The Student published its first edition of the 1946–47 school year on Oct. 17. By that time, the Bobcats were already 3–0, having defeated the University of Massachusetts (then known as Mass. State) 6–0, Trinity 25–0, and Tufts 19–6 in a strong return to intercollegiate competition. 

“It’s the most the Garnet boosters have had to howl at in many a moon,” declared the Student.

Wingback and occasional quarterback Arnie Card ’47, one of many World War II veterans on the team, was the biggest star of the first three games. Having lettered for both the 1941 and 1942 Bobcats, he brought plenty of experience, not to mention talent. Described by the Student as a “shifty back” whose “broken field running will keep you on the edge of your seat,” Card and backfield mate Art Blanchard ’50 made for a dynamic duo.

But there were concerns entering that week’s Northeastern game, as injuries to center Norm Parent ’50 and to Blanchard’s older brother, guard Linden ’49, left Bates undermanned on the line. 

No matter.

“The hitherto undefeated Bates eleven smothered a heavy but sloppy Northeastern aggregation 20–0,” wrote the Student after the Bobcats delivered a statement win at Garcelon Field. Card and Blanchard lit up the bigger Huskies with their passing abilities out of the single-wing offense, as the Bobcats rolled to victory. 

Now it was on to the games everyone really cared about. If Bates could secure their first State Series title since 1930, the Bobcats would complete a perfect season. 

The “Pondmen” traveled to Orono and prevailed 7–4. Card turned in a superlative performance, as the passing game clicked and he found Jack Joyce ’47 for the eventual game-winning touchdown. But disaster struck shortly before halftime as Card broke his fibula on a sweep when tackled by a trio of Maine players. He was immediately declared out for the rest of the season.

The defense held on to secure the victory, but with Bowdoin and Colby on the horizon, no one knew how the Bobcats would replace Card. 

At 5-foot-7, 160 pounds, Bates Athletics Hall of Fame legacy honoree and World War II veteran Art Blanchard was undersized even for his day. But Blanchard made an outsized impact from the moment he arrived at Bates in spring 1946 as a 24-year-old first-year student, leading the baseball team to a 7–2 record and a State Series title. 

Then, with Card out for the remainder of the 1946 football season, Blanchard, who had earned a Purple Heart with the U.S. Army in the Pacific, stepped up and carried the Bobcats to nail-biting victories over Bowdoin and Colby.

In a classic, muddy Garcelon Field affair on Back to Bates weekend, the Bobcats blanked the Polar Bears 6–0, keyed by a Blanchard 27-yard touchdown run in the first quarter.

The Colby game was more of the same at Garcelon, neither poor weather conditions nor their rivals from Waterville could stop the Garnet eleven on Armistice Day. 

The Student was exultant. “Although the stubborn Colby Mules fought to the last ditch to prevent it, ‘Ducky’ Pond's Bates Bobcats triumphed over the mud, the rain, and the opposition Monday and won the State Series title, preserved a perfect season of seven consecutive victories unequaled in Bates football history, and made the Bobcats one of the nation's top competitors for the enviable Toledo Glass Bowl invitation, before a well-soaked but wildly enthusiastic crowd of 3,000 rooters.”

“Little” Art Blanchard was the big hero, scoring the game-winning touchdown with 5 minutes remaining in the game.

Two weeks later, the campus rejoiced, as Bates officially accepted an invitation to the inaugural Glass Bowl against the University of Toledo. To this day, the Bobcats remain the only NESCAC team to play in a bowl game. They also beat their rivals from Orono to the bowl punch, as the University of Maine’s only bowl game came nearly 20 years later when they competed in the Tangerine Bowl. 

Former Bates sports information director Adam Levin wrote the definitive account of the Glass Bowl for Bates Magazine in 1996 on the 50th anniversary of the team’s train trip to Toledo. 

“The game took place on Pearl Harbor Day and included much pageantry to celebrate both the renovated stadium and the conclusion of the first postwar season for both teams,” Levin wrote. “The crowd of 12,000 was treated to five high-school marching bands (‘one of the most beautiful spectacles I have ever seen,’ wrote Student reporter Dave Tillson ’49), the dedication of the new glass press box, and a 108-flag tribute to all Toledo alumni who had died in the war. The team rosters in the game program even included the military branch that each player served in World War II.”

It was the largest crowd any of the Bobcats had ever played in front of, and they acquitted themselves quite well, with Art Blanchard being named the Most Valuable Player despite a 21–12 loss to the bigger, and deeper, Toledo. Blanchard ran for 173 yards and completed 10 passes. 

The national media took note. The Associated Press named Blanchard Little All-America, honorable mention, and named Norm Parent Third Team Little All-America. 

Parent was described by the Student as a “giant center” at 6 feet, 210 pounds. A Lewiston High School grad, Parent might have been even better at baseball. He tried out for the Boston Braves upon his high school graduation and stood a decent shot of making the team. 

But, as the Student wrote, “Uncle Sam had other plans, and Parent was drafted three days after receiving his diploma. Specializing in reconnaissance work. Norm landed in Normandy during the first week of the invasion and before leaving the continent had won the Silver and Bronze stars and the Croix de Guerre for liaison work with French underground forces.”

The war hero went on to teach, coach football, and serve as director of athletics at Lewiston High School, where he was known for his loyalty to his coaches. 

The Hatchmen and the Gold Standard

Ducky Pond’s Bobcats produced a winning record of 4–3 in 1947 and shared the State Series title in 1948 with wins over Maine and Colby, but they never reached the heights of 1946 again. A winless, 0–7–1 campaign in 1951, including a lopsided loss to Pond’s alma mater Yale (the final time the Bobcats played an Ivy League school), marked the end of his short but memorable time at Bates.

The college didn’t have to look far for Pond’s successor. Bob Hatch was first hired by Bates straight out of Boston University in 1949 as the freshman football coach. A U.S. Marine who served in the Pacific during World War II, he was a star at BU, good enough to get selected in the 13th round of the 1948 NFL draft by the New York Giants. Hatch declined to sign, returning to college for his senior year. He did sign briefly with the football New York Yankees of the short-lived All-America Football Conference, but opted to come to Bates because he was looking for job security for himself and his young family. 

Hatch was a strong choice, having already led the freshman football team to a pair of undefeated seasons. The writing was also on the wall, as he had been promoted to head baseball coach the previous spring, replacing Pond in that position as well.

“Bob Hatch was a first-class person and a knowledgeable coach,” recalled Dick Coughlin ’53 in an oral history interview. “We all identified with him because his first year at Bates was our first year at Bates. So when he became the varsity team’s head coach our senior year, it was a natural fit.” 

One of the first “Hatchmen” was Alan Goddard ’53, a well-known name among Bates football alumni, young and old. Goddard typified the grit of the Hatch era of Bates football: A 158-pound offensive guard, he worked his way into Hatch’s starting lineup with pure tenacity.

“Alan was not big and not fast, but in his typical way, he simply made it necessary for me to play him,” Hatch recalled. “He found a way to be valuable to the team. And that’s the story of his life: finding a way to be valuable to the people around him.” 

A three-sport letterwinner in football, basketball, and tennis, Goddard graduated Phi Beta Kappa in mathematics and, with his wife, Gail Mollander Goddard ’56, remained an active Bates alumnus and supporter of the college throughout his lifetime.

After graduating, he mailed a check to Hatch to establish the first Bates football award. Naturally, Bates named it the Alan C. Goddard Award for Achievement in Football. As Hatch once said, the award doesn’t necessarily go to the best player in terms of talent. “Because of Al’s makeup, we decided the award should focus on where a young man was, what was anticipated of him, and what he finally achieved, both personally and in football.” 

The award is highly valued to this day by all who receive it. A remarkable 40 former winners returned to Bates in 2006 to honor Goddard, who was suffering from ALS. Though he only had months to live, Goddard walked all 18 holes at the Reunion golf tournament that year. 

“Everyone thinks of Al as a giant, a friend with towering integrity,” said Lynn Willsey ’54. “He’s the gold standard.” 

The Final Maine State Series Title

In 1953, the NCAA made a big, sudden rule change, effectively preventing teams from freely substituting players during the game, as is common today. 

During the immediate postwar years, the rules allowed unlimited substitutions, which led to the familiar “two-platoon” system, where one set of players played offense, and a different “platoon” played defense. Specialized players on offense and defense seemingly put an end to the old “iron man” style of football where the best 11 athletes typically played both ways, rarely leaving the field.

The 1953 rule change was driven by two reasons. The “two-platoon” system required larger rosters, which was expensive. And by mandating that players play both ways again, the NCAA hoped to level the playing field for smaller schools, who might have 11 quality players, but not 22.

Bates, being a small school, had out of necessity been playing mostly the “iron man” style of football the whole time. “Our backups were great people, but they simply weren’t good enough to win games,” Coughlin recalled. “Many of them had never even played high school ball. Our starters got worn down while a lot of our opponents substituted freely.” 

The change back to one-platoon football was highly unpopular nationwide, but Bob Hatch was a big fan, and it gave the Bobcats an opening to once again bring home a state championship. 

Entering the 1956 season, Bates had lost six straight games to the University of Maine and seven of eight to Bowdoin. Fans were hungry for success, but things did not start well with losses to Norwich and Upsala (a now-closed school out of New Jersey that Bates had not played before and did not play again).

Led by All-America honorable mention running back Bob “Spinner” Martin ’57, the Bobcats won their next five games to capture their first outright state championship in a decade. 

Along the way, they stunned previously unbeaten Maine, 19–13 at Orono. When the news reached Bates, as Hatch recalled to the Student years later, “Some students climbed up onto the unfinished roof of Page Hall and wrote the score on the tarpaper — it's still there today, under the shingles.”

Martin had a nose for the end zone, scoring a remarkable 15 touchdowns in a seven-game season, including a 51-yarder in the win over Maine. It was the culmination of an outstanding career, as Martin was a three-time All-State selection who the coaches cited as “a great athlete who has always maintained a sense of humility and unselfishness and has proved himself to be an outstanding leader.” 

Bates football honored Martin by retiring his jersey No. 34 during the spring awards night on May 22, 1957. He was the first Bates athlete to have his jersey retired in any sport. The Portland Press Herald reported that an “estimated 150 persons gave Martin a standing ovation.” 

Originally from Marblehead, Mass., Martin returned to his hometown after graduating from Bates, where he became a respected and beloved history and political science teacher and football and basketball coach at Marblehead High School. He was elected to the Marblehead Magicians Gridiron Hall of Fame. Martin passed away in 2008.

The 1956 Bobcats were the final Bates team to capture the state championship, although the 1957 Hatchmen split the series title with Colby and Maine. 

And in 1961, an otherwise mediocre Bates team (2–4–2) pulled off a stunner against the Black Bears, playing mighty Maine, a squad that went on to have an undefeated season, to a 15–15 tie. 

“Goliath rallies to tie inspired David,” declared the Student. “The University of Maine Black Bears left Garcelon Field Saturday technically undefeated, but a beaten club as far as the 4,500 cheering fans who looked on were concerned. The homecoming crowd, which included members of the undefeated 1946 Glass Bowl team, were treated to Bates' finest effort of the season.”

Future head coach Web Harrison ’63 recalled how the school embraced the team. “After the game, in the most genuine display of school spirit I ever witnessed, students lined both sides of the walk from Alumni Gym to the Den, waited for the players to emerge from the locker room, and cheered each player as we walked to the Den.” 

Hatch’s creativity as a coach shined against Maine, as he deployed an innovative spread offense that bewildered the unsuspecting Black Bears and garnered national attention.

The Student singled out Howard Vandersea ’63 as one of the stars of the contest, mainly for his ability at center to handle the newfangled offense unleashed by the Bobcats.

 "Howie also should be cited for his job at the pivot post on offensive play. It is a difficult job to snap back a ball five or six yards to the shotgun man while two opposing linemen are breathing down your neck."

The 15–15 tie with Maine was just one highlight in Vandersea’s outstanding career. In the one-platoon era, he played both center and linebacker, being named to multiple All-America teams along the way.

After graduating from Bates as a history major, Vandersea served in the U.S. Army, had multiple tryouts with the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers, and coached football for 37 years, including head coaching stints at Springfield (eight years) and Bowdoin (16 years). 

Long active in the National Football Foundation, an advocacy organization for amateur football, he founded the organization’s Maine chapter, which now bears his name.

Vandersea credited Hatch for being a strong mentor. “The thing about Bob Hatch was he really went out of his way to help his players. He helped me get my start in coaching. Hatch was honest with people, and he set the groundwork for me in how I conducted myself as a coach.” 

Bates retired Vandersea’s football jersey No. 56 in 2023, and he is a legacy honoree in the Bates Athletics Hall of Fame, having passed away in December 2022 at age 81.

Despite the Maine–Bates tie in 1961, Maine was separating itself from the three smaller State Series schools. By 1963, Maine’s enrollment had grown larger than the combined enrollments of Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin. So it was little surprise when, in April, Bowdoin announced that its 1964 game vs. Maine would be its last against the state’s flagship school. In May, Bates and Maine jointly announced a similar end of their grid rivalry, making 1964 the last year of the historic, four-college State Series on the gridiron. (Colby’s last football game vs. Maine came in 1966.)

After 71 years, the Maine State Series was out, and the Colby–Bates–Bowdoin (CBB) Series was in. 

This is the third of a five-part series about the 150-year history of Bates football. A new article will be published the week of every home football game this fall.