One of the projects the Sickos Committee on Substack will explore during this off-season is one where we will do a dive into the internet archives to find out the seemingly lost history of College Football teams who we used to have playing on Saturdays in the fall. We will explore universities and colleges who used to have football but then decided for whatever reason to end their football program. Then we will highlight their Best Season of all time in our however many part series called the Best Season of All Time for Schools Who Stopped Having A Football Team also known as the BSOATFSWSHAFT (ya damn right). 

I’ll give you some background on the program if I can find it. Give you some basic history about the team, when they started playing and when/why they stopped playing and of course their best season in my opinion. Also, I’ll see if I can find a football helmet with the logo to show it to you here.

Now for the next team I wish to explore in this series… 

The Vermont Catamounts

Why Vermont you ask? 

Vermont is one of the two states in the United States without Division I football. The only other one is Alaska. I have been fascinated by this fact the entire time I have been a college football fan and I just want to know why Vermont doesn’t have a Division I team. 

History of the Vermont Catamounts team

The school's first football team was fielded in 1886. 

Vermont was independent for the majority of its history until joining its one and only conference ever, the Yankee Conference. 

Their best records as an Independent were in 1922 (6-3) and 1923 (6-3-1). The tie in 1923 was against Boston College who finished 7-1-1 that year. 

They did have an undefeated season in 1897 where they finished 3-0-2. 

In 1909 they finished 3-3-3 and the only reason I mention it is because I thought that was a fun fact. Perfectly balanced. 

Vermont began Yankee Conference play in 1947 with Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. Although they played UMass and UNH in the first season, they didn't play Maine until 1950, Rhode Island until 1955, and UConn until 1966. Boston University began league play in 1973. 

Here was Vermont’s winning percentage in the Yankee conference against these teams when they were conference opponents.

It really wasn’t going too well for the Catamounts in the Yankee conference. 

Also, in its entire 27 year history in the Yankee Conference from 1947-1974, Vermont never won a conference championship***

***In 1949, despite Vermont’s 2–0 conference record and 6-2 record overall, the league title was awarded to both Connecticut and Maine, who finished with 2–0–1 league records, with their tie coming against each other. Claim the 1949 Yankee Conference title Vermont! Do it! 

In 1966, they finished second in the Yankee Conference again with a 3-2 conference record and 6-2 overall. 

Why was the team shut down?

The 1970s brought a change in how the NCAA classified football programs. In 1973, the old College Division was replaced by NCAA Division II, for "minor" programs that offer athletic scholarships, and NCAA Division III, for those without scholarships.

The Yankee Conference programs were all placed in Division II.

Basically Vermont was forced up to Division II in 1973.  

Then in 1974, university officials decided to eliminate football from UVM’s sports budget. The team had been wallowing in mediocrity, regularly competing against smaller Division II and Division III opponents. Some said “At the time it seemed like the right, albeit painful, thing to do.” 

So, budget issues, reclassification issues and the team wasn’t necessarily stellar. I can get the logic of shutting the program down here. Also, if they didn’t shut it down in 1974, moving up to Division I-AA (now FCS) like the entire Yankee Conference did in 1978, it would have likely led to the program's closure then too I think. 

I mean, they only got above six wins in a season once in their entire history…

The 1964 Vermont Catamounts

Welcome to the season with the most wins in Vermont Football history! They went 7-1 and finished second in the Yankee Conference. 

Look at these glorious get ups they wore during this season. 

They were coached by Bob Clifford, who was likely the best coach in Vermont Football history. He was 37-29-1 overall and 15-20-1 inside the Yankee Conference. He coached Vermont to two second place finishes in the conference. (record below)

The 1964 Vermont season was a historic one as they set a school record by winning their first six games of the season. The closest best start to the season was in 1899 when they won their first four games of the year.

After their first two wins against American International and Worcester Polytechnic, they had to face their rivals, the Maine Black Bears.

They hadn’t defeated the Black Bears in 13 years and they were able to pull off a victory 14-7 according to the newspapers. The newspapers said Vermont had won their first three games of the season for the first time since the Dark Ages.

Weird thing here in the Ariel Yearbook of Vermont. Coach Clifford is presented with the game ball with the score on the ball saying they beat Maine 14-6. Every other source I could find says the final score was 14-7.

(From the NY Times) Vermont thrilled a homecoming crowd with a 72 ­yard scoring pass on the sec­ond play of the game today and went on to upset Maine, 14‐7.

The winners had to choke off a last‐ditch Maine rally that fell five yards short of a touch­down as the gun sounded.

A goal line stand for the Catamounts to end a 13 game losing streak? Very nice Vermont.

They pulled out a narrow victory over Rhode Island 16-8. Then went on to beat another rival in New Hampshire 40-0 in their biggest win of the year.

Their only loss of the year was to 10th Ranked in the AP Small Colleges Poll - UMass. Of course, UMass denied them their bid for the conference title too. But this was a record setting year for the Catamounts. Can we talk about the writer’s name being Bish Bishop?

As you can see by the Stats, the Catamounts were outmatched by UMass.

However, they did finish up the season with a nice win over Middlebury 12-0 to end the season on a high note.

Any Chance at Football Returning? 

Well, football is back at the University of Vermont in some fashion. Not in the NCAA variety but in the club football variety. It returned in 2007.

Love this quote “That statement should send tremors through your mother's preserves, after more than three decades without one of America's most popular collegiate sports at UVM.” Football Returns to Vermont by Chuck Clarino

“For the first time since 1974, University of Vermont student/athletes will don the green and gold uniforms and represent the college on the gridiron. There's somewhat of a hitch, however. It's not Division I-A or even I-AA football. It's not NCAA football at all, but club football in the semi professional Northeast Independent Football League. "I really don't care if it's a club team," said Darren Haynes, who will serve as the Catamounts' head coach. "Finally football, in some form, has come back to UVM." said Clarino.

Their last season was in 2022 where they finished 0-2 in Conference and 1-3 Overall. NCFA Standings . I am really not too sure why they didn’t play in 2023 but I couldn’t find much information.

So, it appears football is back at Vermont in some fashion.

It’d really be nice to see them in FCS but that would take a ton of funding.

I’ll leave you with this article from the NY Times about them founding the Club Football team.

A Year of Toil and Sweat, Then They Played a Game