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The Best Season of All Time for Schools Who Stopped Having A Football Team aka the BSOATFSWSHAFT - Part 18 of ??? - The Northeastern Huskies.

If you’re a consistent reader you can skip this intro but if not, feel free to read.

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 (right on). 

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, 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 or other cool stuff to show it to you here.

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

The Northeastern Huskies

Why did I choose this team?

We welcomed a new member to our Patreon/Discord recently (Join our Patreon) and they stated they were a Northeastern Huskies fan. So this made my next school choice pretty easy. As for picking the Best Team of All Time for Northeastern, that was really tough. 

History of the team

I really love the history of football in the New England region. Maybe I am romantic about the leaves changing in the region and then being able to watch football at the same time.

There were so many football teams that came and went in this area at various times. Shifting priorities by Universities and changing times have left this region with a dwindling football-playing population.

They founded their football team in 1933 and achieved a solid level of success right away. They went 6-1-1 in 1934 and followed that up with a very Sickos-style undefeated season in 1935 at 5-0-3. After their first coach, Alfred M. McCoy, left after the 1936 season, they began to struggle a little before they finished with two somewhat Sickos-style winless seasons in 1939 at 0-6-1 and 1942 at 0-5-1. They shut the program down for World War II through the end of 1945. 

Upon football’s return to Northeastern, they struggled through two years until they found their all-time winningest coach in Joe Zabilski. A new era of Huskies football was set up. Zabilski stabilized the program and led Northeastern through prominence in the region as an Independent. He guided Northeastern to 13 seasons over.500 in his time with the program from 1948 to 1971, earning their only bowl game appearance in 1963 and an overall record of 101–77–6 (the most wins in Northeastern History). 

After Zabilski left the program as the football team’s Head Coach, the program’s results on the field were mostly up and down. The Huskies would have two or three straight losing seasons but then put it together for a year to have a winning season. 

Being a long-time Independent program, they finally joined the Yankee Conference in 1993. They basically stayed in the same conference through the end of the program’s existence, even though the name of their conference would change from the Yankee Conference to the Atlantic 10 to the Colonial (now Coastal) Athletic Association. 

They never really challenged for a conference championship until 2002, when they won a share (along with Maine) of the Atlantic 10 title with second-year Head Coach Don Brown, yes that Don Brown the current UMass Head Coach. It was the only Conference title in the program’s history.

They played nearly all of their games in what is now known as Parsons Field and I love the history of this stadium. They converted a field that was originally a public playground in neighboring Brookline, Massachusetts. Northeastern purchased the field (then known as Kent Street Field) from the YMCA's Huntington Prep School in 1930. In 1969, the University dedicated it to Edward S. Parsons, a former athlete, coach, and athletics director for the Huskies. 

This was an incredible set up for football and baseball to take place in the same field. In its original configuration, the baseball diamond was situated in the current east end zone. Allegedly the Houses in left and center field were well within reach of hitters. This reminds me of a small English soccer team in a neighborhood where you could kick the ball out the stadium and break someone’s window. Damn it, the Huskies are playing baseball again, guard the windows!  

In 1972, Northeastern added artificial turf to Parsons Field. At that time, the baseball diamond was relocated to its current position in the southern corner of the property, and the distances to the left and center field fences became 330 feet and 400 feet, respectively. (Booooo) Unfortunately, this stadium also became a contentious point in the shut down of the program. 

Here is a picture of Parsons field with the football field set up in 1982. 

Here is current day or close to current day Parsons Field. 

Overall the program finished with an all-time record of 289–366–17 (.443). 

This would put them in company with these FBS teams. 

(I find it really funny that Northeastern is pretty close to Northwestern in all time Winning Percentage) 

Why did the football team get shut down?

They cited sparse attendance. 

Well, Parsons field only held around 7,000 at max capacity. 

They cited numerous losing seasons. 

I see that point, I guess. However, I feel that is a pretty weak reason to shut down a program. Try to do something about it at least, and not just give up. 

The expense to renovate Parsons Field to an “acceptable” standard.

Ah! There is that money thing showing its head again. We finally got to the real reason. 

The university Board of Trustees voted on November 20, 2009, to end the football program. According to president Joseph E. Aoun, "Leadership requires that we make these choices. This decision allows us to focus on our existing athletic programs.”

They announced this on a Friday afternoon, the classic news dump time. Also, this was a day before their final game of the 2009 season, which was on the road in Kingston against the Rhode Island Rams. The Huskies went out winners too, as they defeated the Rams 33-27 in their final game as a program. 

Oddly enough, their final home game (on November 10th, 2009) at Parsons Field was a 14-13 win against Hofstra, who also ended their football program in 2009.

1963 Northeastern Huskies

Now here we get to the main reason for the post, like always. The Best Season of All Time. I really had a difficult time with this one for this program; I had to do a Twitter poll for it. My internal debate had to pin the 1963 team (their only bowl appearance) vs. the 2002 team (their only conference title and playoff appearance, but they were upset in the first round as a Top Four FCS Seed). 

Here are the results of the Twitter poll. You were just as torn as I was about which season was better. 

The 1963 team just edged out the 2002 team 51.5% to 48.5%.

So I won’t write about the 2002 Northeastern Huskies Team, but I found someone who already did a blog about it, so you are in luck. If you want the 2002 version, click the link here. https://nuredandblack.com/2021/09/19/zeroes-to-heroes/

The 1963 team was led by Coach Joe Zabilski and staff as seen below.

Coach Joe is the one holding a football in his hand to signify he is a football coach. 

He’s really the coach if he has a clipboard. That shows the signs of a leader. I know it sounds like I am lightly mocking the coach, well The Cauldron yearbook did a ton of light mocking to the team all throughout and I thought I would join in also! Matter of fact, I will give you some game summaries for this season and just put the yearbook photos in between a few of them. 

The Huskies started the year off at home against Rhode Island. After a see-saw first half they pulled away for a 28-13 victory. 

The next game they took on Bridgeport Purple Knights (now Division II) who had beaten them for three straight seasons. Northeastern found themselves in trouble, with four minutes remaining, Bridgeport held a 9-6 lead. However, the second team “fresh from the bench after a seven-minute rest” came and scored a pair of touchdowns to seal the victory 20-9. Love that “substitutes” and rotating players to keep them fresh paid off in 1963.

They ran through the Bates Bobcats 41-6 and then downed the American International Hornets 35-8 to improve to 4-0.

They took on the Springfield Pride next and both teams were held scoreless until their were five minutes to go in the game. The Huskies pushed in a touchdown to take a 7-0 lead and then cashed in another to pull off the victory 14-0.

(Love this, it’s like they are just staring wondering what to do with the football)

For the first time in five years, the Huskies managed to knock off New Hampshire. George Greenridge made the play of the game going 99 yards with an interception return for touchdown. Northeastern won comfortably 26-0.

They then took down Merchant Marine 39-6 and crushed the Jumbos of Tufts 34-0 to finish a perfect 8-0 in the regular season. Most seasons would end there but this year, Northeastern was invited to a Bowl Game.

Where was this fabulous destination for a Bowl Game? Why was it none other than Allentown, Pennsylvania! The former Cement Bowl was renamed the Eastern Bowl in 1963. Why? I don’t know why! I wish they kept the name The Cement Bowl.

Now, I tried to find items from this game, but I was out of luck on the Northeastern side of things. I even emailed their opponent, East Carolina, to try to get items from the Eastern Bowl. I am still pending a response from East Carolina, and if I get anything here, I will let you all know.

Northeastern battled hard against East Carolina but fell short 27-6. It was a frigid 28 degrees by the end of the game.

Northeastern did set two records in the Eastern Bowl that will never be broken (because it was the last ever Eastern Bowl). They hit field goals of 45 to set the Bowl Record for longest Field Goal and then immediately topped it with a 48-yard boot. It was a close game until East Carolina pulled away late in the second half. Northeastern hit the tying field goal with 2:36 left in the 3rd Quarter knotting the game up at 6-6 but the Pirates sprung a big run nearly immediately after that. Also, throwing three interceptions didn’t help the Huskies cause.

I’ll end this year with a direct quote from the yearbook.

“East Carolina took advantage of the breaks and scored on a couple of fluke plays. But the Huskies played hard at the end, always fighting, never yielding, and when the gun went off the team left the field as they had all season, with heads held high, proud to be members of the finest team in Northeastern's history.”

Any Chance of the team returning? 

They never really solved their Parsons field problem as claimed by the Administration. Also, only two of their fellow Beanpot hockey mates still have football: Harvard and Boston College. 

However, they are still in the CAA, and they could likely hop right back in, if they wanted to add football back. Also, they’ve got a huge student body of 38,760 students as of 2023. 

I am not sure of the appetite of the area or the students for football, but it’d be nice to have it back. Who knows if it will return?