As you may have noticed, Grey Flannel Auctions recently signed on as a sponsor — a nice partnership, since I’ve been reporting on their auction items for years. Here are some of the more interesting items from their current auction catalog:

• My favorite item in the entire action, hands down, is this awesome Babe Ruth Mutoscope. Further details in the auction listing.

• On second thought, maybe my favorite item is this old Schaefer ad (full listing).

• Totally digging these Indians pencil clips (full listing).

• Once upon a time, the Yankees gave away really cool trinkets for Mother’s Day (full listing).

• Man, remember when the Kentucky Colonels used this NOB font? (Full listing.)

• Speaking of NOB lettering, there’s soooo much to like here (full listing).

• I saw this gorgeous Spirits of St. Louis jersey at the Grey Flannel booth at the National Sports Collectors Convention last summer, and it was a sight to behold (full listing).

• Who did these amazing stirrups and shorts belong to? The All-American Redheads (full listing, plus you can learn more about the Redheads here).

• Several very cool Globetrotters lots here, here (love the globe on the back of the jersey), and here.

• It’s rare to see a zebra-striped NBA ref’s jersey, and even rarer to see one with this incredible chest patch. That gold trim looks chain-stitched, too (full listing).

• Granted, I’m not the biggest NBA fan, but I don’t think I’d ever seen this Spurs insignia before (full listing).

• Nice pair of sub-script NOBs here and here. The second one is particularly interesting because the NOB is on a nameplate, something you rarely see on a basketball uni.

• I’ve always said that the ugliest jerseys make the coolest Uni Watch membership card designs, so someone really ought to sign up and go with this motif. Or maybe this one.

• Okay, so we all know the Eagles used some unusual sleeve stripes in the early 1970s, but the striping somehow looks even weirder when the jersey is viewed all by itself (full listing).

• Old sideline capes are always cool, even if they’re from the NFL’s most annoying team.

If you want to check out additional items, the full auction catalog is here.

The Proctor Files, Continued: Yesterday I mentioned that the Rochester Lancers used different uni number fonts for the front and back of their jersey. That prompted the following note from sporting goods maven Terry Proctor:

I’m partially responsible for the Lancers using two different numeral fonts. We (Ruby’s Sporting Goods) sold the Lancers those striped jerseys in 1968 when they were still in the old American Soccer League. Dick Howard, the goalie at the time, came into our store to order the Lancers’ uniforms. Dick was from England and liked the Bukta jersey style with the stripes. So we contacted the U.S.A. distributor for Bukta, the Peter Green Co. Ltd of West Chester, Pennsylvania, and placed the order for the knit-in striped jerseys, royal blue nylon soccer shorts, and solid athletic gold soccer socks.

The special-order uniforms came in to us directly from England. We had them lettered in Rochester by the Holley-Messner Corp.. who did most of the screen-printing and tackle twill for the Rochester market. The Lancers, who were always a seat-of-the-pants organization, could only afford one-color numbers on the back and no logo for the ’68 season. It was my idea to have the numbers sewn on with black thread to give them a little contrast. H-M used Stahls Pro Block, which is basically plain block, for the back numbers.

When the Lancers joined the NASL in 1970, they decided to spruce up the old striped shirts with the logo patch and front numbers, instead of buying new jerseys. We ordered the embroidered logo patches from Voyager Emblems in Canada through their U.S. broker. Then we had Rose Yacuzzo, our own seamstress, add the front numbers. Rose used Stahls Varsity Block font as her stock style, and that’s the reason for the different fonts.

The Greatest Achievement in Human History, Update: Remember those 1956 Portland Beavers undersleeve stripes, which I was so excited about a few days ago? Dave Eskenazi, who provided me with those photos, has now come up with seven additional pics that show the sleeve stripes. Oh man, does that look awesome or what? And Dave says he probably has more photos buried in his archive, including some action shots. “Coming your way as I excavate them,” he says — can’t wait.

The funny thing about all this is that Dave has apparently known about the sleeve stripes for ages but never thought to mention them to me. The main reason he sent me those first two photos — the ones that formed the basis of my Wednesday post — is that they were in color. Color PCL photos from the 1940s and ’50s are rare, so he was excited to share them with me. He mentioned the sleeve stripes in his e-mail, but he was clearly jazzed about the color, not the stripes. Makes you wonder how many other amazing uni-related tidbits have fallen through the cracks because nobody thought they were noteworthy.

Meanwhile, as you may recall, Jerry Cohen of Ebbets Field Flannels said the striped shirts couldn’t be reproduced in small quantities. But I got a note last night from Bob Halfacre — formerly of AIS Sports and now running his own Bobcat Athletic operation — as follows:

I am pretty sure we can make these in smaller lots. Maybe 100 pieces? We use a local knitter that can knit the striped sleeve panels, it’s just a question of their minimum. I’ll ask, and in the next week or so I’ll try and figure out what these would cost to do.

It would be good to gauge the readership’s interest in a shirt like the one in the Beavers photos. Would you consider buying one for the right price? If so, let me know.

Uni Watch News Ticker: That new powder blue Royals cap, aka the worst-kept secret of the off-season, has now officially been unveiled. … What’s worse than unveiling a really ugly new rugby kit? Unveiling a really ugly new rugby kit and bragging about it. … Here’s a weird one: an old shirt collar with a little bats/ball logo and a “Red Sox” imprint. … Other good eBay finds: a gorgeous rawlings undershirt, an interesting baseball cap, a really nice 1960s baseball jersey (way overpriced, though), a seriously old wool jersey, an Ohio State baseball jersey, a really nice jersey script, a baseball jersey made by Everlast (!), a seriously garish 49ers tee, a simple but very classy cycling jersey, etc. … Jacoby Ellsbury is changing his uni number from 46 to 2. … Check out the awesome maple leaf sleeve patch worn by the 1915 Victoria Bees (typically awesome contribution from Dave Eskenazi). … The Florida Panthers will finally unveil their alternate jersey on Monday evening. I’ll have an insta-review here on the site, much like what I did for the Mardi Gras design on ESPN, at 7:30pm Monday. … Nice visual timeline of Virginia Tech helmet history here (with thanks to Mike Kennedy). … Alberto Rodriguez-Baez sent along some great photos from his mid-1980s youth football team in Monterrey, Mexico. I didn’t realize there was such a football youth culture in Mexico, but Alberto says, “The football tradition [in Monterrey] is h-u-g-e! Growing up in Mexico, my favorite sport wasn’t soccer, but football. Football is still my favorite sport by far.” … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Tremendous color footage from the 1957 NFL championship game (Browns vs. Lions) here and here. … UC-Irvine now wearing yellow at home (with thanks to Nick Fox). … DIY news from Joe DeAngelis, who writes: “I had an annoying vacant spot in my sports room that called for some décor. I didn’t want to place a generic poster or photo but wanted something unique to display. So, after a trip to the local arts and crafts store and spending approximately $25 on supplies, I created a piece I’m very proud of. Granted, it’s no Picasso, especially up-close, but it’s created directly from my eyes and hands, and it’s become a nice conversation piece.” … Oh Dear. Full details here (with thanks to Ethan Hagen). … Will DeFord’s wife has been making Chargers-themed cupcakes. … That was some bright game last night at the Garden. …

Thanks to Phil’s recent “Worst Uni Ever” poll, you’ve seen plenty of Colorado Caribous photos lately. But most of you probably haven’t seen this one.

That shot, along with a bunch more (click on the thumbnails for larger versions), come from this site devoted to NASL jerseys, which reader Rob Bryant just brought to my attention.

In a nutshell: The site is so awesome that I might just have to become a soccer fan after all. A very small selection of the highlights (click on little pics to see big pics):

• Totally digging the chest logo used by the Montreal Olympique.

• Stripe-o-rama! That’s the Rochester Lancers, 1971. Interesting to see that they used a different font for the rear uni number.

• Love how the San Francisco Quakes used the cross stroke on the Q to form a fault line — or, better yet, to fracture a soccer ball. (As an aside, did you know there was an indoor soccer team called the San Francisco Fog? How awesome is that jersey?!)

• Sort of quaint how Minnesota teams are always named after the state, not after a particular city, as in the Minnesota Strikers. Not such a bad thing when it results in the state outline being depicted on the jersey, though.

• Check out the silver chain-stitching on this Las Vegas Quicksilvers jersey (which also has one of history’s clunkiest, most awkward NOBs).

• Uni typography doesn’t get much more quintessentially ’70s than this Edmonton Drillers design. Only problem is that the jersey is actually from 1982. Interestingly, the 1970s-esque design replaced something that was much more ’80s-ish.

• Very odd insignia for the 1980 Houston Hurricane. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a team intentionally obscure part of the type like that. But it’s probably better than this.

• The Adidas logo really ruined the elemental simplicity of this 1979 California Surf design. Looks better in this overexposed photo, since you almost can’t see the logo creep. (And speaking of the Surf, check out this shot from a game played at Vets Stadium, complete with all the MLB logos in the background. Ah, the indignities of being a minor sports league.)

• My vote for best NASL sleeves goes to the Tampa Bay Rowdies, for obvious reasons. Mmmm, tasty.

• Then again, the Toronto Blizzard had some pretty cool sleeves too.

• What happens you’re your team uses really huge-ass NOB lettering (and, as an aside a sews the apotrophe on backwards)? You run the risk of ending up with a DDNHOB (double-decker hyphenated NOB, duh)! Those jerseys are from the Hartford Bicentennials (now there’s a team name with a short shelf life), who had a very cool chest logo.

• Do you get the feeling that maybe the Detroit Cougars didn’t originally plan on using NOBs?

• On the other hand, the New York Cosmos left plenty of NOB room but didn’t know how to use it.

• So much to like in this photo of the Chicago Sting vs. the Dallas Tornado.

• Now that’s a weird number font. If you scroll through this page, you’ll see that the Clippers used all sorts of weird number treatments in their brief two-season existence.

• Starred socks! As worn by the Houston Stars, natch.

• Okay, I don’t mean to harp on the NOBs, but come on. Joe Hilseberg, where were you when this league needed you?

• I hate logo creep but love ticking stripes. So what do I make of this? Hmmm, that’s a tricky one. The team in question, by the way, is the 1980 Memphis Rogues, although they weren’t the only team using that design element.

• Interesting to see that the Philly Fury used a contrasting placket. Looked pretty good!

• Does this 1967 St. Looie Stars jersey totally look like a thrift store special or what? Yes, I’ll buy it for $6, sold!

And look, the site even has a page devoted to NASL cheerleaders. Would you believe the KC Spurs called their cheering corps the InSPURettes? And the Tampa Bay Rowdies called theirs — wait for it — the Wowdies.

And just to bring everything full circle, reader Raifie Bass has a real prize in his collection: a Colorado Caribous satin jacket!

That settles it, from now on Uni Watch will cover soccer exclusively, the end.

Research Query: Two years ago I wrote an ESPN column in which surveyed the Cowboys’ assorted uniform quirks, past and present. The following summer, I wrote similar columns about the Cubs and White Sox.

Those columns were really fun to write, and popular besides. I’d like to do more of them, but I’ve had a hard time identifying other teams that would benefit from the same treatment. Maybe the St. Looey Cardinals..?

Can you think of other teams that would fit the bill here? Remember, the operative concept here is NOT “Let’s look at this team’s entire uni history”; the idea is to find teams that have had interesting uni histories, replete with quirks and underappreciated nuances. If you go back and read those three previous columns, you’ll see that the Cowboys, Cubs, and Chisox fit this description exceedingly well. If you think any other teams qualify, don’t be shy about telling me. Oh, and please don’t bother suggesting Oregon’s football team, thanks.

Uni Watch News Ticker: New Aussie football kit for Port Adelaide (designed by a seven-year-old girl — no, really, read the sixth graf) and West Coast (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Also from Jeremy: Check out this bizarre baseball jersey patch. That’s the Rojos del Aguila de Veracruz, circa 1940s. … Phil found some interesting shots of Teddy Ballgame wearing cut-off windbreaker sleeves and an undershirt. Here’s another. … Apparently Kareem didn’t get the memo about which shoes and socks to wear to the photo shoot (with thanks to Jeremy Richardson). … Danny Millan has started a new Brooklyn-centric clothing line. I appreciate the sentiments, although I hope the Brooklyn Nets never actually come to pass. … Remember these football gloves? Here’s the next evolutionary step (with thanks to Jonathan Mayer). … Ever wonder why David Vyborny used to use solid-black sticks? Right, me neither, but Columbus Dispatch beat writer Aaron Portzline had this to say during a recent online chat: “David Vyborny was so peeved that he didn’t get a stick deal that he used to spray paint his sticks black to keep from advertising the manufacturer. Vyborny was an interesting dude” (with thanks to Kellen Dargle). … Scandalous news out of New Jersey, where a little birdie informs me that the Devils’ throwbacks, slated to be worn on March 17th, will be lame-o fauxbacks. According to my source, they’re just using the current jersey template with green replacing the black. Also, they’re using the modern red and a darker green. Pfeh. … What team is this? Details here. … Troy Polamalu’s little embroidered cross is suddenly everywhere. Word I hear from league sources is that they’re okay with it because it’s covered by his hair, sort of like if he had a message on a T-shirt under his jersey — out of sight, out of mind — but I suspect the real story is that they don’t want to wade into the thorny thicket of religious expression. … Lots of Mets fans sent me this item about the new cream-base pinstripes, which will be officially introduced in a few weeks. The item implies that the cream pins won’t have the black drop shadow — I hope that’s true, but it does not jibe with the information I have. … Yesterday’s Portland Beavers entry inspired Craig Rockhold to send over a bunch of pics from that PCL exhibit at the San Francisco airport. … In a move that’s waaaaay overboard for a high school, Under Armour is sponsoring River Hill High in Maryland and has provided them with a different uniform for every game this season (with thanks to Jonathan Blake). … Pete Woychick recently rediscovered these two high school hoops warm-up tops in his parents’ attic. Super-offensive logo icon on one of them, but nice pieces nonetheless. Odd to see St. Joe’s abbreviated as “St. Jo’s,” no? … Throwbacks will be in the mix this season for Loyola Marymount. No images yet, but the game dates are listed in the middle of this page. … 1957 A.L. Red Book, in what looks to be tip-top condition, available here (thanks, Teebz). … Back to Uni Watch’s new favorite sport: Coachie Ballgames has done an analysis of World Cup uniforms and concluded that it’s all about the collars.

It doesn’t take much to make my day — just genius, transcendence, perfection. Serve me up a tall glass of those and I’m an easy fella to please, ask anyone.

Case in point: Show me a 1956 Portland Beavers jesey and I’ll walk around with a big, goofy smile on my face for the rest of the day. The fun Cardinals-knockoff design (which is odd, because they weren’t affiliated with the Cards at that time), the gorgeous chain-stitching (that’s a modern reproduction, but still…), it’s a masterpiece. What could be better?

Oh, maybe this.

Holy shit holy shit holy shit, look at those sleeve stripes mimicking the stirrup stripes! It’s like a perfect call-and-response mating dance. It’s like that beautiful dream that you can’t quite remember when you wake up. It’s like heaven on a stick, only without the stick.

But was it just an isolated thing worn by that one guy? A mere tease to torture us with visions of what might have been? No!

Just imagine it: an entire team decked out in the game’s greatest stripe pattern, high and low. The mind reels, the body trembles. This, brothers and sisters, is what the political and corporate puppet masters don’t want the people to know about. This is the vision that could awaken the masses from their narcotic stupor and upend the establishment. This is How Life Is Supposed to Be.

I know of only one other baseball team that had matching sleeve and sock stripes: the early-1940s Cubs (see photos here, here, and here). I thought they were an isolated example, but the Beavers pics suggest otherwise. This changes everything.

Allow me to suggest a few immediate and urgent items for the agenda:

• There must be other photos of the 1956 Beavers out there. It is imperative that we find them.

• Now that we know the Cubs weren’t the only team with matching sleeve/stirrup stripes, we need to start scouring the old newspaper files for additional examples. I’m confident that they’re out there.

• We must — MUST — find one of these old Beavers undershirts. There has to be one stowed away in someone’s house, tattered and moth-nibbled. It is essential that we find out who manufactured it. (Jeremy Brahm, you live in Portland, so please start snooping around in people’s closets and attics, thanks.)

• Meanwhile, it is just as essential for someone, or perhaps several someones, to begin making reproductions of the undershirt. Jerry Cohen, Peter Capolino, whoever’s running the show over at Stall & Dean this week — I’m talking to you. Get crackin’. (Update: Cohen just told me, “Love to, but it can’t be done. No one will make a garment with knit-in stripes in low quantities. The machinery doesn’t exist anymore in the U.S.” Then he added, “If someone wants 10,000, maybe…” Okay, I’m in for the first thou. Who’s with me?)

• Finally, I hope all you Photoshop tweakers are already busily creating images to show us how other teams might have looked if their sleeves had matched their hose. Imagine a sleeve stripes based on this pattern, for example. Or this. Or, dare I even think it, this.

Okay, brothers and sisters, our mission is clear. But before we adjourn, let’s give a word of thanks — nay, a standing ovation! — to Pacific Northwest baseball historian Dave Eskenazi, who discovered these amazing photos and sent them my way a few days ago. I’ve been in a state of bliss ever since.

Like I said, I’m an easy fella to please.

Update: About an hour after this entry was posted, reader Roger Faso came up with this team portrait. Looks like five of the players are wearing the sleeve stripes in that shot.

Bigger Update: Dave Eskenazi has just come up with seven additional photos showing the sleeve stripes. I’ve put them all here.

Mardi Gras in November: The Hornets will unveil their new Mardi Gras alternates this afternoon. I’m not allowed to talk about them until the unveiling begins at 4pm eastern. So at that precise moment, I will post a short new entry here on the blog (probably just a photo and a few sentences) and will also have a new column going live on ESPN. Trust me — love ’em or hate ’em, you sure won’t be able to ignore them.

Uni Watch News Ticker: You’d think the NFL could use its current logo when turning people down for Super Bowl tickets (that’s the letter Bo Baize got). … Big Ohio State riflery photo gallery here, and a Miami riflery gallery here. … A little birdie — okay, a little birdie named Moe Khan — tells me the CFL will switch to having the home team wear white next season. … Kevin Marks got an excellent shot of Lendale White wearing what appears to be three pairs of socks (or two pairs plus a calf sleeve, whatever, same diff). … CJ Giannuzzi spotted this guy at last Sunday’s Steelers/Bengals game. … Wanna buy 200 really cool vintage sports T-shirts? I have just the link for you. … Jonathan Cain wonders why Benny the Bull’s uniform doesn’t match what the team wears. … You can really see the difference between the Packers’ seamless and standard jerseys here and here (with thanks to Jacob Shell). … This photo is full of Very Famous People but I’m not gonna tell you who they are because it’s such a great photo — why ruin it with celebrity baggage? (But Jen Muller knows who they are.) … Hey look, a big sportswear company has decided to treat its sweatshop workers like human beings after all. What a concept. … Memphis had one player going NNOB last night. Not sure of the story behind that (as spotted by Chris Salove). … Extremely garish new uniform for the Brisbane Lions (with thanks to Heather Hamilton). … Someone has started a petition demanding that the MLB Network air the Dock Ellis no-hitter. Not a bad cause, but it would be even cooler if they’d air the No Mas-produced Dock Ellis no-hitter animation.

By Phil Hecken and Rick Pearson

Well, I’m back again with the master of the early AFL years, Rick Pearson, who is here today to present you the 1961 and 1962 AFL uniforms as they should appear. You will recall the OUTSTANDING post Ricko and Timmy Brulia assisted me with a few weeks ago (if you haven’t read it … stop what you’re doing now and please do so). Even if you did, there’s nothing wrong with a quick refresher course.

Anyway, Ricko has spent countless hours pouring over his “kid cards” and old photos, and now he’s created uniform templates for 1961 and 1962 (and he even went back and reworked his original genius 1960 templates, because he noticed some errors). So, what I’m proud to present to you below is Rick’s fantastic work. The man continues to amaze me with his attention to detail (detail the NFL surely didn’t care about, for the most part), and his efforts are a blessing and a godsend for us all. So, without further ado, here’s Ricko:

First, a general observation.

I stopped at ’62, because there was a kind of confluence of elements in 1963.

To begin, the under-financed Titans became the financially strong Jets and New York (more importantly the New York media) started taking the AFL a little more seriously. That meant more photos in more places, thereby no longer leaving AFL uni details unrecorded for posterity.

Photography, or film speed, or lenses, or lighter camera bodies, or better TV cameras…I dunno, I’m no photographer …but all seemed to contribute to not only more images, but better images.

I think that’s why I stopped making by Kid Cards that year. It didn’t seem like so much was unknown anymore. It looked like there’d be source material now, where little or none had existed before.

Even the football cards started getting better. Still weren’t great, but they were vastly improved.

Okay, regarding the TEMPLATES…

I didn’t finish a few things, largely because I wanted to get this done for the final true “Legacy” Weekend.

I still haven’t thoroughly gone over all the numeral fonts, but any exotic ones are correct. Terry Proctor, our resident expert on such things, sent Paul a long and thorough analysis of my 1960 templates’ numbers, and I thank him for that. Paul forwarded it on to me, but I’m not an accomplished enough computer artist to attack it precisely. But I will when Tim Brulia and I get to working with FUPP. Promise.

I think the New York Titans had TV numbers on their home navy jerseys in 1962. Perhaps even late in 1961.

The Boston Patriots messed around with two different style crew socks there for a while. Some were the two striped babies shown on the 1961 and 1962 templates. Some were the wide reds shown on 1960. And it wasn’t even consistent from player to player, or from game to game. By ’63 the mostly were gone, but cropped up again from time to time over the succeeding seasons.

The Buffalo Bills 1960 and 1961 TV numbers should be larger. They had the league’s biggest.

I believe the L.A. Chargers wore a darker royal, perhaps a Dodger Blue compared to Cubs blue. I just know that the first time I saw their unis after the move to San Diego they were lighter (“Same color as Colts now,” I remember thinking). Numbers were less ornate, too. They didn’t go to Air Force Blue until ’64, I believe, because ’63 unis were clearly still royal. The true Powder Blue didn’t come along until they were well into wearing gold pants (which first appeared in ’66). Before that it was that blue between royal and powder. I’d say first powder was ’68 or ’69. Know it wasn’t ’67 for sure. That year the jerseys were so dark I think they may have been close to navy. But the high socks in ’67 were powder. And I think the bolt on the pants was royal. Three blues? I believe so.

We see on some web sites that the one-year-wonder 1962 Oakland Raiders helmet stripe was white. It was not. It was athletic gold, like their home jersey numbers and sleeve stripes. I watched them play several times on TV. Even on black and white TV you can tell a white stripe from a gold stripe…because it’s darker than the white pants or white road jerseys. Ask yourself this…if you watch the Steelers or Iowa some weekend in their white jerseys — and knock all the color out of your TV so it becomes black and white — would you be able to tell if the helmet stripe is gold and not white? Of course you would. We’re uni geeks, we’d study such a thing, and get it right.

So, there you go. After 50 years, I have finally passed on my childlike, meticulous recording of early AFL uniforms to the world.

Sure hope someone gives a damn. LOL.

Wow, Ricko, once again, you’ve knocked one out of the park gone deep for six. Awesome. But the templates above are only part of Ricko’s efforts. Below are all the uniforms for 1961 and 1962, for your viewing pleasure:

Boston Patriots: 1961 and 1962

Buffalo Bills: 1961 and 1962

Dallas Texans: 1961 and 1962

Denver Broncos: 1961 and 1962

Houston Oilers: 1961 and 1962

Titans of New York: 1961 and 1962

Oakland Raiders: 1961 and 1962

San Diego Chargers: 1961 and 1962

Couple of annoucements for you now:

** As most of you know by now, but I’ll still repeat — tomorrow is the much anticipated UW “Gathering” at Sheep Station in beautiful Brooklyn. 2:30 till whenever. Hope to see you NYC-area UWers there.

** Uni Watcher Matt Englander needs YOUR HELP. While not quite along the lines of the “Design-A-Cap” or “Design-A-Uniform” contests, he still has a modest proposal for the readership. Here’s Matt:

I know this comes on the heels of the controversial topic of devaluing logo/uniform design work, but I am hoping that you’d be willing to help me in a somewhat related area: picking a team name. I am starting a 30+ baseball team that will be based in Cambridge MA, so I am looking to pick a name based on something that is historically appropriate for Cambridge. I hope that in considering this as something to open up to readers that I don’t simultaneously devalue the naming process.

** Speaking of the Clarksville High School “Design-A-Uniform” Contest, I am hoping to begin running the contest entries next weekend. It’s going to be an enormous undertaking, as I’ve received more than forty entries. I thank everyone who’s sent in their submissions so far, and I’ll try to get them all up for viewing over the next week or so. This is probably going to be a two-weekend event.

** And finally, the WORST. UNI. EVER. contest is now closed. Thanks to SI.com’s “Hot Clicks” mention the other day, we smashed all previous polling numbers. JTH and I will have the results tomorrow. Be sure to check back then.

OK, last Sunday I began running some NFL uniform tweaks/concepts/redesigns, and today, we’re going to take a look at the next batch.

First up is Dan Martell:

Hey Phil,

I noticed on the blog that you mentioned if anyone had some tweaks to NFL unis to send them along. Attached are a bunch I’ve been working on. And below is the explanation for each redesign.

The Giants: I began doing this last week after sitting for several hours looking at excel spreadsheets in the office I randomly was hit with a thought about the Giants uniform. I’ve always loved the look of the Patriots throwback jersey with the stripes on the shoulders similar to the Colts but with more color. I thought to myself, I wonder how the Giants would look with this. That got my mind going and I created the updated Giants Home Jersey. With the help of Chris Creamer’s SportsLogos.net I was able to get premade models of the jerseys to edit. I decided not to edit the road jersey as I felt the design had enough there and did not need shoulder stripes but felt the home jersey could use a little more color.

The Bengals (home, road): After the Giants mock up I felt that the Bengals uniforms were in some need of a new look. It started out thinking why don’t the Bengals use the “Tiger Head” logo (as I like to call it). So I decided to add the logo to the sleeves of the uniform and added the logo to the helmet. I’ve always felt the tiger striped helmet was too much so I instead made it an all white helmet with the Tiger Head logo and a simple Bengal stripe. I feel it gives it a more throw back look to something that may have come out in the ‘70s or ‘60s. Additionally on the Home uniform I made sure to get rid of the orange sides of the jersey (it’s just too much orange in my opinion).

Now the road uniform is a whole different monster. After I finished the home mockup I was trying to think of a good change for the road. One of my favorite animals is the White Bengal Tiger which led me to think how great would it be to have a White Bengal themed road. In this jersey I once again added the updated Tiger Head logo this time in all white but made sure to leave the helmet alone. I thought this came out way better than their current uniform set.

The Cowboys: Let me preface the upcoming redesign with this, like all true Giants fans I despise everything about the Cowboys. That being said, I felt the Cowboy’s road uniforms (which you almost never see) needed some change because quite frankly they suck. Being someone who really loves vintage and throwback looks I felt that it would be a good idea to take the current jersey but to give it an old school twist. I changed most of the grey to white to make it look much like the Cowboys throwbacks but keep the same basic design. At least the Cowboys would look good as I boo them at Giants Stadium.

The Saints (home, road) Another team I haven’t been a big fan of (especially after the thrashing a few weeks ago on Big Blue) but I wanted to see how they would look with a little different twist. For the home uniform I left the black pretty much as is however I decided to change the gold to a little darker shade to make it seem more vintage. This color was based off an alternate logo from the 1960’s according to Sorts Logos.net. I took that alternate logo and added it to the helmet while making the helmet color black. It kind of reminds me of a hybrid between the 49ers and the Raiders. I ended up doing the same to the road uniform but instead of the helmet being black it’s a darker gold similar to the uniform.

The Seahawks (home, road): Last but not least the Seahawks. The first thing I did was figure out a way to get rid of that God awful neon green. I decided to go with a lighter blue to offset the dark blue in most of the home uniform. I updated both the sleeves with this new light blue and added the light blue to the logo on the helmet itself. I think it makes the jersey have a little pop without it being offensive. Additionally, on the shoulders I added the Seahawks alternate logo from Sports Logos.net you mentioned a few weeks back as never seeing. Very simple changes that I think make the uniform a little better.

After finishing the home uniform I couldn’t help but change the road uniform. For this jersey I again changed the sleeves to the lighter blue and added a little bit to the helmet logo. I decided to keep the old sleeve patches for the road to keep things different. Additionally, I decided to add the light blue to the numbers themselves.

Next up is Ben Traxel, and these two designs for the Broncos you’ve actually seen before, since Paul posted them in the ticker a few weeks ago. But since they’re part of the “uni tweaks” folder I’ve been keeping, they’ll get their due below:

After all the Broncos vertical stripe talk I decided we needed to see what they’d look like on their current unis. This also gave me a chance to tweek their not so hot set of today too. I had to get rid of the spike thing that shot into the neck from the side panel and also the way it ended on the pants so I went with a more traditional double stripe. To carry on the blue/orange socks I dashed in some trim on the shoulder. I then changed the sleeve color like they did for a brief time in the 60’s and brought back the Big D logo. The socks definately need to be half white after seeing what the players looked like this year. Finally, I had to get rid of the center stripe spikes and go with something more traditional. This is my first run at tweeking the NFL but I’m sure not the last. We’ll see what team needs it next.

Next up is Stephen Brookman who’s a big fan of the Washington, D.C. team. Here’s Stephen:

Hey Phil…a while back I made some tweak to the Redskins uni set. (I think I sent them in to you a few months ago, so I apologize if this is redundant!) Some of my examples are below.

I am a huge Redskins fan and generally like the current uni set. I just wish they just had some additional options, like gold pants.

The gold pants I’ve designed, use the current Redskins template with the stripes side by side. I’ve also added the old school striped socks, that we saw a few years ago with the throwbacks.

The one thing I’ve always been iffy on about the Skins uni over the years is the yellow facemask. I personally think it makes the helmet look like a toy or kids helmet. Because of this, I’ve added a grey facemask.

So in a nutshell, what I’ve tried to do with my design is keep the current set mostly intact, but with some nods to some of the finer uni moments of the teams’ past. I’d also like if they’d go back to having the stripes on the elastic sleeves go all the way around. About half way around the sleeves, the striping goes from yellow and red, to just solid yellow. To me, that looks totally tacky and flat out lazy on Reebok’s part. I guess if I had my choice of fixing that or having Dan Snyder sell the team, I’d choose the latter.

Thanks Phil…I really love all the work you guys do on the site. It is one of my favorite simple pleasures.

Moving along, we have Scott Lukacs, who’s modified the Cowboys uniforms:

Phil,

Love the blog. Reading it has become a morning ritual. I’ve been thinking about this tweak for a while and when I saw your note about running some football uni tweaks I thought I’d get this off to you.

First for the home white uni. Not much of a change here…more of a look back to the past. The helmet and pants remain as is. The numbers revert to the serif type used during the ’60’s & ’70’s and current throwbacks. TV numbers remain sans serif. NOB goes sans serif as well. Of course the striped socks need to return.

Now for the blue uni. I have never been that fond of the current blue double star jersey so let’s just retire it. I do however, like the current throwbacks and would like to see the team adopt them as their primary blue (away) uni…with some tweaks. The stars on the helmet and jersey shoulders switch to the current design (blue star with white and blue border). Helmet would also be updated to a metallic white. Primary pants would be white with blue stripes. Alt blue pants would also be available with white stripes.

Finally an alt white uni for use on Thanksgiving or other special occasion games. Metallic white helmet would be used for this kit also. Same number and NOB treatments as on the other jerseys. Shoulder stars colors are reversed to white-blue-white. Primary pants would be white with blue stripes. Again alt blue pants with white stripes would be available.

That’s it for now. Keep up the good work!

OK. That will do it for this edition of the NFL uniform upgrades/redesigns/tweaks, etc. There’s still more to come, and (space permitting) I’ll put them in my next post. Thanks to everyone who sent these in, and for those we’ve seen before as well as those still to come. Feel free to continue to send me your submissions!

Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Another gridiron challenge today. Shouldn’t be all that difficult, but then again you never know. As always, date, location and final score are required. Don’t forget to link to your answer by using Pro Football Reference. Ready? 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!

Who says Mick isn’t one suave character? Certainly not Mick. But, what happens when he meets the woman of his dreams in Bub’s Pub? And they say opposites don’t attract.

Enjoy your Saturday Benchies.

Wow…almost to the finish line. If you didn’t check out Paul’s latest ESPN column, make sure ya do. Aside from the fascinating bit on tailgating, the third item, “Meanwhile, over on the gridiron” remarks at length about Nike’s new “pro combat” uniforms (yeah, that’s the ticket), three of which are supposed to be debuting today. Make sure to set your DVR’s for those games. I’m still not certain on the third team, but two of the games are definitely confirmed: TCU vs. Utah and VaTech vs. Maryland (the latter of which will feature camo-tinged unis for Maryland and VaTech decked out in their “good guys wear white” duds). Oh baby. Thanks to Paul and UW Sneakerhead Matt Powers for confirming those games. — Only one of those games can make the “worst dressed list,” and I’d wager ahead of time, one of them will.

At press time, Matt still hadn’t confirmed the third team, but I put his super-nike-sleuthing abilities to the test, and here are his thoughts:

My guess is OU because they are playing A&M, a former Nike school who is now Adidas, due to a famous Nike story.

*Doesn’t look like Mizzou cuz they’re playing K-State, another Nike school. Next week they are doing a blackout against Iowa State, another Nike school. They end up with Kansas.

*LSU is playing LaTech…not a big enough stage. It’s gotta be against Arkansas with “Cochon de Lait.”

*Florida is playing the UA clad gamecocks, coached by Spurrier…good possibility considering they only have FIU and FSU left on the schedule.

*The Canes are at UNC and Butch Davis, but both are Nike schools. They are left with Duke, too small, and USF…big game and UA unis…I’m going with USF on the 28th.

*Texas vs. Baylor, both Nike…they are left with Kansas and A&M. Either one is a good candidate although I would love it to be Kansas, a former Nike school who might get wacked twice by Pro Combat.

*FSU had Wake..both Nike. Next week is Maryland. Fear the Spear vs. Fear the Turtle. If this is true, then the Terps are getting smacked twice in the Pro Combat games.

*TOSU has Iowa…both Nike…and Michigan…its gotta be Michigan

Thank you Inspector Powers. I don’t know what we’d do without you.

That’s gonna do it for today, people. Everyone have a great Saturday.

Two weekends ago I was in Cooperstown, where Hall of Fame curator Tom Shieber was kind enough to give a private behind-the-scenes tour to me, Kirsten, and my old college pals Jeff Katz and Ben McTernan. Naturally, I dressed for the occasion (thanks, RPM).

Most of our time was spent in the Hall’s archives, basically a huge storage area where they keep everything that isn’t currently on display. Since they display only about 15% of their collection at a time, the archives are essentially a huge trove of goodies that most visitors never get to see. Also, because the Hall holds onto everything once it’s accessioned, the archives also feature loads of items that will never be displayed because they’re sort of silly or of dubious historical value. Naturally, these items were my favorites.

Among the highlights:

• Here’s Tom holding Joe Rudi’s suitcase. For some reason I was particularly fond of this item, maybe because it’s green and gold.

• I was very pleased to see that Tom maintains a binder of patches, organized by team and by subject.

• What are these? They’re old season passes that many ballparks used to issue, and holy shit are they beautiful.

• Were were these two items worn by the same player? Nope. Tom was nice enough to let me hold the Babe’s jersey, which had this nice chain-stitched i.d. label.

• As for Gehrig’s cap, there’s something really nice about that smaller “NY” logo, no? Wish they’d go back to that.

• What are those notches around the Louisville Slugger logo? Each one represents a home run that Babe Ruth hit that year (sorry, I forget which season it was). Incredibly, the notches were added by a collector, not by Ruth. Correction, the notches were added by Ruth with each tater he hit. The collector added that label, though. Maybe that’s why Tom allowed me to pose with the lumber. (That’s Tom in the background, looking slightly concerned that I might swing and cause a big crash or something.)

• Why does the Hall of Fame have a shovel? Because it’s from the Dodger Stadium groundbreaking.

• The Hall has a huge collection of baseball-related artwork, most of it endearingly cheesy. For some reason I really liked this painting, although I no longer remember why. Maybe beause of the belt buckle!

• These Brooklyn bricks got me a little misty-eyed.

• We spent some time in the photo library (but not too long, cuz it’s refrigerated in there), where Tom showed us some gorgeous old pics.

• Tom was also proud to show us a few recent displays out in the public areas of the museum, including an exhibit devoted to baseball in the Olympics. I was especially fond of this jersey. Is that a beauty or what?

There was a lot more, but we were too busy having fun to take photos. Speaking of which, special thanks to Kirsten, who took most of the above-linked pics. You can see her full set from our visit here.

Raffle Results: The three winners of the poster raffle are, in order, Evan Shanley, Art Savokinas, and Brian Jones, all of whom should send me their shipping addresses pronto.

For those of you who didn’t win (or didn’t enter the raffle), Infojocks designer Jeremy Yingling has an offer to help cushion the disappointment: If you follow and mention @infojocks on Twitter, he’ll forward you a coupon good for 20% off any poster order.

Sponsor Shout-Out: As you may have noticed, T-shirt operative Miss Wit (aka Brooklyn’s own Deb Goldstein) is selling a fairly brilliant T-shirt. Just sayin’.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Here’s Virginia Tech’s riflery uniform, as photographed by Shawn Brown, who attended the unveiling. … Lots of cool sports-related artwork from an illustrator named Paul Rogers. Much of his work is clearly a homage to former Wrigley/Cubs art director Otis Shepard (with thanks to Ryan Connelly). … What’s the deal with the weird gray panels on RPI’s hockey socks? Almost looks Photoshopped, but Mike Adams says he got the pics from the team’s official web site. … Here’s how not to wear a Dallas Stars jersey (as spotted by Craig Ward). … New World Cup soccer kit for Japan (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Cool contribution from Chad Wilson, who writes: “Over the weekend, my hometown high school, the Glen Oaks Panthers in Baton Rouge, clinched their first district/region championship since 1995 and they posted this picture in the local paper. Check out the striped socks — and cleats! — on No. 1.” … Here’s what the Stephen Colbert speedskating sponsorship patch looks like (with thanks to Matt Englander). … Okay, it’s official, civilization as we know it is totally fucked (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … And in case that last link didn’t convince you, here’s just what the world needs: a soccer player with his Twitter feed printed on his cleats (as forwarded by Jordan Guthmann). … Is it possible that an NFL official really had pom-poms on the brim of his cap? Ron Amadeo took that screen shot (also this one), and I kinda suspected him of sending me a Photoshopped hoax, but then he showed me this wire service shot. Anyone..? … Not sure if anyone posted this in the weekend comments, but here’s what Texas A&M’s Fort Hood memorial decal looked like. … Steve Cook attended Sunday’s Eagles/Cowboys game and spotted this dude in the crowd. Love the “NFL” on the collar — like, just in case you didn’t know which league those logos belonged to. … Blackhawks will be wearing camo warm-ups tomorrow night. I’m sure Native Americans in Illinois and elsewhere will appreciate the juxtaposition of an Indian head the U.S. military. Why not just rename the team Manifest Destiny for a night and get it over with? … UNC broke out the throwbacks last night — nice! More photos here. … Tons of great old hockey imagery on this Canadian archive site, including cool photos, even cooler trading cards, and more. Worth exploring (big thanks to Alan Kreit). … “Must be the shoes,” says Brinke Guthrie. … Speaking of Monday Night Football, Wyatt Silverman notes that Troy Polamalu had a little cross embroidered above his nameplate. Has it been there for years and nobody ever noticed because of his hair? If anyone knows more, please speak up. … Aussie rules football news from Drew Douglas, who reports that Adelaide Crows have a new logo and road kit and the Brisbane Lions have a new logo. … Here’s a breakdown of all the EPL kits from last weekend (with thanks to Michael Orr).

Back around 2002, I wrote a column about collectibles for a magazine too embarrassing to mention. The column was eventually discontinued because the editor felt I wasn’t coming up with enough “found in the attic” stories — i.e., stories about amazingly valuable collectibles that had been gathering dust in someone’s attic until they were discovered and then sold for many thousands of dollars. I tried to explain to the editor that stories like those don’t grow on trees, but somehow he was unmoved, and that was the end of the column.

Too bad I didn’t know about this game-worn Jim Brown Syracuse helmet back then. Here’s the deal: The helmet was originally given to the father of a young Syracuse family by a close friend of former Syracuse coach Ben Schwartzwalder shortly after the 1956 season. It was a gift to an expectant father, who put it away for what he was sure would be his new son. When his wife gave birth to a girl instead, the helmet stayed tucked away in the family attic, where it remained until the daughter, now grown and caring for her elderly father, discovered it more than four decades later.

The helmet was eventually acquired in 2001 by Curtis Worrell and Jim Parker of Helmet Hut. It was the crown jewel in their helmet collection, but with Parker’s recent death, Worrell has decided to sell the helmet and give the proceeds to Parker’s widow. It’s currently up for auction at Game Used Universe (which, as you may have noticed, is a new Uni Watch sponsor, although that’s not why I’m writing this piece — the helmet is a great story, and the Helmet Hut folks are great people).

The auction runs through this Thursday, just in case you have an extra 30 grand burning a hole in your pocket. And even if you don’t end up bidding, you can check out these great Jim Brown pics here.

New ESPN column today — my annual college hoops season preview, and it’s a doozy, with coverage of over 50 teams. Major thanks to all of you who provided info. Here’s the link.

Raffle Reminder: Today’s the last day for the poster raffle. Details here.

What’s it worth to ya?: Remember last Wednesday’s discussion of the value of design? Scott Misner, whose comment a few days earlier prompted that discussion (but who did not participate in the Wednesday dialogue — he was busy with work-related stuff) has checked in with a lengthy essay in which he expands on his original comment and responds to some of the points made in Wednesday’s comments. Check it out here.

Mooooo!: Yesterday’s Brooklyn Beefsteak was a smashing, gut-busting success. Thanks to all the Uni Watch readers who said hello! I’ll post my photos tomorrow, so send me yours if you want them to be included.

Your productive day is now over: Dave Holz sent me a link to some absolutely stunning 1930s color photography from the Library of Congress. It’s not uni-related, but it’s flat-out the most compelling imagery I’ve seen in ages. Be warned — once you click on this link, you won’t get anything else accomplished all day. Enjoy.

Uni Watch News Ticker: In case you were under a rock for the past 72 hours, we now know what a bunch of the Nike rivalry revelry riflery designs look like, including the full Ohio State uni, the Virginia Tech jersey, the TCU uni, most of the gloves, and probably a lot more stuff that I’ve missed. Oh, and each riflery school gets its own stupid-ass comic book slogan, and Nike helped prime the pump for today’s Virginia Tech uni unveiling by parking this unassuming little buggy on campus. Nicely done. … Now that’s a uniform, as worn by Jon Solomonson, circa 1973. The other kids’ helmets had only one stripe, but they had to find a smaller lid to fit Jon’s noggin, and it had three stripes. He says he later removed the extraneous striping so he could match his teammates. … Now that the Yanks have won their 27th title, Joe Girardi plans to change his uni number. … Best Twitter feed ever (thanks, Kirsten). … 11/11 isn’t just Veterans Day — it’s also “the date that most closely resembles corduroy,” at least according to these folks, who’ll be holding their annual Grand Meeting on Wednesday right down the avenue from my house. … Nice story about a Sidney Crosby jersey here (with thanks to Nate Budziszewski) …. Jay Danbom lives in Dickinson, North Dakota, where those college softball players recently drowned. He responded to the tragedy by designing a memorial ribbon (”Ashely Neufeld’s initials are in red because she was from Canada,” he explains), which was worn by his rec hockey team. … Bit of a poppy controversy in Old Blighty (with thanks to Mark Coale). … Okay, so this is pretty damn cool. Details here (with thanks to Braden Lerwill). … Check out the major helmet-stripe damage on Alphonso Carreker’s helmet, circa 1988. … Many college football refs wore blue sleeves on Saturday, for prostate cancer awareness. … There’s gotta be an easier way to represent your team on your goalie pads than this (with thanks to Laura Pond). … Bruce Menard was looking through an auction site and turned up a really nice 1911 Cubs jersey and an even nicer 1920s Cubs jacket. … This is a gown made of Arizona Cardinals jerseys. Lots of additional details here (with thanks to Chad Todd). … Interesting discussion on the Chris Creamer board: Someone pointed out that the far-right Lightning player in this photo isn’t wearing the the NHL collar logo. That prompted someone else to post that Robyn Regehr has never had the NHL logo on his collar since the league went to the Edge template. … The Japanese women’s volleyball team will be wearing new uniforms — including a very odd upside-down pouch design — at the Grand Champions Cup next week (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Super-cool collection of bicycle chain guards here (great find, Kirsten). … More excellent info on the nature of flannel fabrics here (with thanks to Dave Grob). … Double sock stripes! Additional creamsicle pics here. … New soccer kit for Argentina (with thanks to Tomas Abrate). … Torn helmet decal yesterday for DeAngelo Williams (screen shot courtesy of Corey Davis). … “Jesuit High School of Portland, Oregon, has a successful cross country team that has the athletes put a cross on their face,” reports Jeremy Brahm. … Sorry there’s so little NFL info in today’s entry. I was off the grid all day yesterday due to the beefsteak. Priorities, priorities…..

I’ve written several times about Earl Battey of the Twins, who in 1963 attached a metal plate to the side of his batting helmet, thereby becoming the first MLB player to wear an earflap.

I’d never seen another player wearing an improvised flap until scrolling through yesterday’s comments, where Larry Wiederecht posted a link to an eBay auction for this 1964 wire service photo.

Wow! Never seen that before, so I immediately e-mailed the photo to uni designer Todd Radom and Hall of Fame curator Tom Shieber, who’d never seen it either. Lots of info to process here — one thing at a time:

• Oliva played on the Twins, same as Battey, so the Minnesota equipment staff had some experience in making this type of helmet attachment. Which begs the question: Did any other Twins wear the improvised flap?

• Hard to be sure what the flap is made of. Metal? Plastic?

• Fascinating to see that Oliva resisted wearing the attachment because he thought it looked goofy. Forty-five years later, we’re going through the same safety-vs.-aesthetics issue with the S100 helmet. Some things never change.

• The caption mentions that Oliva grudgingly wore the flap in batting practice, but it’s not clear whether he ever wore it in a game. Ricko, can you shed any light on this?

• I have never been able to determine exactly when ABC Helmet began making helmets with real earflaps. I had always wondered whether Battey’s improvised flap in 1963 had led ABC to start making flapped helmets in ’64. But judging by the Oliva photo, that’s not what happened. Hmmmmm…

Big thanks to Larry for finding this photo — a major piece of the helmet history puzzle.

And now we have a truly ridiculous number of extra-curricular announcements (anything to take my mind off of last night’s ballgame)…

Raffle Reminder: I’m currently raffling off three cool posters from Infojocks Sports Graphics. Details here.

About freakin’ time: Many of you have asked me to give the DIY posts their own category/tag/etc. Unfortunately, we were using an old, creaky version of WordPress and had maxed out the number of categories — I couldn’t add any more. But Johnny Ek upgraded us to a new version of WordPress a few days ago and, as you can see in the right rail, our list of categories now includes “DIY Projects.” If you click on that link, you’ll get all our past DIY entries grouped together in one spot. Sorry it took so long to achieve something so simple.

Twitch, or Twat, or whatever the hell it’s called: Speaking of the tech upgrade, you may have noticed that there’s now a little “Follow us” link on the right side of your browser window. That’s because John has finally dragged me — semi-kicking, quasi-screaming — into the world of Twitter. Each new daily post here on the site automatically generates a new toot with a link to that post, plus I may occasionally flutter during the day, but I don’t expect to do it all that often (I mean, shit, this here web site should be enough of a soapbox for whatever I want to say, right?). Anyway, if you haven’t already done so, feel free to join the party.

And hey, as long as we’re talking about tech stuff: John is currently running some analytics to help us get a better grip on our traffic and readership. You can help by adding the Alexa add-on to your browser (it’s quick and painless, promise) and then filling out the little form thingie when your browser reboots. If you’d rather not, that’s fine; but if you’re willing, Firefox users can add Alexa here, and IE users can find it here. Thanks.

Beefsteak Update: This Sunday’s Brooklyn Beefsteak event is sold out, although I’m told there may be some tickets available at the door. Keep an eye on this page for updates. For those of you who were smart enough to buy tix in advance, I’ll see you on Sunday.

Uni Watch Party Update: We’ll be gathering on Sunday the 15th, 2:30pm, at Sheep Station. Ryan Connelly’s coming all the way from Pittsburgh to attend, so all you NYCers really have no excuse not to show up.

Uni Watch News Ticker: As had been rumored earlier in the week, Ohio State will be wearing throwbacks on November 21st. This photo made the rounds yesterday, although it’s unclear if that’s the design that will be used on the 21st. I’m sure someone will leak the appropriate info shortly. … Chris Douglas-Roberts has a mighty long NOB (as spotted by James Savage). … Nicole Haase notes that Marquette’s retired number banners show each number in jersey-appropriate type and colors. … Steven Tatar sent me 20 more photos from his visit to that varsity jacket factory. … The Ducks (Anaheim, not Oregon) wore camouflage jerseys during warm-ups on Tuesday, as a military-appreciation gesture (with thanks to John Muir). … It’s one thing to put a ski jump in an outdoor stadium, but how about inside the Boston Garden? Brian Codagnone, quoting from a museum exhibit at the TD Garden Sports Museum, explains: “In the 1930s, when the ski craze first swept the East, sportsman Walter Brown became obsessed with the idea of hosting a winter carnival at Boston Garden. Stumped by the cost and difficulty of importing snow for indoor use, Brown one day passed a fish market, where he noticed a handsome cod packed in ice that was ‘chopped up so fine it looked like corn snow.’ The merchant showed him his grinding machine and Brown super-sized the concept, ordering larger versions that could handle 500 tons of ice. In December 1935, a five-story ski jump was erected in the Garden rafters and hundreds of amateur skiers showed up, unaware it was intended for professional jumping demonstrations. The concept of indoor slopes and annual ski shows caught on, and were copied at Madison Square Garden and other arenas.” … Chris Paul has been wearing a captain’s “C” (here’s how it looks on the road). “David West also wore a ‘C’ for the home opener vs. the Kings (it’s hard to see, but it’s there) but he didn’t wear one during the Spurs, Celtics or Knicks road games,” says Jason Hijuelos. … Check out Henrik Lundqvist’s lastest mask design (with thanks to Matt Harris). … England’s new rugby kit is the color of the beast (with thanks to Caleb Borchers). … Truly sensational video clip on old hockey sweaters here (big thanks to Ethan Crooks). … Mariano Rivera wore a road BP jesey at Yankee Stadium for Tuesday’s workout (good spot by Jonathon Binet). … I’m still calling it St. James’ Park (with thanks to Matt Beahan). … What brand are these jerseys? … Here’s a Sox in shorts photo I hadn’t seen before. Also, note that Moe Drabowski, at far left, is wearing his jersey tucked in, even though that jersey design was meant to be worn untucked (nice find, Phil). … Eric Romain notes that Sean Avery has already worn three different helmets this season. … Bill Scrowther found some excellent old photos on Utah’s state history site. Among the highlights: three separate examples of vertical placket lettering (look here, here, and here), a Budweiser-sponsored baseball team, and some very odd basketball pants. … Check out the second service listed on this page — a cure for logo creep! How awesome would it be if a few thousand jersey owners engaged her services? (Thanks, Kirsten.) … Further evidence of how corporate footwear deals make everyone behave like douchebags. … It was a very uni-uneventful World Series, but here’s a great tidbit from AJ Chalifour: All Series long, Mark Teixeira was wearing a pink MLB logo on his jersey.

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.

Brothers and sisters, I am excited to announce that reader Zac Neubauer has made a remarkable discovery, to wit: Noted soft-porn magazine National Geographic, in addition to photographing all those adorable naked tribespeople, has published a surprising amount of high-quality sports imagery over the years. Really! Many of these photos are very much in the Uni Watch wheelhouse, and Zac has generously combed through the NatGeo archives to compile them for us. Let’s take a look:

• Zac knows I like bowling, so he made sure to include these shots of Indian pin boys and a Vermont pin factory.

• I’ve previously run photos of the space-suited Astrodome groundskeepers, but I’ve never seen pics of the Orioles base-sweeper girls before. Note how Mark Belanger and the broomstick have similar builds.

• And speaking of sweeping, there is soooooo much to like in this curling photo. Additional curling goodness here.

• If not for the caption, I might not have noted the white glove being worn by this Japanese umpire. Jeremy, Mark, and all you other Japan-knowledgeable folks out there, was it once standard practice for umps to go white-gloved? Only plate umps or also base umps? Details, please.

• Check out the lower photo here — indoor miniature golf!

• Hey, there’s nothing like a friendly ballgame to inspire a lighthearted caption.

• Can anyone fill us in on the game being played here?

• What’s better than a movie at the drive-in? A football game at the drive-in!

• Okay, there are more surreal elements to this shot than I can count. The funny thing is that there’s a guy around the corner from me who looks exactly like the batter. Sits out on his stoop every day and grumbles about this and that. Not sure if he bats right-handed, though.

• This is quite possibly history’s greatest girls’ basketball team portrait, wouldn’t you agree?

• This pond hockey shot is amazing. Love how so many of the kids have matching sweaters (except the one at far right has the colors reversed) and how two of the others have nearly matching plaid shirts.

• Soap box derby! Nuff said.

• Whoa — that’s some gorgeous setting for a soccer field. Zac says the uni number is “a Persian ‘2.’”

• Here’s something I’d never seen before: motorball (i.e., soccer on motorcycles), complete with uniforms and numbers.

• Here’s a fairly early shot of the Little League World Series, before TV cameras ruined it. The guy at lower left is Little League founder Carl Stotz.

• Lovelovelove the saturated colors in this hockey photo.

• Okay, so this has to qualify as one of history’s weirdest relay races, no?

• I hope he’s saying, “Hey, kid, pull up your left sock.”

• Here’s an interesting Westinghouse ad extolling the virtues of night baseball.

• Coke has had lots of great sports-oriented ads over the years, but this one is particularly nice.

• Maybe they’ll dust off this ad for the pigthrax scare.

• There’s something really beautiful about the angles and composition of this NHL shot.

• Best. Sock. Ad. Ever.

• Who are these starstruck lasses? The Pee Wee Reese Fan Club, of course!

• As we head for the home stretch, it turns out that awesome striped socks and adorable tribespeople can coexist. Isn’t that heartening?

• Here’s a good one to go out on.

Want to see more? A few dozen additional photos are available here. Major thanks to Zac for compiling all of these while he was looking for nudie tribe photos.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Whoa, major discovery here: Connie Mack in uniform! That shot was taken during spring training in 1950 (awesome find by Jason). … Speaking of major baseball discoveries, look at this! That’s from Hall of Fame curator Tom Shieber’s blog, Baseball Research. … Ben Traxel has created a new Broncos uni concept that mixes and matches several elements from the team’s history. … Remember this weird uni item? Craig Bates ended up winning that auction, and he’s provided a bunch of photos. … Matt Clement sent along some highlights from the Buffalo Sports Museum. Among his picks: the Bisons’ “Pepsi” jersey, Sabres season ticket books sponsored by Utica Club, and the sign from the Aud Club. … The U. of Minnesota hockey team has a new alternate jersey. Here’s the rear view (with thanks to John Thompson). … Regatta news from sailing enthusiast Doug Steffenson, who sent along a bunch of pics from the ICSA Sloop National Championship. “Interesting to note that U. South Alabama not only goes with what looks like a car manufacturer’s logo (Jaguar) on the front but also has a big “USA” across the back. Looks like UC Irvine got a sponsor deal for across the front (WaMu –- but I thought they were out of business?) with the school’s initials on the back. A sailing anteater would seem to be more interesting than the initials. BC, Brown, and Wisconsin went with letter logos across the back while Charleston has their burgee (flag) on the front.” … MLB umps and the Carolina Panthers: Separated at birth? (Good observation by Doug Brei.) … There are tragedies, and then there are tragedies (as forwarded by Keith Owen). … Very nice shot of Jackie Robinson as a UCLA baseball player (with thanks to Mark Loveland). … Robert Marshall informs me that he and fellow reader James T. Huening will be going curling here this Sunday. Full report to follow. … The Chargers are selling some super-cool posters for several of their home games this season. So far they’ve released the Broncos and Raiders editions, with Eagles and Chiefs versions still to come (with thanks to Dustry McGowan). … Good article about Joey MacDonald’s mask and pads here (with thanks to John Muir). … “Jordan’s and Palestine’s women’s soccer teams faced each other on Monday in Al-Ram on the West Bank,” says Morris Levin. Note the Jordanian player wearing the hijab. Ditto for goalkeeper here, although Morris says that’s “less interesting since keepers often wear long pants and sleeves anyway.” … Nice Super-8 footage from a 1998 Mets/D-backs game, including dubbed-in audio from Gary Cohen and Bob Murphy, here. It’s hard to see, but this was one of those rare games when the Metsies wore black jerseys with blue undersleeves, a configuration I’ve done my best to forget about over the years (with thanks to Brian Erni). … What’s that printed on the inside of Cam Janssen’s shirttail? A high-res version of the photo reveals this. The first part is simple enough — “Lettering by Liebe” (a St. Louis company, remember — I wrote about them back in 2007). As for the rest, Joe Barker explains: “Bert Godin is the Blues’ equipment manager. The date on the jersey is from a preseason game against the Avs, the Blues’ first road preseason game of the year. Probably the first time they had the road whites done up.” Faaaascinating. … Big birthday wishes to our own Scott M.X. Turner today. See you tonight, buddy.

By Phil Hecken, with Tim Brulia and Rick Pearson

It struck Ricko and me at about the same time. We were trading E-mails before the Denver Broncos played the San Diego Chargers in their throwbacks this past Monday, and exchanging some barbs about the uniforms as depicted on the 1960 AFL section of the Football Uniforms Past and Present website — that website is an invaluable tool, and the amount of incredible research that has gone into it cannot be undervalued — and Ricko asked me, “you don’t think the Broncos are gonna wear brown pants with white stripes, do you?” Now, I wasn’t born when the Broncos played that first season, but I did know they only had one pair of pants. Yet, on the 1960 section of FUPP, those pants are depicted as having white stripes (which would have made infinitely more sense, only it didn’t happen).

Then we looked more closely at some of the other uniforms — and Ricko informed me they were wrong too. In fact, it occurred to him (and it hit me at about the same time): “Did the NFL actually use the FUPP site to base a good number of their AFL throwback uniform upon?” Could they have been that lazy? Were they relying on a (very good, but not infallible) website to dictate the look of their throwbacks? Certainly, the Houston Oilers, who are depicted as having blue numbers and blue stripes on their socks (for their road uniform) — which is also wrong — could have been the NFL’s model. When the Titans came out wearing their road throwbacks, sure enough they were wrong. In fact, they really butchered the socks, (those are the home socks).

Anyway, this got us (and by us, I mean Ricko) to thinking … just how many of those 1960 uniforms depicted on FUPP were not correct? As it turns out — EVERY SINGLE ONE had something that is incorrect — some mistakes are minor, some are major — but every single one of them is incorrect. And that is a shame, because FUPP is such a great site, but really, accuracy is of paramount importance. As it turned out, the Broncos did wear the correct pants for their game, but many believed they screwed up. Had FUPP correctly depicted the gold pants stripes, perhaps no one would have even noticed. But the fact that many felt the Broncos were actually “wearing the wrong pants” speaks volumes about the importance of making sure the historical record is correct.

One of UW’s outstanding research historians, Tim Brulia, who has compiled two historical columns for the UW archives (”White At Home in the NFL” and “Pro Football Uniform History” — both of which can be found on the right hand side of the UW main page, under “Research Projects”), is actually planning on working with and expanding upon the efforts begun by the FUPP website. I will now turn the column over to Tim, who will explain a bit about that and more. Here’s Tim:

“What is my stake in all of this? I am trying to extend the great work the FUPP site did when it was first launched. But in order for a site to have teeth, it must be accurate, as close to 100% accurate as possible. With a site like FUPP, every little nuance, and detail (colors, stripes, numeral fonts, patches, logos, etc.) has to be accurate.

“In my research, I have used the Proquest archives of the New York Times that are available online. When I was a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), they made available the Proquest archives of the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. I utilize the Pennsylvania State Library in Harrisburg, PA and their vast microfilm collection of PA newspapers, including the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia papers. When I get a rare chance to make it to Washington, I also use the microfilm newspaper collection from the Library of Congress. As well as various historical football pictorial books. Not to mention various contributions from others along the way. I thank all the facilities and generous people for the help.

“Currently, I am working with a contributor who is doing the graphic work on the pre-1959 uniforms. The aim is to complete these sets of unis. From here, we hope to revise the corrections that need to be made that is currently shown on FUPP and bring the uni combos that have been worn since 2003 up to date. When will all of this see the light of day on a website? Frankly, it is too early to tell. But even after our dream becomes reality, our work will never be done. There will always be something that we missed or we need to fix.”

Thanks Tim. I will now turn the remainder of this section over to Rick Pearson, who will explain the importance of “getting it right” when it comes to stuff like this. Through Ricko’s tireless efforts this past week, he has reworked every single AFL uniform template for the 1960 season. This has come about by using his personal recollections, the study of numerous photos and clippings from “The Ricko Files” and the experience of being a “uni watcher” from birth. I’m often impressed, usually wowed, suitably satiated, and never bored by what we as a Uni Watch community bring to the table. But what you’re about to read and see, which is the culmination of that lifetime of paying attention to the little things that really DO matter, is one of the most amazing efforts I have ever seen, and not just on UW. If he and Tim (and others) collaborating now and into the future produce results like those below, then the historical record will have found in Tim and Ricko an equal to Marc Okkonen.

And with that, here’s Ricko:

I’d just turned 14, with six or seven years of serious uni watching (lower case) already under my belt. It was a black and white world, except for Sports Illustrated, SPORT magazine, baseball and football cards (the latter being almost worthless) and Preview Annuals. One NFL game a week on TV and only a half-hour weekly highlight show on Saturday mornings. So if you didn’t see it on Sunday, you pretty much weren’t gonna see it.

And then along game this new American Football League. Lots of ink, mostly about how stupid and lame-brained the idea was. Precious little detail. Hard to know who the players were, much less anything about team colors or unis. Such things were of little or no concern to most people. No “gamers” on sale anywhere. No fan hats. Nuthin’.

Anyway, here comes this loopy new league, with lots of new names and faces, and plenty of familiar old ones.

I parked myself in front of the TV every Sunday. Actually had one in my bedroom, a bit of novelty for a kid back then, and I watched the AFL, making sketches of their unis. What color were they? Well, that required something of a science in itself. Scarlet and royal look almost alike on b&w TV…unless they’re on the field at the same time. If you knew “A” was red, then you could figure “B” (although when together, royal generally did look a bit darker).

You needed to be around for the beginning of the telecast. That was the time, if ever, the announcers would “set the scene. “ Maybe half the time, though, they didn’t bother to describe the unis at all.

Gradually, I figured them out. Logic indicated the Oilers were in powder blue (though yellow gold was something of a possibility). Eventually, announcers confirmed the blue. The Titans certainly wore old gold pants. One announcer said they were in “maize and blue, like Michigan.” My ass, they were. Those pants were WAY too dark to be “maize” as Wolverines knew it. And so it went. And sometimes you’d guess. Educated guesses, but still guesses. And look for details. Is there a feathered edge on those stripes? Especially on socks. That could be a tough one. Not a ton of close-ups back then.

Wasn’t until maybe the third time I saw the Broncos that someone said they were in brown and gold. Until then, I was thinking maybe navy and gold. Or navy and the light orange we now call “Tennessee Orange.” I had reckoned the Patriots were in royal (not wanting to be the “Redcoats,” as many of you have mentioned) and that the Bills had chosen red and silver. Why not, it was a great look at Georgia at the time, and had served the 49ers well the season before. Then I learned it was just the opposite, probably when they played each other and I could compare the “grays”. Or when an announcer bothered to tell us what the hell the teams were wearing.

After a full season of carefully watching all or part of probably every ABC telecast, I had everything pretty much down. Then it was just a case of waiting until the end of the following summer to check preseason magazines (and hope for SOME quality in football cards) to check my findings … even though the magazines would all be black and white, too (it wasn’t until SI’s pro football preview in ’62 that I finally saw a color photo an AFL game).

And somewhere along the line it occurred to me that maybe no one else what recording the things I was recording … and that maybe someday it all would mean something to someone. Guess maybe now it finally does.

So that’s it. The photos I’ve supplied Phil all are from 1961 publications (unless noted), so they have to be 1960 games. Tough to find a camera that will photographs next year’s games.

And I have nothing but respect for FUPP. When I first saw the site, the mistakes irritated me. Then I came to realize they had taken on an outrageous task and very probably just hadn’t had the time to search for everything. I wish I’d know of them sooner, I’d have been glad to help.

What DOES irritate me is that it almost appears that the NFL simply went to FUPP for a lot of its input for the Legacy project. You like to think they’d have bothered to, oh, I dunno, look through their own photo files…or send someone to probe the local newspaper archives.

When Paul visited me a year ago, I kidded about being available to consult with the NFL on the AFL’s 1960 unis for the 50th celebration “for a reasonable fee.” We both laughed, and then he said, matter-of-factly, “They don’t care.”

He was right. The league doesn’t. The Broncos, though, put some extra effort into it. And whether we liked the ’60 duds or not, they got it right. All things considered, that’s exceptional. Also unusual, unfortunately.

Phil here. Before we return to Rick’s write up, I want to show you what Rick did to fix the FUPP 1960 AFL team graphics. So, here, for the first time, are all Eight Original AFL teams, properly rendered by color, stripe, helmet, etc. OUTSTANDING effort Rick! And here are each of those eight teams individually:

Boston Patriots … Buffalo Bills … Dallas Texans … Denver Broncos … New York Titans … Houston Oilers … Los Angeles Chargers … and Oakland Raiders.

Tremendous, tremendous job on those Rick. OK — I now return you to the sage uni watcher, Mr. Pearson, who has some notes on those templates:

Notes on the Revised Templates:

1. Wide red band on Patriots socks.

Back then it took me a while to realize that was the top of the crew socks many of the Pats chose to wear. In some games, they wore crew socks that ended with a pair of red stripes, which totally garbled the leg striping.

2. Titans and Raiders helmets.

Raiders wore the same as the Bears at the time. Titans wore something different altogether. It might have been MacGregor, but I don’t remember any other teams wearing it (and I probably should have made theirs a darker blue, because they were). That blue-helmets-darker-than-blue-jerseys thing.

3. Raider numbers were same font as Oilers.

Most uni historians don’t get that right. They assume that Raiders were more like the Bears…probably because the uni was patterned after them.

4. Have not double-checked the specific versions of block numbers for teams that wore them.

Titans and Chargers are right, I believe. The others may well need adjusting.

5. Raiders gold.

You can see on my “Kids Cards” that I had the Raiders’ gold wrong. It had a bit of sheen to it, and I thought it was metallic old gold, like UCLA or Notre Dame. It wasn’t until I saw the 1962 cards (’61 Raider cards all were hand-tinted black & white PR photos and pretty useless) that I learned positively that it was yellow-gold.

6. One-year wonders.

Only Bills and Raiders were unchanged for second season.

In 1961…

* Titans went to white-added loop unis used for the Legacy games.

* Patriots changed loops to royal around white, and lost the white road socks. And, of course, the three-corner hat was gone.

* Chargers changed all bolts to yellow-gold edged in blue.

* Texans ditched white high road socks.

* Oilers changed to block numbers with no contrasting edge on numbers or sock stripes, either home or road.

*Broncos had no TV numbers on home jerseys.

Well, that’s it for the history lesson. All I can say is “WOW”. Outstanding effort Mr. Richard Pearson. It’s clear to me that the once and future FUPP website will be getting an outstanding resource in you, and when combined with Tim Brulia’s yeoman research and a quality graphic artist, we can look forward to an historical record that will rival that of Marc Okkonen. (And maybe even surpass it). Tip of the cap to you gentlemen, for this first salvo. I’m sure the project, when it finally does come to fruition, will be well worth the wait for those uni watchers (and non-uni watchers) who have been waiting for something like this since … well — forever.

What say YOU, Uni Watch community? How freakin’ great was this? Big round of applause for both Ricko and Timmy B!

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. Oregon continued on its winning streak, remaining unbeaten in PAC-10 play and taking Washington behind the woodshed this week, with a 43-19 buttwhoopin’. Look for Oregon to move up from the 11-spot in the rankings and into to the Top 10. The Ducktracker is now updated.

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

5. USF/Pitt: Bulls are growing on me, while Pitt is a script away from being awesome-looking.

4. Indiana/Northwestern: A lack of Northwestern striping kept this from being rated higher.

3. Tennessee/Alabama: Oh, Bama…if you would have let the Vols wear orange you could have been #1.

2. Auburn/LSU: Tigers win this battle of the unis…

1. Iowa State/Nebraska: Cyclones blew me away with this look, while the Huskers remain classic.

And the worst one: Ball State/Eastern Michigan: A battle of winless teams in more ways than one.

OK that’s all for today. Apologize for the lack of “extras” but needed to get this loaded early. Everyone have a great Sunday. Don’t forgot to nominate your Worst Uni Ever (see yesterday’s post for details). Two legacy games today, plus the ALCS resumes, following the rainout yesterday.