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Posts filed under 'European Hockey'
[Editor's Note: Today we have a guest entry from Thomas weeks, who had a remarkable uni-related encounter on the streets of New York last week. -- PL]
By Thomas Weeks
I’ve always been a fan of hard work. For that reason, the only two NHL players whose jerseys I own are Adam Graves’s and Jed Ortmeyer’s.
I don’t need to tell you anything about Graves, but you might not know too much about Ortmeyer. In five-plus seasons, he’s scored 15 goals, but he’s a hard worker who kills penalties and never gives up. He was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism in August of 2006 but returned to the Rangers lineup just four months later. The following season he was a finalist the season following his embolism for the NHL’s Bill Masterson Memorial Trophy, given for dedication to the game. He’s also been honored by the Rangers by twice winning the Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award, for outstanding commitment and hard work on and off the ice.
For these reasons, I purchased a Jed Ortmeyer #41 Rangers home jersey. He even signed it for me, at an event for Rangers advertising sponsors that I happened to get tickets for. This has been one of my favorite jerseys to wear to Madison Square Garden.
After wearing my Ortmeyer jersey to last Thursday’s Rangers/Devils tussle, I was walking out of the Garden when I was approached by a group of Swedish tourists. They spoke in half-broken English, but I barely made out one of them saying, “I would like to trade my sweater for yours. My name is Ortmeyer.”
He was wearing an authentic Frolunda Indians sweater (the team Henrik Lundqvist played for before he was drafted by the Rangers), with sponsor patches and all. I had no second thoughts. I took my jersey off right there on Seventh Ave. and handed it to a complete stranger. We thanked each other in our own languages and draped our new sweaters over our heads.
Like Jed Ortmeyer, I too pride myself on hard work and making good decisions. I hope I have made that man named Ortmeyer as happy as the man named Jed Ortmeyer made me.
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 Culinary Corner: Paul here. I was down in Baton Rouge last weekend, working on an ESPN story that you’ll be hearing about shortly. Most of my “research” involved spending Saturday afternoon tailgating with a bunch of LSU fans. There was a ton of food — chicken, shrimp, pork chops, three kinds of sausage, blueberry pie, etc., etc. — so I was surprised to see that someone brought along a pack of Oreos. Seemed like overkill.
And yet, and yet. As we cooked throughout the afternoon, it occurred to me that the Oreos seemed a bit lonely in their sterile plastic package while the rest of the food was basically having a party on the grill. Why not let the Oreos join the party? Why not indeed. I took two of the cookies out of the package and placed them on one of the grills, where they fit in just fine. Then I put the lid back on the grill and went to find myself another beer.
About three minutes later, the Oreos were hot and slightly soft, and the creme feeling had developed a nicely caramelized edge. I tried one of them — deeeee-lish. Sweet with a smoky undercurrent, mmmmm. I offered the second cookie to one of the other tailgaters and rushed to put a few more Oreos on the grill.
Soon I was being hailed as a genius, and we were running low on Oreos. Which just goes to show that anything tastes better when it’s fresh off the grill.
Membership Update: Birthday boy Scott Turner just whipped up a bunch of cool new membership designs. In addition to Dan Bardin’s Blackhawks Winter Classic throwback, shown at right, this batch also includes two orange alternates — Orioles and Dolphins — our first Kansas City Scouts design, and Ed Westfield Jr.’s odd choice of infinity as a uni number.
As always, you can see the full gallery of membership cards here and sign up to get your own card here.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Virginia Tech will be wearing this orange-centric outfit for tonight’s game against UNC. … I’ve written several times about the pinned-on uni numbers in the 1934 All-Star Game (if you want the full story, begin here and then go to the “Cold Case File Revisited” section of this column), and now Don Sherman has come up with some photos I hadn’t seen before — look here and here. … Good white-at-home article here (with thanks to Craig Friday). … Faaascinating article about an old Negro Leagues stadium in New Jersey here (major thanks to Baroness Karen McBurnie). … Good breakdown of NBA team names backstories, with some swell photos to boot, here (with thanks to Tom Griffith). … Excellent piece on the mud used to rub up baseballs here (with thanks to Matthew Keegan). … NHL.com is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Jacques Plante wearing the first goalie mask with a series of articles on mask history. The first installment is here, and be sure to check out all the additional multimedia links — good stuff (with thanks to Michael Blinn). … The All Blacks have been told to cover up their tats for a match in Japan (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Super-cool optical illusion on display here (nice find by Kirsten). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Great home movie footage from a 1952 WVU/Wash. & Lee game — with both teams wearing solid-color uniforms — here. … Dylan Buell’s local coffee shop held a dog costume contest. One guy had a dog named Tressel, so he dressed him as Jim Tressel, and another guy dressed his dog as a Maple Leaf (here’s the view from the other side). … Utah will be wearing black uniforms this Saturday (with thanks to Chris Buttgen). … New hoops uniforms for South Carolina. There’s some video footage of the new designs in action here. … Zak Koval has spotted a little bracelet being worn by Lamar Odom and Luke Walton. Definitely not a Livestrong. Maybe titanium? Anyone know more? … Amazing behind-the-back football pass here (with thanks to Brandon Creeger). … Dozens of cool old Phils/Yanks photos in this slideshow (nice find by Douglas Hirschman). … Scott Turner notes that the base of the “P” decal on the Phillies’ batting helmets extends all the way down to where the brim meets the rest of the helmet. Never noticed that before. … As many, many readers noted, Cliff Lee was once again squatchee-free last night. … The Heat retired Tim Hardaway’s number last night.
October 29th, 2009
The NHL isn’t the only league that can stage an outdoor hockey game. This past Saturday, the Kontinental Hockey League, which is primarily Russian (further details here) staged its all-star game in Moscow — smack in the middle of Red Square.
Lots of interesting visual details here. In no particular order:
• Wrigley Field makes a nice backdrop to a hockey game, but it’s hard to compete with the Kremlin. Like, really hard.
• The KHL’s all-star uniforms are certainly no worse than what we’ve seen in recent years from the NHL — no extraneous nonsense. From the side, in fact, they’re almost too plain.
• Those Russkies sure have a funny alphabet. (Of course, one word was rendered in perfect English — you can see it just under the collar.)
• Game-time temperature was about 10ºF, and it dropped several more degrees during the game, so there was a lot of this. (That’s Jaromir Jagr, incidentally — I guess he’s not tucking in his jersey anymore.)
• The frigid conditions probably explain why there were so many empty seats. But even if they’d been at full capacity, the bleachers set up for the game could only accommodate 3000 people. As a result, the atmosphere apparently didn’t live up to the backdrop, at least according to several accounts that I read.
You can supposedly watch the entire game here, although that link hasn’t worked so well for me. As a backup, there are plenty of shorter clips available on YouTube.
Party Update: The venue for this winter’s Uni Watch gathering (which, as previously announced, will take place on Saturday the 24th, 2pm) will be Sheep Station — same place as last winter. Looking forward to meeting lots of you there.
Raffle Reminder: I’m currently raffling of a free jersey from SoccerPro.com. Details here.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Best candy name ever. That page comes from this 1949 candy catalog, which in turn is part of this collection of retro graphics — all very good stuff. … Wayne Chism of Tennessee wore some rad socks against Gonzaga last Wednesday night. “I didn’t see the game, but my dad, knowing my Uni Watch obsession, brought it to my attention,” says Jason Werth. “Not sure if he’s worn them before. Also, according to dad, the announcer made some comment about someone having to be secure or confident in order to wear socks like that.” … Hall of Fame curator Tom Shieber was looking at this photo of Jim Rice and became intrigued by his necklace pendant. Looks like the letters might say “RICE,” but what about the rest of the pendant? Anyone recognize this design? … Several readers noted that Tim Tebow’s NOB was badly off-center on Thursday night. … “Soccer player Lassana Diarra has been signed by Real Madrid to replaced the injured Mahamadou Diarra in midfield,” writes Chris Cruz. Rather than doing a FNOB or “L. Diarra” treatment, they have given him a jersey with his nickname.” Further details here. … Here are some shots of the last guy to wear No. 5 for the Red Sox, and here’s Rocco Baldelli with his new jersey. The navy border around the red numeral looks a lot thicker than usual, no? … The sixth graf of this story assigns blame for the whole pink-for-breast cancer thing (with thanks to Brandon Yarian). … Really interesting tidbit from Nick Hanson, who writes: “At last week’s International Power Showcase High School Home Run Derby, the hitters wore their home state’s two-letter abbreviation instead of a uniform number. For example, this is Bryce Harper, a sophomore from Las Vegas High School in Nevada.” … Greg Netherwood notes that Clark MacArthur of the Sabres has an interesting NOB. … Gorgeous views of the Cubs’ raised helmet logos with the old-style inscribed uni numbers here and here (with thanks to Jere Smith). … Turns out Oregon had diamondplate-patterned gloves for their bowl game (good catch by Matt Calvert). … “Before Hideo Nomo retired last year, he created an amateur club team in Osaka,” writes Jeremy Brahm. “I saw photos of the team’s uniforms the other day and thought the white one was one of the strangest baseball designs I’d ever seen.” … Also from Jeremy: “For the Italian Volleyball League Series A All-Star game in November, the floor was painted like an Italian flag.” … Chris Flinn says he got an e-mail from the Giants the other day that included this attachment. Gonna take a lot more than spam to sell Plaxico jerseys at this point. … “Here’s a video clip shot at Shea Stadium in 1984, from a bad movie called 7 minutes in Heaven,” writes Paul Wiederecht. “It’s got faked-up Expos uniforms, huge NOBs, and a game taking place at Shea in the morning.” … Denny Jones notes that injured Titans center Kevin Mawae wanted to listen in on the play call as he watched his team on offense near the of their game against the Ravens on Saturday, so he picked up one of the radio-equipped helmets and eavesdropped. … Collateral Gammage and I checked out this exhibit of vintage matchbooks on Saturday, and there were lots of sports-related pieces in the show, including die-cut team-logo matchbooks, an old football player series, a Brooklyn Dodgers series, and one for Joe Namath’s Restaurant. Sorry about the image quality, but I only had my camera-phone, and the combination of the glass exhibit case the plastic display sleeves made for a lot of glare. … Korea’s WBC uniforms have been unveiled (with thanks to Dan Kurtz). … According to this story, there’s a disproportionately high rate of ADD among MLB players. … Color-on-color games from Saturday: Oklahoma State vs. Texas A&M and Georgia Southern vs. College of Charleston (with thanks to Matt Watson and Benji Boyter, respectively). … Some of you probably knew this already, but the Canadiens’ web site has a great history section, which includes an excellent sweater timeline (big thanks to Mike Kemezis). … Doug Blanchard has created uni illustrations for all the teams in Slap Shot and Rollerball. Regarding the latter set, Doug says: “Clear shots of the Paris and Rome unis are available only in the ‘making of’ feature — James Caan’s Houston team does not play them in the movie although they are shown briefly in video sequences depicting moments in his career. Pittsburgh is mentioned in another video sequence, but they are not shown (it is Rome’s purple unis that are briefly seen).” … Longtime reader Doug Keklak very generously sent me a copy of this excellent book about signs in and around Pittsburgh. The book is based on this web site. Great, great stuff — highly recommended. … Great old shot of the Polo Grounds in this shot of Sammy Baugh coaching the Titans. … Several readers have noted that Donovan McNabb has a black Dymo Tape label just above his fine-print warning decal. It appears to say, “PRIMARY OFF #1 MCNABB,” which I assume means that this is McNabb’s preferred radio-equipped helmet (screen grabs courtesy of John Zajac). … McNabb also had a play yesterday where his chinsnap broke just before the snap. He played that down strap-less and then ran over to the bench for a new chinstrap. … Peter Greenberg tipped me wise to the work of Kevin McNeil, an artist who does really nice charcoal and pastel illustrations. Check out more of his work here. … Two uni number-related items at the very end of Ken Davidoff’s Sunday column. … On Friday I linked to pics of the NFC’s Pro Bowl design. Here’s the AFC version. Fortunately, nobody actually watches the Pro Bowl, so these awful designs will go largely unseen. … Tris Wykes reports that Wyclef Jean was shown wearing Magic and Habs jerseys on last night’s 60 Minutes. … Here’s a double-flapper I hadn’t been aware of: Junior Felix. But he was a switch-hitter, so it’s not as unusual as a non-switch going double-flapped (with thanks to Dustin Pomprowitz). … Cool old catalogs available here, here (note the sliced baseball diagram), here (gorgeous cover), here, and here. … Early contender for stupidest illustration of the year. … Instead of color on color, how about white on white? That’s the Buffalo Bandits vs. Toronto Rock, of the National Lacrose League. Additional pics here (with thanks to Chris Coulson). … Interesting back design for Denmark’s women’s volleyball team (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Major find by Michael Romero, who’s come up with an addition to our list of MLB players with faceguards attached to their helmets: Tony Fernandez, from the 1989 ALCS. … Lots of good NOB finds by Doug Keklak: Mike Santorelli (there are no other Santorellis on the Predators’ roster, so what’s up with that?), Jess Williams, and Maurice and Mike Pouncey. … Also from Doug: “Last week, someone in the comments was wondering about a poster that was in the office on the old show Coach. I was able to get a couple of grabs.” … Hadn’t noticed this before: The NHL All-Star jerseys apparently feature numbers on the sleeves. “I did some research,” writes Mike Kemezis, “and while the Canadiens have hosted 11 previous all-star games, they’ve hosted only three such games since the change in format (it used to be the Stanley Cup winner vs. an all-star team). Those years were 1969, 1975, and 1993, which are the years listed on the sleeves.”
January 12th, 2009
My friends, yesterday marked the end of an era. For the first time this season, every member of the San Diego Chargers was wearing an American flag helmet decal.
Or at least I assume that was the case. One thing I know for sure is that LaDainian Tomlinson was wearing one. No surprise there, since he’d also worn the flag decal for San Diego’s two previous games. The big news is that Chris Chambers, who’d been flag-free for the past new weeks, was properly flag-accessorized yesterday, marking the first time this year that Tomlinson and Chambers were both wearing the decal. As for the other fifty-some players on the Chargers’ roster, I’m gonna take it on faith that they were all flag-clad. If anyone knows otherwise, speak up.
In other NFL notes from yesterday:
• Chad Johnson dusted off his orange chinstrap.
• The Jets retired Curtis Martin’s number.
• Hard to know what looked worse in the Jets/Steelers game: the Jets or the slacks-clad officials.
• The officials in the Bears/Seahawks game were wearing the cold-weather slacks too, as you can barely see here.
• Radically distinct sock stylings here. Here, too.
• That’s a right purty game right there.
• There, too.
• Several readers reported that Roy Williams of the Cowboys had a yellow dot on the back of his helmet, similar to the green dot that the QBs wear. No photo yet. If we can get visual confirmation, I’ll ask the team for an explanation.
• I’ve said it before and I’ll keep on saying it: This is the league’s most underrated design, and a classic in the making.
Uni Watch Calendar: Lots of opportunities for gatherings and such over the next few weeks. Here’s the breakdown:
• November 27th: I’m going to be in Austin, Texas. Is there any Uni Watch readership to speak of in that town? If so, any such readers should get in touch. If the response is large enough, I’ll set up a gathering for that evening.
• December 6th: Marc Spears of the Boston Globe and I will be guests of a media seminar class at Boston University. I’ll convene a Uni Watch party at 8:30 that evening at Boston Beer Works, which is right across from Fenway Park. Meanwhile, if anyone wants to attend the seminar class, which begins at 6:30, the professor tells me he can probably accommodate a few extra people. If you’re interested, get in touch and I’ll fill you in.
• December 10th: The completely wonderful City Reliquary, of which I am a proud card-carrying member, will be holding its annual benefit gala at the Automotive High School Auditorium, and I’m one of the two featured speakers this year. I’ll be doing a Power Point presentation on some topic or other (might be uni-related or might not — haven’t decided yet), but the real attraction is the other speaker: Lawrence Weschler, author of such crucial must-reads as Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder and Boggs. In other words, I’m like some puny little indie band opening for the Rolling Stones. The evening will feature lots of additional stuff, including a short documentary film, a live samba band, and dinner at Bamonte’s (one of Brooklyn’s oldest and best red-sauce Italian restaurants). Full details here.
Uni Watch News Ticker: I’m a week late with this, but it’s still pretty funny (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm and Timothy Sheehan). … Speaking of the intersection of fan and uniform, David Soline sent along this. … Reprinted from Friday’s comments: Really interesting article here about Cal’s recent throwbacks. … Chris Mycoskie notes that Louisiana-Lafayette’s women’s hoops team has some, uh, innovative uniforms. … Photo archivist David Eskinazi has come up with something interesting: a 1911 photo of the Wichita Falls Irish Lads. “I found it very unusual that they chose to have EVERYTHING spelled out on their jerseys — team nickname, city, and state,” he writes. “Quite odd, especially for a pro team.” … Good catch by Andrew White, who notes that UNC’s walk-on players were all photographed wearing the same jersey, as seen here, here, and here. … Here’s our first look at the Indians’ new throwback alternate uni. Additional views here. … The CBA’s Albany Patroons had to play in practice uniforms on Friday night because their new unis weren’t ready yet. … Really great two-minute audio slideshow here about the Indiana equipment staff prepping the helmets for last Saturday’s throwback game. … And speaking of that game, there’s a good photo gallery here. … Brazil has a new soccer kit. Note that the five stars, representing the team’s five World Cup championships, are shown not only on the chest but also on the socks. Details here and here. … Matthew Strauss noticed something odd: According to SI.com, this photo was taken during a Cowboys/Redskins game in Dallas. But the ’Skins are wearing white, so was Dallas wearing blue at home? The turf looks artificial, which would seem to support the notion that the game was played at Texas Stadium, not at RFK. Can anyone shed more light on this? … Lots of solid-red action on the gridiron on Saturday, as Minnesota and FSU went monochromatic. … Casey Hart reports that Harvard’s nordic skiing team uniforms feature a map of the Harvard area. … Speaking of Harvard, someone on the Chris Creamer board spotted Crimson head football coach Tim Murphy wearing an NFLL pullover on Saturday. … Interesting critique of presidential campaign logos here. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: I went to a European advertising conference and a hockey game broke out. … USF is switching to Under Armour. … I’ve listed lots of uniform typos in my recent ESPN columns. But Matt Lindner found something you don’t often see: a typo on a replica jersey. … Latest analysis of the NHL jersey debacle here (with thanks to Doug Mooney, who also reports that South Georgia Tech’s men’s and women’s hoops teams wore a “W” patch on Saturday in remembrance of instructor Willy Mathis). … New sleeveless unis for the American men’s volleyball team (as reported by Jeremy Brahm). … Two soccer notes from Jeremy as well: new uniforms for Germany, and quite the flamboyant ball during the U.S. vs. South Africa friendly match.
November 19th, 2007
A few weeks ago I ran an entry about players who’ve worn their full names on their jerseys (or FNOB, short for “full name on back”). That post prompted so many contributions that I’ve decided to do a follow-up entry today.
The most interesting case study comes our way courtesy of Les Holmlund, who wrote in to tell me that the WHA’s Alberta Oilers — forerunners of today’s Edmonton Oilers — had the entire team wearing FNOB during their inaugural 1972-73 season. Now, that Oilers team was already uni-notable for a few other reasons. According to WHAUniforms.com (usually a pretty dependable resource), they began the season wearing “ALBERTA” on their backs and then switched to round-cornered nameplates with an unusual font. But there was nothing on the site about them wearing FNOB. Fortunately, Les came up with several photos to back up his point, as seen here, here, and here. So there you have it: The Alberta Oilers, who began by wearing PNOB (province name on back) and then switched to FNOB, almost certainly making them the most eccentrically nameplated team in sports history.
As for additional FNOB examples (aside from those already listed in my previous FNOB post), I’m only listing them if we have photos confirming them. I realize the list is still very incomplete, but here are the latest additions:
Football: Todd Johnson, Andra Davis (also shown here), Andre Davis, Dexter Reid, and Rob Moore.
Hockey: Ron Sutter (with the Flyers, too), Rich Sutter, Bobby Smith, Neal Broten (from his U. of Minnesota days), and Aaron Broten (ditto).
Soccer: Derek Young and Darren Young.
Finally, a few related categories that aren’t quite FNOB but still belong in this discussion:
• Several readers suggested coming up with a separate list for players who wear more than their first initial but less than FNOB, like Michael and Martellus Bennett. If anyone wants to contribute additional examples, I’m game.
• And here’s a unique situation, as explained by reader Roy Ellingsen: “Norwegian former hockey star Carl Oscar Bøe Andersen’s name was so long that he prefered to wear just his initials on the nameplate.”
Big thanks to all who’ve contributed — we’re building a nice little nameplate database here. And if anyone wants to start building a physical collection instead of a virtual one, look what’s up for sale on eBay.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Many readers wrote in last night to report that Virginia Tech’s Victor “Macho” Harris’s left-sleeve uni number was orange last night, while his right-sleeve number (and all his teammates’ sleeve numbers) was white. No photo yet. Anyone TiVo the game? … I’ve written before about umpires being forced to wear civvies after their uniforms got lost in transit. Now Richard Koh has come up with a video clip of Eric Gregg struggling to find adequately sized gear during just such a situation. Bill Murray’s doing the color commentary, too. … Minnesota’s women’s hockey team will wear a memorial helmet decal for the rest of this season in honor of equipment manager Bonnie Olein, who recently passed away. Details here (with thanks to Mike Nachreiner). … Andy Head notes that the Saskatoon Blades wear uni numbers is a very unusual spot (plus they’ll be wearing one weird-ass jersey for Emergency Services Night next month). … Drew McKay reports that the Slipstream cycling team recently invited fans to submit designs for next year’s uniform. The team is apparently for its argyle motif, so most of the submissions were very argyle-centric (including this one, which is Drew’s favorite). You can see all 613 submissions here. … The Trenton Thunder have unveiled a 15th-season patch (as forwarded by Ted Kerwin). … Much better, even if the stirrups are backwards. … And you can see the stirrups’ laundry tag peaking out here. … When it comes to baggy pants, like father, like son. … Remember when Mike Timlin (who probably thinks the term “World Series” is a U.N. plot) wanted to wear the American flag patch on his cap full-time? He lost that battle, but he’s got a flag on his BP cap — closer view here (great catch by Bryan Redemske). … Steve Necaster reports that the Sabres will be wearing white at home for several games in November. … Further evidence here and here of the Rangers having apparently modified their hemlines to eliminate Reebok’s scooped shirttail. … The Mid-Atlantic Hockey League recently unveiled new uniforms for the Indiana Ice Miners (dark, white), Jamestown Vikings (dark, white), Mon Valley Thunder (dark, light), Valley Forge Freedom (dark, white), and Wooster Warriors (dark, white). “We all know the MAHL is minor league hockey, but I’ve seen roller hockey uniforms that look more professional,” says Zak McGinniss, who provided the links. … “At the Mellon Arena they have a High School Hall of Champions,” writes Doug Keklak. “It’s a hallway in the arena adorned with framed high school hockey jerseys, mostly from western PA schools but there are a few West Virginia schools included in the mix.” Doug’s taken photos of many of them, which you can see here. … The Devils’ new arena opened last night with a Bon Jovi concert, and Chris Flinn noticed something interesting in the men’s room: “Every single urinal had the Devils logo engraved into the metal.” I’m not sure which is more embarrassing — admitting that you attended a Bon Jovi concert or taking a photo in the bathroom, but either way let’s all salute Chris for his devotion to the Uni Watch cause.
October 26th, 2007
The annual Spengler Cup tourney was recently held in Switzerland, providing an ideal showcase for the bizarre advertising-plastered hockey uniforms that are so commonplace in Europe. I have a hard time even looking at these designs, but reader Jonathan Goupil bravely donned a radiation suit and then spent several hours photo-researching. His roundup is as follows:
I love to hate these European jerseys, so I kept looking for the pics that would sicken me the most. And there’s some disturbing stuff, like the Swiss league referees wearing red helmets and quite a weird jersey design. Here’s another “interesting” ref jersey design.
I’m lovin’ it: I spotted several teams wearing McDonalds logos [here, here, here, and here].
One of the games was played on a soccer field. But that didn’t stop the local soccer team from holding a practice.
Now, I knew Finnish elite league (SM-Liiga) has the top scorer on each team wear a golden helmet (here’s a better view). After some research, I found that the Swiss league used to give out a silver helmet. I say they “used to,” because now, not only does the top scorer wear a helmet with flames on it, he also gets to wear a different jersey. The front is the same as the others, but the back has no uni number, a different sponsor, a bunch of flames, and a “Top Scorer” designation.
That really struck me. Anyone got further info on this? I can’t read Finnish or German too well, so all I could do was look at pictures. Any other leagues or sports do this?
Most of those pictures I got from this great site. Just click around on the pictures and you’ll find photo galleries. Kinda tough to get around, but there’s tons of (sorta) cool uni pictures.
Big thanks to Jonathan for that truly nauseating tour of hockey stylings on the other side of the Atlantic.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Just won this vintage catalog on eBay. Looks like it has some pretty cool content. More details when the actual item arrives in the mail. … Jonathan Gault has come up with a few more presidential uni pics, this time of the White House’s current occupant, as seen here and here (top row, second from left). … Yesterday I mentioned that Nate Burleson of the Seahawks was wearing a Vikings-colored mouthguard on Saturday. Here’s a screen shot, courtesy of Scott Throndson.
January 9th, 2007
Arthur Farrell’s Hockey: Canada’s Royal Winter Game, published in 1899, is thought to be the first book ever written about hockey. Only four copies are known to exist, none of which are currently held in Canadian libraries.
As several readers have excitedly told me in recent days, one of those copies has now been made available on the web. Each page has been scanned and the uploaded version has been Flash-configured so you can “page-turn” through the book. If your browser has trouble with the Flash version, there’s also an HTML version, although I think that one isn’t as much fun. But whichever version you view, there are some amazing photos that showcase the rather genteel uni stylings of day, as you can see here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Too old and musty for you? Fast forward to yesterday, when I got a note from reader John Muir, who’d stumbled upon a cache of photos from, as he puts it, a “second-tier (or third, who knows) Swedish hockey” league. Most of the pics feature the Haninge team, which proudly wears a turkey on its jerseys. Their opponents include Väsby, Skå IK, Värmdö (note the Dallas Stars-esque design), and — brace yourself — Vita Hästen, whose socks and shoulder yoke are reason enough to cancel that trip to Stockholm you’d be been planning. Additional pics from this same photographer are available here.
Now I ask you: this or this? Shit, man, it’s not even a fair fight.
Uni Watch News Ticker: While poking around the Ponyfans.com message board, Matthew Self came upon a discussion of an interesting photo from the 1936 Rose Bowl between SMU and Stanford. “Check out the official’s knickers,” he writes. “Puffy doesn’t even begin to describe them.” … On Friday I asked if any other NFL team besides the Chiefs had uni-numbered ski caps. John Okray came up with one: the Packers. … Bizarre photo reprinted here from Friday’s Comments section: NASA astronaut Donald A. Thomas posing with Cleveland Browns regalia (great find by Jeff Lindquist). … Just when you thought the Mets had run out of ways to fail the “Is it good or is it stupid?” test: An inside source says the team is thinking of adding a metallic/glitter finish to its batting helmets next year (like the Dodgers did last season). … While basketball shorts keep getting longer and baggier, volleyball shorts are getting shorter and tighter, a trend examined in admirable detail in this article (you’ll have to register, but it’s free; thanks to Bryan “Two Line Hed Here” Redemske for the tip). … New uniforms for the Colorado Rapids (courtesy of Tony Payne). … Reprinted from Saturday’s comments: If you check out the video of the Jeff Bagwell’s retirement press conference, at about the 14-minute mark he talks about a 1991 spring traning game during which his boyhood idol, George Brett, made fun of his baggy uniform (good catch by Brian Crisp). … And from Sunday’s comments: Apparently the NFL is considering having the on-field officials wear helmets. The mind fairly boggles. … Speaking of which, NFL officials’ socks usually have a thick black stripe at the bottom (like the sock shown at the right in this photo). But referee Gerry Austin, who was working yesterday’s Jints/Iggles tilt, had much much thinner black stripes on his socks, which kept upsetting my equilibrium all game long. … Bryan Redemske has turned up another women’s hoops team with racer-back jerseys: Mississippi State. … Not quite uni-related, but this article about hockey dentistry — including the immortal subhead, “No teeth? Part of hockey” — is a great read (score an assist for Karl Anderson). … The Chiefs’ Lamar Hunt memorial decal — which was also worn by Herm Edwards — turned out to be exactly the same style as the one they wore for Hank Stram. And according to sideline reporter Andrea Kramer (who could use some serious uni advice herself), the Chiefs wore white-on-white because it was Hunt’s favorite combo. … Someone over on Chris Creamer’s board has noted that the “7″ on Channing Frye’s jersey is different from the numerals the Knicks have previously used. … Vikings QB Tarvaris Jackson was wearing a necklace yesterday. … College hoops note from Dan Bingham-Pankratz, who writes: “Just watched Georgetown play Winston-Salem State last night, and everyone noticed that WSS’s uniforms all had ‘C.E. Gaines’ nameplates. It’s a tribute to Clarence Gaines, their coach for 47 years who died last April. They’re apparently wearing them all season.” … Not uni-related, but this has been bugging me for years: If the QB is hit in the pocket by a defensive player and fumbles, why does the defender get credit for a sack? Like, the QB hasn’t been tackled (or, in many cases, even knocked down) — he’s just fumbled. So why isn’t the defender simply credited with, um, a forced fumble?! Makes exactly zero sense. I anxiously await the manipulations of quantum physics that will no doubt be needed to explain this one.
December 18th, 2006
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