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Beware the Underdogs UNH football is the story of underdogs and late bloomers coming from behind to win By David Moore

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He was named Mr. Football for the state of New Hampshire as a high school senior. But at 5 feet 8 inches tall, he was too short, and his high school was too small to impress most college coaches. UNH was the only Division I school that recruited Mike Boyle '09. Over the past five years, however, the wide receiver has proven himself worthy again and again. His most dramatic demonstration of worthiness may have taken place last November in Maine, when he streaked down the snow-covered sideline and then dived for the pylon with three minutes to go. In one slippery swoop, he clinched the game against the archrival Black Bears—and a playoff berth for the Wildcats.

The UNH football program also clinched its 500th win in November—a historic, albeit inevitable, milestone. But 500 is, after all, just a number—far more important is how the players and coaches achieved those wins. If you buy into the argument that sports furnish us with metaphors for life, then UNH football is the story of underdogs and late-bloomers, the under-sized and under-recruited, coming from behind to win by virtue of hard work. UNH football has often played David to the Goliath of larger schools and even within the university itself tends to be overshadowed by ice hockey.

Boyle is only one of numerous examples of the underappreciated kid making good, including star quarterback Ricky Santos '08 and his talented replacement, Richard "R.J." Toman '10, who were each under-recruited for different reasons. (Santos' school was too small; Toman didn't get to start in high school until senior year.) Both demonstrated their determination to succeed by devoting many hours to lifting weights, running, playing seven-on-seven and watching hours of film. Santos, originally a fourth-string quarterback, acknowledges that he came to UNH—the only school that wanted him—with a chip on his shoulder.

In fact, notes coach Sean McDonnell '78, the Wildcats as a team may have a perennial chip on their shoulder, and he likes it that way. When channeled productively, an I'll-show-you attitude can help build character and confidence. Many former UNH football players have gone on to become leaders in education, business, politics and community affairs. "The underdog theme is the most powerful one in sports and in life. It's why you play the game," says Mark Etro '81, who played football at UNH in the 1970s. As a fan, he knows it's also why you watch the game. "Let's face it—there's something special about winning unexpected games."

On a raw, raining day in November 1893, New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanical Arts played its first and only football game of the year, against neighboring Newmarket. Newmarket High School, that is. The high school kids beat the college team 10-0. The college, having just relocated from Hanover with 61 students, also held its first classes in Durham that fall. In the beginning, members of the faculty and staff were drafted to round out the scrimmage team, and over the next two decades the team lost twice as many games as they won.

But what the team lacked in prowess, the student body made up for in pride, as demonstrated in 1904 when news of a 4-0 "Aggie" victory over Tufts College in Medford, Mass., reached campus. Students lined Main Street armed with revolvers, rifles and "other noisemaking instruments," according to The College Monthly. The next day, students met the team with cheers at the train station, seizing each player and bodily conveying him to his room. That evening, in spite of heavy rain, a rally around a big bonfire could be heard "in the farthest corners of the town," and the festivities ended with a nightshirt parade.