Posts filed under 'NFL'
By Phil Hecken
Uni Watch sage in the “venerable veteran” category Rick Pearson posed a semi-question/semi-statement in the comments section this past Thursday, which begat a few responses, but which really raised an excellent point or three, and perhaps something we could and should explore in greater detail. His ponderance remarked on a uniform phenomenon (both in college and the pros) whereby it seems we can readily classify most, if not all, uniforms into two distinct categories: “old school” and “new school.” Let me take you back to Ricko’s exact quote for further explanation/clarification/exploration:
I was thinking…(always a dangerous thing)…
Football unis have split decidedly into two camps
1. Traditional
2. Innovative
And that’s fine. I don’t love or hate all the unis in either category.
Maybe what we need is pick the five best looking football unis (college or pro) that DON’T have striped pants (don’t mean plain like Notre Dame, mean those with panels, piping or designs that AREN’T plain ol’ straight stripes).
Me, I think I’d vote for the Broncos home (navy jersey) version as number one. But not the navy pants. No sir, not their best look. Good colors, good design, didn’t go overboard.
A few comments followed, including some by yours truly, but we never really followed through on this idea. Nor did we ever try to rank (not that we could or should) say, the five best (and five worst) of the uniforms from each camp. While we did take a look at a very few colleges, for the purposes of this exercise, let’s focus on the NFL.
A quick look at the 32 teams in the NFL tells us that close to half fall into the category of “Old School” (or to use Ricko’s phraseology, “traditional”). We can safely list the Bears, Browns, Cowboys, Packers, Colts, Chiefs, Dolphins, Saints, Giants, Jets, Raiders, Steelers, 49ers, Eagles and Redskins in the “Old School” category. But that’s only 15 teams. And that’s only when they (some of them) don’t wear monochrome and/or leotards.
In the “New School” (or, in Ricko’s parlance, “innovative”) camp, we find eight teams (for sure): the Cardinals, Falcons, Bills, Bengals, Broncos, Panthers, Jaguars, and Vikings. One could argue that the Bills don’t really belong in the “new school” category — although they are so awful, they probably deserve a category of their own.
Anyway, that leaves us with 9 teams which I personally find somewhat difficult to place into either category. To wit, the Lions, Ravens, Texans, Patriots, Chargers, Seahawks, Rams, Buccaneers, and Titans all have some elements of a “traditional” uniform, but also some elements of an “innovative” one.
[I should note that I ran my list by Ricko, who really felt the uniforms I identified should be put into two camps: Ricko would move the Patriots, Seahawks, Rams and Titans to the “innovative” category, since
all have either non-linear helmet stripes, non-linear pants stripes, side panels or wear dark monochrome as pretty much their standard home uni…or a combination of those elements. The same could be said for the Bills. Rick would also put the Ravens, Chargers, Lions, Texans and Bucs into old school, since in his eyes, their logos and such are in standard postions, and they have normal striping or longstanding style trim (i.e. Chargers) on all of them.]
But really that’s neither here nor there — you can feel free to argue with our classifications — I don’t believe there’s any hard and fast rule that places one squarely into one category or the other, but certainly teams who have held onto (or permanently returned to) a “classic” uniform over the years, who have “standard” (linear) helmet, sleeve (what is left of them anyway) and pants striping would likely fall into the “traditional” category, while teams like the Cardinals or Falcons, who have opted to “modernize” their uniform with lots of jersey side panels, piping, striping, angles (also known as “bumperstickers”) and such fall into the “innovative” category.
Then we have teams that have elements of both. For example, the Patriots have side panels and a more “modern” helmet, but fairly traditional pants stripes, and they never opt for the “leotard” look. Likewise, the Chargers could probably just as easily be placed in the “traditional” category, yet whenever they wear their dark pants, they are always paired with dark blue socks, giving them an almost ballet dancer type of look. On the flip side of the coin, you have teams like the Saints who will, on occasion, breakout the monochrome leotards.
A good point to also ponder is what, really, does qualify for a “traditional” uniform? And can we limit our definition of “innovative” to the eight teams I have identified … should we include all 17 that don’t fall squarely into the “traditional” category? In the end, my categorizations don’t really matter, since even some of the traditional teams have sported some non-traditional uniform looks from time to time.
I’ve been criticized (sometimes rightly, sometimes wrongly) for hating all non-traditional uniforms — while I would say as a general rule of thumb I do prefer traditional striping and combinations, I can certainly appreciate the “innovative” uniforms in their own way. But there are also uniforms out there that are simply bad — bad design is bad design — but I will try to keep an open mind when discussing the ‘newer’ uniforms and will express my love for a few of those here, following Ricko’s lead.
Let’s see what you guys think as well. Pick any football uniform, pro or college (I limited my list to the pros because it kept the list to 32 — but the colleges have literally hundreds to choose from) that would fall into the “innovative” (or “new school” or “modern”) category and show it some love. Ricko picked the Broncos, and for the home or road, I can see how this uniform is kind of cool (though no longer unique) in its own way. I sorta blame Nike and the Broncos for leading us down this new design path, but maybe that’s not such a bad thing.
If I had to pick one of the newer designs, I think I could grow to like the Cardinals — sure, I could do without the piping and non-linear striping, but it does kinda work. And the colors are gorgeous. And I’ve always said that this version of the Titans uniform is one of my all time favorites. Yeah — the fonts are kinda funky, the helmet has weird striping, it’s got an odd yoke and that logo probably leaves something to be desired — but the colors are fantastic and it really does look great. Powder blue and navy, (with just a tiny hint of red) work well together, and the white cleats and helmets just work.
So what about you? What are some of the really GOOD new and innovative designs out there, college or pro? Let’s build a list and see if we can’t look at the nu skool unis (because they certainly aren’t going away) and see if we can’t find some new classics. What designs can we look at today that will stand the test of time in 10, 20, even 30 years? I’m sure there are more than a few out there.
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As many of you know, UCLA is going to be wearing throwbacks today. According to the UCLA Bruins Blog, “1967 Heisman Trophy winner (Gary Beban) was at the Morgan Center today (Friday) for a luncheon with former teammates and donors. He spoke with the Bruin football team later in the day and will be the honorary captain for Saturday’s Homecoming contest vs. Washington.
Beban brought his 1967 jersey with him. Here are a couple of pictures of Beban with his jersey and a shot of Beban’s 1967 jersey with one of the Throwback jerseys.”
Nice! Thanks to Erkki Corpuz (via Paul) for the tip.
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FEAR THE SPEAR! Really? How about “The U Knows”? Are these movie taglines? Catchy phrases with which to insult your friends? How about “Good Guys Wear White” or “Don’t Back Down”? Maybe they’re song titles? Nope, nope, nope and nope.
Those are all Nike generated slogans (mouse over the models for a great laugh) they’re “giving” to the 10 schools they’ll be outfitting with “Pro Combat” uniforms and gear [late edit: as of yesterday afternoon, all ten models had some form of "slogan" associated with them -- but as of late last evening, only two did]. Paul already showed us some of the uniforms in yesterday’s article (if you didn’t see it, it’s a great read). Those slogans are (I’m pretty certain) going to appear on those super hero “special gloves” the players will be wearing, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it were sewn into the crotch area as well. Just so, ya know, they don’t forget who they’re playing for. This whole “super hero” mentality is just so ridiculous. As Paul said to me, “Nike seems to have no idea how to market anything except by turning it into a comic book. Aside from being silly, it’s also *soooo* generationally exclusive — like, how is any fan older than, say, 28 yrs old supposed to take slogans like Fear the Spear and The U Knows seriously?”
I’m guessing fans over the age of 28 aren’t in this Nike demographic.
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 And you thought baseball season had ended…not for the boys from Bub’s Pub. They’re still going strong — or so they think. I guess this is to be expected when you play fall softball in some midwestern state, right? Enjoy your Saturday Benchies. Seems like the Twins may have this to look forward to come spring, eh?
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 Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Gonna try something a little different today. This is likely one you’ll not find by going to Retrosheet or Baseball Almanac or any of the likely sources. In fact, you’re not likely to find it anywhere. But you can still solve it. And you can probably find a link to it too. Date and location are all we’re gonna be looking for on this one. Have fun. Guess The Game From The Scoreboard. And if you want to keep this going through the fall, please send me some new scoreboards! Drop me a line and help a fella out, k? Thanks!
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Guess that’s gonna do it for today. Still trying to get used to this new fangled software Johnny Ek installed here on UW (hopefully this will self-load at 7:00 am EST), and I apologize, but I was under the weather for most of the week. Lots of good college games today, plus the usual assortment of other sports as well. And make sure you give our man on the street, Jim Vilk, a hand by choosing those top college football matchups and posting pics down below.
Tomorrow I hope to begin featuring some of the MANY NFL uniform tweaks, upgrades and concepts you folks have been sending my way for the past several weeks. Plus we’ll have the finalists in the “Worst. Uni. Ever.” poll for your voting pleasure. And the usual assortment of goodies.
Enjoy your Saturday!
November 7th, 2009
By Phil Hecken and James Huening
The long awaited “Worst. Uni. Ever.” nominees were submitted (both in last weeks comments as well as dozens of e-mails) and now, James is ready to bring you your selections in a knock-down, drag-out poll format. After receiving literally hundreds of nominees (many of them the “usual suspects” but some we never expected), James has devised the following poll, the link to which appears below. We’ve broken them down into nine categories, the winners of which will “face-off” shortly thereafter in a cage death match to find the absolute worst of the worst, as voted by you. Sounds complicated? Not really.
Simply read James’ descriptions and the pictures of your worst uniform nominees below, as broken down by category. We’ll take the top vote-getters in each category and have them all go up against one another. So with that, lets take a look at each of the nine categories, followed by the poll. James takes it from here:
~~~In the Major League Baseball (MLB) category:
1. First up we have the Cleveland Indians and their solid red uniforms that were worn from 1974 to 1977.
2. Next are the Houston Astros‘ beloved “Tequila Sunrise” uniforms.
3. This one’s sure to be a crowd-pleaser: the New York Yankees’ venerable pinstripes.
4. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays’ original unis.
5. The 1997-2000 Anaheim Angels.
6. Finally, the 1978 San Diego Padres.
~~~Our next category is the National Football League (NFL):
1. Our first contestant is the Buffalo Bills.
2. Joining them are the Cincinnati Bengals.
3. We go back to the dawn of the AFL for our next nominees, the original Denver Broncos uniforms, which have been on display this season as throwbacks.
4. And of course, we have the Seattle Seahawks and their new alternates.
~~~The National Basketball Association (NBA) is well represented:
1. Starting with the Atlanta Hawks’ 1995-99 uniforms.
2. Staying in the mid-to-late-90s, we have the Cleveland Cavaliers
3. The Detroit Pistons
4. The Houston Rockets
5. The early 90s and the Philadelphia 76ers are not to be forgotten.
6. We’ll head back to the mid/late 90s for the NBA’s two Canadian Representatives: the Toronto Raptors
7. And Vancouver Grizzlies
8. This decade is not completely off the hook, as you can see from the Washington Wizards’ recently-retired alternates.
~~~Plenty of National Hockey League (NHL) unis got nominated.
1. We start with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks and their whimsical “Wild Wing” alternate.
2. Staying in California, but going back farther in time, the California Golden Seals had a look that seemed as though it was inspired by UCLA football.
3. Moving to the present day, we have the Atlanta Thrashers alternate.
4. Back to California for the Los Angeles Kings and their “Burger King” jersey.
5. The Nashville Predators and their mustard-colored alternate that was worn from 2001 to 2007 are up next.
6. Next, let’s see the New York Islanders and the “Gorton’s Fisherman” jersey.
7. Back down south for the Tampa Bay Lightning and their 1996-99 alternate.
8. Our only Canadian nominee in this category is the “Flying V” of the Vancouver Canucks.
9. And rounding out this category, the Phoenix Coyotes alternate some refer to as the “Picasso” sweater.
~~~Our next category is for Short-lived Uniforms, whether they were intended to be permanent and scrapped after a handful of wearings or they were intended only to be worn once.
1. We’ll lead things off with the Baltimore Orioles and the orange jerseys and pants they wore for two games in 1971.
2. Joining them are the Chicago White Sox “short pajamas” that were worn in 1976. Nobody really seems to be able to agree on how many times they were worn. Most accounts have them being mothballed after a single wearing, but some say they were worn as many as four times.
3. Next up, the New York Mets and their “Mercury Mets” outfit that was worn as part of the Turn Ahead The Clock promotion in 1999.
4. The Philadelphia Phillies gave us the “Saturday Night Specials” for one game in 1979.
5. The only non-baseball nominee in this category is the Dallas Mavericks “trash bag” alternate uniform worn for a single game in 2004.
~~~We’ll turn to the Minor Leagues now:
1. Starting with the American Defenders of New Hampshire whose regular uniforms feature a camouflage motif.
2. The El Paso Diablos wore yellow, pinstriped uniforms with red pillbox caps in the early 1980s.
3. Our final nominee here is the 1980 Tuscon Toros According to an account I read, the back of the jersey was turquoise.
~~~There are way too many college teams out there to really pinpoint the worst one, so we limited things to the “big two” — NCAA Divison I football and men’s basketball:
1. First, we’ll have a look BYU football’s 1999 redesign
2. Next up, we have Florida A&M football
3. Turning to basketball, NC State’s “leotard” experiment makes an appearance.
4. It wouldn’t be a worst uni poll without Oregon football’s “diamondplate” mix & match set.
5. We’ll close out this category with a pair of football teams dressed from head to toe (or head to knee, at least) in orange: Syracuse
6. And UTEP.
~~~Now we head to the world of Soccer.
1. First, we have the Caribous of Colorado from the NASL. Their innovative jerseys featured fringe.
2. The early days of MLS gave us the Kansas City Wiz (who later became the Wizards).
3. Our third and final soccer nominee is Team USA for their 1994 World Cup unis.
~~~Our final category is Miscellaneous Pro Football.
1. From the CFL’s south-of-the-border expansion days are the Memphis Mad Dogs.
2. The Orlando Rage represent Vince McMahon’s XFL.
3. And we’ll wrap things up with another nominee from Orlando, the 1991-92 Orlando Thunder.
~~~Whew. There you have it. YOUR nominees for the category of “Worst. Uni. Ever.” Only one can win, but you can help narrow it down by voting in the poll below for your worst uniform in the nine categories. Once we have those nine, we’ll resubmit them to you so that we can, once and for all, determine what is the Worst. Uni. Ever.
On to the poll then: GO HERE FOR THE WORST UNIFORM EVER NOMINATIONS POLL.
Thanks again to James Huening for working on this and for coming up with the poll format. We’ll keep the nomination poll open for a week, and have the “playoffs” for the worst ever uni shortly after that. Thanks in advance for your participation!!!
~~~~~~~~~~Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Hokie dokie. Got a football scoreboard today, which comes from reader Billy Duss. Not sure about the difficulty level on this one — kinda one of those “you had to be there” or have seen the game to get it. But we like that here. Definitely one to make you think about it. As always, please find a LINK to the game, which you can post down below in the comments, and not the game itself. As always, date, location and final score, if possible. Ready? Sure. Guess The Game From The Scoreboard.
~~~~~~~~~~ Our man in the street, Jim Vilk brings you his “Top 5″ Best and one WORST college football uni matchup from yesterday:
5. Texas/Oklahoma State — A real orange bowl, eh?
4. Tulane/LSU — Green Wave a little too green, but that light blue redeems them.
3. Temple/Navy — A wise old owl didn’t need to tell me to add this to the list.
2. UCLA/Oregon State — My color palette special of the day.
1. Ole Miss/Auburn — Nothing scary about this Halloween matchup at all.
And the worst matchup of the day: San Jose State/Boise State– At least the field looked nice…
~~~~~~~~~~ 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. And what a game it was yesterday. Your #10 Ducks took the #5 Trojans behind the woodshed (are we sensing a pattern here?) and basically put a lock on the PAC-10 and punched their ticket to Pasadena…for the Rose Bowl. Look for them to really move up in the rankings now. Only disappointment was the Ducks outfits — no new carbon-steel helmets, nor black and orange (what — they’d look too much like another Oregon school?) for Hallowe’en. Anyway, Here’s Your Updated Ducktracker. Thanks Mike!
~~~~~~~~~~Ah…yesterday we got to meet Mike’s cousin, Mongo. Well, today, the big guy is back with more of his unique brand of humor. Mongo’s humor that is:
More Mongo
Still More Mongo
Remember, Mongo only pawn in game of life.
~~~~~~~~~~ Bit of a “special” treat for you, since yesterday was Hallowe’en. Our man on the street, Jim Vilk, put together a special assemblage of Hallowe’en-inspired college football games for us that took place. Here ya go:
Happy Halloween matchups.
5. Miami, Fla./Wake Forest
4. Cincinnati/Syracuse
3. Grambling…uh, I mean Georgia/Florida
2. S. Carolina/Tennessee
1. Coastal Carolina/Clemson
Spooky…thanks, Jim.
~~~~~~~~~~And finally, in case you missed it, the Montreal Canadiens trotted out their barberpoles yesterday. Beauty, eh?
Good stuff there. Thanks to Jim & Rick & James & Mike and everyone else along the way. Don’t forget to vote for the WORST UNI EVER nominees. You can even post your guesses as to who you think the nine finalists will be in the comments, if you want.
And for all you uniform designers, and wanna-be designers, if you missed yesterday’s column, be sure to check it out — a chance for you to design a baseball uniform, logo and cap!
One legacy game today: Titans (Jets) versus Dolphins — should be cool to see the fish in something other than dropshadow for a change — you’ll be reminded how good they once looked, and could look again, if they wanted to make that look permanent. Game IV of the World Series tonight. Don’t forget to push your clocks back, if you haven’t already! That extra hour of sleep is so awesome, no? Of course it is.
Everyone have a great Sunday!
November 1st, 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:
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“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
By Phil Hecken & James Huening, with Adam Walter
Back again with UW pollster James Huening, who is here to tell us the results of our second Uni Watch poll, in which we asked you to rate the NFL road uniforms. At the conclusion of this piece, we’re going to describing our next poll, and it’s one that requires the ultimate in reader participation. Be sure to keep reading after the road uni review. With that, I give you James, who has his write up on the last poll. Here’s James:
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The results are in for the second part of our NFL uniform survey. The turnout wasn’t quite as good this time around, but we still got a respectable number of responses (1,535). That was to be expected, though. I mean, the NFL road uniforms are pretty dull compared to their home counterparts, right? Of course I’m right. The numbers bear that out. We’ll get to that in a bit.
OK, let’s get to it. Here are our top ten and bottom five.
The Best
1) Colts
2) Packers
3) Steelers
4) 49ers
5) Raiders
6) Jets
7) Bears
8) Saints
9) Redskins
10) Giants
The Worst (from 5th-worst to absolute worst)
5) Seahawks
4) Vikings
3) Jaguars
2) Bengals
and the worst road uniform in the NFL, as decided by you, the reader:
1) Bills
When we compare the previous lists, the bottom 5 is virtually unchanged. The only difference is that the Vikings and Seahawks swapped places. The top 10, on the other hand, had quite a few changes. Most notably, the Bears plummeted all the way from the top spot down to #7. The Colts jumped from #4 all the way to the top. The Chargers dropped out completely and the Redskins move in to the ninth spot. The last major change is the Giants dropping from #7 to #10.
Again, no really big surprises here. I’m certainly not surprised the Bears fell from the top spot. However, I wasn’t expecting the drop to be quite so drastic. Are their road unis really that much worse than their home ones? As you may recall, when we asked for your choices for best and worst, we also asked for a brief explanation why you chose them. Perhaps this comment can partially explain this phenomenon: “I think they didn’t deserve the top spot early so I’m voting them last now. Revenge.” Hmmmm …
Anyway, I mentioned that the numbers will show that the road unis are far less interesting than the home versions. What I mean by that is in the home survey, we had four teams (Bears, Packers, Steelers and Colts) that averaged more than four points per response. This time around, NOBODY averaged more than four. The Colts came the closest at 3.988. Interestingly enough, the Bills road unis were actually rated a bit higher, but they still failed to average better than a full point (0.983).
And speaking of the Bills, let’s take a look at some of the reasons why you chose them as the worst once again.
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* They look like the Montreal Alouettes, which is french for ‘If it looks like crap and plays like crap, its probably crap.’
* again … it looks like a differet committee did each part — pants, jersey, helmet, etc. — in the dark.
* The only good thing I can say about it is that it would make an okay minor league hockey uniform.
* I cannot help but wonder if the person who created the design for the modern jersey bet his friends that he could create the worst jersey in the history of mankind and still convince the Bills ownership to give it the OK.
* Look like a semi-pro team sponsored by a used car lot.
* Jim Kelly is turning in his grave at these eyesores.
* They resemble toddlers’ pajamas
* This could be the worst uniform in ALL OF SPORTS.
* My roommate is a bills fan, and I honestly think the uniform alone makes him cry himself to sleep every night
* They aren’t modern; they aren’t classic; they can’t even figure out how to be bad correctly.
* They suck out loud. I think they let my mom design those uniforms, and she has a habit of wearing homemade bedazzled sweatpants.
~~~
OK, bottom line: what’s the lesson here? We need color-on-color in the NFL. Bears in their navy jerseys vs. the Packers in green? Not enough contrast you say? Take a look. Plenty of contrast, I say.
Again, thanks to all of you for responding. And an extra thanks goes to Adam Walter again. He’s the man behind the curtain. Take a look at the fantastic PowerPoint and PDF files he put together from the data we collected.
Oh, one other thing that I found interesting. When Paul wrote the Page 2 Column with his own version of the NFL survey, he linked back to our post with the results of the home survey where we introduced the road survey. At that point, the responses picked up. All of the top 10 teams on this list got lower scores in the responses submitted after the ESPN column went up than in the responses that came in beforehand and all of the bottom 10 teams got higher scores.
~~~
 Thanks James and Adam. Awesome stuff, as usual. And now, on to the next poll: Worst. Uni. Ever.
OK, much has been made recently, on the UW boards, about these “Worst Uniform Ever” polls. We’ve rightly mocked them as incomplete, lame, or just not good — in fact, it was Ricko’s sending me one of those very same “Worst Uniform Ever” pieces that got us started on this whole polling thing.
So, it’s time to put our money where our mouths are. Here’s how we’re going to do this, and it requires YOUR help.
We want to come up with a “Worst. Uni. Ever.” poll/survey that will once and for all put the eternal question of “what’s the worst uniform ever?” to rest. What do we want from you?
Please post, in the comments below, your nominee(s) for what you consider to be the worst uniform in the history of uniforms. There aren’t too many guidelines here (as our crack staff will narrow these down for next week’s poll), but there are a few:
(1) Professional teams (with the exception of NCAA Division I — or whatever it’s called these days — football or basketball) only. No high school teams. Sorry — we have to draw the line somewhere
(2) The uniform you are nominating MUST have been worn at least once and in a regular season game. This means you can nominate a “one and done” uniform, but it had to appear in a regular season game.
(3) Team sports only (so, no tennis or golf outfits, please).
(4) North American sports only. We apologize, but if a Zimbabwe rugby squad has a really awful kit, we can’t consider it. I know there’s a few french football (soccer) kits that are really terrible, but for the purposes of this survey, we can’t include them.
That’s pretty much it. The rest is up to you. We haven’t quite decided upon the parameters of the survey yet, but we will before we ask you to actually vote. For now, we want YOU to provide us with your nominee in the category of WORST UNI EVER. If you don’t know how to post a link, all you need to do is find a picture of what you consider to be the worst uniform, then “right click” your mouse on the address bar. Simply copy the address (you’ll be prompted with options — simply hit copy) and paste it into your post.
It’s that simple. We’ll keep this particular thread open all week, so if you’re reading this (or were directed to it through a link), please post your nomination IN THIS THREAD. If you don’t want to post in the comments, or if you have a question about this request, you can send me an email — simply put “WORST UNI NOMINEE” in the subject line.
OK? OK!
Let the “Worst Uniform Ever” nominations begin.
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 Well, with two amazing polls already completed, and a third in the works (don’t forget to nominate your worst uni ever below), and we still haven’t “officially” met the man behind all this, James Huening, who is one of the stalwart posters on Uni Watch. But I couldn’t go any longer without giving “JTH” his Q & A due. So, let’s meet James in a little more intimate detail:
Phil Hecken: So James, what led you to UW?
James T. Huening: I don’t specifically remember what led me to the Page 2 column. I’m pretty sure I was doing an image search. Maybe something related to a throwback uni someone was wearing and I was looking for pics of the originals in action. I do remember how I ended up at uniwatchblog.com, though. It was the e-mail from Paul announcing the launch of the blog. I didn’t check my messages that day, though. So I can’t say I’ve been reading since Day One. It’s actually Day Two. I did submit one of the very first ticker items (before it was called the ticker) and I’m happy to report that the link I sent in is not dead yet.
PH: So how long would you say that you’ve been into athletics aesthetics?
JTH: Pretty much as long as I can remember. Most of the sports disappointments I had as a kid had nothing to do with things like tough losses, being on bad teams or favorite players being traded, but rather being on poorly-dressed teams, getting bad replica merchandise, etc. I remember my parents took me to a Cubs game when I was about 5 or so and they bought me a cap. The underbill was green plaid. When I complained about it, my mom assured me that it was exactly like what the players wore. But I knew better.
Then there were my little league teams. One year we were the Padres. We had replica jerseys of the previous year’s style. That was bad enough, but to make matters worse, the caps had the “swinging friar” logo instead of the interlocking SD. A few years later, it was the Tigers — replica road jersey with a white D on the cap instead of orange. In football, I was on the Redskins one year. Our jerseys looked like the real thing — almost. They were burgundy with the correct stripe pattern on the sleeves. But they had yellow numbers and we wore yellow pants with them. Such a letdown.
PH: I know you made some “specialized” Bears shorts — are you into the DIY scene?
JTH: Not so much. Other than the shorts, I doctored up a White Sox jersey to make it kinda look like a 1959 throwback. I helped my wife make a Hallowe’en costume for one of the kids tonight, does that count?
I did a fair amount of DIY stuff as a kid. The first one I remember was that I made a Cubs “jersey” out of one of my dad’s t-shirts using a marker. My dad was not pleased. I don’t know if he was more mad that I ruined his shirt or that I did a terrible job. It was supposed to be a Bobby Murcer jersey and he gave me a hard time for putting a serif on the 7 because “that’s not what the Cubs’ 7s look like.” Oh, and because I used a black marker, too.
A really cool DIY thing that I did with and a couple of my friends was a “baseball stadium” in the vacant lot across the street from my house. The lot was just about the perfect shape for a baseball diamond and my front yard had a chain link fence that faced it. We measured the distance from home plate to the fence at various spots — down the line, the power alley and as close to center field as we could get. Then we painted signs with the distances on them and hung them on the fence every time we would play. We also would mow basepaths into the grass.
PH: OK, last question. A lot of the folks who read and post on UW are jersey/uniform collectors, or cap collectors, or memorabilia collectors. What about you?
JTH: I don’t really consider myself a collector, but I do have quite a few jerseys and caps. You’ve seen the pic of my Bears jerseys. I have 7 of them. I also have some other random NFL teams’ jerseys. There are some baseball, basketball and hockey as well. Also, for some reason, I have quite a few soccer jerseys even though I never watch or play the sport. I played it for half a season in kindergarten and it wasn’t my thing (also, incidentally, that was another one of my uni-disappointments as a kid).
PH: Awesome, James. Thanks again for all your help with these UW polls. Really looking forward to seeing the nominations for the “Worst. Uni. Ever.” We should have some fun with that.
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 Design-A-Cap Winner! If you folks remember the Design-A-Cap Contest which resulted in over 20 OUTSTANDING nominees held a few weeks ago, I’m pleased to announce that Coach Jerome Nemanich and his Sartell Sabres have selected a winner. After careful deliberation and consideration (and really, they were all outstanding), Coach has chosen Dan Grieve as the winner! Here’s The Cap that Dan designed. All the nominees were great, but only one could be the chosen one.
Next week, I hope to announce the next contest, and this one should be a full-blown “Design A Uniform” contest for a baseball team. Prize(s) to be announced as well, so be sure to check back for that. Based on the outstanding submissions we received for the Design-A-Cap contest, I’m sure we can expect more great stuff when we move on to a complete uni overhaul! Thanks again to Coach Nemanich and all who participated.
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 Got a great E-Mail this week from Fred Strohm — you remember Fred, he’s the one who gave us this Seahawks mockup (plus some other great stuff I’ve used in the past). Fred sent me this, which is so awesome, I need to share it with you:
Hey Phil – I was at my parent’s house over the weekend and found a book that might be interesting to the Uniwatch community. It’s Richard Kaplan’s “Great Linebackers of the NFL” from 1970. I’ve scanned and uploaded the pictures from the book to here. Captions are added where provided, and they’re named in order how they are in the book, plus by the name of the person being discussed.
Man those are some purdy pictures, Fred. Thanks for sharing!
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Ricko’s got a double header worth of Benchies today, since tomorrow we’re gonna have something really special from the man, the myth the legend. So, without further ado enjoy:
Mick and Mike and Mike and Mick
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Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: As the baseball season winds down, and the baseball winds are blowing towards the World Series every Mets fan absolutely dreams of (hint…hint), comes today’s Guess the Scoreboard game. Sure, the actual scoreboard might be a little difficult to make out, but all the clues you need are right there in front of you. And what a be-youtiful picture this is. The stadium and teams will be instantly recognizable. All that’s left if for you to figure out the date, and the final score. Please post the LINK to the answer, rather than the answer itself, in the comments. Good luck. Guess The Game From The Scoreboard.
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That will do it for today. You have your assignment. Now, go out and find a pic of what you consider that “Worst Uniform Ever” and post it in the comments below. We’ll consider all the nominations and narrow it down for our next poll next weekend. C’mon Uni Watchers — give us your best worst!
October 24th, 2009
Got an interesting note the other day from reader Matthew Strauss, who attended last Sunday’s Pats/Titans game. I’ll let him explain:
I was lucky enough to get field-level seats right next to the tunnel where the Patriots ran in and out of. After the game, when the team was running off the field, I felt something go splat next to my foot. When I looked down, it was a game-worn glove from one of the players. Naturally I scooped it right up. The only catch is that I have no idea whose it is.
This is the glove model in question. The two players I could immediately recognize running off the field around the time I grabbed it were Julian Edelman and Junior Seau, but it wasn’t from either of them. I didn’t see any RBs, LBs, or WRs wearing anything quite like it. It’s a size 5XL, so I’m assuming it came of a pretty big dude.
I’d be curious to see if we can narrow down where it came from. Perhaps the collective power of Uni Watch can solve the mystery of the glove’s owner, given the size, style, color, etc.
Now, I could cheat by asking a few people at Reebok, who could probably give me the answer in 20 seconds. But where’s the fun in that? Get crackin’, people — I’ll give a free membership card to the first person who can solve the mystery of the Matthew’s glove.
Membership Update: Speaking of memberships, new batch of cards mailed out yesterday, including Alan Borock’s Dolphins treatment, shown at right. Somewhat incredibly, this is the first card we’ve done with Miami’s current aqua design. Surprised it hasn’t been requested more often.
As always, you can see the full gallery of card designs here, and you can sign up to get your own card here.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Some patent applications are more interesting than others (big thanks to my buddy Jon Hammer). … Want to vote on the best hockey mask in the NHL? Do it here (with thanks to Tim O’Connor). … Major historical find by Dan McCue, who sent along this item about the first football game west of the Mississippi, played in 1889 between Grinnell and the University of Iowa. Look at those hats! … Oh. My. God. Further info on the Trail Smoke Eaters here (big thanks to Ryan Connelly). … Very odd two-tone shoes being worn by Kevin Durant the other night (with thanks to Matt Mitchell). … Titans coach Jeff Fisher wore a Peyton Manning jersey while introducing Tony Dungy at a function. … Congrats to webmaster John Ekdahl and his wife Amy, who just got back from their honeymoon in Ireland. Lots of pics here. … The Cowboys have added a practice jersey sponsor (with thanks to Mitchell Goodman). … Craig Dodge wore his vertically striped socks to the Broncos/Pats game two Sundays ago. That photo is from his full-on game report. … Powerful article about the Redskins’ sideline mascot here — recommended reading. … Here’s a Halloween costume idea worth stealing: You can go as the ghost of Ted Williams. Note the throat scar and icicles (as modeled by Adam Fritzen). … Oregon will reportedly be going with this look on Saturday. … Pacific will wear a special “Stockton” jersey on December 9th. “As a Pacific alum, I’m not a fan of this,” says Aaron Davis. “It seems like a desperate attempt at fixing a rift between a community and the university it houses, a relationship that’s always been strained in Stockton.” … Check out this photo — simple but gorgeous. “My buddy took the photo during Expos spring training West Plam Beach in 1982,” says Joel Kirstein. “Pretty funny seeing a very young Terry Francona and a very young Cal Ripken Jr., both with full heads or hair!” … Phillies prospect Dominick Brown has been playing for the Scottsdale Scorpions in the Arizona Fall League, and boy does he Get It™ (with thanks to Josh Miller). … Wow, look at that gorgeous sea of green gridiron. That’s from Vince Lombardi’s first game as Packers head coach in 1959. … What does this helmet logo stand for? Jacob Reed explains: “This is the helmet for Cherokee High School in Cherokee, North Carolina. The school system is operated by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, a sovereign governing nation (susceptible to Federal Laws, and some state laws). On their helmets, they use the Cherokee syllabary. The letters on the helmet are pronounced tsa-la-gi (roll the t and s together), so it sounds like sssa-la-gee. It means Cherokee.”
Weekend Update: Uni Watch will be closed on Friday in memory of my friend Charlie, whose funeral I’ll be attending tomorrow afternoon. As soon as the services are over, I’m off to Louisiana, where I’ll be spending the rest of the weekend reporting an ESPN story that I think you’ll all enjoy once it’s finished. Phil will be running things over the weekend, as usual, and I should be back by Monday (which, incidentally, is when my annual NBA season-preview column will be running on ESPN). See you then.
October 22nd, 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
I had a pretty good weekend (more on that later), but it would’ve been even better if I’d seen the Pats/Titans-as-Oilers game yesterday. In addition to the great throwback uniforms, the game was played in the snow. Man, look at this — and in October! Lots of additional photos here and here, and there’s a gallery of pics from previous Pats snow games here.
In other games:
• Major stripe news in Pittsburgh, where Browns receiver Josh Cribbs used the team’s striped socks as forearm sleeves (additional views here and here). If the league is smart, they’ll skip the fine and instead make this mandatory for all players. Looks great!
• The Giants continue to have problems with ghosted Reebok logos. But this time they weren’t the only ones. So were the Jags using the same new fabric and new tailoring patterns that the Jints have been using? Probably. As several readers have noted, Jacksonville’s jerseys changed last week. Earlier in the season, the Jags’ captaincy patches covered the new piping, and the piping wrapped all the way around to the back. But then last week the piping pattern shifted, leaving the captains’ patches all by their lonesome. I don’t think it’s just that those players changed to a different skill-position cut; I think something fundamental about the team’s tailoring (and fabrication..?) has changed. Joe Skiba, do you know anything about this? (Screen shot supplied by Brian Erni.)
• Maaaaybe it’s just a fold in the fabric, but it sure looks like the second two letters of John Abraham’s NOB were backwards. (Screen shot courtesy of Aaron Bell.)
• The Chiefs were in Washington, where the Redskins generally wear white at home, so of course KC wore red. As several readers have pointed out, that kept alive the Chiefs’ streak of wearing red in every game so far this season. They’re home next week, which means red again, and then they have a bye. So their white jerseys won’t make their 2009 debut until, at earliest, Week 9 in Jacksonville. Has this ever happened before?
• Chad Ocho risked another fine for a black chinstrap (and exposed knees).
Pretty quiet Sunday. But things should pick up tonight in San Diego, as the Chargers and Broncos will be wearing AFL throwbacks, whoop-whoop.
Nov. 14th Update: Remember those new Nike football uniforms I wrote about last Friday? Another little birdie now tells me this:
I have it on two very credible sources that Nike will design special “rivalry” uniforms for 10 Nike colleges this year. Rivaly week is scheduled for the games of November 14th. I hear that some of the uniforms are rather imaginative. I have also heard that Texas is one of the 10 schools.
In other words, you now have 25 days to get run over by a truck. Get crackin’.
Goal(ie)-Oriented: Remember my recent ESPN column about goalie gear? In that column, I quoted Tyler Hull from Bauer thusly: “The Reebok Revokes are the same pad build as the Reebok PS3s, just with a different graphic.”
That prompted a response from Reebok spokesman Daniel Sarro, as follows:
The Reebok Revoke and Reebok P3 are different and distinct models, with different advantages — not simply a graphic difference. The Revoke goal pad provides goalies with the ability to construct their own pad with a custom flex, custom fit, and custom strapping arrangement. The Premier III goal pads offer a fluid rotation in the leg and boot channel (helping to increase speed when going in the butterfly), a pre-curved design and adjustable strap system.
I went back to Hull, who agreed that Sarro’s point was basically correct.
Oink: On Saturday afternoon I went to the East Village restaurant Back Forty, where the talented and charming chef Shanna Pacifico was teaching a class on how to make the Italian stuffed-pork preparation known as porchetta (and, as it turned out, an apple pie). It was totally enjoyable and even more totally delicious. Even the salad was good! I took lots of photos, but they’re definitely NSFV — not safe for vegetarians.
Uni Watch News Ticker: I missed Game 1 of the Yanks/Angels series because Kirsten and I had tickets for this. I’m fairly certain we saw the better uniforms. … How bad has the pigthrax scare gotten? So bad that the officials in Saturday’s Longhorns/Sooners game spelled out a composite PNOB — that’s pandemic name on back (genius grab by Mike Sullivan). … That “Ch. Brown” guy in the foreground of the photo, by the way, is Chykie Brown. The Texas roster also includes Curtis Brown. Does his NOB have “Cu. Brown”? … New hoops uniforms for Nebraska and, if you believe a video game screen shot, Cal, plus WVU has unveiled a really ugly black alternate. Another view of that one is here. … Small NHL change that slipped past all of us until now: The Blue Jackets have changed their helmet decal from their wordmark to their jersey crest (as spotted by Jeff Emhuff). … Good slogan on Dustin Tokarski’s backplate (with thanks to Tris Wykes). … Faaaascinating story disputing the party line versions of how the Yankees’ and Mets’ logos were designed here. … I still think the new Olympic medals look like warped records, but Kirsten thinks they look like potato chips, and it’s hard to argue with that. … Clark Ruhland reports that Virginia Tech will start using these throwbacks as their primary uni set next season. … Todd Richard’s campaign to bring back Bobby Valentine to the Mets now has its own merch. … Interesting question from DJ Iverson, who writes: “For the past 30+ years, my uncle, Stretch Suba, has been the bullpen catcher for the Houston Astros. He’s seen a lot of different versions of the Astros jersey but has kept the number 61 the entire time. Who holds the record for the longest streak in the same team jersey and number?” Hmmm. Anyone? … Dylan Buell noticed a coupla things during Saturday’s Ball State/Bowling Green game. First, members of the Ball State chain gang had their own uni numbers. Second, one of the Ball State players had mismatched jersey and helmet numbers. “He’s in one of my classes, so I’ll have to ask him about it,” says Dylan. … Remember this sign, which I saw at Pittsburgh gas station back in April? As I wrote at the time, the problem with four-fingered cartoon characters is that they look like they’re flipping the bird when they extend their index finger. Apparently the Mighty Flame folks got the message, because their mascot character is now clutching a torch, not sticking out a finger (big thanks to Ryan Connelly). … Ryan also reports that he recently rediscovered his very first DIY project: “When I was very young, my favorite player was Mike Schmidt. So I took White Out and added Schmidt’s uni number to my Phillies helmet. I remember I used to wear this thing all the time! Found it recently while helping my mom with something in an old closet.” … Brooks Simpson notes that the left-sleeve piping on Kendry Morales’s road jersey has been messed up since at least Game 3 of the Division Series. … Rumor mill alert from a reader who prefers to remain anonymous: “Heard from a family close family friend who happens to be T. Boone Pickens’ lawyer that Okie State is looking to switch permanently from orange and black to black and silver.” … Now that’s a patent drawing. According to a description on a page that I won’t link to (because it’s a tripod.com page and will crash if we all try to look at it at once), “This contraption basically replaced the catcher’s mitt with a wire cage placed on the catcher’s chest. The object of the invention was to protect the catcher’s hands so that the hands would not come in contact with the ball until it was time to throw it back to the pitcher. The invention was a rectangular open-wire frame body reinforced by slotted walls of wood. The impact of the ball on the catcher’s chest is protected by springs on the rear wall of the device. After the ball has passed through the open front end, it closes automatically. At the bottom of the device is an opening where the ball passes into a pocket where it is retrieved by the catcher. The device also includes a wire mesh on the top to protect the catcher’s face.” But as Adam Brodsky notes, “It doesn’t seem to have a Nike logo.” … Wanna see the worst football uniform ever? No, I mean ever? Look, see for yourself. Once you catch your breath, go to this page and click on “South Summit 24, North Summit 6″ to see a video clip that will surely change your life (horrifying find by Dom Lewis). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Does this car look exactly like a Seahawks uniform or what? … Southern wore gold jerseys on Saturday — first time they’ve done that since the 2006 Bayou Classic. “Not only that,” says Prentice James, “but these were the SAME gold jerseys, complete with the 2006 Bayou Classic commemorative patch on right shoulder. Can you imagine USC wearing last year’s Rose Bowl jersey against ND this past weekend? Weird.” … Alex Shuman wore stirrups to a friend’s wedding the other day. “It got many compliments,” he says. … FIU tried a blackout on Saturday, except they paired the black jerseys with their regular dark navy pants — lame-o (with thanks to Kyle Pineda and Carlos Loaiza).
October 19th, 2009
By Phil Hecken, with Jim Vilk
Back again with the Man who never met a uniform he didn’t like, Jim Vilk, with our look at the Eastern Division of the USFL. So, what’s with the header (”Tiny Spuds”)? Well, in case you didn’t know, it’s part of a larger quote from one Donald Trump, who once derisively referred to the USFL as “small potatoes.” In in a serendipitous bit on timing, ESPN (which is running their wonderful 30 for 30 series over the next several weeks and months) is running “Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL” this Tuesday … and Wednesday … and Thursday (check here for full listing). While the title promises a hard look at the Donald and others who brought about the USFL’s demise, it will also promise to be a uni-bonanza. Especially since some of the footage has likely never been seen. After watching the other 30 for 30’s, I say this is gonna be must-see TV.
With that being said, Jim’s back to bring you his look at the Eastern Conference and their unis. Will he find one he doesn’t like? You’ll just have to read below. Here’s Jimmy:
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In our last look back at the USFL, we saw quite a bit of uniform change amongst the Western Conference teams in just three seasons. This time, as we look at the Eastern Conference, you will see fewer changes. That’s to be expected, though, when you pretty much nailed your look the first time. In fact, only one eastern team went through a dramatic overhaul. We’ll see them at the end. Oh, and before we begin, I realized I did not talk about any of the teams’ socks in part one. For consistency, I will leave commentary on them out of part two as well. Do yourself a favor, though, as you look at all of the teams’ unis — check out the socks. There are some pretty classic looks for every team in the league. Okay? Let’s resume our trip through the USFL by heading south.
EASTERN CONFERENCE – Southern Division
Birmingham Stallions: One thing you’ll see this time is a lot of red, beginning with the Stallions. They were one of six teams in 1984 that wore red — that’s a third of the league (actually, seven teams had red jerseys in ‘84, but Arizona never wore theirs). The Southern Division itself had three of the red teams. Anyway, the Stallions looked good with a red horse logo and a single stripe on an old gold helmet. The red jerseys and gold pants were complemented with some classic Steeler-ish striping. This look remained untouched for all three seasons. On the road, however, there was one change. The normally fantastic and extremely accurate OurSports Central web site says the Stallions’ only road uniform consisted of white jerseys and pants, but that was in ‘84 and ‘85. In ‘83 the road pants were old gold. At first, all I had was my memory, but I finally found a shot of the ‘84 media guide showing action from the previous season. The picture at the bottom of the guide confirms the gold pants. I think they made the change to differentiate themselves from another team we’ll see later. Either look, however, was very nice.
Jacksonville Bulls: Real bulls don’t actually see red, but these guys sure did in this division. They didn’t wear any themselves, though, going with a burgundy and silver look with orange and black details added. Alongside the Chicago Blitz and the Michigan Panthers, the Bulls had one of my favorite uniforms. It started with the helmet — an innovation in those days with a bull in motion wrapping around both sides, with the word BULLS on the back of the helmet. The logo was inserted in the silver stripe on both the burgundy and white jerseys as well. The home pants were silver with a burgundy and orange double stripe, while the road pants were burgundy with silver and orange striping. It’s an ’80s look, but I think it stands the test of time. It didn’t change during the Bulls’ two seasons in ‘84 and ‘85, and if they had survived until now I still wouldn’t change it.
Memphis Showboats: In 1983, Chicago and Tampa Bay came out with silver helmets and pants with red jerseys. The following year, the expansion Showboats piled on with the same color scheme. Yawn. At least they had a simple, cool helmet logo of a paddle wheel cover. Had they gone with their other logo, a mean-looking boat carrying a ball, I wouldn’t have been so easy on them. The red jerseys had silver numbers and double sleeve stripes, and the silver pants had a single red stripe. The white jerseys had red numbers and sleeve stripes. There were no changes in the ‘85 season. If Memphis had come along first in the league, I would have said, “Nice job with the unis.” Since they didn’t, I say, “You should have bought a bigger box of crayons.”
Boston/New Orleans/Portland Breakers: Three years, three cities, one FANTASTIC look. I mentioned my other favorite uniforms, but this one is right there with them. It may even be my first pick, if I was forced to make a decision. I like when teams use two shades of blue and I LOVE that helmet. A real case of beauty in simplicity here, with a light blue, silver and dark blue wave wrapping around the white helmet. Okay, I don’t know what shades Ocean Blue and Breaker Blue are, so I’ll call the home jersey royal blue with big white sleeve stripes on top of smaller dark blue and silver stripes. The white numbers are thinly outlined. The white jerseys have big dark blue sleeve stripes on smaller light blue and silver stripes, with royal numbers thinly outlined. The pants were the same for both sets — silver with dark blue, light blue and white stripes. I think this look stands the test of time even more than Jacksonville’s uniform. I wouldn’t alter this uni a bit. Ever.
Tampa Bay Bandits: I’ll bet this is one of Phil’s favorite USFL unis. For three years, the Bandits consistently used a red-in-white-in-black stripe on the silver helmets, both the red and white jerseys, the silver pants and yes, the socks, too. That’s nice, but if you know me, you know the answer to this question: What’s worse than a home uni that looks a little too much like Ohio State? A road uni that looks like a cross between Ohio State and the Raiders. Did Jack Tatum design these? Still, I liked the Bandits, but that was because I liked Steve Spurrier and his Bandit Ball offense. The simple silhouette logo of the bandit on horseback, which was on the sleeves as well as the helmets, redeemed the look for me. I also liked the team for its owner, the late John Bassett, who believed spring football could succeed … unlike some other guy …
EASTERN CONFERENCE – Atlantic Division
New Jersey Generals: And then there is that other guy. No, Donald Trump didn’t single-handedly cause the downfall of the USFL, but if he wouldn’t have gotten involved, I still might be enjoying spring football, small potatoes or not. Looking on the bright side, when Trump bought into the Generals after the 1983 season, at least he didn’t change those beautiful red and white uniforms. Plus, he signed Doug Flutie, so with the USFL’s relaxed numbering system I was able to enjoy a quarterback wearing #22. The Generals were the team I chose to root against, but I couldn’t hate them — not with Flutie, Herschel Walker and the wonderfully simple design of their unis. The white facemask set off the striking red helmet, while the logo of five gold stars and a gold wreath added a touch of class. The red jerseys had white numbers trimmed in royal blue, including big TV numbers on the sleeves that I like, and no other trim. The white pants had a red-in-blue stripe down the side. The white jerseys had red numbers trimmed in blue. The Generals reminded me of a red version of the Giants … except the Giants are much bigger potatoes, of course…
Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars: This is purely coincidence, but we’re ending with my three favorite teams. The Stars were my favorite in 1983, simply because the territorial draft meant they got all the Pitt and Penn State players. Little did I know they would go on to become the class team of the league, appearing in all three championships and winning the last two. The unis were pretty classy as well, although the red and old gold was close to Birmingham’s look. While the striping was similar, the Stars had no helmet stripe, white facemasks instead of red and gold numbers instead of white. The differences were smaller on the road unis as they both had red numbers. I think that’s why the Stallions eventually switched to white pants. The only change the Stars made was to the helmet logo. The name and the star in motion looked cool, but it kind of blended into the helmet in ‘83. They fixed that simply enough by adding a white outline to the logo the following year. I’d take this team over the current residents of Philly or Baltimore anyday.
Pittsburgh Maulers: The Stars slipped to second place on my list when Pittsburgh got an expansion team in ‘84. The Maulers only lasted one season, though, merging into the Stars in ‘85. I wasn’t expecting this team to be so bad … neither was I expecting purple, reddish orange and gray uniforms. They grew on me quickly, though. The Mauler logo suffered from the same problem as the Stars’ logo — it blended in too much. A few games into the season they added some white highlighting. Along with the logo, the purple helmet had a white-in-purple-in-orange stripe, which was identical to the striping on the gray pants. Both the purple jersey with white numbers and the white jersey with purple numbers had a white sleeve stripe between two purple-in-orange stripes. Oh well, I may not see these last two teams in real life anymore, but I can always see them on my electric football field.
Washington Federals/Orlando Renegades: Someday the lowly ‘84 Feds will grace my electric football field as well, but I’m not done painting them. They were my third favorite team until they were sold and moved to Orlando. I never went to a Federals game, but one of own readers, “Leon”, did. He has the ticket stub to prove it, and they even gave him a souvenir. “A terrible towel for a terrible team,” I believe is how he put it. The Federals and Renegades didn’t look as bad as they played, for sure. The striping may drive Phil nuts, though. The ‘83 Feds had a white helmet with a green-in-white-in-black stripe, while the white pants had a black-in-white-in-green stripe. The sleeves on the white jerseys matched the pants. The green jerseys, however, appeared to have white sleeve stripes with two small black stripes in the middle of them. I liked the black and green eagle with the star on its neck. That helmet logo survived the uniform upgrade in ‘84, but the helmet itself, along with the pants, switched to silver. The striping seemed to match better, except on the jerseys. The greens had two white sleeve stripes with a silver star over them, while the whites had two green sleeve stripes with a green star over them. After the move to Orlando, the team overhauled the name, logo and colors. The Renegades went back to a white helmet, but with a gray-in-blue stripe, matching the white pants. The new logo was a feathered tomahawk with the team name written above it. The royal-ish blue jerseys with white numbers had gray-in-blue-in-white sleeve stripes, while the white jerseys with blue numbers had gray-in-white-in-blue sleeve stripes. Despite the inconsistencies, I liked all three unis, but I’m kind of partial to the ‘84 version.
I liked a lot of things about 1984, so I also painted the Arizona Wranglers to commemorate the Wranglers/Stars championship game from that year. That’s small potatoes, though, compared to what one guy has done, taking some NFL figures and DIYing them to look like USFL players. Hmm, I wonder if he could make me a Sean Landeta figure someday. He was the last of the USFL players, retiring from the NFL 25 years after the Stars’ first game. If the proposed new USFL really happens in 2010, I’d love to see someone sign him to punt at least once. If they don’t bring him back, I hope they at least bring back these great uniforms.
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Thanks, Jim, for the second trip down the USFL memory lane. And to answer your questions, yes, I did (and still do) love the striping (I love how the helmet matches the sleeves which matches the pants, which matches the socks) on the Bandits … the colors — not so much. In fact, my favorite team, color-wise, in this Eastern Division look-back is easily the Feds. I know I’m out of the norm in my enjoyment of black and green (particularly black and hunter), but kelly green as well. I love it on the Fighting Sioux and I love it on the Celtics (and I shouldn’t on the Bostonian team, since theirs is simply BFBS). Also a huge fan of the Generals unis. Those rocked.
I’d like to take a look at other “defunct” football leagues, including, but not limited to the uniforms of the WFL, but also the WLAF and maybe even some arena (and, god help us all, the UFL) — if anyone is interested in assisting with one of those leagues, give me a shout. Thanks again, Jimmy — now you’re thinkin’ with yer dipstick!
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Ah…jogging. A time to relax and enjoy nature and be at peace with oneself. Right? I mean — you don’t come to a uniform board expecting to have a political debate break out, do ya? Tsk-tsk. Sometimes…stuff happens. Enjoy your Sunday Benchies.
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Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Another Sunday, another football scoreboard. If you’re…well…over 35, you could probably do this one from memory, and if you’re younger than that, you may need to look it up. Kind of a famous game depicted here, but oh was a great game it was. Still love seeing old Marlboro ads in stadia. So…quaint. Anyway, please find a link to this game somewhere and don’t post the answer directly in the comments. Final score and teams are easy, so should the location be. Ready? Guess The Game From The Scoreboard. And if you remember where you were when this … ahem, catch happened … you’re old, dude.
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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. Yesterday, the Ducklings were idle (or would that be a “bye week”?), so there is no updating for Mike to do. Big conference game next weekend against the surprising Huskies (2-1 in the Pac 10, 3-3 overall) while the green and yellow look to remain undefeated in conference play. So, although there’s no change to the chart, Here’s Your Updated Ducktracker.
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 ATTENTION UNI TRACKERS — If you’re on of those insane lunatics, like me, who has kept track of your teams’ uniform combinations for all 162 (or, if you track the Twins, all 163) games this season, think about gathering all of your data, plus a final writeup, for your tracking. While my own tracking of the Mets is complete, the writeup was too long to be included in this post. If, however, you’re interested, here is the final count of the uniforms the Mets wore.
I’d to gather everyone’s tracking and Paul has given me the OK to place them into one big file for inclusion in the archives (thanks Paul!). When you have your stuff ready, send them to me with the subject line “UNI TRACKING – (your team)”. If you made it this far, I thank you for all your efforts. You don’t need to be terribly brief in your write-up, but please don’t compose a novel either. Make sure you list any particular trends or unique factors.
This will be a fairly intensive undertaking, so please try to make sure your records are correct and you send me any and all graphics you have created so far (in jpg or bmp format, if possible). When complete, we will be adding everyone’s tracking into the Uni Watch Research Projects (links appear on the right sidebar of the page — currently we have three: “White At Home,” “Pro Football Uni History” and the Glossary. This would make the fourth). Thanks!
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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. St. Francis (PA) vs. Robert Morris: Surprise!
4. Northwestern/Michigan State: Because matchup-wise, it was a slow week.
3. USC/Notre Dame: If the Irish wore green this would have been #1.
2. Iowa/Wisconsin: Doesn’t take a hawk eye to see that this is a nice matchup.
1. OU/Texas: I like Texas’ all-white unis better, but this matchup ain’t too shabby.
And the worst matchup: Louisville/UConn: This matchup would look better during basketball season…but not by much.
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And that’s all folks. Don’t forget there’s another legacy game today (Oilers vs. Boston Pats), and in one we can all see (except Jim) tomorrow: Broncos in their ROAD brown and white socks at San Diego. Lets see if some guys try to pull the barber pole with the socks again. Uni Trackers…start sending them in. Next week, results of the Road Uni poll, plus the announcement of our next poll — and it’s gonna be a doozy — one we need your help to create. Stay tuned. Everyone have a great Sunday.
October 18th, 2009
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