Posts filed under 'History'
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.
October 27th, 2009
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!
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 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.
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 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.
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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.
October 25th, 2009
There was some discussion of this in the comments yesterday afternoon and, especially, last night. But as I often have to remind myself, many (most?) of the site’s readers don’t actually pore through the comments every day, so…
At first glance, you might think the Broncos really blew it last night by wearing yellow-striped throwback pants on the road. According to Football Uniforms Past and Present, they wore white-striped pants on the road back in the day, which makes sense — if you’re wearing a white-striped helmet, a white jersey, and white-striped socks, yellow trim on your pants looks way out of place. It’s like watching something in black-and-white, except one element is in color. Why couldn’t they spring for a set of road pants as part of this season’s throwback program?
But if you look at some old photos, it turns out that Denver never had white-striped road pants in 1960 and ’61. I haven’t been able to find any color pics, but even black-and-white images make it clear that the pants striping had to have been yellow. I’ve compiled a bunch of additional examples here.
So here’s what we can conclude from this episode:
1) The Broncos had only one set of pants in 1960 and ’61, and it had yellow stripes. If they ever had a white-striped set, I haven’t seen visual evidence of it (and Ricko, who was there, confirms the yellow-only theory).
2) Judging by last night’s game — the first time most of us have ever seen the road uni in color — this means the Broncos’ early uniforms were even more poorly designed than we originally thought.
3) The Broncos deserve credit for getting this detail right and being true to their history, warts and all.
4) Football Uniforms Past and Present is wrong. And not for the first time, either. It’s a great site, but there are lots of errors floating about in there. I believe Ricko and Phil will be bringing more of them to light shortly.
All of which is just reinforces something I seem to find myself saying every month or two: Don’t treat uni history web sites as gospel truth. Yes, they’re useful, they’re great starting points for historical discussion, etc., but they’re far from perfect.
Unfortunately, some people haven’t yet gotten this message. Last night, someone on the Creamer boards started a thread entitled “broncos in wrong pants vs. chargers mnf.” As of this morning, the thread had 16 posts, and nobody had bothered to point out that the pants were actually correct.
November Happenings: Two items of note for NYC-area folks:
• As some of you may recall, two winters ago I wrote this article about the once-proud New York tradition of the beefsteak (in this context, “beefsteak” refers to an event, not a particular cut of meat). On November 8th, that tradition will return to Brooklyn after an absence of too many decades. I will definitely be attending, plus I may also be giving a short presentation of some sort — not sure about that last part yet. Either way, it’s gonna be a blast.
• After taking a week to recover from the beefsteak, we should be ready for a Uni Watch party the following Sunday, November 15th. Let’s pencil it in for 2pm at Sheep Station, with official confirmation to follow shortly-ish.
Uni Watch News Ticker: The Grizzlies have unveiled an alternate uniform. Additional details (and a misleading headline) here. … Yesterday I noted that Kendry Morales’s left-sleeve piping has been frayed during the postseason. But Alex Rocklein says it’s been that way at least since August 2nd. … There’s a school called “Bojo”? Nope — that’s Bowie High in Texas, and “Bojo” stands for — get this — “Boost our Jackrabbits onward.” They even have a jackrabbit logo (or at least that’s what Andy McNeel says). … Interesting marketing partnership between the Red Sox and a UK soccer team. … Just what the world needs: a replica throwback in a box (thanks, Kek). … Bit of a T-shirt controversy involving Nick Swisher. Further details here (thanks, Phil). … Ronald Covert has a friend who makes custom-painted sports-themed cornhole boards. Very cool. … Last year I linked to some artwork by Brian Jungen, who at the time was making Native American-themed art out of Air Jordans. Now Kirsten informs me that he has a show at the National Museum of the American Indian in DC, and some of the material is amazing. In addition to Air Jordans, he’s also working with baseball gloves, golf bags (I think that’s what those are, right?), and jerseys. … We all know various high school teams have pinched NFL team logos. Until now, though, I’d never seen a school using Bucco Bruce (with thanks to Tris Wykes). … UConn will be adding a “JH” helmet decal in memory of Jasper Howard (as reported by Matt O’Brien). … Teebz’s excellent Hockey Blog in Canada has a new entry about the Preston Rivulettes, and it’s chock-full of amazing old photos of women’s hockey and softball teams. Great historical info, too — highly recommended reading. … According to the last four grafs of this article, Clemson and Coastal Carolina will go color-on-color on Halloween (with thanks to Mike Miller). … In a related item, Tennessee wanted to go color-on-color for this Saturday’s game against Alabama, but the Crimson Tide said no (big thanks to Andrew Dockery).
October 20th, 2009
Back in January, reader Warren Humphrey pointed me toward this page, which features lots of interesting Seattle Chieftains uniforms. I linked to it in the Ticker and that was the end of that.
But if I had bothered to click around on the site where that page was hosted (which I’ve now finally done, thanks to a tip from Dave Hembree), I would have found a ton additional material. The site is Both Teams Played Hard, and it’s amazing. It’s run by Warren, who describes himself as “a collector,” although I think “historian” might be just as apt a title for him. His strongest suit appears to be basketball, mostly non-NBA stuff, although he has at least a few jerseys from all the major (and some minor) sports. Here’s a small sampling of what you can find once you start clicking through his site:
• Totally digging this Knicks warm-up pullover and this snap-front design.
• The front of this Kentucky State shooting shirt is nice, but the real prize is the design on the back — check it out.
• Here’s a doozy: tequila sunrise and sunset!
• I’d never seen a basketball jersey with the school name in between the two uni number numerals before. How did they handle the design for jerseys with single-digit numbers?
• Awesome 1960s Cleveland Barons hockey jersey here.
• You can really see how the Jets’ shade of green has changed over the years when you look at this old salesman’s sample.
• Love the chunky Phillies script seen in this 1948 batboy jersey.
• Good thing Warren already sold this 1930s football jersey, or else I’d be reaching for the checkbook right now.
• We all know that the Cubs’ mid-century road design has also been used by minor league teams, but I’d never seen this version before.
• OK, so we all know how I feel about purple, but I might make an exception for this jersey.
• You also know how I feel about the combination of green and gold, and that goes double for this uni. GodDAMN that’s gorgeous!
• Greatest rear-jacket design ever? Could be, could be.
• The Globetrotters weren’t the only show team playing in Harlem back in the day. There were also the Harlem Travelers.
• Rare to see a shooting shirt with a big design on the front.
• It’s hard to imagine a jersey that screams “early 1970s!” more than this one does. Here’s the road version.
• I know there have been teams called the Quakers, but I’ve never seen one called the Quaker Oats. Must have been a factory team.
• Magnificent satin jersey here.
• Warren also has a huge page devoted to old photos, ranging from the gorgeous to the bizarre. Too many notable pics to list here, so let’s just say I strongly, strongly recommend scrolling through the entire set.
• Last but absolutely not least, Warren has also been compiling a tagging archive. Click on the individual brands to see loads of great tag designs.
And there’s more — a lot more. Good luck getting anything else done once you start poking around through Warren’s collection.
Great Seven-Inch Sell-Off, Continued: I’ve put yet another batch of old indie singles up for sale on eBay. Start biddin’!
Uni Watch News Ticker: Some really nice old baseball program and yearbook covers on display here. “My favorite is this one, for obvious reasons,” says Ray Barrington). … Oooh, check this out: Prior to Saturday’s Blackhawks/Avalanche game, Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, Denis Savard, and Tony Esposito took the ice in period-appropriate uniforms. “Note the NNOB and older crest on Mikita and Hull and the gold trim on the crest with the sans-serif C on the shoulder patches for Esposito,” says James Huening. “Dunno why Savard had to wear an Edge jersey, though. And I’m pretty sure the numbers weren’t positioned so low on the back during the NNOB days.” … “Clemson football player Stanley Hunter was forced to quit the team right before the season started because of his ongoing problems with epileptic seizures,” says Benji Boyter. “As a tribute to him, a different player on the team is wearing his No. 17 for each game.” … You know how turf fields typically include those little pieces of ground-up tires? Turns out they could be toxic. … Good spot by Teebz, who notes that Chicago Wolves goalie Drew MacIntyre was still wearing his blue Predators pants the other day, instead of black like his teammates. … The Penguins will wear their blue throwbacks this Saturday. The full schedule for wearing them this season can be found here (thanks, Kek). … Good spot by Jesse Buckner, who notes that the Rangers have been wearing navy gloves, instead of royal. Is that a new thing? … Best news of the week! … USC is adding a helmet decal this weekend for Stafon Johnson, who suffered a serious training injury. … New logos and colors for the New Orleans Zephyrs (with thanks to Bruce Richards). … Todd Usher notes that Maurice Creek is shown wearing a numberless Indiana jersey on this page. “I’d never seen an Indiana head shot that didn’t include the number,” he says. … Great story about an old Arkansas pennant here (nice find by Charlie Shields). … FNOB alert from the late ’80s. That’s Kerry Cash of the 1989 Longhorns (as noted by Gordon Reid). … Look at this: Nike is selling Oregon State replica jerseys with different TV numbers on the two sleeves. “It’s so people don’t have to choose between the two best players on the team, brothers Jacquizz (#1) and James (#8) Rodgers,” says Malcolm Byers.
October 14th, 2009
Okay, let’s get right to it: the Broncos/Pats game. I saw most of the game and have pored over a buttload of photos from various sources. After all of that, my thoughts are as follows:
• First and foremost, whether the Broncos looked “good” or “bad” (I think there was some of both) is not the point. The point is that they were revisiting a chapter from their history — a chapter most of us had never seen, and that almost nobody had seen in color, a chapter that has become semi-legendary and is therefore worthy of further study, even if only as a re-enactment. That’s the value of a project like this, even if the uniforms in question look like shit. And I’m not saying they did look like shit, mind you — I’m just saying that’s not the real issue at hand.
• The vertically striped socks were fun, but where were the whites? The early-’60s Broncos (like every other pro team of that era) wore mid-level whites with their hose, and NFL rules still require mid-level whites today. True, many players nowadays have reduced the white component to just a sliver, but the Broncos didn’t even try yesterday — they just went with full-length stripes, which took things from sublime to ridiculous and, more importantly, was historically inaccurate.
It’s easy to blame the players and the equipment staff for this, but I also say, “J’accuse!” to Reebok, because they could easily have made the socks half-white and half striped (like these, only striped instead of solid). Hell, they gave the socks a white foot –why not bring the white up to the proper level? A major botch by everyone involved.
• The white-free hose led to some tomfoolery on the field, as Jabar Gaffney went candy-striped, plus I noticed a few players wearing two pairs of socks with the stripes misaligned, creating a sort of harlequin effect.
• Also worth noting that the short pants worn by so many of today’s players resulted in the stripes extending above the knee, which is not a good look. Not quite as bad as this, but getting there.
• In the olden days, Denver’s pants stripes were much thinner than the sock stripes, so there was always a clear distinction between sock stripe and pant stripe. But the pants piping on the throwback pants is much heavier, so it sometimes looked like the two sets of stripes were bleeding into each other (that photo doesn’t capture it so well, but I saw it a lot on TV).
• Temperatures in Denver were below freezing but the officials stuck with their throwback attire, including the white knickers, instead of going for the cold-weather slacks. Good for them.
• Y’know, helmets with TV numbers on the side always look so damn cool. I realize teams would rather have a logo on the side, and it’s hard to argue with that, but I wish more teams could find a way to marry the two approaches, like the Chargers used to do.
• Looks like Brandon Marshall used one of the socks as a towel. Here’s another view.
• Okay, so you wouldn’t want to see that Denver uni every week, and probably ditto for the color scheme, but someone on the Chris Creamer board created this — not bad!
• Very cool that they had this flying at the stadium.
• Oh, the Pats. Yeah, they looked swell. And Julian Edelman was doing the double sock stripe thing.
Amazing but true: I know this is gonna be hard to believe, but apparently there were also some other games in the NFL yesterday. Here are some of the visual highlights:
• Rare event in KC, as the Chiefs and Cowboys played a throwback game with no white jerseys. And since nobody has a black-and-white TV anymore, I see nothing wrong with it — let’s see more color-on-color matchups. Lots of additional pics here and here. (This game was uni-notable for another reason, as I’ll get to in a minute.)
• Chad Ochocinco finally broke out the pink chinstrap (or was it black strap a pink cup?). Meanwhile, his teammate Dan Skuta, who wears No. 51, had a No. 46 helmet. (Screen shot courtesy of Michael Kinney.)
• Love those Rams throwbacks (additional photos here). Interestingly, they didn’t spring for new helmets — they just swapped out the ram horn decals, as described in the opening graf of this story.
• Joe Skiba had told me that the Giants’ ghosted Reebok logos would no longer be a problem, but apparently he was mistaken. Naturally, I think it’s great. Too bad every team can’t have this “problem.”
• Owen Schmitt of the Seahawks had blood on his uni number yesterday. And how did that happen? He smashed his helmet into his forehead during pregame intros, with predictable results. Bright fella. (Screen shots courtesy of Chad Todd.)
• In that same game, David Garrard’s NOB was stretched into an arc (probably because the jersey had been glued or Velcroed to his pads). Not sure if the last “R” in his name was backwards or just stretched into a new shape, but it looked bad either way. (Thanks to Matt Takimoto for the screen shot.)
• Just what the world’s been waiting for: pink spats.
I hear there were some baseball games yesterday too, but none of those games featured vertically striped socks, so the hell with ’em.
End of an Era: The color-on-color aspect wasn’t the only unusual aspect of that Cowboys/Chiefs game. Reader J.J. Lauderdale explains:
The Chiefs’ wearing of their Dallas Texans throwback helmet snapped a 548-game streak of the Chiefs wearing nothing but their red shell, arrowhead logo, and white facemask — a streak that began on September 15, 1974, against the Jets. The Chiefs had worn gray facemasks in 1973 before changing to white in ’74.
This is the longest streak in NFL history for a team continuously wearing one helmet with no throwback, no change of logo, no change of facemask color, etc. If you ask people who had the longest streak, most people guess the Cowboys, Steelers, or Raiders and never get to the Chiefs. But many of the teams with the more classic helmets had their streaks broken during the 1994 throwback season (the Steelers, Raiders, and Cardinals, for example), when they wore throwbacks or blank shells. The Chiefs, however, wore their regular lids in 1994, keeping their streak intact.
The four next longest streaks in history are:
• Cardinals, 1960-1994: They wore that bird head logo on a white helmet for 499 straight games before using the blank shell for a throwback game against the Browns in 1994.
• Raiders, 1964-1994: Wore their current helmet for 446 straight games before going retro for the 1994 75th-anniversary season.
• Browns, 1975-2005: 434 straight games for the white-facemask version of their helmet. Then they switched to a gray mask.
• Cowboys, 1977-2004: 432 straight games between the 1976 bicentennial helmet (the one with the red stripe) and the first time they donned the white throwbacks.
Now that the Chiefs’ streak has been broken, the longest current streak belongs to the Bengals. They’re at about 238 games, dating back to 1994 (not sure exactly which week they last wore the 1994 throwback helmet, so it may be off a week or two).
Stellar research there by J.J. — thanks, buddy.
New Sponsor: As you may have noticed, we have a new advertiser at the top of the page: Homage Clothing, which produces some nifty T-shirts, many of them Ohio-themed. Check out their stuff, and thanks for continuing to support all our advertisers.
Singles Going Steady Fast: Today’s the last day for this batch of indie singles that I’m selling on eBay. I’ll put another batch up for sale later this week.
Uni Watch News Ticker: You know, uniforms are cool and all, but I’ve recently felt like my life was missing something, sort of an undefined emptiness that I didn’t know how to fill. Then Kirsten turned me on to this, and life is much, much better now. … New mask for Jason LaBarbera, continuing his Metallica theme (as spotted by John Muir). … You know what’s great about pink? Everyone loves it (with thanks to Mark Tang). … Also from Mark: Some great old photos from the Northeastern photo archive, including fantastic team portraits of the football and hockey squads, plus a spectacular Bruins photo. … Reprinted from Friday’s comments: Someone has created a very cool New Jersey Devils maize maze. … Yup, no question, Rush Limbaugh is gonna be great for the Rams. … Fascinating chapter in college football history is described in this video clip — highly recommended (big thanks to Brian Willette). … Jim Ransdell, who does the excellent Sports Design Blog, was recently interviewed on NPR’s Studio 360 program on the subject of this year’s NFL throwbacks. … Bears’ dark-blue pants are discussed in the last entry on this Q&A page (with thanks to Chad Todd). … Hmmm, didn’t MLB retire No. 42? (As spotted by Doug Steffenson.) … Jordan Farmar has changed his uni number from 5 to 1, which is the number he wore in college (with thanks to Matthew Wolfram). … “This is the most confusing uniform confrontation ever,” says Bill Blewett. “That’s the Lyman Raiders vs. the Phillip Scotties out here in South Dakota. It was a home game for Lyman (I think).” … Jeremy Brahm reports that the Rakuten Golden Eagles gave their rookie pitcher Hiromichi Fujiwara a necktie for being the “Promising Newcomer (rookie).” … Nice collection of cages from old catchers’ masks (thanks, Kirsten). … The Colorado Eagles of the CHL did the pink thing the other night, but the real news is that the ref got in on the act. “The linesmen were in the normal zebra stripes, though,” says Michael Putlack. … Nothing enhances the view of a football field like a nearby power plant. That’s from a bunch of power/energy-related photos by the great photographer Mitch Epstein. … Reprinted from Saturday’s comments: Big Klu as an Angel. … Some interesting info and photos regarding the Twins’ new ballpark here (with thanks to Brad Lappin). … Harvard goalie Ryan Carroll’s backplate reads “In fide et in bello fortes,” which translates to “Strong in faith and war” (with thanks to Tris Wykes). … Dan Hastings came across a Seahawks logo he’d never seen before, and neither had I. Looks like it was modeled on this old Eagles logo. Anyone ever seen the Seahawks version before? … Not sure I’ve ever seen baseball pants with the team name printed down the side. … Complete President’s Cup apparel wrap-up here. … Happy Thanksgiving to Teebz and all our other Canadian readers.
October 12th, 2009
I recently Ticker-linked to this 1972 photo of an odd Padres cap, with a particularly wide-spanning yellow panel. That item has now prompted some interesting responses — let’s take a look:
• First, several readers have pointed out that the same cap can be seen in this card (and most of them pointed out the huge crowd in the background)k. Y’know, I’ve looked at that card a few jillion times over the years and never noticed the unusual cap.
• Richard Craig has generously scanned a bunch of photos of Padres players wearing the wide-span cap. Most of those are head shots from a ’72 program, plus he also found one action shot. “The player shots include some amazingly unmemorable Padres (including Enzo Hernandez, he of the lifetime OPS of .550 in more than 2600 plate appearances),” Richard notes.
• The most intriguing communiqué comes Robert Walker. “That cap was only used in ’72, only on Sundays, and (from what I have found) only for home games.”
That’s a bit of an eyebrow-raiser. A Sunday-specific cap way back in 1972? I thought the notion of specific uni elements for specific days was a much more modern phenomenon. So I wrote back to Robert: “Were you aware of this at the time, or is it something you’ve become aware of more recently? Is this well-known among Padres fans?” Here’s his response:
I’ve known of the alternate “Zimmer” cap for a while, and somewhere along the line I read about it being a Sunday special. Not too many fans know about this, as there aren’t too many “hardcore” fans like me. I don’t have much in terms of photo evidence besides old Topps cards. But all the photos of the cap that I have seen are from day games, and the only day games in San Diego at the time were Sunday and the occasional “Businessman Special” on Thursday.
After wearing the wide-span chevron cap for Sundays in 1972, the team introduced the tamed-down chevron design as their primary cap in 1973. That cap was used until 1979.
Hmmmm. Hey, Richard Craig, were you aware of this Sundays-in-’72 thing? “Nope, but I was only seven years old at the time,” he says. “All I knew was that they were funny-looking caps, especially in comparison with the later, more minimal front panel. Of course, every aspect of those uniforms was funny looking, even to a kid who didn’t know any different. It all just contributed to our long-held civic inferiority complex about the Padres.”
Can anyone else confirm or refute the Sunday protocol? Does anyone know of any other MLB cap designs that featured wide-span front panels? And did the change in the front panel from ’72 to ’73 reflect a change in cap manufacturers? All subjects for further study.
Finally, one other item regarding the early-’70s Padres: When Richard Craig was scanning those cap photos, he also came across this shot of the team’s proposed Washington uni design. “I’ve read that the team colors would have been purple and gold,” he writes — yikes.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Lots of very cool varsity jackets available on eBay — look here, here, here, here (I really like that one!), here, here (unusual color, great details), here, and here. … And while searching on “varsity,” I came across this very cool-looking game. … Nate Robinson has apparently changed his uni number from 4 to 2 (with thanks to Steve King). … Good time-lapse video of the NLDS logo being applied to the Dodger Stadium field here (with thanks to Dan Cichalski). … Shawn Dzwonkowski has scanned a bunch of pages from an old Sheboygan Red Skins media guide. … My Page 2 colleague Kurt Snibbe created this alternate NFL logos the other day. It took Bill Jones about 24 hours to gumball-ize them. … Didn’t realize Visa was now sponsoring the Niners’ practice jerseys. Fuckers (with thanks to Brinke Guthrie). … Hey, look what happens if you cross a horse with the Batmobile! Actually, that’s a horse training system (thanks, Kirsten). … Oooh, you know I like this. “I stumbled across it in Reminisce, a nostalgia magazine aimed at the AARP demographic,” says Jerry Adams. “I left the caption on, although it appears that nobody really knows what school this is.” … Not uni-related, but this home-movie clip of San Francisco, circa 1958 is gorgeous — the clothes, the signage, the saturated colors. Total eye candy (big thanks to my buddy Shane Arbogast). … We’ve all seen photos of the Wilson football factory, but I figure it’s always fun to see a few more. … Caddies in the President’s Cup have been wearing Giants jerseys. Additional details here and here (as reported by Mike McAllister and John Okray, the latter of whom also reports that Tiger Woods looks swell in argyle). … Ya doesn’t have to call me Johnson, but it would be nice if you could at least spell it correctly. That’s Ryan Johnson of the MLS San Jose Earthquakes (screen shot courtesy of Josh Manck). … Got some spare basketball jerseys lying around? Turn them into produce bags (Kirsten again). … Okay, so I love the vertically striped socks as much as anyone, but maybe they should wait until Sunday, y’know? For more on the Broncos’ throwbacks, go here, click on “Video and Audio,” and then click on “Past Meets Present.” … Anyone know why Evander Holyfield had “Head” on his waistband for his 1994 fight against Michael Moorer? Answers involving snarky mentions of head-butting don’t count (as spotted by Tim Donovan). … Also from Tim: Phillies vendors wear Phillies-style uni numbers. … The whole “We won, let’s untuck!” thing is bad enough, but last night Orlando Cabrera untucked after a loss (as noted by Jen Muller).
October 8th, 2009
The most obvious answer is sometimes the one we most easily miss
By Phil Hecken
Lots more uni tweaks/redesigns/overhauls from you guys today. Good stuff. Interesting Stuff. Fun Stuff. It turned out there were so many people who wanted to tweak the Blue Jays, they’re getting their own column. Lets get started.
In the first set of tweaks, I mentioned there were numerous submissions for the Toronto Blue Jays. While there seems to be much love for the powder blues (although they really need to realize that is 1-NOT a home uniform and 2-NOT a pair of pajamas), there seems to be some universal disdain for the lack of actual blue in the Blue Jays these days. And of course, there is always great admiration for the back-to-back World Series champion uni worn in the Blue Jays heydays. So, not surprisingly, many of the readers would like to ditch the black (I mean, c’mon — this is the best they could do) and would like to return to something along these lines (the one Joe Carter is wearing, not Gene Tenace). Some fans have really had enough, expressing their distaste for the black in interesting ways
So, with the Blue Jays in need of an obvious change, what do the readers offer? There are some really interesting ones to follow. So, let’s take a look-see:
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You may remember last time out we had a submission for the Twins from Matt Keller. He also provided me with one for the Jays:
I’m not legally eligible for a prize being 16, but I mess around in photoshop on occasion. (Here’s) a plain, but I think a clean looking Blue Jays uniform. It was made before the Twins uni, and if I could do it again, I’d like to change the numbers to something a little more retro.
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Our next submission comes from Ben Sibley, a man of few words, but great suggestions:
A modern twist to a classic uniform
Thanks
Blue Jays Logo
Blue Jays Home
Blue Jays Road
Blue Jays Alternate
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Next up is UW Stalwart and a gentleman who aided me with a column a ways back, our Calgary lawyer, Mike Styczen “Mike 2″ (who is also a Blue Jays tracker). I’m not sure if Mike wasn’t being tongue-in-cheek with his submission:
For your ongoing column on MLB uniform redesigns, I’ve got one (attached) for the Blue Jays.
Its not very imaginative. They already have their perfect uniform in their past, 1989-1996, and the logo dates back to their founding. The fans loved it, they won two World Series wearing it. I don’t see any need to change a thing.
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Um…thanks Mike. Moving along, reader Brian Cheung (who posts as “Random Reader”) is a man of many words. That’s fine, I enjoy when you guys explain your work. Here’s Brian:
Hey, LI Phil:
I just want to thank you for commenting on my mock-up Blue Jays road jersey. For a while now, I always wondered how they’d look with more blue in their jerseys and I finally decided to put my creative skills to use.
I’m actually a Yankees fan but I’ve just been bothered in recent years by all the black in the Blue Jays uniforms, that wacky font they use for numbers, and how the road jerseys and home jerseys don’t have matching fonts. To put it simply, I felt they could look a whole lot better.
I’ll start with their current road jersey first. I thought of it as being a step in the right direction for Toronto, since it employs a little more blue than the previous uniform in 2007, with that funky “Toronto” script in silver, graphite and white. After seeing this photo, I edited it by adding some red around the front logo and the numbers. I also made the cap blue, the sleeves blue, and tried to add blue accents in on the cap. I was quite surprised primary logo by changing the silver and graphite to shades of powder blue, in order to include a reference to the past in their current logo. I also darkened the blue jay itself, changing it from that light shade of blue to something more of a royal blue. I changed the blue border to red because red was always a color present in their logos and I thought their current logos looked very bland without red as an accent. I did the same with the road cap; I eliminated the silver and replaced it with powder blue and I also included some red to serve as a border.
Next was the jerseys. I actually used to like that wide font they use for names and that strange-looking font for numbers. But I got tired of seeing them and I suppose someone in the Blue Jays felt the same; the road uniforms changed in 2008 as the numbers were now in a different font, along with the logo on the front. But the road uniforms still had that italicized font. What I decided to do was employ the font used on the roads (I believe it is called Agency FB) and apply it to their home uniforms. I gave the nameplates the same font so that names don’t look like they take up half the uniform. I added powder blue to the numbers and gave them a red border. I kept the beveling effect as I see it as being a modernization of the classic Blue Jays number front, with that line running inside each number (I always thought it was cool and whenever I saw them, I always associated them with the Blue Jays). I altered the wordmark on the road uniform to make it powder blue—a nod to how the Jays once wore powder blue uniforms on the road. Originally, the wordmark was supposed to be royal blue but I realized the Jays would look too much like the Texas Rangers; I had to change it to powder blue to give the uniform its own look that won’t be mistaken for that of the Rangers.
For both the home and road, I got rid of the black socks, belts, and piping and made them blue. I also changed their all-black alternate uniform to make it an all-blue one. The team is named the Blue Jays after all, so it would only make sense to have some uniform have a lot of blue in it.
Hope you enjoy. I tagged most of the images just so others won’t try to pass my work as theirs.
~~~
Still more Blue Jays tweaks came in, this one from Matt Murray (who you may recall had earlier offered submissions for the Milwaukee Brewers). I have to say, this is some impressive work for someone who’s still in high school! Here’s Matt:
Phil,
Attached are some Blue Jays uniform ideas. These concepts for the Blue Jays mix in a throwback look similar to the current Friday uniforms. I was also sure not to include the script “Jays” anywhere in these uniforms because THAT ISN’T THEIR TEAM NAME! I also kept the concept free of black. I reverted back to the old “bird on ball” logo for the caps. I opted to keep the maple leaf on the sleeves because that is pretty much the only thing I like with the current uniforms. It’s something that signifies the uniqueness of the franchise as the only team North of the Border. Both powder and gray away concepts are included. I haven’t gone to school for graphic design or anything like that, nor have I graduated high school! But I think it’s the thought that counts with the uni concepts. Hopefully I “get it!”
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Still on the Blue Jays train, next up is Brian Arnold, who I think sent me these a loooooong time ago when Paulie Soto and I did our Fauxback column. If he did, and I neglected to post them, I apologize. Anyway, getting the play they deserve, here’s Brian:
I sent this link as a email a while ago when you did an entry about “fauxbacks”. I just saw your recent call for submissions, so I’ll send it again, maybe it will get some attention this time. Blue Jays Home and Blue Jays Road.
Thanks,
Brian
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Phew…next to last in the Blue Jays tweaks, we have Sean Wilson. Here’s Sean:
Blue Jays. Changed base color to blue instead of black and killed the ridiculous beveling on the wordmark.
Liked what you did with some of the NFL unis, especially the Falcons. On the Bengals, though, you’ve got to have the tiger striped pants stripe
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Finally, we have UW Graphic Artist extraordinaire, Paul “Pretty Boy Paulie” Soto to round things out. Here’s Paul:
The Blue Jays have always had modern uniform designs. They never quite had an “old school” look. So what I wanted to give them here was a “classic” look. Complete with script wordmarks and serifed/bold numerals. Royal blue is their primary color, sky blue is their secondary and I kept the dreaded black as an accent color. An actual Blue Jay does have a black trim on their feathers. So, I can live with the black as long as it’s not the primary color. Plus I only regulated it to the road uniform. I feel it appears more appropriate there. We need more striped socks in the league so why not give ‘em some. Here we have blue socks with alternating stripes that has white/sky blue at home and white/black on the road. The last time I did a Blue Jay uni modification I used a primary logo that combined two of their best logos in their history. It would be a dream to see them use that logo on their home caps and as a primary logo. The road cap features a script “T” that is loosely inspired by their current alternate cap. Stay “classy” Toronto.
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“What about you, Phil? Don’t you have a Blue Jay mockup?” Well, sadly for you I do. I was never fond of the original wordmark/script, but I did love the bird. And I hate the current home and road scripts, with their beveling and black and gray. I was also not fond of the second generation font with the additional red. So I took their classic white and gray uniforms, and found the font to match those found in the Toronto Subway system. A very nice and basic font, but it’s classy and businesslike but not too formal. So — here’s the home and away look, with royal blue cap (also can use a sky blue cap at home and sky blue cap with sky blue trim and stirrups on the road). I just couldn’t bring myself to return the Jays to powder blue.
Well, there you have it. Obviously the Blue Jays should be the next MLB team to undergo a major overhaul. As we say, lots of “retro-inspired” designs, and a few who simply want to return the “blue” to the Blue Jays. My thanks to everyone who sent in a submission, and next time, we’ll get to the rest of the MLB overhauls.
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 OK, in case you missed it, last week, with the help of James Huening, I ran what we hope to be the first of several ‘unofficial’ polls to determine how we feel on uniforms. Don’t bother voting anymore, the poll is officially closed now. That poll, “Rate the NFL Home Uniforms” was an unmitigated success. We’ll have the results next week, but James wanted to give us a quick look at some of the preliminary results.
“Well, the votes are in. Some of the final results are still being tabulated, but the Uni Watch community has spoken and a team has been chosen as having the best home uniforms in the NFL. And it was truly a hard-fought battle for the top spot.
“If you recall, we asked you to rate each team’s home uniform from zero to five points. We also asked you to nominate a team as having the best uni and another as having the worst. Our top team averaged 4.24 points per response, barely edging out our second place finisher at 4.21. In addition, #1 was mentioned by 15% of you as having the best uni, compared to 12% for #2.
“The rest of our top five was equally competitive. The third, fourth and fifth place finishers’ average scores were 4.07 (9% of you thought they were the best), 4.05(6%) and 3.83(7%).
“So, to everyone who participated, thank you. It goes without saying that we couldn’t have done this without you and the response was overwhelming. We were hoping for 500, but we collected nearly 2,000 completed surveys! And people from literally all over the world checked in. We received responses from every continent. Yes, that includes Antarctica.”
Thanks, James. So now that the votes are in — which uniform do you think was rated THE BEST in the NFL? We’ll tell you next week, but why not give an early guess. Just post “Best: (insert team) ” down below.
In addition, a special thanks goes out to Adam Walter, who’s doing most of the heavy lifting on this endeavor, with his incredible data crunching and analysis.
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 Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: As the MLB season winds down this weekend, I’m running out of scoreboards…so, either you guys will have to keep sending me some, or we’ll be putting the game on a temporary hiatus. No worries today though, as SlimandSlam hooked me up with this one (although partial credit has to go to Squiddie)– and while in and of itself, it’s tricky, a little detective work on your part (read: the photo you’re about to see was run in one of my earlier columns) will help you solve it. Remember, PLEASE do not post the actual score and date, but rather, use Retrosheet or Baseball Almanac to link to your answer (if possible). Ready? Guess The Game. I think tomorrow we’ll try a football scoreboard, but I’m not sure how that will go over. Let me know what you think.
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A Little Bit of This and That: Somehow we all missed the fact that the official team outfits for Canada’s 2010 Winter Olympics team were unveiled in Vancouver, and some are calling them, “Hoser chic,” while others are suggesting it smacks of a Conservative conspiracy and others noting similarities to an iconic Canadian military symbol. … The Oregonian is getting a lot of mileage out of their Dress The Ducks thingy, even encouraging opposition fans to clothe the U of Zero Ducks in the worst possible combo … This item was posted earlier this week, but it proves once again that worst uniform polls should be decided by UW readers — in fact, in the coming weeks, we’ll be doing just that — stay tuned …Turns out they had to update the poll after readers had other thoughts about those worst unis … This article on the Islanders’ affiliate the Bridgeport Sound Tigers states they will wear uniforms this year that resemble those of the Islanders’ 1980 Stanley Cup dynasty. Unfortunately, no pics accompanied the article — little help? Teebz? … Apparently, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Which means every team, league and sport will be getting in on the pink uniform action … We all know that the Mets sucked this year, but according to NBCNewYork.com, the real villain in the 2009 Mets season was the shade of white used in the Mets’ home uniforms (sorta old news, but a nice shout out to Paul Lukas and the blog in the fourth graf) … If you thought the San Francisco 49ers were mixing too much purple into the red and too much yellow into the gold, well, you’re not alone … Pretty much no one knows that the NBA was segregated for it’s three first years of existence, which may not seem odd until you realize that Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier in the same year the NBA was founded. Roger Murdock Kareem Abdul Jabbar is directing a tribute to the Harlem Rens, the “greatest team you never heard of.” (since you read UW, you have heard of the Preston Rivulettes). The Documentary will be called “On The Shoulders of Giants,” and there are sure to be some great unis in it … The soon to be defunct UFL unveiled its helmet art yesterday — and I hope the league is around long enough for someone to work on a full uni breakdown column with me … The FAU Owls, who have one of the best unis in college football, will be playing their 100th football game ever today … Pretty cool look at the Princeton University logos here … Did you ever want to know how Ice gets laid? If you said “a couple drinks, sweet talk and Flunitrazepam,” you’d be wrong. … When you play the “fourth” sport in a big city and you haven’t been relevant since the mid-80’s, what do you do? Why, rebrand yourself of course.
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That’s a wrap for today. Next weekend I hope to have the “Design A Cap” submissions all flickr’ed and ready, we’ll have the results of the voting on the “NFL Home Uniform” poll, and more. And that’s just next weekend. And there’s even more good stuff coming tomorrow. Nice college football today, and still some meaningful baseball in Detroit and Minnesota (where the Twins are hoping for one last miracle before they shut the dump down cede ownership to the Mall of America). That could get very interesting because if the Twins and Tigers end up tied, the Twinks are supposed to host a tiebreaker on Monday — but there’s a twist, because the Dome might be busy. So they’d have to play Tuesday. Hmmmm.
Anyway, let the folks who mocked up some new Jay’s unis know what you think, and don’t forget to take a guess at what we, the Uni Watch community, thought was the best home uniform in football. Oh, and think pink.
October 3rd, 2009
By Phil Hecken, with Rick Pearson
Back again with more NFL uni tweaks, but this first section, entirely envisioned and described by Ricko, is, in a word, “brilliant.” Whereas our previous “tweaks” were designed to solve our own misgivings about certain teams uni-choices, these are actual practical solutions to real problems. What is that real problem? Well, unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past decade, you’ve most likely noticed that the sleeve on the football uniform, with the exception of a few quarterbacks, a wide receiver or two, and kickers, is basically a vestigial element now. While this may not be such a big deal in the overall scheme of uniform design, it is a MAJOR headache for teams who still choose to put stripes on what were once full sleeves. You’ve seen the half-assed solutions being proffered by designers who are admittedly clueless apparently at a loss for ways around the new uniform cuts. Some have apparently no stripes at all. Or they end up stretched onto the chest. I mean, c’mon. This is getting ridiculous.
Enter Ricko. What he’s about to offer up is a simple, straightforward and logical answer to the “disappearing sleeve” on the NFL uniform. And with that, I give you Ricko:
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 Talk About Wearing Things On Your Sleeve
by Rick Pearson
First of all, this is NOT about re-designing anyone’s unis, so let’s not get our hackles up. This is about what to do with sleeve stripes when you have no sleeves to put them on.
A while ago on UW I asked, not altogether rhetorically, Why not put the stripes on the sleeves of the compression shirts? That makes this about an “Apparel Innovation.” Nothing more.
The central notion, then is: Let’s give up trying to make stripes work on today’s shortie jersey sleeves, shall we? The hell with it; put ‘em somewhere else. Say, where they belong? That way, TV numbers and logos could move back to (when appropriate or desired) the more traditional position on the sleeves. Also, TVs could return to the customary 4-inch size…in some cases in the past, even larger.
This idea WOULD require development of a half-sleeve compression shirt in addition to the full-length and “armpit”-length versions typically produced. Secondly, it would be nice if the NFL adopted a Uni Rule reading: “Shoulder pads and armpits must be completely covered by the player’s jersey and/or under sleeves”. But that’s not realistic, I suppose. I think today’s players really get off on showing their guns. “Chicks Dig It” is the rationale, I imagine.
So, without a lot of explanation of what you’re about to see, here’s what you’d get (presented in no particular order)…Redskins, Packers, Giants white, 49ers, Browns (yes, I added stripes to the brown pants; couldn’t help myself [white socks too -- that pic was taken from last year's preseason game when the Brown's first broke out the Brown pants with Brown leggings -- they have since switched to white socks [--PH]), Steelers, Vikings throwbacks and Bears.
I did mess around with Cardinals, taking elements of their St. Louis and early Arizona unis (especially the whites) to show how a team could to do some unique things with the compression sleeve stripes. The “5-stripes same width” look is derivative of their throwback socks from 1994. Taken to the dark uni, it’s interesting, but a bit much. This combination — more like the 1980’s — for home and road may look old-fashioned to some, but it’s clean…and interesting. A sort of “minimalist” spin on their St. Louis duds.
And, yes, I did the Bengals, not to criticize their current uni, but to show that a team could really go nuts, actually making the compression sleeves the uni’s “signature element“. I certainly could have done the same concept for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats or Princeton University, so please don’t take it as slam on the Bengals. No white version of these sleeves with this one. Imagine them, black sleeves and colored stripes, with a white jersey. Yowsa.
Conclusion (mine, anyway)? It could work.
BAD news for fans: Two separate garments needed to get “official” game day look.
But that’s the GOOD news for the NFL merchandising arm (no pun intended). Plus, they’d probably sell a boatload of just the striped compression shirts, too.
Okay, I’m done.
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Phil here. Great job with that Ricko. You may have seen some of these designs in the comments section before, but never in a full-blown post. This is an idea the NFL should seriously consider, especially for teams who still, ya know, wear striped jersey sleeves.
After Ricko came to me (and you via the comments) with the idea of the comp sleeves, one of UW’s readers, Patrick “pflava” Woody provided me with a graphic set of Ricko’s proposals, which I’ll present here, and which gives another idea of how both the long and short sleeved comp sleeves could look (in a couple of cases, Patrick’s template designs differ from Ricko’s, but the idea is the same): Redskins, (which is more of a throwback look than Rick’s compression sleeve idea for the current uniform) Vikings (throwback), Steelers, Browns, 49ers, Giants (road), and Bears.
Fantastic job with those Patrick. I also wanted to show you the same concept, brought to you by Fred Strom, who took Ricko’s Packers idea and made this mockup. But he didn’t stop there: Fred also mocked up the Steelers, da Bears, and (my favorite), the Browns. Great job Fred. (By the way, Fred is the guy who gave us one of the first neon snot green Seahawks — created shortly after Paul’s April Fool’s Day post — and who saw my piece on them last weekend, but whose work I wasn’t familiar with at the time). So, I’m including Fred’s Neon Green Seahawks concepts here.
I’m sure I’ll be featuring more great works from Patrick and Fred as the season wears on. But props to them for helping to bring Ricko’s Comp Sleeve proposals to us today as well.
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Getting Loopy On You
by Phil & Rick
Moving along to a joint effort between Ricko and myself, we’re sure you’ve noticed that not only have sleeves disappeared on NFL jerseys, so too have the once prevalent and beautiful shoulder loops (or “arches” as Ricko refers to them) that at one time once graced NFL uniforms in varying degrees. Whether their disappearance into truncated stubs like this, this and this is a function of the new jersey cuts, or simply manufacturer’s sloth isn’t really important. What is important is that even teams who sport truncated loops still have players who wear full loops with the current jersey.
Obviously, then, there is no real reason why the loop has basically disappeared. Sure, the newer cuts might make it a tad more difficult to design a uniform with actual loops but this truncated garbage is horrible. Ricko and I differ a bit on solutions to this, since technically, most teams “loops” weren’t actually full loops (as I like) but “arches” (as Ricko calls them), which are more approximations of loops, as seen in the UCLA style guide (although some teams did use full loops and some were full but tapered). I prefer the full loop, whereas Rick would prefer to end them under (or close to) the armpit, but either way, the appearance of a full loop is what is needed.
So, in my tweak, the Colts get full loops whereas in Ricko’s redesign, he gives them “arches” and ends them at the armpit. The New York Jets get the full treatment in redesign as do The Titans of New York, whereas Ricko would again end the loop (arch) under the arm. After looking at both of those options, perhaps neither one is perfect, but both are better than the truncated loop. As a compromise, we’d both move to taper the loops as they pass under the arm, yielding a look like this. Much better, no?
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OK. That’s it for today on this bit of uniform fixing. But you gotta give big ups to Rick Pearson for the Comp Sleeve idea. Seriously, Mr. Goodell … Are you listening?
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UW’s biggest Seahawks fan, Michael Princip has a fantastic ongoing project over at his Illustrated NFL site. If you haven’t seen it, check it out. Mike recently added a few more illustrations over in the Artists Section. Most notably, a new entry for Lon Keller and his amazing true vintage football illustrations. Michael totally digs this one of Tom Fears (80) & Elroy (Crazylegs) Hirsch (40).
Great stuff! Be sure to check that out if you haven’t already!
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UW Mystery Jersey “square” — My doubles partner and UW West Coast Correspondent Brinke Guthrie has found the latest UW mystery. Check out this Huskie…what in god’s name is that dark square on his belly? I first thought it was a sweat stain, due to the new jersey cuts (which are giving unis a weird two-tone look), but now I’m pretty sure there is more to it than that. Different material? Anyone wanna take any guesses? Neither Brinke nor I can ever remember seeing anything like that before.
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I don’t usually pay much mind to “top 10 best” or “worst” lists of uniforms. I mean, we here on UW should have the final word on that sort of thing anyway, right? But Ricko sent me this one. This one is a head shaker. Plus the guy who wrote it is either a homophobe or a bad comedian. Probably both. But check out the choices and the rationales. Here’s a typical quote: “The Dolphins uniforms should be San Fransisco’s uniforms. It’s hard to imagine a uniform that better represents fruit than these.” Right. Not quite sure how old it is, but it’s definitely not from this season. Still, this gets a huge “WTF?”
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Our man in the street, Jim Vilk brings you his “Top 5″ Best and one WORST college football uni matchup from yesterday:
5. Wyoming/Colorado – Throwbacks save the day.
4. Florida State/BYU – Cougars matched up well with FSU…well, looks-wise, that is.
3. Florida Atlantic/South Carolina – If FAU played as good as they looked, they’d be champs.
2. Southern California/Washington – Upset game; uniforms not upsetting at all.
1. Giants vs. Colts Duke/Kansas – The greatest game ever played…in Lawrence, Kansas…this weekend.
And the baddie worst uni matchup of the weekend: Cincinnati/Oregon State – A veritable black hole.
Nice work Jim. How you couldn’t put the throwback Buff’s higher is beyond me, but hey…at least they made the list. Those helmets are the bomb.
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Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Got another scoreboard submission from SlimandSlam today. Not quite sure about the level of difficulty, but you guys should be able to get it without too much difficulty. Stadium should be obvious, as are the teams — it only comes down to the date and the final score. Might be tricky. Ready? Guess The Game. As always, please link to the answer thru Retrosheet or Baseball Almanac. Thanks for the submission, Slim!
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 Well, the football season is in full gear now…and the boys of Benchies are back on the gridiron. I asked Rick how come Mike wears adidas, Mick wears Nike, and the defender in this clip wears Puma. Rick’s answer? “It’s just until I get my shoe contract.” Of course. Anyway, enjoy your Sunday Benchies. Bonus points to anyone who can name the sweatband manufacturer.
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And that’s a wrap for this Sunday folks. If you missed yesterday, there was a “Design A Cap Contest” you all should check out. Keep those submissions coming!
Please make sure to compliment Patrick & Fred for their efforts as today as well. Good stuff there. And for the love of god…can somebody get the NFL front offices on the line and convince them that Ricko has the answer to the disappearing sleeve? Not only would the comp sleeves solve the disappearing/shrinking stripe problems, but they’ll be able to move one more piece of merch in the process. It’s a win-win! Cheers.
September 20th, 2009
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