with light blue trim, while the helmets were white with navy blue striping the style Princeton used in that era. This was also the year UConn kidnapped Rhode Island's ram mascot, giving birth to the "Ramnapping Trophy" series that continued through 1999.

1935: For whatever reason, UConn decided to return to its old jerseys, this time with a dark-colored helmet (likely blue) and tiny numbers on the front. In addition to the new nickname, the name "UConn" (or at least something similar, like "U-Conns") was being used in publications. Wonder if UConn was the first "U" school? Certainly, no one was using "UMass" or "UMaine" in 1935.  

1936: The stripes are dumped in favor of a plain jersey; again, it appears to be light gray (hey, could be tan or gold; we'll likely never know for sure). The Huskies also wore solid white socks, something you don't see much from this era. 

1937: A dark jersey is added with stripes placed at the sleeve, and striped socks return.

1942: UConn adds blue shoulder panels to the jerseys, and also rotates between white and blue helmets, a practice they returned to in the last decade. Tan pants are worn at least once. The number fonts change, but the alternate-colored shoulder panels remain for several years.

Jake Crouthamel (1938-2022)

Jake Crouthamel, 1976.

I was saddened to hear about the recent death of Jake Crouthamel, the Syracuse University athletic director from 1977-2005 who, among his other accomplishments, helped found the Big East and oversaw the construction of a little thing called the Carrier Dome (now the JMA Wireless Dome). He also hired Dick MacPherson as football coach, and Coach Mac went on to guide the Orange to an undefeated 1987 season. During Crouthamel's tenure, Syracuse won a national title in men's basketball and EIGHT in men's lacrosse. (Hey, when I was in high school, where lax was a big deal, "Syracuse Lacrosse" T-shirts were a big fashion statement, I joke you not.)

But before he turned Syracuse into The 'Cuse, Crouthamel got his start at Dartmouth, first as a player (1957-59) and later as an assistant (1965-70) and head coach (1971-77). He won one Ivy League title as a player, three as an assistant coach and three more as a head coach. 

Let's take a closer look at the three phases of Crouthamel's Dartmouth days, complete with uniforms, many of which I've written about before:

As a player: Crouthamel ran for 1,763 yards over three seasons, which, amazingly, is still tied for sixth on the Big Green's all-time list. (Hey, if you think that's wild, Myles Lane is the school's all-time rushing TD leader with 33; he set that record from 1925-27.) He averaged 4.6 yards per carry and ran for 12 touchdowns. He also played defensive back in those two-way days. Dartmouth was 19-6-2 during his time in Hanover.

Crouthamel in his playing days, This and the next few photos 
are from the Dartmouth alumni magazine's archives.

The uniforms above is from 1959, Crouthamel's senior season (he wore No. 27). Note the curved UCLA-style numbers and the horizontal shoulder stripes on the road jerseys. I wrote a little bit about this style here.

As an assistant: Crouthamel returned to Dartmouth in 1965 to coach the offensive and defensive backs. His work with the defense seems to have worked; the 1970 Big Green allowed a whopping 42 points over nine games and delivered six shutouts.

Crouthamel offers some tips on carrying the ball. I believe 
Gene Ryzewicz was the QB on Dartmouth's undefeated 1965 team.

The uniform above is from 1969, by which time the Big Green was wearing UCLA-style numbers at home but block numbers on the road. Dartmouth started wearing the Native American head on the sleeves of the road shirts in 1965 — the same year the classic "D" helmet with the funky stripes debuted — but the home versions didn't comply until 1970.

The 1969 Big Green had plowed through their schedule undefeated and frankly unchallenged, but was blown out by Princeton in the season finale, 35-7, and had to share the Ivy title with Princeton and Yale.

As a head coach: After the 1970 season, longtime coach Bob Blackman left for Illinois, and Crouthamel became head coach after top choice Joe Yukica elected to stay at Boston College. (Yukica, who also died this year, eventually replaced Crouthamel in 1978.) Crouthamel proceeded to win three straight Ivy titles out the gate (1971-73), extending the Big Green's title streak to five. 

According to this very long, detailed interview with former athletic director Seaver Peters (it's definitely worth the read if you're interested in the inner workings of an  athletic department), Crouthamel would quit nearly every year, only to come back for another go-round: "Jake quit two or three times, two or three years in a row," Peters recalled in 2001. "I'd come in on a Sunday to get caught up, or on a Monday there would be something on my desk, 'I can't stand doing what I'm doing to my family, the pressure's too great,' and then we'd meet, and then he finally meant it, of course (in 1977)." Peters also recalled that Crouthamel would deflect any praise sent his way: "Oh, yeah, but that's Blackman's material," the coach would tell Peters.

Crouthamel in 1971. Wayne Young became a longtime
Norwich, Vt.-based attorney and Big Green radio analyst.  

Crouthamel in 1972 after another Ivy crown.
Love those old 2-bar facemasks.

Perhaps Crouthamel was right; his last four years, Dartmouth went from Ivy juggernaut to merely good before he left for Syracuse.

The uniforms above are from his first and last seasons as head coach. The 1971 style continued what the Big Green wore in 1970. In 1973 (road) and 1974 (home), the Native American head on the sleeves was replaced by a "D;" some are tall and narrow, others short and wide. 

When Yukica became the the coach in '78, he overhauled most of the uniform save the helmet, adding thick stripes to the sleeves and black trim on everything.

Colgate Raiders (2014-19)

Starting with the 2021 spring season, I added Colgate to the list of teams covered in this little ol' blog, and I've done a few historical uniforms here and there. Here are all the Raiders' uniforms going back to 2014, the first year of this site. (Eight years? Already?) A few notes:

* Wow, that's a lot of uniforms. Although the 'gate never made wholesale changes, there were always some modifications year to year, much in the manner of English soccer kits. I have the Raiders down for nine separate jerseys and nine separate helmets over six years — a drop in the bucket compared with the Oregons of the world, but quite a few for the FCS level. Some of the helmets are flat-out bizarre: One is maroon with a black airbrush across the bottom; another is a while lid with a gray base that increases toward the back. 

* In 2019, Colgate's maroon was lightened to something closer to red, although a reddish helmet was introduced a few years earlier while the jerseys remained maroon.

* To celebrate the school's 200th anniversary in 2018, Colgate wore a special uniform honoring its most famous team, The 1932 bunch is remembered for the four "uns": Undefeated, untied, unscored upon and uninvited to the Rose Bowl. I plan on doing a writeup on this team eventually, but in short, Colgate in '32 outscored its opponents 264-0 and went home for the postseason anyway (a weak schedule may have had something to do with it). The throwback helmets use a sublimated leather pattern, and the numbers are heat-pressed onto honest-to-god burlap that was sewn onto the jersey, which was the practice in olden times, when teams didn't wear numbers for every game and they could be easily added or removed.  This great article goes into the making of the uniform.

The 2018 team did the '32 crew proud; the Raiders outscored their foes 324-112, including a 287-29 run with five shutouts through nine games, putting them into 1963 UMass territory in terms of defensive awesomeness. Colgate rolled to the Patriot League title before dropping its regular-season finale to Army — which finished ranked in the FBS top 25 polls — 28-14. The Raiders then upset James Madison (!), 23-20, in the second round of the FCS playoffs before falling to North Dakota State, 35-0, in the quarterfinals.

New Hampshire Wildcats (1994)

For its homecoming game this season, New Hampshire wore a retro uniform inspired by what the Wildcats wore in the 1980s and '90s. (You can see some pictures here. They don't look exactly like the vintage duds, but I have very low patience for people who whine about inaccurate throwbacks as if it's world hunger or something.) The unis were hyped with this awesome Twitter video showing lovingly grainy, fuzzy clips from the olden days. One of the clips was from their dramatic Yankee Conference-clinching win over Boston University in 1994 ... which bring us to today's topic.

The '94 Wildcats made the NCAA I-AA (FCS) tournament for the first time in three years — and the last time for another decade. Here is an excellent highlight video from that season. For all the Wildcats did in the Ricky Santos/David Ball era a decade later, the '94 bunch might have been the most entertaining team they ever offered to the public: Dramatic wins, dramatic losses, defensive players scoring all the time, a versatile QB ... the list goes on. 

Let's take a closer look:

The Team: UNH ran the table with an 8-0 YC mark, the first time the Wildcats had gone unbeaten in league play since 1975 and the last time until 2014. But nothing was decided until the season finale against BU; the Wildcats were 7-0 in the YC, the Terriers 6-1. A win would give UNH the YC's automatic NCAA berth. A loss, and hope the NCAA gods like you that day. James Madison, also in the NCAA hunt, lost to lowly Northeastern that day to fall to 9-2 overall, 6-2 YC, putting the Dukes on the bubble. (They got in and reached the quarterfinals.)

The Wildcats led the Terriers 24-10 in the second quarter, but were down 38-24 in the fourth. UNH scored two TDs to force overtime. (In 1994, only the YC and maybe one or two other leagues used OT. Elsewhere, tie games were still the law of the land.) In the first possession of the second OT, UNH took a 52-45 lead on a "Philly Special" when halfback Matt Mezquita threw a TD pass to quarterback Jim Stayer. BU scored a TD of its own in the "bottom" of the frame ... but its extra point attempt bounced off a Terrier helmet and the UNH fans stormed the field. 

"This is the most exciting game I've ever coached," misty-eyed UNH coach Bill Bowes told The Boston Globe after the game.

UNH was rewarded with a home game against Appalachian State in the first round of the NCAA tourney, the first home playoff game in program history. But the Wildcats let a 10-0 fourth-quarter lead slip away and the Mountaineers forced OT (which in the playoffs, of course, was and is the law of the land). Appy State took a 17-10 lead on its first possession and won the game by that score when UNH fumbled on its first play and the Mountaineers recovered. 

The Wildcats finished No. 12 in the I-AA rankings.

One odd tidbit: Of UNH's 12 opponents that year, four (UMass, UConn, Appalachian State, James Madison) have since joined FBS, while three others (BU, Northeastern, Hofstra) have long since dropped the sport.

UNH QB Jim Stayer could pass, run and even catch the ball,
as he showed in the regular-season finale.

The Players: In researching this bunch, what struck me was the players' versatility. Mezquita, a running back, ran for three TDs and threw for two more, including one in the BU game. All-YC linebacker Warren Armes scored three TDs as a running back, and all-American defensive end Mike Foley scored from the tight end spot in a 42-14 win over Richmond.

Stayer threw for over 2,000 yards and 12 TDs (and, of course, that TD catch against BU), while Avrom Smith ran for over 800 yards and 11 TDs, plus two more through the air and another via kickoff return. Foley, Armes, DL Joe Fleming and DB Jim Conannon were named to the all-YC first team. Foley also won the Bill Knight trophy given the to the MVP of the UMass game, the first defensive player to win the honor.

Defensive end Mike Foley (91) was a threat at tight end, too.

The Coach(es): I've probably mentioned head coach Bill Bowes in a million other posts, but here's the CliffsNotes version of his career:

• Went 175–106–5 at UNH from 1972-98; leads the program in seasons and wins;
• Won four Yankee Conference titles, making the NCAA playoffs each time (1994 was his last);
• Is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame;
• Played at Penn State from 1962-64;
• Had only five losing seasons; including his first two, while he was presumably rebuilding the program.

But check out Bowes' staff. Offensive coordinator Sean McDonnell succeeded Bowes as head coach and led the Wildcats to 14 straight NCAA tourneys; running backs coach Chip Kelly became McDonnell's OC, revamped the Wildcats' offense, and went to coach at Oregon and UCLA (sandwiched around a couple NFL stints); and offensive line coach Jack Bicknell Jr. was the head coach at Louisiana Tech for eight seasons (he is now the OL coach at North Carolina). That's a pretty stacked lineup.

This screen grab from UNH's 1994 highlight video shows, from left,
Sean McDonnell, Bill Bowes and (I think), Chip Kelly.

The Uniforms: As is the case with Bowes, I've discussed the classic UNH look in many other posts. In this day and age, when teams change their unis on a weekly basis, the Wildcats trotted out the same design with minimal changes for close to 25 years. As a Penn State alum, Bowes would be pretty familiar with maintaining tradition. Although I do wonder why UNH wore names on the home jerseys only. The Wildcats began wearing the Yankee Conference patch on the front  in 1993.

The Fallout: The good times form 1994 did not carry over into '95, as the Wildcats dropped their first three games out the gate (all against YC foes) and finished 6-5. The '96 team bounced back with an 8-3 record and a No. 18 ranking in the I-AA poll, but did not receive an NCAA invite.  

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.)

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/