Now rush the ball up the field Muhlenberg!

We’ll win, we’ll win, we’ll win.

The passing is breezy, the touch downs come easy

Now watch our brave boys rush them in.

For Muhlenberg College is here with the goods

And other schools must, “Skiddo to the woods,”

Now rush the ball up the field , Muhlenberg !

We’ll win, we’ll win, we’ll win.

It’s no surprise that the uniforms of the first Muhlenberg football team in 1900 looked more like rugby jerseys. The game probably more resembled rugby than what has evolved into football. And just like the sport, the uniform designs have evolved.

For a good portion of the sport’s history at Muhlenberg, the uniforms were pretty generic and free from distinguishing markings. In the 1922 picture below, both teams are wearing dark jerseys and dark helmets. That must’ve been rough for the TV and radio announcers of the day. Muhlenberg is the team with stripes on its sleeves. We think.

Big numbers on the jerseys first showed up around 1935. The 1958 helmets had numbers on them, the first time they had any elements other than stripes.

In 1977, the kicking Mule logo first appeared on the helmets, and it has remained there for most of the last 37 years. Since 1997, the helmet design has remained unchanged except for a change from flat grey to metallic silver and the number and width of the stripes (the Mules went with the “Ohio State” look for a period before switching back to a single red stripe).

As for the uniforms, the word “Mules” first appeared on the front of the jerseys in 2003. And last fall, 113 years after Muhlenberg first fielded a varsity football team, the word “Muhlenberg” made its debut on the uniforms.

Let’s “skiddo” back in time to take a look at Muhlenberg football uniforms through the years. Previous sports featured in the Uniform Project were track and field, field hockey, men’s soccer, baseball, women’s soccer and volleyball.