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Posts filed under 'High School Sports'
I’ve previously included several mentions of the Yeshiva University Lady Macs, many members of which follow Orthodox Jewish modesty laws by wearing skirts on the basketball court. But Jim Haslam recently brought my attention to a high school team that’s taken this concept a bit further.
The school in question is Beth Chana Academy, a private Orthodox school in Orange, Connecticut. Not only do they wear skirts (sometimes floor-length, sometimes knee-length with leggings or pants), but the team is actually called the Skirts — an admirably literal uni-based nickname that’s more accurate than, say, White Sox. (It’s worth noting that skirt is also old-school slang for “woman,” in the same league as broad or twist or tomato, but I suspect the Beth Chana folks didn’t think about that when choosing the name.)
Interestingly, one of the Skirts has jazzed up her look with striped socks. She looks like she knows how to handle the ball and even has more star presence than the other gals when walking off the court. Further evidence (as if any were needed) that striped hosiery correlates with — and maybe even confers — athletic excellence.
Additional info about the Skirts, including an audio report, is available here.
Party Reminder: Remember, Groundhog Day Uni Watch party tomorrow at Sheep Station, at 4:30 p.m.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Here’s Ken Harrelson’s “Hawk” NOB. … Northwestern-area baseball photo specialist Dave Esenazi sent along a great old team portrait. Check out the modified skull and crossbones chest patch! … Vince reports that the dance team for the new Cleveland Gladiators arena franchise was introduced the other day wearing “Kosar”-NOB’d jerseys (Bernie is the team’s prexy). … The Chiefs’ memorial patch for Lamar Hunt is being made a permanent fixture on the team’s jerseys. Among other things, this means the AFL logo, which is part of the patch design, will live on — cool. … Remember that amazing photo site I linked to yesterday? Turns out the photographer is also selling prints of those photos on eBay (with thanks to Jere Smith). … Skip ahead to the 3:30ish point of this video you’ll see Syracuse wearing navy uniforms against UNC in 1975 (good find by Sean Caruana). … Daniel Listoe reports that the 49ers are thinking about a uni overhaul for 2009. … Bit of a controversy involving Japanese swimming attire (courtesy of Jeremy Brahm). … Blake Meyer, who runs the excellent TwinsCards.com site, has a bit of a mystery on his hands involving a photo of Kirby Pucket wearing No. 32 (instead of his usual 34) and is hoping the Uni Watch readership can help come up with an explanation. For full details, look here.
February 1st, 2008
When I was in fourth grade, I signed up for a local youth basketball league. I remember the uniform very clearly, because it was so disappointing: plain red shorts with no piping or other adornments (and they were really short) and a plain yellow T-shirt with a red number on the back. The T-shirt really bugged me — why couldn’t we wear tank tops, like real basketball players? Sleeves were for amateurs.
Those memories came flooding back the other day, when reader Cory Wright alerted me to the situation at Proviso East, an Illinois high school with an interesting visual signature: Their basketball jerseys have sleeves. You might think the sleeves were part of an old-school look, but the uniform graphics are actually pretty contemporary, with modern side piping and Nike-ish collarbone horns. The jerseys just happen to be T-shirts, not tank tops.
I wondered if this was a new design for this season, so I started poking around and discovered that Proviso East has been wearing sleeves for a while, as you can see in these pics from March 2007 (that shot is a capture from this video clip), December 2005, and January 2005 (here’s another shot from the same game). I also found this and this, but I’m unsure of the dates.
Sleeved hoops jerseys are rare phenomenon. Has any NBA team ever worn them? In the college ranks, the only school that comes to mind is Evansville, but they switched to tank tops a few years ago. Then again, basketball isn’t my strongest suit, so maybe there are lots of other sleeved examples out there — please feel free to bring me up to speed.
Anyway, the Proviso thing got me thinking: Have basketball jerseys always been tank tops? I figured the earliest ones must have had sleeves, if only because cultural standards of modesty were much more conservative back in those days. But if you google “early basketball team,” you get images (many of them spectacular) like this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and this — not a sleeve in sight. The earliest photo I found was this one, from 1895, featuring a mix of tanks and tees. The only fully sleeved team I found was this one — from 1950, surprisingly. (Think they intentionally alternated the sneaker colors in the front row, or did it just work out that way?)
So it looks like basketball has almost always been sleeve-free. Which makes Proviso East’s sleeve-iness all the more puzzling. This is definitely a topic I’d like to explore in more detail — contributions welcome.
Research Reminder: In case you missed it late last week, I’m currently compiling examples of interesting uni-borne memorial gestures. Not just the standard black armband or uni number inside a black circle — I’m looking for things a bit more inspired. Historical precedents are good, too. Send likely suspects here.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Looks like Shaun Cody’s trying (and failing) to keep his jersey snapped into his pants (good catch by Donald Moe). … Danny Kroll was recently given a pair of game-used Miami Dolphins cleats (additional pics here, here, and here) but can’t figure out who they belonged to. Anyone..? … Dustin Burns reports that one of the officials in last night’s Blues/Red Wings game apparently lost his gear and was forced to wear a generic, numberless jersey and skates borrowed from a player. … Here’s the very definition of a flagrant foul.
December 27th, 2007
My latest ESPN column, which I thought was going to run today, ended up running yesterday while I was traveling. Some of you have already seen it; for those who haven’t, look here.
While researching that column, I received a contribution from reader Steve Johnston, who sent me a shot of the Hinsdale (Illinois) Central High School Red Devils. He wanted me to know about the “PTR” on their nose bumper, which is short for their slogan, “Pound the rock,” but I was actually more intrigued by their helmet design, with its little devil horns. “They’ve been wearing the horns for as long as I’ve known them,” Steve explained. “My dad wore them in the ’60s, and I’m sure it was going on a lot longer than that.”
Horns have always been an appealing helmet motif. They were, of course, the first design ever applied to a football lid, and people routinely tell me that the Rams’ helmet design is the NFL’s best, “because the design is part of the helmet, instead of just a logo put onto the helmet,” or words to that effect (plus I occasionally hear similar things about the Vikings, although their horns have always struck me as less attractive, because they’re supposed to be sticking outward, which means they’re more of an applied logo than an embedded design).
Until Steve sent me that Hinsdale Central photo, however, I’d never seen little horns on the front of a helmet. But then two photos showed up on Chris Creamer board, showing that very similar horns had been worn by the West Texas State Buffaloes in the 1960s and the Colorado Buffaloes in the mid-1950s.
Colorado, as it turns out, has used a surprisingly wide variety of horn designs over the years. In addition to the front horns in the mid-’50s, they wore this stylized design from 1959-61 (further info here) and this version — which happens to be my favorite — in the late 1960s (additional info here).
Antlers aren’t quite the same thing as horns, but they’re close enough for our purposes. But I’d never seen antlers on a helmet until a few days ago, when Riley Adair sent me some pics of the Buckhorn Bucks, an Alabama high school team (additional pics here and here).
This raises some interesting possibilities, because there are lots of other horn and antler styles out there. Imagine if there’s ever a team called the gazelles or the reindeer. Best of all, imagine the unicorns — now that would present a good design challenge.
Membership Update: A new batch of membership kits went out in the mail on Tuesday, so those should start showing up in your mailboxes momentarily.
Meanwhile, I had originally set this weekend as the deadline for placing orders for discounted gift memberships, but I’ve decided to extend that deadline to next Wednesday, the 5th.
Also, for those who keep track of such things, we’re now just a few orders away from our 500th member. My thanks to everyone who’s made the project such a big success.
As for today’s showcase design, it’s based on the early-1970s California Golden Seals.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Several people have mentioned to me that the mid-field logo at Sun Devil stadium had been altered for the Thanksgiving USC/ASU game, so that the devil was skewering a turkey leg, but nobody had a photo. But now Andrew Ranck has come up with one. Wish more teams would do holiday-themed tweaks like this. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: The U.S. Army is retrofitting a million of their uniforms due to “crotch durability problems.” Yes, really. … Decal maven Chris Willis reports that the Sean Taylor memorial decal will look like this, but I’m still holding out hope that some of the ’Skins will do something stripe-related. … The double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats have unveiled their new uniforms and logo designs, which you can see in this PDF file. Naturally, I like the color scheme and the vertically arched road-jersey insignia, but the rest of the design looks painfully rinky-dink.
November 29th, 2007
Back in March I wrote an ESPN column about athletes wearing sunglasses. At the time I wasn’t aware of any football players who’d worn shades on the field, but readers provided several examples that I later listed in a follow-up item: Mark Clayton (who wore sunglasses with the Dolphins and the Packers), Derrick Mayes, and Vai Sikahema. The most intriguing tidbit, though, was that Raymond Berry of the Colts had worn a set of homemade sun goggles during the ’50s and ’60s. But although several people told me about Berry’s eyewear, none of them provided a photo, and my own research efforts came up empty. But now, thanks to reader Jason Taylor, we’ve got a photo — and more.
Let’s start with the photo itself, which is a doozy. Eat your heart out, LaDainian Tomlinson — your tinted visor’s got nothing on this!
But here’s the kicker: The actual goggles recently sold on eBay for about $155. According to the auction listing, “With no commercially available product to address or correct his vision and sun-sensitivity problems, Berry took the initiative to make his own. Utilizing Bausch & Lomb swim goggles as frames, he inserted heavy shaded lenses supported by trainer’s tape and a primitive headstrap.”
How did the Hall of Fame miss out on this?
The Issue That Just Won’t Die: In case you were too busy scarfing down leftovers to read Friday’s comments, it’s now clear that Dallas Clark’s American flag decal has been missing for quite some time — not just on Thanksgiving or the week before that, but all the way back to Week 8.
In an incredible stroke of luck, it turns out that bench coach Bryan Redemske actually knows Dallas Clark, because Bryan’s wife and Clark went to high school together. So we’ve got an inside line on this one — stay tuned.
Austin Reminder: Uni Watch gathering tomorrow night, 7:30 p.m., at the Salt Lick. BYOB (not to be confused with FNOB).
Uni Watch News Ticker: While researching something else, I noticed that you can see the brand on Tony Romo’s flak jacket right through his jersey. … Reprinted from Friday’s comments: Note the inconsistent 7s here. … Speaking of numbers and typography, remember a few months back when we discussed the differing treatments of the 5 on the sleeve and chest of the Packers’ jerseys? Adam Seabury was just at the Packers Hall of Fame, where he discovered yet another version of the 5. He also snapped great pics of jerseys, helmets (check out the odd facemask here), pants, socks (someone please break into that display and steal those for me, pronto), cheerleaders’ outfits, programs, and a lot more. There’s a slideshow of all his pics here. … Great historical slideshow here of the Turkey Day Game between Kirkwood and Webster Groves, a centurty-long St. Louis Thanksgiving tradition. Some of the older pics are amazing — worth clicking through. … “I was at the Oregon/UCLA game at the Rose Bowl on Saturday,” writes Ryan Whitacre, “and at least one member of the Oregon fan base was exhibiting some classy dress. We can only hope this will filter down to the athletes themselves.” … Virginia retired Tiki Barber’s number on Saturday. … “These pics are of a few old mining company baseball and basketball teams from the 1910-1930,” writes longtime Uni Watch pal Doug Kalemba. “According to my grandfather (who is 96!), each mine had its own team, many filled with ringers who got cushy jobs in return for playing. The competition between these teams was serious business, with games often ending in brawls (or worse). My grandfather was a catcher and played for a few different teams. He claims a lot of the players were good enough for the bigs but never caught a break.” … While researching something else, I came across this photo from the 1959 NFL title game. Take a look at Jim Patton (No. 20) — the “2″ on his helmet appears to be backwards. … Aaron Levine notes that in this fight between Stan Jonathan and Paul Stewart, Stewart has NNOB and really big uni numbers, while the rest of the Nords have NOBs. … Man, those Browns throwbacks looked my-t-fine (additional pics here, here, and here). But John Ryder notes that the “c” on Willie McGinest’s jersey was almost as big as the other letters on his nameplate, while the “c” on Brandon McDonald’s jersey was teeny-tiny. … Jeremy Brahm, ever alert to unusual uniforms in far-off parts of the world, notes that the Singapore Slingers of the National Basketball League of Australia have an interesting design for their shorts and rear jersey. … Has anyone else noticed that Sheldon Brown practically wears a towel on his chinstrap? … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Adrian Peterson is the latest Bear to have suffered a torn helmet decal.
November 26th, 2007
As many of you know, kickers and punters are exempt from shoe color rules, so it’s not unusual to see a punter wearing black cleats while the rest of the team is wearing white, or a kicker wearing one black shoe and one white. But Mike Comeau noticed two particularly interesting things about Falcons kicker Morten Andersen last night:
(1) He wears one Nike shoe and one Reebok. Not sure how common it is for someone to be wearing two different brands. (2) The shoe on his kicking (left) foot was black, just like the rest of the Falcons. It was his plant (right) foot that differed from the rest of his team. Usually it’s the kicking foot that is “out of uniform” because the kicker is more comfortable with a particular shoe.
That last bit is a genius observation. Why would Andersen need a special plant shoe? And why would it have to be white? And it’s not like this is his lucky left shoe that he’s been wearing for years, because he was wearing something else just last month. Weird.
Meanwhile, several readers report that Dallas Clark of the Colts was once again playing without the American flag decal on his helmet last night. No visual evidence yet, but here’s a shot of a flag-free Clark from last week. If Clark’s flagless status from last night can be confirmed, that means our streak of at least one NFL player being sans flag for every week of the season remains intact.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Bizarre story out of Tennessee, where a high school hoops team was cited for wearing illegal uniforms, resulting in 18 technical fouls being called. The resulting free throws were the deciding factor in the game. Details here. … More numbers on shorts: the Butler hoops team (with thanks to Mike Miller). … While researching something else, I came across this awesome Cardinals helmet prototype on the Helmet Hut web site. … Latest chapter in the NHL jersey debacle here. … When the Blackhawks introduced John McDonough as the team president, they gave him an honorary jersey. But David Soline notes that they didn’t use a lowercase “c.” … The Browns will be wearing their throwbacks this Sunday. … What’s the point of beach volleyball if you can’t wear a bikini? (With thanks to Jeremy Brahm.) … Todd Radom, Tom O’Grady, and I are all quoted in this article about the state of uniform design. … Jim Pericotti reports that the Ducks’ AHL affiliate, the Portland Pirates, are wearing a Stanley Cup patch on the back of their jersey.
November 23rd, 2007
Major typo in the English Premier League yesterday, as David Bentley of Blackburn played an entire match with “Betnley” on his back (plus it wasn’t exactly the most graceful arc). As Dan Winkler explains, “David Bentley is one of Blackburn’s best players. He’s been with them for a few years and, in fact, scored a hat trick against Man U a few years ago, so it’s not like he’s the soccer equivalent of a September call-up or was just acquired in a trade. That’s what makes this mistake especially odd.”
By coincidence, there’s another EPL typo of sorts unfolding these days. It involves West Ham’s John Paintsil. Reader Iain Landon explains:
When Paintsil signed with West Ham from the Israeli club Hapoel Tel Aviv, all of his documentation, including his UK travel paperwork and work permit, had his name as ‘Pantsil’ — note the missing ‘i.’ According to English FA regulations, the name on his shirt has to match his registration, so John Paintsil has become John Pantsil. He only has a handful of appearances for West Ham so far this season, so I haven’t been able to find a photo, but the details of the story are verified here and here.
Meanwhile, back on our side of the pond:
• The Chargers’ season-long streak of having at least one player without an American flag decal was kept intact, as Chris Chambers was flag-free for the third week in a row. LaDainian Tomlinson, however, was flag-clad for the second consecutive week.
• Speaking of the Chargers, someone needs to tell Antonio Cromartie that men don’t look good in sheer hose.
• And speaking of hosiery, Dwight Smith had some serious sock layers going on.
• Charles Woodson, who’s been pushing the uni-related envelope all season, really outdid himself yesterday. Was he wearing tzitzit or what?
• I remain opposed to this look for the Giants, but there were a few interesting details. As Joe Skiba had promised, the “ny” nose bumper logo, which is usually blue outlined in red, was red outlined in blue. And yeah, okay, I can deal with red gloves, red shoelaces, and red undersleeves, but red spats? Enough already. (That player, incidentally, was Kawika Mitchell, and the screen grab comes courtesy of Randy Williams.)
Uni Watch News Ticker: Where do college football uniforms go after they’ve been used? Often to Europe, as seen with this Mississippi State jersey being used by the London Olympians, and this Duke jersey worn by the Coventry Cassidy Jets (also note the personalized “MOM” memorial, all found by Stefan Schubert). … Tons of great historical baseball pics in the New York Public Library’s A.G. Spalding Collection (with thanks to John Ervin). … I’m trying to figure out how they’re going to screw this up. … Hannah Krug notes that the Princeton women’s hoops team has their logo in an interesting spot. “The worst part is that it doesn’t even look like a tiger,” she says. “I’m more reminded of a mole rat.” She also notes that Maryland’s jerseys have a normal back, but Marissa Coleman ties her up into a faux racer back. … The Kitchener Rangers wore special Remembrance Day jerseys on Sunday (with thanks to AJ Brandt). … And CFL teams wore poppy decals yesterday (with thanks to Tim Capper for the screen grab). … Not positive about this, but I think Miguel Cotto is the first fighter I’ve seen with a boxing glove depicted on his waistband (it’s on the back, too). … Cal wore really nice throwbacks (which are now being auctioned off) on Saturday. …Mild hilarity on Saturday night, as Trevor Fulkerson wrote to tell me that an Angels turn-ahead-the-clock jersey was up for auction on eBay. Exactly 21 minutes later, David Linder wrote to tell me that he was the winning (and, incredibly, only) bidder. … “I was browsing through a photo gallery of the 1930 World Cup and ran across this picture of the team from Bolivia,” writes Chuck Nolan Jr. “I assumed they were just wearing special shirts for the team portrait, but then I saw this photo , which would seem to confirm that they wore the shirts during the game.” … It’s amazing how Georgia’s black jersey (which I was fine with) really accentuated the black pants stripe, which up until now I’d barely even noticed. … Awesome socks being worn by Dorchester High in Boston (with thanks to Skott Daltonic). … Duke wore throwback jerseys and helmets on Saturday but ruined it by going monochromatic. … Sure didn’t take long for eye-black messages to go from this to this (that’s Mississippi State’s Eric Butler, as spotted by John Wilmoth). … Mark Graban found an interesting old pic of Donny Baseball with mismatched numerals on his helmet brim. Not only that, but look closer at it appears that the “3″ was applied over the “2.” … Jeremy Kaufman notes that Michigan State’s Mark Dell has “Focus” written on his wrist tape. … not a good idea. … The 49ers are already wearing a memorial helmet decal for Bill Walsh. Will they add another one tonight for former coach Dick Nolan, who died yesterday? … Fascinating note from Morris Levin, who writes: ” Topps just released its 2007 Update & Highlights set (it’s what used to be “Topps Traded”). Check out the cards for Francisco Rosario and Kyle Lohse. They must not have had game pics in Phillies jerseys because the uniforms are clearly airbrushed. Rosario is wearing his black Blue
Jays cleats, but more telling is the team wordmark on the front. The Topps art department placed a Phillies logo in there and neglected to remove the underline, which is part of the official logo but does not appear on the jerseys.”
Long-Overdue Thanks: About two months ago, after we changed web-hosting companies, I asked for volunteers to help fix all the non-ASCII characters that had gotten garbled during the server changeover. Six readers answered the call, which was great — and I failed to publicly acknowledge them until now, which is not so great. So for the record, I owe a big debt of gratitude to Chris Schoenthal, Chris Roberts, Mark McGinnis, Matt Edwards, Forrest Carpenter, and Kyle Joecken. Mea culpa for not thanking them until now.
November 12th, 2007
It was another one of those Uni Watch red-alert moments last night, as about a dozen readers e-mailed me all at once and another half-dozen or so posted all at once in the comments section. The cause? Jason Strudwick of the Rangers got in a fight and his nameplate came loose during the fisticuffs, revealing some nasty-looking adhesive residue on the underside.
All of which is very entertaining. But here’s my question: Since when have the Rangers been using nameplates? I always thought they used direct-sewn NOBs. NHLuniforms.com has always shown them that way (compare that treatment to this one), and so do most pre-2007 game photos (here’s another) and game-used jerseys (the most recent of which that I could find is from 2003-04 — definitely no nameplate there). Hell, we’ve even made sure to go nameplate-free when designing Rangers-themed membership cards.
But if you look at photos from this season, sure enough — they’ve suddenly got the telltale fabric strip. It’s on the white jersey, too. Is this a previously unnoticed additional reason to loathe the new Reebok jerseys? Have other teams made similar switches? If anyone knows more about this, please fill us in.
And as if the deficiencies of nameplates weren’t already clear enough (extra seams, loose threads, puckering, etc.), now we can add an additional problem to the list: They come loose during fights.
Meanwhile, speaking of the Rangers, the story of their re-hemmed jerseys has finally been picked up by a local beat writer. For the full scoop, scroll down to the “Hems stops haws” section of this page.
And in further NHL news, Rich Eakin reports that the Penguins will be giving new, non-moisture-repellant jerseys to all of their players — not just to the select few who ask for them. For details, scroll down to the “Replacement jerseys” section here.
(Special thanks today to Matt Harris and Doug Walton for their Strudwick screen grabs, and to Aman Loodu for pointing out the hemming story.)
And Next Week We’re Installing a Hot Tub: Lots of new site-related developments to report today. For starters, for those of you who are into the social-bookmarking thing, you’ll find buttons for Digg, Del.icio.us, Facebook, Furl, Spurl, Newsvine, Technorati, and YahooMyWeb at the bottom of each post. And in response to reader demand, we’re now offering a full RSS feed, instead of a partial feed.
But the biggest news is that my new right-hand man has been chosen. It’s Bryan Redemske, whose name is probably familiar to many of you because he’s a longtime Ticker contributor. He also wrote most of this entry about the College World Series back in June. The depths of his Uni Watch-ishness can be measured by a note he sent to me last night: “Be sure to mention that all of my cycling T-shirts have ‘Bryan’ embroidered on the left sleeve.”
Bryan is, if anything, overqualified for the position. He works in the sports department of the Omaha World-Herald, where he does some copyediting, some page layout, and a bit of writing (and where his ready access to wire-service photos will no doubt come in handy). In other words, he’s already a seasoned media professional, so I can’t very well call him my “intern.” We’ll have to come up with a new title for him, like research monkey assistant editor or something like that. By any name, he’ll be easing into the job over the next two weeks or so, and his first lead entry will probably run later this week. Please join me in welcoming him to the Uni Watch team.
The timing of Bryan’s hire is perfect, because intern Vince Grzegorek has some big news, too: He’s scored a staff position with Cleveland Scene, the city’s alterna-weekly paper, and will be starting there in two weeks. He says he’ll still contribute Uni Watch entries, which will be great if he can swing it (I suspect his new bosses will be keeping him pretty busy). Here’s to you, Vince — big congrats on your new gig.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Yesterday I linked to this photo of Tamba Hali’s chinstrap popping off. That prompted Doug Simpson to send me what he described as “the mother of all chinstrap blowups,” from September’s ’Bama/Western Carolina game. … In another follow-up, yesterday I asked why Remembrance Day poppy pins had switched from green-centered to black-centered in recent years, which led Lorne Giesbrecht to send me to this page, which has lots of good info (and also led Jeff Ingalls to send me a photo of his poppy tattoo). … Also from yesterday: I asked what was up with these leg sleeves, prompting this follow-up from John Simmons: “He appears to be wearing a cut-off version of Adidas Powerweb shorts. You can even slightly see the yarn at the bottom of the calf sleeve from where he must have cut it.” … Brent Hardman notes that UGA captain Knowshon Moreno’s captain’s “C” suffered from a bit of a tight squeeze on Saturday (additional views here and here) — a problem not shared by teammate Matthew Stafford, because his single-digit uni number allows for more space. … New Mexico wore practice jerseys for a recent exhibition game because their new unis weren’t ready yet (with thanks to Rob Montoya). … Decal impresario Chris Willis reports that Marshall will wear this memorial helmet decal this weekend. In addition, he says CFL teams may wear poppy decals this weekend. … I know I’ve mentioned this before, but Louisiana Tech sure does have small nameplate typography. … Chris Drouin notes that the Oakland Christian High soccer team in Michigan has “Christian” on their shirttails. … The FIVB has worked with Mikasa to produce a new volleyball for the Beijing Olympics. Details here (courtesy of Jeremy Brahm). … Kenn Tomasch recently visited Max’s Sports Bar in Glendale, Arizona, which claims to have the nation’s largest collection of football helmets (including some real doozies). He’s put together a fantastic account of his visit here. … Indiana coach Bill Lynch was wearing a National College Football Day pin — nearly lost among a sea of logos — the other day (with thanks to Todd Usher). … Man, Joe Torre’s cap at his press conference yesterday was right off the shelf (additional holographic view here). And Bryan Redemske, paying immediate dividends, notes that Torre’s dress shirt had “Joe”-monogrammed cuffs. … Yet another player with an upside-down 8: Ryan Gomes (with thanks to Josh Feldman). … Mike Raymers found something interesting: a Roanoke Valley Rebels jersey from the Eastern Hockey League, circa 1970s. I think it’s safe to say that logo would never get off the drawing board today. … Want to make cake shaped like a jersey? Then you’ll want this (genius find by Ryan Thompson). … I could definitely get used to this. … Check out the nameplates in Pakistan.
November 6th, 2007
Well, that was fun while it lasted.
Last Tuesday I agonized over whether I should FedEx an American flag decal to Ladainian Tomlinson (for those who’ve been under a rock, his helmet has been flag-free all season). I never did send it, and now Tomlinson has made the matter moot, because he finally wore Old Glory in yesterday’s game against the Vikings, thereby ending the NFL season’s most entertaining uni-related storyline and bringing our weekly “Will he or won’t he?” game to a conclusion.
But a new game may be afoot. Several posts in yesterday’s comments section reported that Chargers wideout Chris Chambers was flag-free yesterday. No pics yet, but I’m looking. Not sure if Chambers wore a flag last week (which was his first game of the season), but it sounds like someone on the Chargers’ equipment staff is either asleep at the switch or else has a good sense of humor.
In other NFL notes from yesterday:
• Remember this? Something vaguely similar happened yesterday to Kansas City defensive lineman Tamba Hali, who delivered a big hit that sent part of his chinstrap sailing through the air. Not quite as cool as the flying number decal, but still something I’ve never seen before.
• Randy Moss’s numeral 8 was upside-down again.
• What do you get when you combine artificial turf, one team wearing solid black, and another team wearing solid black below the waist? Pretty much the ugliest game ever.
• The Eagles wore white at home last night to force the Cowboys into their “bad luck” blue jerseys. Didn’t quite work out the way they drew it up.
(Special thanks to Randy Williams and James Wortham for their Tomlinson screen grabs and to Blaine Williams for the Hali pics.)
Big Papi? No, Little Poppies!: With November 11th approaching, Canadian-born coaches and coaches of Canadian teams are starting to wear poppy pins on their lapels (for futher info on this phenomenon, look here). As it happens, I was in Toronto over the weekend for a wedding and saw lots of poppy-clad people all over the city. At one point I was talking about the poppies with one of my Canadian friends, and she mentioned something very Uni Watch-ish: The current poppy pins have a black center, but until a couple of years ago they had a green center.
That raised lots of questions: When exactly did the color change, and why? And who makes that decision? Like, is there an executive poppy committee somewhere in the governmental bureaucracy, or did the pin manufacturers just run out of green felt? Also, since real poppies have black centers, why was green ever used in the first place? What about the other British Commonwealth nations, which also wear poppies — do they go with the black or the green? My Canadian pals couldn’t answer any of these queries. Anyone..?
Other things I learned about the poppy pins: They tend not to stay on very long, because they have no backing clip; the lack of a clip also makes it fairly common for the wearer to get pricked; and apparently it’s customary to pick on the dorkiest kid in the class by covering him with as many poppies as possible.
I had hoped to buy a poppy pin myself (I was told to look for “the oldest, stooped-over-est old man you can find — he’ll probably be selling them”), but I didn’t come across a vendor during the course of my weekend. Dang.
Sock Summit: Longtime readers know I’m a huge fan of the pseudonymous sock savant known as Witesock (whose admirably obsessive web site is here, plus there’s a lengthy interview with him available here). So it was a big thrill for me, after years of false starts and missed connections, to finally meet the man himself over the weekend. I’m happy to report that he’s a peach of a guy. Over plates of chicken teriyaki and bibimbap (which he generously paid for), we spent the better part of two hours talking about socks, collecting, travel, socks, work, socks, and more socks. We probably could have kept going for a few hours more, but he had to get back to work.
Naturally, we compared socks: I was wearing my usual basic striped tube socks while Witesock had a twofer: black rugby hose over a pair of Miami Dolphins socks (to go with the jersey he’d worn for the occasion). “But doesn’t wearing two pairs of socks make your shoes a bit too snug?” I asked. To which he replied, “Oh, I usually buy my shoes half a size too big, to allow for that.” Now that’s dedication.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Interesting primitive facemask on display in this 1930 photo (with thanks to Kevin S. Whisman). … Speaking of primitive facemasks, look what Jared Wheeler found up for auction. … Interesting bit of uni lobbying on display here (as forwarded by Jacob Reed). … Ewww. … Now here’s a uniform category you don’t often see: Iranian women’s rugby. Details here (with thanks to Peter Chambers). … “Converse has resurrected its 1933 All-Star, which was the team shoe of the legendary Harlem Renaissance basketball team,” writes Steve Eschenbach. “They had to resort to eBay to get an original to work off of.” Details here. … Andy Enright, who says he works in the sporting goods biz, contributed a mother lode of insider info the other day: “Both the Schutt Ion and XP will not be offered in XL for 2008. Schutt does have the capability to make XL for NFL and college players when needed. Both helmets are fitting a little smaller than their counterparts, the DNA and Air Advantage. All Schutt large helmets are sized to fit 7 to 7-1/2, but I tried both helmets on today, size large, and both were a little tight, even though I wear a 7-3/8. The molds for these helmets cost about $200K each, so Schutt is waiting for public demand before moving forward on the XL size, probably late 2008 or 2009. Also, Eli Manning will wear the new helmet probably next year or later this year. They are having issues installing the radio earpiece. Schutt will also have a signature shoulder pad featuring Reggie Bush as well as Eli Manning, for use at the youth level. The individual pads will be in Saints and Giants team colors. Also, I’ve attached some pictures of LT’s new cleats to hit stores in April ’08, both the molded as well as the detachable. Didn’t take Nike long to replace Vick.” … Interesting logo creep placement here (as spotted by Jeremy Brahm). … Take a look at this (which was sent my way by David Soline). Did the Bulls really wear pink warmup jackets? … The Pacers debuted their yellow alts on Friday. … These high school football socks would be awesome if not for, y’know, obvious reasons (big thanks to Michael Orr, who also sent along a rare high school example of FNOB). … I’m sure his parents are proud. … The Islanders brought Al Arbour back to coach one last game on Saturday night — the 1500th of his career — which occasioned lots of uni-related news items: (1) The team wore white at home. (2) They wore a special jersey patch. (3) As Mike from Queens points out, the patch caused a logjam with the “A” and “C” designations. (4) Arbour’s “retired number” banner, which had been No. 739 (his number of coaching wins) was replaced with a new banner. (5). Since the Isles won, the new banner will reportedly be replaced with yet another banner — No. 740. … Good info on the UMich hockey uniforms here (courtesy of Craig Barker). … Florida went with solid blue on Saturday. … And Oregon realy outdid themselves. But here’s a confession: As a big yellow/green fan, I kinda liked what the Ducks were doing on Saturday. All the diamondplate nonsense still rankles, natch, but I thought this was one of their better mix-and-match combos. … Great article here about a guy who works in Riddell’s helmet-testing facility (with thanks to Matt Lindner). … NHL jersey update here (with thanks to K.C. Kless). … In happier hockey news, good update on the NHL Winter Classic here (as forwarded by Sean Leahy). … And the Rangers continue to look much better with their straight-hemmed jerseys. Kudos to whoever made the modification decision. … I used to think the Quad Cities Swing were the only team with unevenly sized numerals (well, unless you count this), but that was before Blair Hough pointed me toward this photo of two ringette players. … Doug Linder spotted UCLA’s Luc Richard Mbah a Moute wearing some very unusual leg sleeves during a preseason game Friday night. Also, some of the UCLA cheerleaders suffered from Adidas logo creep, while others did not. … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Nice ad in yesterday’s Boston Globe. … I’m going to be busy until at least mid-afternoon. Vince will be minding the store until then.
November 5th, 2007
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