When you think of great wideouts who caught the football for the University of Connecticut in the 1980's and 90's, Glenn Antrum and Mark Didio come to mind...They caught many a pass from Matt DeGennaro with Tom Jackson at the helm....Skip Holtz took over in 1994..and for 3 of his 5 seasons as Head Coach, gave Huskies Fan's hope their team could finally reach the I-AA Postseason...in 1997, he had a pretty good QB in Shane Stafford and a duo of receivers that could catch the ball...Carl Bond was one of them...and in 1997 and 98', he produced back to back 1,000 yard seasons as the Huskies went 17-7 in his last two years in a UConn Football Uniform.
The West Haven Native played at Hamden Hall, where he was your throwback three sport athlete. In football, he was the Team MVP in his four years on the gridiron. Captain his final two where he'd earn all conference honors. Add a 3x Team MVP in Hoops and Baseball team MVP in his Senior Year, Bond was recruited by Holtz to play Football at UConn....1995, his Freshman year he caught 15 passes for 281 yards and no touchdowns...The Huskies went 8-3 in 1995, but just 5-3 in the Yankee Conference...this after a 6-0 start with tough losses to URI, Northeastern and James Madison..And in 1996, as the Huskies fell to 5-6, Bond had 18 catches for 307 yards and 5 TD's...In each of his first two seasons, Dak Newton was the top receiver while Shane Stafford continued to grow at the QB spot...
1997 would be Bond's breakout season...with Tory Taylor as the other main threat on offense, the Duo had a tremendous season..Of Stafford's school record 2,814yd passing, he connected with Bond for 1,178yds, second most for a season in Storrs on 51 catches. 107.1 yards per game and 23.1 yards per catch remains a school record for one season. Bond had 5 - 100yd receiving days in 1997....163y at Hofstra, 147y in a 3OT loss at Maine, 114 at William & Mary, 147y at UMass and 175y against New Hampshire...He added 6 TD's and in his Junior Year, was named All Atlantic 10 and 2nd Team, I-AA All American as the Huskies went 7-4.
1998 the trend continued for Bond...now he had a compliment at Wide Out in John Fitzsimmons...and with Seniors Stafford and Bond, the Huskies were lethal on offense. A 7-1 start that included 128y in the opener against Colgate and 113y in a big OT win against UMass, then 104y against URI..He added 104y against Hofstra...The Huskies stood at 8-2 heading into their second meeting with UMass in 1998...Yes it actually happened due to BU cancelling it's football program after the schedules had been done, so the A-10 had a home and home with teams...UConn & UMass got paired and it resulted in 2 tremendous games....The 44-41 OT win on October 17th, then in Amherst on November 21st...The Minutemen outgained the Huskies 544-230 that day, but turnovers proved costly as UMass lost 5 fumbles. UConn had a 98 yard kickoff return from Jordan Younger and a defensive scoop and score rallied the Huskies from a 21-7 deficit. Down 6 with 12 minutes left, Shane Stafford hit Bond from 4 yards out and then UConn made the extra point to take the lead. Where they forced the fifth and final fumble, then picked off the Minutemen to hang on and win 28-27 to get UConn it's first ever postseason berth...Bond, a First Team A-10 selection, caught 61 passes for 1004 yards and a single season record 11 TD receptions...in early 1998, Bond was named the Walter Camp Connecticut Player of the Year...
He remains in the Top 10 in numerous pass catching categories...9th with 145 catches, 3rd net yards at 2,770, 2nd in yards per catch at 19.1, 6th in yards per game with 61.6, 4th with catches in 33 straight games, 3rd in TD catches with 22 and as mentioned above, his 11 remain the single season record for a wide receiver. Bond then spent 8 years surviving in the world of Arena Football....the first in Tallahassee with Shane Stafford...His stops included Columbus, Detroit, and Carolina. Carl Bond is married with two kids and lives in the New Haven Area. In 2018, he was inducted into Hamden Hall's Hall of Fame...and at last check was a operating room assistant at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
An outstanding three sport athlete at Hamden Hall and an All American Wideout at UConn......Carl Bond, a UConn Legend..