Who do those stripe-clad shins at right belong to? As if you didn’t know. That’s me, Scott M.X. Turner, and Phil Hecken engaging in a classic “sock-off” outside Sheep Station during yesterday’s Uni Watch party. Here’s a rundown of who wore what:

• Ryan Connelly came all the way from Pittsburgh to attend the festivities. Okay, so he was already in town to visit friends, but still. If he jersey looks familiar, it’s because he recently wrote about it. Meant to ask him about that “Analog cap but never got around to it. What’s the scoop on that, Ryan?

• Another long-distance attendee: Daniel Dingerson (shown with his galpal, Meghan Dalton), who came down from Boston. Daniel’s Reds cap, incidentally, is a DIY effort: He bought a blank red cap and sewed the logo patch onto it. He said he wants to make more of these but the sleeve patches he finds online are usually too wide. “Most of them are about five inches wide; I’d prefer about three inches wide,” he explained to me. Anyone got a good source for smaller logo patches?

• There were several ooohs and ahhhs when Jeff Lang walked in wearing his Wahlers sweater. And as my flash made apparent, he was wearing a New Zealand All Blacks T-shirt underneath the jersey.

• It was great to meet Ed Westfield Jr., who recently ordered a membership card with infinity as his uni number. He said the T-shirt he was wearing was a recent thrift store find. I was happy to see that he availed himself of Sheep Station’s excellent meat pie.

• Scott Turner wore an umpire’s shirt with really cool patches on the chest and sleeve. Underneath that he had a super-cool German soccer jersey.

• I first met Terence Kearns a week ago at the Brooklyn Beefsteak, where he dressed very appropriately. This time around he was wearing a Sydney FC jersey. My bad for not getting a better photo of him (that’s Scott Turner’s hand making a cameo), esp. since Terence was truly the life of the party — lots of good chatter, good stories, and good cheer. He has a doozy of a membership card design idea, too. Here’s to you, buddy.

• Here’s David Vines, a mere high school lad. His family is from St. Louis, which is what his T-shirt is referring to.

• Kenny Jacobson wore a hockey jersey from a European barnstorming team he used to play on (and also took the photo at the top of this page — in fact, he’s a professional sports photographer).

• I was mildly obsessed with the odd collar on bench coach L.I. Phil’s 2007 Chivas Guadalajara jersey. And hey, see that hole near the end of the sleeve? That’s so you can do this!

• My pal Carrie Klein was recently going through some stuff in her mom’s storage locker and came up with this 1984 Celtics jersey, which she hadn’t seen since high school. As you can see, the back design was definitely a product of its era.

• Carrie brought her buddy Kevin Haley, guitarist in the Bon Savants.

• What would a Uni Watch party be without a new DIY hoodie from Matt Powers? This one featured sleeve patches from variouis eras, along with a questionable NOB and a massive uni number. Say what you want, but Powers actually makes these things himself while the rest of us just gab, and I say good for him. Oh, and he was very excited to see this sign across the street from the party venue.

• Jeff Cohen just moved to NYC a few weeks ago. Can you guess which town he left behind? Looks like he hasn’t quite let go yet.

• Confession: I’d forgotten all about this shirt design (created by former intern Nina Dubin) until Brad Eckensberger showed up wearing it. And look, SOB — that’s slogan on back. (Want to get this shirt for yourself? Look here.)

• Toward the end of the party, I glanced over to a nearby table and noticed some guy who had nothing to do with our group wearing this amazing jacket. “CMYK,” of course, stands for the four color of process printing — cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. The little numbers next to each letter represent the percentage of each color needed to create the green color of the jacket — pretty damn clever. Turns out the jacket was made by a company specializing in design-related apparel.

All in all, a swell day, which made for a happy editor. My thanks to all who attended, and especially to Ed Westfield Jr., who took lots of photos.

Holiday Reminder: I’m about to start working on my annual Uni Watch Holiday Gift Guide column for ESPN. So if you have suggestions for cool uni-related gift ideas, I’m all ears.

Annoying Tech Reminder #1: If you’re so inclined, you can now follow Uni Watch on the Twitter and on the Facebook. If you’re not so inclined, that’s fine too.

Annoying Tech Reminder #2: If you use Firefox or Internet Explorer, webmaster Johnny Ek and I would greatly appreciate it if you could take a sec and add the Alexa add-on to your browser, which will help us crunch some site-traffic numbers (plus you’ll get access to cool analytics for every site you visit). It only takes a few minutes and would really help us out. If you’re willing, the Firefox add-on is here and the IE add-on is here. After downloading them, you’ll need to fill out a very short registration form (age, gender, etc.). Can do?

And as long as I’m bugging you to do stuff…: Wouldn’t it be nice if you nominated Uni Watch as “Best Sports Blog”? Yes, it would. You can do that by going to this comment and clicking on the little green plus sign. Thanks.

Uni Watch News Ticker: The Twins will unveil their new uni set today at 1pm eastern. … Look at Joey Mullen in a neck-roll thingie, circa 1991 (with thanks to Zak McGinniss). … Like I’ve been saying all along, the Bengals’ helmet is very problematic (with thanks to Matt Shevin). … Here’s what the U.S. hockey team will be wearing at the Vancouver Olympics. … One side of the “Don’t give your designs away for free” argument is neatly summarized by this poster (thanks, Kirsten). … Also from Kirsten: Check out these amazing Chinese public health posters. … Last item on this page notes that University of Alaska Anchorage goalie Bryce Christianson forgot his practice jerseys and game jerseys for a series against Wisconsin and ended up practicing in an inside-out Wisco jersey (with thanks to Nathan Fiala). … RPI hockey recently held its “Black Friday” game. “It’s an annual thing they do to celebrate the first home ECAC league game at the Fieldhouse, and they raffle off the jerseys at the end of the game,” explains Jared Sharpe. … In a related item, Louisville Trinity High, a Catholic school in Kentucky that normally wears green and white, celebrated Friday the 13th and the school’s 666th game with blackout uniforms, which just proves that solid-black unis are the mark of the beast, or something like that. … New kit for the Philadelphia Union. … Check out this awesome shot of the 1930 Bolivian World Cup team — love it (thanks, Coachie Ballgames). … David Murphy’s son is my kind of ballplayer. … Lots of photos of TCU’s riflery uniforms in action here, and Virginia Tech’s here. The Hokies, of course, were playing against the U.S. military Maryland. … Remember the Colorado Caribous, who won Phil’s worst-uni poll yesterday? Rob Bryant found an awesome team portrait of them. … Browns vs. Browns? Nope, that’s two high school teams, the Heath Bulldogs and the Ironton Tigers — both from Ohio, natch. Lots of additional photos here. … AirTran has created team-themed jets honoring the Colts, Falcons, and Ravens. ” Ironically, no Jets jet,” notes Dave Montgomery. … All of this season’s U. of Arizona hoops players were recently asked the same set of questions by the Arizona Star. Among the questions: “Who has the best uniform in basketball?” Some of the responses are interesting. Look here (with thanks to Orlando Rodriquez). … Bernard Scott had his belt undone yesterday (good spot by Steven Wyder). … The Avs’ new blue alts made their on-ice debut on Saturday. Lots of pics here and here. … Nice. … Even nicer. … Not so nice at all. … What did Jamaal Charles have in his sock during pregame warm-ups yesterday. … Here’s an interesting question: Is this guy the heaviest No. 11 currently playing college football? The heaviest No. 11 ever? (As pointed out by Matt Mitchell.) … Interesting look at where logos fall on the color spectrum (with thanks to Chad Todd). … New volleyball uniforms for the Japanese team in the Grand Champions Cup (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Also from Jeremy: Instead of NOB, how about NOS, for name on side? That’s Perugia Volley, a volleyball team in Italy’s Serie A Volleyball League. … Benn Wineka, the man behind the Roy Williams Tie Tracker, has put together a list of the UNC hoops team’s sneaker choices. … Here’s a new one: The Missouri Mavericks (CHL) will be wearing Harry Truman jerseys on November 27th. Proceeds from the subsequent jersey auction will benefit the Truman Heritage Library. Give ’em hell, Mavs (with thanks to Jared Speckman). … Big collision in Saturday’s Georgia/Auburn game resulted in at least one of Bacarri Rambo’s interior helmet pads being knocked clean out of the shell — you can see one of them airborne here and landing next to him here (big thanks to Brent Hardman). … Also from Brent: Georgia wore a baseball-themed helmet decal for UGA baseball player Chance Veasey, who was seriously injured in a scooter accident on campus a couple of weeks ago. “Kinda wierd to see a baseball logo on a football helmet,” Can you think of any other cross-sport memorial/honor decals or patches like this?” The most famous example, of course, is the “9″ that the Expos wore in memory of Rocket Richard in 2000. I know there are other examples, but my memory banks are failing me at the moment. Anyone..? … Speaking of the Expos, while looking for something else I came across their 1969 yearbook cover — niiiiice. … Still more Expos arcana: What’s up with that rear helmet decal? Photo is from 1969, showing the first homer ever hit at Jarry Park. … Looks like some of the Colts have gone to that same super-stretchy seamless jersey that the Jints and Jags have been using. Further evidence here (screen shot courtesy of Jackson Bungart).

By Phil Hecken, with James Huening

First off. A note of apology to Jeremy Brahm, with whom I had collaborated on a HUGE post for today. Somehow…and I’m not sure how…I ended up deleting an ENTIRE post — and his portion is simply too long to recreate now (as I type this, it’s close to 11:30 pm, Saturday night). I can and will recreate, as best as possible, the rest of what I had prepared (that includes the Worst Uni Ever, Benchies, Guess The Scoreboard, Ducktracker, and 5 & 1) … but the NFL uni mocks and Jeremy’s portion will have to wait. Again, my deep apologies to Jeremy (he’ll vouch for me — I sent him the full mockup of his piece earlier this week). Sorry, buddy, I’ll get to it soon!

Now then, at least I can still bring you the final voting from the Worst. Uni. Ever. poll on which James Huening (my wingman) had provided all the legwork and assistance. So, without further ado, here’s James:

Here are the eagerly-awaited results for our poll to determine the worst uniform ever worn in (US and Canadian) sports.

9) The Orlando Thunder (1991-92) collected a mere 2.47% of the vote.

8) Gathering 3.23% of responses were the San Diego Padres (1978).

7) 4.38% of you thought the Toronto Raptors (1995-99) were the worst ever.

6) The green glare of the Seattle Seahawks (2009) was disliked the most by 5.43%.

5) Our last finalists to collect less than 10% of responses were the Vancouver Canucks (1978-85), who were chosen by 8.78% of respondents. (OK, the uni had some slight modifications during this time period, but the overall design stayed basically the same.)

4) The University of Oregon Ducks football program (2006-2008) was selected 11.18% of the time.

3) 13.42% of the vote went to the Chicago White Sox (with shorts – 1976).

2) With 22.26% of the vote, the Tucson Toros (1980) were our early favorites and they jumped out to a commanding lead over our eventual #1…

1) …The Caribous of Colorado (1978) who made a valiant comeback to take the top spot with 28.83% of responses collected

Full results can be found here.

Once again, thanks to everyone who participated. And more than 5,100 of you did, which was nearly double the turnout of our previous survey. I wonder if the mention in SI.com’s Hot Clicks had anything to do with that.

Thank you James (and thank YOU to everyone who participated). We’re going to keep polling you guys, but James needs a little break. His fingers are all cut up from counting all the ballots, and those hanging chads were a biotch to figure out. Hopefully, it didn’t affect his curling skills.

Congratulations to The Caribous (sic) of Colorado. You simply had the Worst. Uni. Ever.

Boy…Mick’s on a roll these days in Bub’s Pub. And when there’s no ladies around on which to work his magic, well — he gets sage advice on the ladies.

Enjoy your Sunday Benchies

Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Back to baseball today, and this is an oldie but a goodie from SlimandSlam. I’m pretty sure the difficulty level on this one is quite high, but I also believe the clue you need is right there on the scoreboard. Put on your thinking caps for this one. Guess The Game. And if you want to keep this going through the fall, please send me some new scoreboards! Drop me a line. Thanks!

UW #1 Seahawks Fan Michael Princip has been tracking the Oregon Ducks and all of their 2,456 possible uniform combinations this season. He’ll be updating it after each game. The Ducks were resplendent in school colors — black and steel are school colors right? And, they were taking Arizona State behind the woodshed (31-7 as I write this). So
Here’s Your Updated Ducktracker.

Our man in the street, Jim Vilk, brings you his “Top 5″ Best and one WORST college football uni matchup from yesterday:

5. LA Tech/LSU — Love those stripes!

4. Nebraska/Kansas — Normally I like white pants with white-helmeted teams, but the Huskers are a great exception.

3. Iowa/Ohio State — Big Ten teams may be overrated, but these unis aren’t (Oh, and the ANF sticker stands for “America Needs Farmers).

2. VMI/Army — I salute this classically cool matchup.

1. Tennessee/Ole Miss — Another white-helmeted team that doesn’t need white pants, and another title for the SEC.

And the worst matchup: Virginia Tech/Maryland — At least the Terps were saluting REAL warriors.

Thanks again Jim. But I’m gonna have to “Go Off The Boards” with the worst uni pick — and this photo doesn’t even begin to do it the injustice it deserves: TCU vs. Utah. Honorable mention could probably go to Oregon vs. Arizona, but Arizona didn’t look too bad.

OK, that’s gonna do it for today. Two legacy games (the Bills visit the Titans Oilers in the early game, while the late game features the Chiefs Texans at the Raiders).

And to all the New York City-and-environs denizens, don’t forget today is the UW Gathering at Sheep Station in beautiful Brooklyn. 2:30 till whenever. Hope to see you there.

Everyone have a great Sunday!

[Editor's Note: Today we're honored to have a guest-written entry from Robert Marshall, who recently went curling with fellow Chicago reader James Huening. -- PL]

By Robert “RPM” Marshall

James “JTH” Huening and I went to the Chicago Curling Club on November 1st as part of their “learn to curl” program. The place was more or less like a country club. There was a lounge with a bar, and the locker room had fancy-pants stuff for your hair and liquids to gargle. There was also tons of great artwork with a curling theme, like this sculpture above the mantle.

And then there was the American Curling History Museum, curated by this gin-swilling fellow named Jim, who was a right proper bully gent. The museum mostly housed pins, but it had lots of cool artifacts too, like this teapot in the shape of a curling stone. Plus there were lots of great trophies that could make the hockey hall of fame jealous (some are shown on this page), and betwixt the museum and the bar was a really great curling-style schuffleboard game, complete with mini-stones.

After we finished casing the place, it was time to watch a short movie about extreme curling. Sort of a combination of this and this (keeping in mind that everyone outside of the curling cult knows the little message at the end of this clip). From there we stretched and headed out to the ice for some tutorials and strategy talks. That’s me on the right, with a few hair-control devices in place to keep my mop manageable. There was one guy on my team who not only didn’t appreciate my barrettes (go figure) but he also really sucked up to the teacher and requested fancy brooms while I, and I believe James too, opted for wood. Did I mention the ice featured a really cool clock?

Once the instructions were out of the way, it was time to throw a couple of “ends.” An end is when both teams throws eight stones (two by each player from the “hack” over the “hog line” aiming for the “button” at the center of the “house”). James was essentially his team’s captain (”lead” or “skip”), as illustrated here by the lady under the Canadian flag holding out her arm, which tells the curler which spin or curl to put on the stone, and where to aim. I was a lowly sweeper, which was quite the cardio workout, and I swear it’s true.

Now I don’t mean to brag (read: I totally mean to brag), but I happened to throw a stone that landed square on the button with nary a sweep. Notice how the ladies chasing it down are not sweeping. Of course, it was later knocked out by one of my teammates, but that’s okay (read: that’s not at all okay).

After our two “ends,” we retired to the lounge for our free Labbatts, which we followed with another free Labbatts provided by a Russian couple on James’s team not using their drink tickets, which we chased with a Labbatts bought for us by the club president who was recruiting both of us, but especially James, to join the cult. I have to say, as much fun as it was, it was very cult-esque, kind of like that table hockey league I played in. So cult = mostly good.

Let us now turn our attention to the Uni Watch portion of our program. Now, if you’ve follwed James’s posts in the comments section, I’m sure you have noticed that he’s a real swell fellow, but he must have woken up with a bee in his bonnet that day, and ready to start a fight — check this out. Can you believe it!? To the untrained eye it’s a nice kit, but let’s take a closer look at that hat. It’s a wool tweed herringbone worn by the IRISH, for the cornmother’s sake. And we were curling, a Scottish/Canadian sport. What gaul (sic)!!! He should have gone tam and kilt. I mean really, was he trying to get us kicked out of the joint with his tomfoolery? It was sooooo embarrassing.

Fortunately, one of us had it together and dressed with the dignity the sport requires. The sweater, I am embarrassed to say, I stitched for like eight hours (or until 5am) the night before. In addition to the tiger on the front, it had this on the back (translation: “Free Fighting / Wrestling Curling Club”) in glittered black felt.

So James, by virtue of being associated with me, was off the hook with the cult members who were shooting cartoon darts out of their eyes at his total fashion blunder Irish messabout. I swear, you can’t take him anywhere.

The best four minutes you’ll spend today: Paul here. The full Dock Ellis video clip, produced by No Mas, is now available. Do yourself a favor and watch it right now:

How great is that? (Answer: Very, very great.)

In case you hadn’t noticed: Page 2 got a big redesign this week, and the revised format includes a new Page 2 Blog, to which I posted a small contribution yesterday afternoon (it’s not perma-linked, so I can’t link directly to it, but it’s the one headlined “Spying on Roy Williams”). We’re all being encouraged to contributie to this new P2 blog, so I’ll probably have my fair share of stuff there. How will that affect this site? Here are some divisions of content I’ve been considering:

In actuality, the P2 blog shouldn’t have any affect on us here, except that I might occasionally take an item that would have ended up in the Ticker, expand on it a bit, and run it on P2. I’ll try to notify you when that happens, probably via this thingie.

Oh, and speaking of tech thingies, Johnny Ek whispered four magic words in my ear yesterday: “Uni Watch iPhone app.” Not a reality yet, but he’s working on it.

Coming soon: Uni Watch cattle-ranching uniforms: Thanks for all the positive feedback on yesterday’s beefsteak entry. Many of you inquired about beefsteak lore, beefsteak protocol, how you can throw your own beefsteak, etc. If you want to educate yourself on the topic, I strongly recommend two articles: The first and (by far the most important) is Joseph Mitchell’s seminal 1938 New Yorker piece, “All You Can Hold for Five Bucks,” which you can download as a PDF here. And at the risk of mooing my own horn, I think you’ll find my New York Times article+video about the North Jersey beefsteak scene instructive as well.

Several of you also inquired about meat-centric cookbooks. Personally, I lean heavily on The Complete Meat Cookbook, The River Cottage Meat Book, Charcuterie, The Whole Beast, Serious Barbecue, and probably a few others that are escaping me at the moment (I could check my kitchen bookshelf, but that would entail walking 15 entire feet, so forget it). That should be enough to get you started, yes? Yes.

FYI: The site will be down from about 2am-4am eastern Sunday, while our web host performs some basic server maintenance.

Uni Watch News Ticker: The Avs have finally unveiled their alternate jersey, which looks just like I said it would (i.e., really bad) more than two months ago. … Awesome set of new pin-up illos from Rob Ullman. I’d say this one ranks among his best ever, plus let’s give special props to Dawn Santin, who’s actually a Yankees fan but commissioned this portrait of herself as a wedding present for her Phils-obsessed husband. … “I was watching some of the new Battlestar Galactica series, which has a subplot about a sports team that ends up turning into a group of resistance fighters,” says Ed Hahn. “The team is the Caprica Buccaneers, and they have a logo. Also, one of the warm-ups from the series was up for sale on eBay Canada.” … Marty Turco discusses his new mask in this video clip (with thanks to William Banowsky). … Okay, so you knew Ron Guidry was nicknamed “Gator,” but did you know he had a little Izod alligator on his spikes? (Nice find by Thomas Huppé.) … How great would it be to play for a team called the Sheetrocks? (Great find, Kirsten.) … New World Cup kit for Russia. … Dylan Houser has designed a shoe collection for Puma, inspired by the 700 level at Veterans Stadium. Further details in this video clip. … Oh man, how cool is this! And no green dot on the back, I’m guessing (big thanks to Zak Kalina). … You know how college football teams sometimes have multiple players wearing the same uni number? That’s a real drag for at least one beat writer (with thanks to Nicholas Roznovsky). … “Happened to catch that Jane Lynch’s character on Glee sometimes wears an Adidas track suit with the logo on the back covered by patches,” notes Dan Cichalski. I mentioned that to Kirsten, who said Lynch’s track suit branding was recently discussed in this All Things Considered interview. “She [Lynch] said they’re slowing switching to Nike,” says Kirsten, “because Fox is big on Nike, or something to that effect. It comes up at the 2:00 mark in the interview.” Faaaaascinating. … Hahahaha, everyone laughed at Jay Cutler last night because he threw a shitload of interceptions wore a cap with the outdated NFL logo (good catch by Chuck Pearson). … Mother lode of contributions from Jeremy Brahm, including new logos for the 2011 Men’s Team Handball World Championships (pretty awesome, right?), the BJ League [basketball] All-Star Game, and the JBL All-Star Game, plus a basketball facemask that looks more like a bad Halloween costume. … And wait, more from Jeremy! “The Saitama Broncos of the BJ League have pickles on their uniform. Actually it is a Japanese eggplant — this is their sponsor. They also have a player whose NOB is a singular T.” … Scandalous news out of the Bronx, where it turns out that Yogi Berra’s retired 8 is upside-down, as you can cearly see by comparing it to Bill Dickey’s 8. Quick, fire the entire staff! … Remember that article from yesterday about eliminating football helmets altogether? Turns out that we could do that and still maintain the game’s visual integrity (with thanks to Russell Goutierez). … Lebron James says he’s going to change his uni number. … Even by the usual standards of corporate douchebaggery, this story really takes the biscuit. Please, Mr. Really Big Asteroid, just plow right into the planet already — we’re ready. Fuck, we’re overdue.

One last reminder: Assuming Mr. Really Big Asteroid takes a few days to process requests (I hear he’s a busy fella), I’ll look forward to seeing lots of you at the Uni Watch party on Sunday, 2:30pm, at Sheep Station. But once the party’s over, Mr. Asteroid, fire away.

Did you know there’s a clinical condition characterized by a fear of vegetables? It’s true! It’s called lachanophobia, which would make a great name for my blog if I hadn’t already chosen “Uni Watch.”

All of which makes a good introduction to today’s very protein-centric content, which stretches across several platforms. Think of it as a three course meal: The appetizer is a piece written by reader Aaron Rich, about a ballpark food ritual called “eating for the cyle.” And the dessert is a new ESPN column about team-themed tailgating.

As for the main course, it’s time to check out the photos from last Sunday’s Brooklyn Beefsteak, which was pretty damn epic. Look at all those lachanophobiacs! Sorry, I’m like a kid with a new toy now that I’ve discovered that word. I’ll try not to overdo it.

Anyway: The organizers bought half a steer, so there were many different cuts being served: mini-burgers, ribeye, short ribs, hanger steak, you name it. The meat was cooked on the sidewalk right in front of the venue and then sliced, plattered, and served, all in a rather frantic fashion.

I gave a short presentation on beefsteak history also had a small onstage role with the mighty Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Company, holding up a few signs to cue the audience during their stirring rendition of “The Song of the Beefsteak” (written especially for the occasion, don’tcha know).

I wasn’t the only one wearing a Meats tee, by the way — Uni Watch reader Terence Kearns had one too (and lived up to it). But my favorite outfit was the one worn by this guy. What uniform is that? America West baggage handler, as it turns out.

Women were barred from beefsteak participation back in the day. But the fairer sex was well represented at the Brooklyn event, thanks to attendees like Kirsten, Baroness Karen McBurnie, Aaron Rich’s pal Shawna, and, especially, this chick. Never did get her name, but she definitely took the award for best apron.

I could go on, but you get the idea. If you want to see more, check out my photos or, better yet, this guy’s photos, which are the best ones I’ve seen so far.

(Big thanks to Kirsten for several of the pics, plus the salad monster illo, plus-plus the lachanophobia story, and apologies to Scott Turner and all other vegetarians.)

In non-meat news: Tim Brulia’s “White at Home in the NFL” page has been updated to reflect the first half of this season.

Because, y’know, why not?: In our continuing quest to take up as much useless internet bandwidth as possible, this site now has its own Facebook page, which you can sign up as a “fan” (or, more likely, be blocked from access because you’re at work). Meanwhile, you can also sign up for the Uni Watch Twitter feed, whoop-whoop! Watch for more exciting — okay, pointless — things to sign up for soon!

’Tis the Season: Got any cool sports-related gift ideas? Know of any companies producing interesting uni-ish products? If so, speak up, because I’m about to start working on my annual holiday gift guide column for ESPN and am very open to suggestions.

Oh, and if anyone remembers the details on that company with the expensive hand-made footballs that I linked to a week or two ago, please fill me in, because I can’t remember the name of the company and can’t find the link. Thanks.

Uni Watch News Ticker: The Green Bay Gamblers (USHL) are conducting a create-a-jersey contest for kids. No word on whether this is devaluing the market rate for child designers. Details in this PDF download (with thanks to Philip Caldwell). … Hey, look what’s being auctioned off! … But that’s nothing compared to this. … Mea culpa for not having mentioned the Habs’ recent 1910-11 throwbacks, which looked my-t-fine on Tuesday night. … Here’s a modest proposal: Let’s get rid of football helmets altogether (with thanks to Jim Vilk). … Went thrifting over the weekend and picked up this varsity jacket. Love the two-tone pocket, the leather UCLA stripes, and the rear lettering. … While I was grabbing that jacket, Kirsten got this awesome ice skating scarf. Great illos, as you can see more clearly in this larger photo. … Fucking amazing electric football video here (with thanks to Chris Markham). … Again with the No. 55 riflery jersey. I’m now getting seriously spooked by this. … Buffalo WR Brett Hamlin has “BAWB” on his neck bumper. “According to a post on his Facebook page, it stands for ‘bad ass white boy,’” reports Dennis Abrams. … Check out this gumball helmet set. Never seen that goalpost display system before (with thanks to Brinke Guthrie). … Cool painting showing Reds uniforms through the years — download it here, and read more about it here (with thanks to Steven Wyder and Ryan Connelly). … There’s still time for you to vote in Phil’s “Worst Uni Ever” poll, which was the top link yesterday on SI.com’s “Hot Clicks” …See, this is why I live in NYC. Where else could you see Orly Taitz picketing Fox News? Try finding entertainment like that in Peoria, you rubes!

By now I’m sure most of you have seen Phil’s recent Saturday post in which he invited readers to help create a baseball uni design for a Tennessee high school. What you probably haven’t seen, however, is a comment that reader Scott Misner posted very late that night (I didn’t see it myself until Monday). It goes like this:

Hey, just want to throw out a notion here about these design-a-uni contests. It’s all fun and games to pull this kind of thing together. But people get paid thousands of dollars to do logo design and/or uniform design.

Okay, so those designers at Nike, Reebok, and the NBA often show their limited skill sets. But doing spec contest work for “goodies” devalues the design profession.

Sure, a bunch [of readers] are going to submit their designs — caring less [about] whether they get any real return value. That’s cool. Your choice. But realize it devalues the profession. And the next time a business “doesn’t get it” when you work to articulate the value of graphic design, realize you perpetuated that lack of appreciation for an art form.

Lastly, I hope you allocate that same amount of resources to your local Boys & Girls Club, YWCA, or other nonprofit programs with this type of need.

I assume Scott is a professional designer, although I don’t know that for sure (he didn’t write back when I e-mailed him to ask for some background context). In any case, his comment raises some very interesting questions. What does “devaluing” mean, especially in the age of Wal-Mart and the internet? If something can be easily devalued, does that mean it was overvalued? Is there anything wrong with doing creative work on spec? What is a fair price for design (or for any skilled work)?

I confess that I approach these questions with a certain bias, which I’ll explain like so: From 1987-1993, I edited graphic design books, and I often had to read design magazines as part of my job. Desktop publishing software was just coming into vogue at the time, and the design mags were full of articles that basically said, “These laypeople, they have no idea how typefaces work!” and “We can’t let just anyone design a pamphlet — they don’t know what they’re doing!”

Of course, many people using early desktop publishing programs didn’t know what they were doing. But it was pretty obvious that the people writing those design articles 20 years ago weren’t concerned about preserving the state of typography, or whatever — they were concerned about laypeople (that’s really the term they used) suddenly having access to the tools of the design trade. Their exclusive club was about to get a lot less exclusive. Aside from the economic implications of this, many designers at the time were clearly offended by the prospect of the rabble being able to choose their own fonts.

Over the subsequent years, I’ve noticed that designers frequently fall back on this sense of self-importance. (As an example, check out this book review I wrote in 2002.) And while I could be wrong, I sense a similar whiff of elitism coming from Scott’s post. He’s basically saying, “Don’t try this at home — leave it to the professionals.” That’s a good argument when you’re referring to, say, medicine or law. But there are good reasons not to let laypeople practice those professions — that’s why you need a license to engage in them. Maybe Scott thinks designers should have to be licensed too.

Personally, though, I disagree. I think good things often happen when beginners and enthusiastic amateurs mess around with the ideas in their heads — that’s how we got zines, punk rock, outsider art, etc. And if they choose to give those ideas away at below market rate, it doesn’t mean they’re not “get[ting] any real return value” from their work — sometimes value comes from a sense of fun, satisfaction, and accomplishment, and that’s every bit as valid as the value in a $3,000 fee.

Fact is, computers and the internet have changed the rules for creative professionals. Blogs let anyone be a published writer, YouTube lets anyone be a filmmaker, and, yes, design software lets anyone be a designer. But if someone starts a blog about uni design, does that “devalue” my work? Personally, I just see it as competition, which is something no professional should resent or be afraid of — it’s part of the creative environment. Now, granted, my work is available for free, so there’s no way for a blogger to undercut me in terms of price (at least not until I put this site behind a pay wall, which is something I hope I never have to do). But I’d like to think that my work is good enough to hold its own in the marketplace. And if it’s not, well, tough shit on me. My career isn’t an entitlement, and neither is any designer’s.

Scott’s most intriguing point comes toward the end: “[T]he next time a business ‘doesn’t get it’ when you work to articulate the value of graphic design, realize you perpetuated that lack of appreciation for an art form.” Again, this sounds fairly elitist (and note how he’s now elevated design from “profession” to “art form”), but Scott’s implicit point — i.e., giving away the store for free ultimately contributes to design illiteracy — rings true. It’s similar to my obsession with the apostrophe catastrophe, a punctuation problem rooted in “laypeople’s” use of word-processing software. In short: If you don’t have professional gatekeepers upholding some level of standards, those standards will go down the crapper.

I could go on, but I’ve rambled enough here. What do you think about these issue? Discuss. And Scott, if you’re reading this, thanks for raising these issues — excellent food for thought.

November Raffle: A guy named Jeremy Yingling recently started a design operation called Infojocks, which comes up with interesting graphic approaches to sports statistics. He’s recently begun selling three new posters, and I have one of each to raffle off. First-place winner will get his or her choice from the three poster designs; second person gets choice of the remaining two; third person gets the third poster.

To enter, send a blank e-mail with your name in the subject line to the NEW raffle address (note that this isn’t the old raffle address or the regular Uni Watch e-mail address) by 10pm next Monday, November 9th. One entry per person, but anyone enrolled in the Uni Watch membership program at the time of the drawing can send four entries. I’ll announce the winners next Tuesday.

iPod? What’s an iPod?: I’ve put one last batch of vintage indie singles up on eBay. Coming soon: a few select LPs. Stay tuned.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Mark Messier wore an Edmonton Oil Kings jacket to the World Series. Plus he appears to have become a conehead (with thanks to Chris Gundry). … I think we’ve seen some of these before, but check out these great ski jumps erected in stadiums (with thanks to Ben Traxel). … Interesting logo query from Susan Freeman, who writes: “A recent issue of SI had a photo of Jonathan Toews that showed him sitting at his locker. The Blackhawks lockers have a black-and-white rendition of Tommy Hawk, and the B&W logo really makes the facial features stand out, to a point where the war paint looks like letters. Is this a hidden signature from when the logo was redesigned in 1964? Or does it somehow say Tommy Hawk?” I’d never heard this interpretation before. Anyone..? … Yesterday I linked to this varsity jacket operation. Now the man who told me about that company, Steven Tatar, has provided a bunch of photos of the factory itself — great stuff. … Lots of great old Idaho/BSU rivalry photos in this slideshow (with thanks to Chris Salove). … When the System of Dress was introduced a few years back, remember how the Nike models were shown wearing striped and patterned undersleeves? Ohio State’s David Lighty appeared to be wearing one of those undershirts at a recent practice (good spot by Nick Houser). … Chad Cate notes that Marshall has a running back named Darius Marshall, which creates an unusual SNOB situation. … What’s that tat? Look! Lots of additional pics here. … Seattle forward Nate Jaqua had to wear a plain blood jersey after being kicked in the head and subsequently bleeding on his jersey a few nights ago (with thanks to Matt Beaudin). … Next time anyone says I complain too much about corporate sponsorships, I’m just gonna point them here (with thanks to Brinke Guthrie, who no doubt will miss Texas Stadium — that’s him in November of 1971, shortly after the place opened). … Georgia Tech usually wears white at home — but maybe not this Saturday. … Dozens of great 1940s Washington Huskies photos here (big thanks to Phil Amaya). … Here’s the Babe in a different kind of uniform (great find by Alyssa Miller).

[Editor's Note: Today we have an excellent guest entry by Ryan Connelly, who tells the tale of a DIY project gone horribly awry. -- PL]

By Ryan Connelly

My buddies and I started an ice hockey team and named it the Invaders. Just a low-C, high-B level team that plays other local adult/beer league teams. So of course this gave me the opportunity to design a uniform.

I was playing in a tournament in Mississauga, Ontario, when I saw one of the players wearing this jersey and immediately fell in love with it, for obvious reasons. When I found the blank jersey online, I thought it was black/yellow, but when I got it in the mail I was surprised to find it was brown/yellow.

Before I go on, I should explain that I’m color-deficient, so one of the things you’ll notice is the jersey and socks being brown/yellow and the logo being black/yellow. It just adds to the “charm” of the uniform, trust me. But really, it kind of works out nicely with our black pants, gloves, and skates.

Next step — my favorite step — design a logo or two in AutoCAD. We decided on a “space invaders” theme. Here’s the game play that most of us remember, and I found this helpful image online too.

Then I started to goof around in AutoCAD. I traced the game’s wordmark, teamed it up with an invader guy, and resized the wordmark. Then I prettied it up a bit and put a spaceship-like boarder around it, to create the finished logo.

The next task: uni numbers. I played the game online for a bit until I could get to the “High Scores” screen at the end of the game because I knew it would rank at least 10 names. That way I would have every numeral to work with.

Then I did my CAD thing, outlined the numerals, and finished them.

With the logos and numbers now designed, it was time to create physical versions of them for the jerseys. I printed four or five copies of the logo outline on a plotter to scale. Then I
cut out the spaceship-like border, invader (body, arms, antennae separate), and each letter, pasted all of that onto cheap yellow construction paper you can buy anywhere, traced each element, and then cut again. Now I had logo templates to trace onto fabric.

As for the numbers: For this step I printed all the numbers to scale then cut. I wanted to use two-tone numbers (yellow with a black border), so this had to be done in two steps. The first set of cut-outs was the black outline of the number; when cut, it was obvious which number was which. But the second set was the yellow inner part of the number, and they were just basically blocks. so I assigned a letter to each shape.

Take the number 8 for example: The number 8 uses blocks “i” and “H” to make up the yellow parts. The yellow “i” block is also used in the numbers 6, 9, and 0, so no sense cutting out nine different stencils. I just cut one block and reused it for tracing. I also printed out a smaller version of the stencils and used them as a key when putting together the fabric.

After doing all of that, I had this group of stencils for the black part of the numbers, and this group of stencils for the yellow part of the numbers.

With the stencils made, it was time to trace everything onto fabric, beginning with the logo. First I traced the logo outline and cut out the logo shapes. Then I traced the invader guy, cut the invader guy into little rectangles, cut all of them out into their finished shapes (with a little “B” on one side for “back”), and organized them for gluing.

I used a template guide to line up all the yellow invaders with the black outline and glued. I followed basically the same steps for the letters. After gluing. I later stitched. When the logos were done, I followed basically the same steps for the numbers.

Now it was time to put everything onto the jerseys. I lined and centered the stitched-up logos and numbers on the jerseys, then glued them onto the jerseys, and then stitched. The front looked like this, and you can see a bunch of the backs here.

The first five were finished and look great! Then I washed one of them and … DISASTER.

I had used a heavy twill-like fabric called duck cloth — the same kind of cloth used for bean bags in games like cornhole. And to hold the numbers, logos, and letters in place (both to themselves and to the jersey), I’d used a glue that, unbeknownst to me, pretty much dissolves when washed. As the glue wore off in the wash, the stitching cut right through the material.

What a mess. And we had a game coming up real soon! So after all that time, money, and energy, I gave in. I sent the logo and the jerseys out to a local screen-printing business, picked out some old-school block numbers, and ta-da. Here’s a close-up of the front, and here’s how they looked from the back.

I think the block numbers add a certain charm to the whole jersey. Also, I’ve told the team that I’m going to make logos the correct way over the winter. It really wont take much to place the sewn logos over top of the screened logos.

This project was started around mid-April and finished up in mid-July. Looking back, I can be 110% honest when I say that I was NEVER mad when the material got destroyed in the wash. A touch let down, but never pissed off at all. Also, I had an absolute blast working on this project from start to finish! Working on the logo, finding the materials, working with the team. Nothing was ever a burden on this project, and I loved every minute of it.

Last but certainly not least, I got this completely awesome DIY of my DIY by the great artist himself, Mr. Robert Marshall. You can see it bobbling [along with some trenchant Uni Watch commentary and a perfect example of the conflicting urges to create and destroy -- PL] here.

And speaking of DIY: Paul here. Wouldn’t you like to own one of these sweaters? You can, if you have a knitting machine, because Rick Fleck recently mailed me this officially licensed 1990 knitting guide, which provides sweater patterns for all 14 NFC teams at the time. I’ve scanned the entire guide and put the page scans here. I know exactly zero about intarsia knitting, but I would love it if someone could make a sweater based on one of these patterns.

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say most of you reading this probably don’t know how to knit. But maybe your significant other does, hmmm? Get crackin’, guys.

College Hoops Reminder: I’m continuing to work on my college hoops season-preview column for ESPN. So if you know of teams with new uniforms, new patches, new court designs, etc., let’s have ’em. Thanks.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Really interesting article about a new skate sharpening method here. … Dozens of tremendous old Iowa football pics available in this gallery (with thanks to Rob Leavell). … Rob Nanovic notes that Maine’s football team is wearing Adidas jerseys and Nike pants. … Hmmm, White Sox hockey jerseys — interesting (with thanks to Zach Nesler). … Fascinating info from George Tvardy, who writes: “Very interesting story that has been on the sports shows here in Knoxville: Although Adidas is Tennessee’s supplier, the black alternates worn Saturday night were not actually Adidas jerseys. Story is that Mike Hamilton, UT athletic director, only agreed to the wearing of the black jerseys late Friday afternoon and UT then got a local printer to make the alternate jerseys. Since UT has the Adidas contract, they had to put Adidas logos on these jerseys so that they would not be in violation of their contract.” … Stop what you’re doing and read this absolutely essential article about flannel jersey fabric. Highly recommended reading (great find by Dave Grob). … Brian Brown has made himself a coffee table based on the old Mecca Arena court design. … Oopsie. … Latest reason to hate jersey sponsorships: If two soccer teams show up wearing the same sponsor, one of them has to change (with thanks to Terence Kearns). … Paul Wiederecht sent along a great SI spread from the 1963 Army/Navy game, with Navy wearing SOB (slogan on back). The story behind the slogan is explained here. … Speaking of old SI material, Ricko pointed me toward this great 1954 item about heavyweight sweaters. Here’s the second page of the spread, and a close-up of the short text. … The London Daily Telegraph is the latest media outlet to publish a rundown of history’s worst uniforms, except their survey consists primarily of soccer and rugby kits (with thanks to Craig Ackers). … Totally awesome vintage Chinese Taipei warm-up jacket available here. … Late-breaking Halloween submission from Mike Miller, who got a photo of a friend dressed up as Dave Dravecky. … Even better, Joe Rosenbaum dressed up as Billy Ripken. … Cleveland textiles maven Steven Tatar tipped me wise to this letterman jacket operation. “They’re the real deal,” he says. “Leather sleeves, melton wool bodies, chenille hooked tip-on letters, and chain-stitching to boot.” … A French soccer player wore the wrong jersey the other day (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Anyone know why the Coyotes wore white at home last night? … Mark Windle notes that Coy Wire appears to be missing some jersey piping. Yes, the nameplate could be covering up some of it, but not all of it. Hmmmm. … Steve Garvey + Dwight Gooden + and Super Dave + a blindfold = a really cheesy old video clip (big thanks to Steve Mandich). … Aaron Stilley has been doing some Negro Leagues research and came across an interesting item in the Chicago Defender. “I can’t tell if there was something specifically humorous about the Chicago American Giants numbers on backs, or if it was just strange that they had numbers at all,” he writes. “Would numbers on backs have been a unique sight in 1938?” I don’t think so, but I know very little about Negro Leagues uni history. Anyone..? … Kobe appears to have put on just a bit of weight (with thanks to Dwayne White).

Spent the weekend in Cooperstown, where my old college buddy Jeff Katz is now the deputy mayor. Just a short trip — drove up on Friday, drove back on Sunday — and most of it went by in a blur, which may say something about the amount of Halloween candy I ate (I think my sugar rush is just now subsiding).

Highlight of the weekend was a behind-the-scenes tour at the Hall of Fame, conducted by senior curator and longtime Uni Watch ally Tom Shieber. I’ll have more to say about that later on, but here’s a little taste, in the form of a fairly remarkable coincidence: As you may recall, back on Friday I ran these pics of Rogers Hornsby wearing a Chicago Youth League uni with FNOF. So imagine my surprise when Shieber took us into the Hall’s art storage area (basically a massive collection of artwork pertaining to baseball — some of it good, much of it hilariously bad) and I saw the painting shown above, which shows the Raja wearing something very similar to the uni he was wearing in those photos.

Didn’t watch a single minute of football all weekend, so no Monday Morning Uni Watch today — sorry, gang.

Our way of celebrating the internet’s 40th birthday: The site has crashed for the past two nights, both times at 1am eastern. Johnny Ek has been gloating about the Yankees’ impending Series victory burning up the phone lines with our web host to determine the problem, and the short version is that it appears to have something to do with the commenting function. So as a precaution, we’re going to shut down the comments tonight at about 11pm eastern. That’s just a Band-Aid fix, of course, but we’ll shoot for a more permanent solution in the days to come. Thanks for your patience.

In case you missed it: I had a short column about World Series rings posted on ESPN on Friday afternoon. You can check it out here.

Sponsor Shout-Out: As you may have noticed, our old friends at Distant Replays have rejoined the ranks of Uni Watch advertisers. It’s a slightly different operation than it was before, but DR founder Andy Hyman is still on board (plus he’s now blogging), and it’s great to be working with him again. Welcome back, Andy.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Great article on former college football powers, with some wonderful old photos, here (with thanks to Mike Prospero). … Very unusual NOB here — a nickname in quotes plus a surname with a tilde (great find by Shane Bua). … The Alaska Aces went with a Halloween uni on Saturday (with thanks to Reggie Kennedy). … Check out the very odd helmets worn by Denmark at the B-Group European Championships (interesting find by Stefan Schubert). … Surprisingly accurate-ish Dolphins uniforms shown a little more than halfway through this South Park clip (with thanks to Jacob Reed). … Here’s a weird one: a Mizzou jacket with a Marlins-esque insignia (with thanks to Ben Traxel). … Interview with the guy who designed the World Cup trophy here (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Also from Jeremy: a great site devoted to 1800s soccer uniforms and a wonderful 1906 Austrialian football illustration. … Not sure why some Lakers players were still wearing the Opening Night championship patch for Friday’s game against the Mavs. It was only a couple of players (I think just Artest and Odom); everyone else was patch-free. Trying to find out what’s up. … Joey Rubino notes that Alex Goligoski went without his collar laces on Friday. … In a related item, Brooks Simpson points out that Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask used to wear collar laces but more recently has gone without them. Same goes for his white jersey. … Many readers noted that Michigan linebacker Kevin Leach’s nameplate was missing on Saturday, plus he was wearing No. 10 instead of his usual 52. … Indiana TE Max Dedmond had a decal glitch on Saturday (screen shot courtesy of David Teigland). … More coverage of Carey Price’s mask design here (with thanks to Stephen Sickles). … Back in March, I published this ESPN column about DIY jerseys. One of the featured DIYers was Aaron Stilley, who had made himself a KC Scouts jersey. Now he’s made a mini-Rangers jersey for his son. “I based the design largely on this jersey, which looks pretty much like what NHLuniforms.com lists as the team’s 1928-1941,” says Aaron. “One detail I didn’t attempt was the white collar.” … “Ryan Swope is a WR for Texas A&M,” writes Glenn Stern. “He normally wears No. 25, but he also plays special teams, and there’s a defensive back, Jordan Pugh, who is also No. 25. So on special teams, Swope puts on a different-numbered jersey with NNOB. I also think it has a special zipper on the side so they can get it on and off. In that last photo, note his No. 25 helmet and his ‘Swope’ nameplate showing through the NNOB jersey.” … Warren Humphrey sent along two awesome Reds photos: This one shows equipment manager Bernie Stowe putting uniforms in the Cincy locks, circa 1969, and this one shows an unidentified seamstress working on the 1972 Big Red Machine uniforms. … Man, I gotta travel to Greece, at least judging from this butcher’s market photo recently taken by my friend Anne Gant. … Things that happen roughly every two months: I eat a salad, the Rams win a game, and some newspaper publishes an article about how the local team’s uniforms are laundered (with thanks to Michael Becker). … Notable Halloween costumes: Nathan Haas saw someone dressed as David Wright (complete with Gazoo helmet and sadly appropriate NOB), and Eric Bennett played softball dressed as Oscar Gamble. … Hmmm, maybe this color-on-color thing isn’t such a great idea after all. … Two eBay finds I haven’t seen before: a 1984 Olympics staff uniform and a vintage roller derby uni (for only 20 grand!). … Cole Jones has completed his decade-by-decade survey of the North Stars’ and Stars’ uniform history. It starts here and then you can follow the links for the subsequent entries.

Today is the 35th anniversary of a seminal sports event: the Rumble in the Jungle, which pitted George Foreman against Muhummad Ali in Kinshasa, Zaire. And No Mas honcho Chris Isenberg is marking the occasion with some seriously gorgeous video animation.

Some quick background: Most of you probably think of No Mas as a T-shirt brand, but it’s actually a multi-faceted media project — a project that was born out of Isenberg’s fascination with Ali. That fascination eventually blossomed into Isenberg becoming an official Ali licensee (you can read more about the unusual route he took to that destination here), and he’s used that connection to commission three short animations to commemorate the Rumble anniversary.

The first one, called Zaire, is by watercolorist David Rathman and is sort of a gray-wash time capsule that juxtaposes iconic Rumble sound bites with Rathman’s spectacular brushwork. You can see additional stills here, or just watch the video below.

Next up: Round Zero by oil painter Jerome Lagarrigue. No Mas describe this one thusly: “Lagarrigue draws inspiration from Ali’s own zoological poetry (’I done wrassled with an alligator/Tussled with a whale’) in exploring Ali’s mental and spiritual transformation in the moments before the bell sounds round one.” OK, so that sounds a tad pretentious, but the imagery is magnificent, all the more so when you see it in motion. Check it out:

The third video is by pen-and-ink illustrator James Blagden, is a hoot. As you may know, James Brown was headlining an all-star soul concert in Zaire that was organized in conjunction with the Rumble (and was also the subject of a recent documentary). So with the Godfather of Soul and the Greatest of All Time having been in the same place at the same time, Blagden has imagined a fictitious showdown between the two of them, set to JB’s “Cold Blooded.” Dig:

Great stuff, three great takes on a seminal event, and three potent reminders that boxing is still the most aesthetically potent sport of them all. Chris is going to be making some of the original animation artwork available for sale, and there may be an exhibit at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville. You can keep track of all that news on the No Mas site.

I love these short films, and I certainly don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade here, but I do feel a reality check is in order regarding the Rumble. To wit: It was a bad fight, and a boring one. Forget all the When We Were Kings mythologizing and just watch the fight. If you do, one thing quickly becomes apparent: Foreman looks like an amateur. No balance, no leverage, no nothing. Watch how he often he has his palms awkwardly extended and open in front of him, like a two-bit street pug. He doesn’t even look like a credible slugger — more like a third-rate Tough Man contestant. Seriously, there are multiple points in the fight where it’s embarrassing to watch him. Meanwhile, Ali’s rope-a-dope tactics, while canny, make for a snooze of a bout. Even the eventual knockout is unsatisfying — more of a cumulative meltdown than major punch-and-drop.

And yet the legend of the Rumble has endured. Why? (1) Foreman had built up an aura of invincibility in his previous fights, so the result was seen as a huge upset. (2) This was the fight in which Ali reclaimed the heavyweight title, something that had only been done once before (by Floyd Patterson, don’tcha know). (3) Ali, as was his habit, used the buildup to the fight as a backdrop for addressing powerful themes of race and culture — particularly powerful in this case, since the fight was in Africa. (4) Fight fans love epic themes, even if they’re more rooted in myth than in fact, and this fight had lots of powerful thematic elements. (5) “Rumble in the Jungle” is a catchy slogan.

None of which makes the No Mas videos any less compelling. Like I said, I’m just trying to provide a nugget of reality amidst the mythmaking.

Finally, one interesting uni-related note from the Rumble: Referee Zack Clayton wore zebra stripes — not something you often see in the boxing ring.

Bonus Column: I’ll have a short piece on World Series rings up on ESPN today. I won’t be around to add the link when it goes live, but it should be at this URL (that link will give an error message until the piece goes live, probably around 12:30pm eastern).

College Hoops Home Stretch: I’m currently working on my annual college basketball season-preview column for ESPN. Compiling one of these columns for college sports is different than doing it for one of the pro leagues, because there’s no central database of all the new uniforms, no league PR office or single manufacturer to go over things with. Basically, it’s a free-for-all, so I just try to stay alert and keep track of all the new designs and patches as I become aware of them.

Here’s what I have so far: Alabama, Auburn, Cal, Cincinnati, Colorado State, Creighton, Georgia Tech, Grand Canyon, Iowa State, Kentucky (rumors of something Lebron-ish, but no confirmation yet), Louisville, Miami (Ohio), Missouri State, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio U., Oregon (I think — not yet confirmed), Pacific (alternate uni for the Dec. 9 game against Cal), Pitt, San Diego State, South Carolina, UNC (1957 throwback), UNLV, Utah, Vanderbilt, Washington (new black alt), Washington State, and WVU (black alt).

I’m sure there are others I’ve missed — not just new uniforms, but also patches, court designs, etc. — and that’s where you come in. If you know of any college hoops unveilings not listed above, or if you become aware of any over the next week or so, please speak up. Thanks.

Uni Watch News Ticker: The single-bar facemask lives! That’s our old friend Scott Player, now plying his trade in the UFL (with thanks to Doug Keklak and Mike Rigby). … The 49ers are changing who gets to wear the green dot on defense (with thanks to Mark Snider). … Some great uniform shots in this video tribute to the late NHL ref Bill Chadwick (with thanks to Alan Kreit). … England’s new rugby kit is my favorite color, with a poppy thrown in for Armistice Day (with thanks to Michael Orr). … Striped stirrups sighting in yesterday’s “Family Circus” (big thanks to Vernona Elms). … Insert joke about one white hockey glove here (with thanks to Mark Snider). … Not uni-related, but if you wanna see something really beautiful — I mean really beautiful — click on the embedded video here (thanks, Kirsten). … You’ve heard of FNOB, but how about FNOF? That’s the Raja, of course, wearing a Chicago youth organization uni (great find by Paul Wiederecht). … Good article about early Red Wings mask history here (with thanks to Tim Shay). … New uniforms for the Jacksonville Suns. … For next year’s April Fool, maybe I’ll start a rumor that the Seahawks are gonna be wearing this (bizarre find by Matthew Weber). … New World Cup kit for Ivory Coast. I don’t like that diagonal shoulder treatment, but I love their new crest (with thanks to Coachie Ballgames). … Tremendous batch of old 1940s Washington Huskies photos here (big thanks to John Doodigian). … According to the fourth graf of this story, Avs goalie Craig Anderson once “lived in Sweden and inserted a double-s in the middle of his surname to to fit in. When he played for the Blackhawks, he had an incorrect [double-s] spelling on the name bar of his jersey until the NHL, as he says, ‘questioned the legality of it.’” I don’t like to post watermarked Getty photos (and I ask that none of you do so either), but you can see the single-s and double-s versions of Anders(s)on’s Blackhawks NOB if you go to Getty’s main page and search on “Craig Anderson 2003 Chicago” (with thanks to Paul Richard Cook). … I like socks as much as the next guy — probably more — but this is going overboard. … I’m heading to Cooperstown later today and will be there throughout the weekend (good place to be during the Series, right?). See you on Monday.

Fairly quiet day in the NFL yesterday: Got our first looks at the Chargers’ and Jets’ road throwbacks (both really nice, right?), and this year’s London game featured a new patch. Aside from that, nothing major, unless you maybe count Larry Fitzgerald’s silver cleats. I might’ve missed a few things, though — I admit I wasn’t at my sharpest after getting back from Louisiana on almost zero sleep. More on that trip soon.

As for today, my annual NBA season-preview column t is up on ESPN.

In case you missed it: Phil and his support crew were really dealing over the weekend. In particular, yesterday’s entry, featuring some stellar research by Ricko, is one for the ages. If you didn’t see this material, do yourself a favor and scroll down to take a look.

Uni Watch Stirrup Club Update: Comrade Robert Marshall is back with another dispatch from the front lines of the hosiery wars. Let us turn a kind ear to his report:

Comrades, it is once again time for a call to arms. This will be the last order until the new year, and it contains two parts, the second of which seeks to unite a heretofore neglected moiety of the striped Revolution:

1) With the holidays coming up, the party has seen fit to choose two sets of stirrups you could wear to your various office parties, family functions, and services. First, for you secular types, we have the Oakland Oaks. Match these with a red sani and you will be the bell of any Christmas ball. The second stirrup was worn by the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers (note the one colored-in sock at far-left), the Homestead Grays, and others. This stirrup just so happens to match the colors of Hanukkah, for those who observe the Festival of Lights, plus it also mimics the liturgical colors of the church — blue on Christmas Eve, white Christmas Day.

2) Now, on to the new business of the Revolution: right proper football hosiery. The socks will be white on the bottom and you have lots of choices for the color/stripe pattern on top. In fact, I’ve worked with Twin City Knitting to develop some new stripe patterns. Those pour bastards at TCK never saw us coming but are nonetheless doing excellent work for the Revolution.

Of course, the most excellent work of all is being done by comrade Robert himself. To join the hosiery wars (and avoid being blacklisted for counter-Revolutionary behavior), place your orders here.

Beefsteak Update: It’s now confirmed that I’ll be doing a live presentation at the Brooklyn Beefsteak, which is slated for November 8th at the Bell House. Plus there will be additional entertainment from the mighty Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Company (whose set list will no doubt feature their classic “Hey Mister, Is That Your Cow?”). Tickets are available here.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Hey look, more vertically striped socks! (Odd find by Chad Todd.) … “We just re-did my son’s room by painting a couple dozen transportation-related patent sketches on the walls — jeeps, trains, space shuttle, hot air balloon, zamboni, etc.,” says David Tybor. “The helmet cart looks the best.” … Good list of soccer teams broken down by uni manufacturer here (with thanks to Jeremy Richardson). … Bizarre Don Cherry-inspired hockey jerseys on display in this video clip. Additional info here and here. … Latest NHL team to project completely annoying ads on the boards during the TV broadcast: the Blackhawks, as seen here and here (as reported by Chaz Noerenberg). … FNOB alert, from the 1984 USFL championship game (nice screen shot by Dan Lee). … New hoops uni for Creighton (with thanks to Matt Hays). … Check out this gorgeous footage from the 1948 Rose Bowl (big thanks to Tom Wilcox). … Rare view of the Giants’ old “World’s Champions” uniforms here (with thanks to Kevin Walsh). … According to this article, the Panthers will debut their third jersey on November 23rd, and the Avs will wear theirs for an as-yet-unspecified game in November (with thanks to John Muir). … Also from John: Whalers gear is back among us. … Lots of shots of the New Warrior USA Lacrosse uniforms here (with thanks to Nathan Haas). … Raheem Brock of the Colts supposedly wore this at practice the other day (with thanks to Jonathan Mayer). … Good rundown of the backstories behind the original AFL uni designs here (with thanks to Eric Juergens). … Good article on the Fudd caps here (thanks, Vince). … Also from Vince: arguably the coolest vintage Cleveland uniform photo ever. … Here’s a good photo gallery of all the FIFA World Cup soccer balls since 1970 (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Andrew McNeel points out that if Baylor’s going to do the “gold-out” thing, they really need to settle on one shade of gold for their jersey, pants, helmet, end zone, and fans. … Gophers WR Troy Stoudermire had some helmet decal issues on Saturday (screen shot courtesy of Jesse Larson). … Interesting hockey/CFL crossover story here (with thanks to Will Leslie). … Good survey of Minnesota Wild jersey history here (with thanks to Chris Hodge). … What is this? It’s a pie chart that shows the relative ratio of colors in all the world’s national flags. The individual flag pie charts are here — mouse over any of the pie charts to see which country it represents, and click on the chart to see the actual flag. And as this guy points out, the international flag scene is gratifyingly devoid of purple (great find, Kirsten). … Non-sports uni revelation from my weekend trip to Louisiana: I flew on Northwest and was stunned to see one stewardess on my outbound flight wearing blue jeans and a Northwest T-shirt. I figured maybe her uniform had gotten lost or stained or something, but there was another jeans-clad crew member on my return flight yesterday. I mean, I wear jeans and a tee most days myself, but come on — how am I supposed to respect the authority of someone telling me to bring my seatback forward when she’s wearing that? … I didn’t know Everlast used to make baseball uniforms until I saw this.

This is O’Connor’s, my longtime local watering hole. It looks slightly different now — a new sign and awning, a new front door — but this is how it looked around the time I first encountered it, and how it will always look to me.

My first visit to O’Connor’s was in the fall of 1990. My previous local hangout had been sold and ruined, so my girlfriend and I were searching for a new bar to call home. We wandered into O’Connor’s on a Saturday afternoon and found an elderly gentleman tending bar. He wore a weathered cardigan, spoke in a heavy Irish accent that sounded like music, and introduced himself as Charlie.

Charlie treated us like family almost from the start, telling us stories and inviting us to tell some of our own. He also apologized several times because a few of the bar’s ceiling tiles were broken, which I found very touching — sort of an “I’m sorry the place is a mess” gesture, as if we might be offended by something like that. By the end of the afternoon, we knew we’d found our new tavern. When we got ready to head home, Charlie gestured toward the front door and said, “Remember now, that door is always open for you.”

Over the next 17 years, Charlie Campbell became a good friend. We’d talk about eating, cooking, Ireland, Brooklyn, sports, family, music, and the very interesting life he’d led. He eventually stopped apologizing for the ceiling tiles, which never did get fixed until about 2006, when the bar was sold and the new owner fixed up a few things.

Most of these discussions took place during Charlie’s regular weekend shift, when he’d make dozens of Bloody Marys for the devoted regulars who’d come to love him as much as I did. And he earned every bit of that love — working well into his 70s and beyond, Charlie was always chipper and never pulled the grouchy-old-man routine with the bar’s generally young-ish clientelle. In fact, he especially loved it when young customers came in for the first time, and he always left them with that same send-off about the door always being open.

Charlie kept working under the new ownership, but about two years ago he stopped showing up for his weekend shift. He was sick, I was told, but he’d come back when he was better. Unfortunately, that day never came. He passed away last week, about a month shy of his 82nd birthday. I’ll be attending his wake this afternoon, and I’m closing down the site today in his memory.

Here’s to you, Charlie — there’s another door that’s open for you now.