Oh, the Hours I Spent Inside the Coliseum

by Phil Hecken and Jim Vilk

I’m joined this fine Friday by DIYer and memorabilia collector Jim Vilk, who’s about to regale us with a fascinating story of his days working at the Richfield Coliseum, the Coliseum’s subsequent demise, and the trove of treasure Jim and his brother were able to secure in the hours prior the wrecking ball felling that once-proud structure. Fittingly, with Paul visiting The Mistake By The Lake The Forest City this weekend, Jim will take us inside (literally) the Coliseum and, after a quick history lesson, show us some of the things left behind, for the taking.

So, then, with that brief intro, here’s Jim:

With Paul coming to Cleveland this week, I did some math and realized he is here during a milestone year in Northeast Ohio sports history. The upcoming 2009-10 NBA season will be the 40th for the Cleveland Cavaliers. The year 2009 also marks 15 years of Cavs basketball at Quicken Loans Arena, or “The Q” (formerly Gund Arena) and 15 years of Indians baseball at Progressive Field (formerly Jacobs Field, or “The Jake,” as some of us still call it). Not only that, but 2009 marks 10 years of the new and not-so-improved Browns playing football at Cleveland Browns Stadium. The Browns’ last title was 45 years ago, but it wasn’t the city’s last. The Cleveland Crunch won the National Professional Soccer League title 15 years ago at Cleveland State’s Convocation Center. Take what you can get C-town, it counts.

That’s nice, I suppose. I’m a Pittsburgh fan, though, so most of it means bubkes to me. I do like the Cavs, but not nearly as much as I did when they spent 20 years playing ball amidst the serene, pastoral landscape of Richfield, far from the bright lights of the big city. Nestled in northern Summit County, the Richfield Coliseum was located almost halfway between Cleveland and the Akron-Canton area. I say “was,” because it’s been 10 years since they tore it down — but not before my brother Tom and I got a lot of great memorabilia.

The milestones continue. It’s been 35 years since the building opened with a Frank Sinatra concert, 30 years since Sports Illustrated said, “No arena was more beautiful than The Coliseum, a magnificent structure in Richfield, Ohio,” 20 years since “The Shot” by Michael Jordan and 15 years since the place closed with a Roger Daltrey concert. In between were many more concerts, truck pulls and rodeos, circuses and ice shows, boxing and wrestling matches, hockey and arena football games, some great indoor soccer (as we talked about recently) and of course, the good, bad and ugly years of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Tom and I worked as vendors there, and even shared a souvenir stand for a few years. He started a year after the building opened, so he was there for “The Miracle of Richfield.” I officially started in 1983. Unofficially, I got to work the 1981 NBA All-Star Game, which was cool. Tom stayed at the Coliseum all the way to the end, and even works at “The Q” to this day. I quit in 1992 to get on with my life’s work, but asked to come back in 1994 to work the Cavs’ playoff run. I lost my seniority but gladly sold soda in the seats for the final games.

When the building closed it sat for five years while they figured out what to do with it. There was talk of it becoming an outlet mall, a prison, a workout facility, you name it. Finally, the Gund brothers sold it and the surrounding land to what is now the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. They didn’t implode the building. Rather, they gutted the interior, then took a wrecking ball to the exterior.

A day before the wreckers came, my brother got a call. We knew one of the guys doing the interior work, and he said we could come in and take anything we could fit into our vehicles. Everything that was left would be buried on site. Tom hopped in his pickup and I got in my station wagon (if that’s what you want to call a Saturn SW1). When we got there, it took a few minutes to get over seeing the gutted remains. Memories came back and flooded our minds. Once we started finding things, though, our reaction quickly turned to joy; we were like kids on Christmas morning.

The first items we found (by the way, the items you’ve seen so far are things Tom and I bought or received as giveaways) were in the employee locker rooms. We took two types of patches from the ushers’ and security guards’ uniforms. I liked the ushers’ patches, which were issued when the Coliseum was ten years old. The blue and gray depiction of the building was a definite alternative to the simple blue-and-green patch. Both were good in their own way, though.

Next, we snagged some warm and toasty dark blue coats the parking lot attendants wore. I wore mine as my winter coat for a few years before I had to retire it. The simple design made it go with almost anything. The big white Coliseum logo on the back sure started a lot of conversations in public. I lost count how many times strangers started reminiscing with me when they saw it. Then we found a brown coat worn by the ticket takers. The brown welcome patch harkened back to the original logo.

Speaking of uniforms, the vendors had a few nice ones. Unfortunately, I don’t have those anymore. The only one I still have is the ugliest of the set — a red-and-green-striped bowling shirt with a horizontal strip of black thrown in for bad measure. We had a cool yellow polo shirt before that and a nice blue-white-and-orange rugby shirt afterward, but those are gone for some reason. Tom still has his rugby shirt, though.

Anyway, on to the good stuff. We went out to the arena floor and grabbed a few sections of floor seats. My set actually gets some use in our basement. Tom has the rest tucked away in the bowels of his home. Then, we headed to a storage area, where we found a giant NBA logo and some floor stickers for the playoffs. We almost left the room, until we saw some rolled up fabric. Good thing we were curious, because we ended up finding the banner for the scorers table, as well as the banner for the Cavaliers’ 75-76 division title.

After that, we went up to the main concourse and stopped at our old location between sections 208 and 209. Tom grabbed the sign for it, while I took the “Drive Safely” sign above the exit. I like to keep it in my garage as a reminder to, you know, drive safely.

Finally, we headed up to the infamous loge area. The Coliseum was one of the first arenas to have a set of luxury boxes. Problem is, they put them way at the top of the building. That turned out to be the reason for the building’s early demise — the corporate types ended up with the worst view of the game. Whatever. We didn’t find much up there, until we got to a meeting room which contained a scale model of “The Q.” Well, if it was a full scale model, someone got to it before us and dismantled it. We found almost half of the seating area, which makes it kind of worthless. That didn’t matter to my brother, who never met a piece of memorabilia he didn’t like. Actually, with a little creativity some DIYer could turn it into a retro-looking baseball stadium. (Ah, if I had the time…)

By this time, our vehicles were filled beyond capacity. We left the building for the absolute last time, and I saluted as I drove out of the parking lot. It wasn’t the last time I’ve been on the site, however. The national park was just going to let trees grow naturally, but someone noticed birds were starting to use the land as a migratory pit stop. Now they keep the area trimmed for birds and bird watchers alike. You can walk around there, but the ground settled where the arena was, so that’s fenced off for safety. The small threat of poison ivy was enough to keep me from venturing around … until this past winter. We had lots of snow, so I put on my big rubber boots and hiked from the road to the fence (quite a feat in shin-deep snow over tall grass). I got to the approximate area outside of sections 208-209, noticed the calm around me, then closed my eyes and listened for the distant echoes of cheering fans. I think I heard a few — if nothing else I felt them.

Okay, what’s a Jim Vilk story without a little DIY? Most of you have seen my Lego tribute to the Miracle of Richfield and my latest indoor soccer game, but very few people have seen my first attempt at a Coliseum/Cleveland Force tribute. I made this from an old table hockey game, using cardboard cutouts for the players and clothes pins covered in hockey tape for the bases. It’s a bit primitive, but I thought I should dig it out of the closet and share it with you anyway.

Oh, and you hockey fans – that inflatable Cleveland Crusaders guy was goalie Gerry Cheevers, in case you were wondering.

Thanks, Jim, for that trip down memory lane. You got some great stuff out of that old place. And thanks for the brief history lesson too — like many readers, I’m sure we weren’t aware of the great events hosted inside the Coliseum. And I, for one, wholeheartedly express support for a future DIY of turning that scale model of the Q into a retro baseball park. Maybe next spring?

Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: OK…there’s going to be a theme with today’s post, starting with the scoreboard. So, right off the bat, in case you don’t recognize the stadium, there’s your hint. That’s the only hint you should need, since this one is probably pretty easy, especially if you know how to cheat. Try not to, OK? Ready? Guess The Game. As always, date, location and final score, and let us know how you came about your answer.

Did I mention there’s a bit of a theme today? Well, even today’s Benchies plays along with that theme. Ricko did this one a long time ago (notice the stirrups on Ozzie), so take it for what it’s worth. And it’s pretty funny. So, on that note, enjoy a special Friday edition of Benchies.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Uni Watch Prexy Paul Lukas checks in first with this, heads up from the Buccaneers, who will be unveiling their 1976 throwback uniforms at 11:00 am today … Also noticing this was Wayne Edward Koehler who provides the “heads up” from The St. Pete Times … Mr. Lukas also notes these pics from Pats practice, ad patches everywhere … In a related story, Tom Adjemian checks in with this little story on the Pat’s Jersey Ads, with another pic. … Northwest UW correspondent Jeremy Brahm notes “The Japan Volleyball Federation (JVA) has just released logos for their men’s and women’s national teams. The women’s logo is on the left ‘Hinotori (Phoenix) Nippon (Japan)’ and the men’s is on the right ‘Ryuujin (Dragon King) Nippon (Japan).’ This is in collaboration with Tezuka Productions or the company that owns the rights to the Seibu Lions logo.” … More jersey sponsor news comes from Nick Houser who advises that the Cincinnati Bengals have signed a practice jersey deal with SpongeTech Delivery Systems according to the Cincinnati Enquirer (via twitter) … Ribby Paultz found this interesting article in which Russian airline “Aeroflot ditches ‘revolting’ hostess uniforms and reveals: ‘We will only hire attractive girls’.” Says Ribby, “‘Bout time.” … Following up upon a ticker item yesterday about Tadahito Iguchi’s batting gloves, Robert Steinau produced a picture of him from his days as a member of the Phillies … In addition, Jeremy has also supplied pics of him as a member of the White Sox, and also his current team, the Chiba Lotte Marines … Sneakerhead Matt Powers called me from Fenway Park yesterday to report that Rajai Davis is still wearing the logoed stirrups (here’s a better view from a different game) … Aaron Bolerjack writes: “I’ve been a Manchester United fan for a long time, and a Uni Watch supporter since the Page 2 days. Can’t believe that nobody from one camp or the other hasn’t jumped on this yet — A few weeks ago, Man U announced their new 09/10 home uniform, which they claimed was ‘reminiscent of the shirt worn by Manchester United’s 1909 FA Cup-winning team. This new design features a similar sash across the front. The club has used the same design components to honor that historic accomplishment of 100 years ago, the first of its eleven Cup titles.’” Here’s the problem, according to Aaron: The 1909 shirts looked like this (WHITE shirt, LONG sleeves, RED chevron and cuffs); The 2009/2010 shirts look like this (RED shirt, SHORT sleeves, BLACK chevron, BLACK neck ring, NO cuffs). “Ironically, the 2009/2010 goalkeeper’s jerseys (designed to CONTRAST with their teammates) are a LOT closer to the original design,” he continues. “Please help me bring attention to this travesty.” … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: reader Brian makes an astute observation — Is a commemorative bat really a the right type of memorabilia to celebrate a perfect game? … Jake Elwell found this bit about “These blogging sisters were featured in the Times style section today. I note they recently posted some fun uni-related stuff your readers might like (scroll down a bit).” … Zac Neubauer was fortunate enough to go to the Giants game on Monday night and got an up close look at the Sue Burns patch. Sadly, the ones on the ushers were either stapled or safety pinned on … Bill Scrowther notes, “I noticed during Wednesday night’s MLS All-Star game that each MLS player had their team’s crest on their left sleeve, which can be seen here.” Bill adds, “However, the second goalkeeper (Zach Thornton) for the MLS side had his crest on the front of his jersey, right chest. What made him so special? My only thought is maybe it has to do with him only being added to the roster on Monday.” … Check out this collection of old baseball photographs from the University of California Library system (with thanks to Robert Ruszczyk … Jim Zorn “lays down the law,” according to Alain Nana-Sinkam, who notes that in the last graf of the Chris Cooley blog, there are to be no cutoff sweats. “We have retained a seamstress to take care of that for you,” he states. … Hayden Jackson thinks, we “might enjoy this photo set of a book my grandfather owned about Babe Ruth called ‘Babe Ruth: The Idol of an American Boy’.” I’d say so … Chris Hodge found this incredibly cool gallery of old photos of the Bears at Wrigley Field. … Reprinted from last night’s comments: the Buffalo Bills have “officially” unveiled their throwback uniforms for next season (thanks TJ), and they’re already on sale — although there is some question as to the actual sleeve striping (if they’ll even have noticeable sleeves, that is) … OCD DIYer Robert Marshall, whose team apparently won their softball game yesterday, sent this awesome pic of his hosiery (at least I think that’s his legs) … Matthew Dubroff, Philly fan, loves his Phillies — but “then I saw this t shirt that is embarrassingly stupid. If this starts a trend if nickname jersey/shirts … god help us all.” And finally, the previously mentioned Matt Powers sent along the following: DWade has decided to join the mothership. Matt continues, “And for a sneakerhead, this news is like winning the lottery, going out with Kim Kardashian, and dunking on Gheorge Muresan after coming home from Spring Break and watching Sixth Sense for the first time.” He explains that these are often thought of as the best of all 23 Jordan signatures. And finally, a super rare retro. Thanks Matt, I don’t know what we’d do with out you.

Hope everyone who was able to attend the UW gathering in Cleveland had a great time. Thanks to Paul for letting me steer the ship in his stead yesterday and today. Of course, you’re stuck with me for the weekend too. Be sure to check back Sunday for a couple of announcements on “uni tweaks” and “uni tracking” and a bit of potpourri. Have a great Friday everyone. — Phil

182 comments July 31st, 2009

DH Stands for Designated Hitter Design History

New ESPN column today — here’s the link.

Meanwhile: I love how throwaway-ish Ticker items can sometimes take on lives of their own. Case in point: On Wednesday I linked to the Yankee Stadium vendor’s uniform shown at right (here’s a larger view); on Thursday I followed up with this photo, which shows vendors actually wearing the outfit; and now reader Paul Wiederecht has provided a wealth of interesting background info.

Wiederecht is a graphic designer who’s worked a lot in TV news and televised sports. And what does that background have to do with the vendor’s uniform? I’ll let him explain it himself:

I saw that vendor’s shirt used from 1968-72 at games I attended. Sorry, no pics, but I think I may be able to shed some light on the shirt’s design history.

Much of the Yankees’ look during the team’s CBS ownership era can be attributed to Lou Dorfsman, who was CBS’s creative director for more than 25 years. Except for the eye logo, which was the inspiration of his predecessor, William Golden, Dorfsman was responsible for CBS’s corporate and on-air look. His contribution to graphic/interior and set/broadcast/advertising design is legendary, he set the high standard that artists like me have trying to measure up to our whole careers.

Anyway, back to the shirt: If you look here, you’ll see an example of the three-dimensional wall treatment in the CBS employee cafeteria, which was executed by Herb Lubalin (a typographer of note in his own right). You will see many design similarities [between the wall treatment and the vendor's uniform], and similar design treatments can been seen in many Yankees publications from that era. I would not be surprised if Dorfsman used Lubalin’s design studio for many Yankees projects, possibly even this shirt.

Dorfsman sas also responsible for the “look” of the stadium — the blue seats, the use of Helvetica for signage around the building, plus he had the walls and facade painted white. My mom, who worked in the club offices from 1953-57, said the previous paint color was “[Dan] Topping money green,” which can be seen in the scenes shot at the stadium in the 1959 film “The FBI Story.”

I know I’ve gone on a bit here, but I don’t think Mr. Dorfsman has gotten his due for his efforts on this subject. If you look at Yankees material since, it dosen’t measure up.

As a big graphic design fan geek myself, I already knew about Dorfsman’s role at CBS. And of course I knew that CBS had owned the Yankees. Until now, however, I’d never connected the dots to see the obvious link between the Dorfsman and team. But now it seems obvious — just look at this again, and then look at this.

Awesome work by Wiederecht to flesh out the details of this story — nicely done.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Did you know Colorado State’s basketball court design featured ram horns? I didn’t, until Jeff Bethune alerted me to the second two photos in this gallery. … Pete Carroll now has his own clothing line. … Josh Miller reports that the Suns will be wearing “Los Suns” jerseys for a Latino Heritage game next month. … David Tyree refuses to take off his helmet. … I think Tom O’Grady mentioned this a few weeks ago, but it bears repeating: The Blackhawks’ red and black sleeve stripes are supposed to be of equal thickness, but the team’s goalies have thicker black stripes — weird (with thanks to J D Vercett for the latest round of pics). … Yesterday I asked why lacrosse players were wearing green shoelaces. The answer is here (courtesy of Chris Drouin). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Good article here about the UGA football team’s uni number selection process. … Who’s that big guy in the sidecar? It’s Big Papi on his way to the White House the other day, riding with the police escort (with thanks to Matt Englander). … Jimmy Neilly notes that Mike Smith was still wearing his Stars mask when making his Lightning debut on Wednesday. … Dontrelle Willis was wearing the Tigers’ home cap with the road uni the other day (good spot by James Yeh). … “The Arena League commissioner was on the radio today, and he mentioned that their refs would be wearing helmets this year,” reports Chris Flinn. “He also said he thought it might carry over to the NFL.” … In response to the recent City Hall shooting in Kirkwood, Missouri, the Cardinals wore Kirkwood caps the other day. … A reader who prefers to remain anonymous informs me that today is the 48th anniversary of the opening of the first Playboy Club, featuring what Wikipedia describes as “the first service uniform registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.” … Several readers are reporting that the Bruins have come up with four competing designs for next season’s alternate jersey, and that one of the designs was briefly shown during the broadcast of last night’s game (big thanks to Jeffrey Israel for the video clip). … Great article here about Butch Goring’s old helmet (with thanks to Craig MacHenry).

151 comments February 29th, 2008

All the Uni News That Fit, They Printed

I’m probably the first writer to cover the sports uniform beat on a regular basis — or even to conceive of uniforms as a legitimate sports beat to begin with — but that’s not to say uniform coverage didn’t exist prior to the advent of Uni Watch (indeed, I cited a key 1970s example just the other day). Reader Doug Mooney recently found a bunch of uni-related articles in the archives of the New York Times, and they clearly show that uniform coverage was alive and well in the 1950s. Here they are, listed chronologically:

• April 2nd, 1950: “Hollywood Sets New Baseball Fad; Players Wear Shorts, Rayon Shirts.” This article is about, of course, the Hollywood Stars, who wore shorts in 1950 (additional info here). Key quote, from one of the Stars’ players: “Let ’em razz us, they’ll all be wearing them in another year or so.” Uh, right. Full text available here and here.

• February 26th, 1956: “Cards Redesign Suits.” This short AP item is of particular interest, because it refers to the uniforms that the Cardinals unveiled in this photo. As you may recall, the road jersey shown in that shot — the one with the “St. L.” insignia — was never used, and the circumstances surrounding it have never been fully explained. I devoted a blog entry to that subject about a year ago.

• August 12th, 1956: “What’s a Man to Wear Afield?” The subheading of this article, which ran in the paper’s Sunday magazine section, reads, “If he is a member of the Cincinnati Redlegs, he wears a vest instead of a shirt and pants with built-in knee pads,” which gives you an idea of the subject at hand. To provide some context, this was the season when Cincy’s uniforms changed from this to this. Key quotes: “The Redlegs’ new uniforms are as spectacular, in terms of costume, as the rabbit ball was in terms of window-breakage when Babe Ruth single-handedly revised baseball” and “The pitchers, whose arms supposedly so exceptionally precious, of course, are expected to wear their [under]sleeves long, to avoid chills, vapors or other calamities.” Lots of other good details regarding fabrics, tailoring, performance features, and more. And here’s a tantalizing tidbit: At one point the article mentions that Branch Rickey “attempted to put the Pittsburgh team into shorts, like lady softball players.” I’d never heard about that one before. Anyone else? Essential reading, available here.

• February 24th, 1958: “Giants Favor New Slim Look for Men in Gray Flannel Suits.” This item — written by Gay Talese, no less! — is one of those filler stories that writers come up with on slow days during spring training. Of course, one man’s filler is another man’s front-page news, and this article does not disappoint. Key quote: “[Ray] Kolas, who works for Wilson Sporting Goods, twirls his tape measure around 600 players each season. He keeps a measurement chart report on each player that would do credit to Brooks Brothers. For instance, on his chart of the Detroit pitcher Jim Bunning, Kolas noted: ‘Taper shirt — has small hips (no seat).’ ” Several other gems too, all available here.

• February 1st, 1959: “Major League Fashion Note: New Flannel; Nylon-Wool Fabric Reduces Uniform Weight by Half.” We all know that the Pirates were the first team to switch to solid-polyester double-knits, in 1970. But when did synthetic fibers first start being incorporated into MLB uniforms? According to this article, it was in 1959, when most teams went from solid wool to a 60/40 wool/nylon blend. The article also includes loads of uni-related ephemera, including this classic: “Yogi Berra, Yankee catcher and a dude, tops the best-dressed players with eight pairs of pants. Relief pitchers and bullpen catchers are not hard on clothes, except pants seats.” Get the full scoop here and here.

I know that’s a lot of material to read. But trust me — these are all well worth your time.

Alpha-Numeric Update: On Monday I wrote about this unusual uniform number (details here). That led to this note from Bob Jaye, which ran in Tuesday’s Ticker:

In a college all-star game following the 1971 season (Senior Bowl, perhaps), the South team had two quarterbacks who’d both worn No. 7 during their stellar careers. So Florida’s John Reaves wore 7R and Auburn’s Pat Sullivan wore 7S, respectively. Unfortunately, I can’t find a photo.

Intriguing, right? I didn’t have time this week to go hunting for a photo. But Bob’s brother, Davis Jaye, did. He contacted the Senior Bowl, whose offices were only too happy to provide him with these pics of Sullivan and Reaves. Big thanks to both Jaye brothers for their stellar contributions to the historical record.

Roster Restoration Update: We’re still missing 17 names from the membership roster (in case you’ve missed it, about 90 names were wiped off the list by a software glitch, and I’ve been trying to get everything back to normal). So if you haven’t already done so, all enrolled members should PLEASE check the roster listing. If you don’t see your name there, e-mail me your name, membership uni number, membership level, and why you chose your number. If your name linked to a photo, please re-send it. And if you’d like to help speed up the process a bit more, pick out your card from the design gallery and send me its URL. Big thanks for everyone’s help.

Meanwhile, anyone recognize today’s showcase card? It’s from the Arena League’s Colorado Crush.

Uni Watch News Ticker: My article on bullpen buggy history, which was posted yesterday on ESPN, is here. … Big kerfuffle in Florida over the proposed new uniforms for workers at Miami-Dade International Airport. Full details, plus an amusingly worded reader poll, here (nice find by Jonah Bamel). … Bowling Green’s athletic director discusses why the school changed its helmet design this season here (with thanks to Tom Konecny). … If you’ve ever wanted to dress up Steve Spurrier, here’s your chance (with thanks to Ronnie Poore). … I did a blog entry on World Series press pins about a year ago, but now Zach Siron has found a bunch of them for sale on eBay. Some real beauties, too. Look here, here, here, here, here, and here. Plus Zach also found an All-Star Game press pin and Gabby Hartnett’s lifetime pass (”which were apparently given out to players who had retired with much acclaim, local sportswriters, or other similar stars,” says Zach). Great stuff. … Florida State will be wearing their black uniforms against Duke next weekend. … The Green Bay Press-Gazette just posted a small gallery of Packers photos from 1942. Of particular interest: The ref’s beret (note the separate stripe pattern on the sleeve cuff, too), the uniforms being worn by the Western Army All-Stars (they’re the ones with the stripes), and these totally cool dusters.

166 comments October 19th, 2007

Or as Chad Johnson Would Put It, León Negro

Aside from conference logos and the like, it’s not often that you see two players on different teams wearing the same jersey patch. But that’s the case with Kansas State’s Ian Campbell and Army’s Mike Viti. What are they wearing? A Kansas State fan who prefers to remain anonymous explains:

K-State is very near Fort Riley, home of the Big Red One and now the 28th Infantry, known as the Black Lions. The football team has been partnering with them in several ways since Coach Ron Prince arrived last year. The latest is the Black Lion Award, which traditionally has been given to high schools all over the country. It is currently given to only two universities: the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and, now, Kansas State.

What is the award? It honors Don Holleder, a West Point All-American who was asked (and agreed) to change positions his senior year despite losing any chance at individual honors. He later was killed in Vietnam while attempting to rescue other members of his unit — the Black Lions. The award is given to one player each year who represents this unselfishness, courage, leadership, and the act of putting the team before the individual.

When you win the award, you get a certificate and also a jersey patch. Our winner at K-State this year was Ian Campbell, a very successful defensive end for us who’d been asked (and agreed) to change positions for this year. He will be wearing a Black Lions patch on his jersey all season. In addition, coach Prince has been wearing a Black Lion collar pin.

Interesting stuff. But listen, while I’m sure all the recipients of this award have been very deserving, could someone please explain exactly what’s so remarkable about changing positions when your coach tells you to? Like, isn’t that what you’re supposed to do? Just askin’.

Iggles Exposed as Dangerous Left-Wing Radicals: As has been discussed here several times, last Sunday’s Eagles throwbacks were based on the Philly city flag, which was in turn based on the colors of the Swedish national flag — or at least that’s what I thought. But reader Jonathan Nussbaum has just contributed some new insights, courtesy of a recent lecture in his American history class:

In 1933, one of the first acts of the New Deal was to establish the National Recovery Administration, which sought to stem unemployment by coordinating prices and wages in certain industries. Participation was voluntary, and companies who did participate would display the Blue Eagle symbol of the NRA.

That year, over 250,000 people marched in Philadelphia to support the NRA. Lud Wray and Bert Bell, who had just bought and resurrected a Philadelphia football team, were so inspired that they named the team the Eagles in honor of that Blue Eagle symbol. The blue and yellow on the NRA symbol happened to match the city flag, so that is how the team’s uniform was designed.

Big thanks to Jonathan for that insight. Now let’s sit back and see how many malcontents complain about the New Deal reference constituting “inappropriate political content” on the site.

(Oh, and speaking of the Eagles’ throwbacks, they’re the basis for a little video rant currently running on Yahoo Sports.)

Raffle Reminder: You’ve got until Tuesday, 10 p.m. eastern, to get in on the raffle for the game-used futuristic Royals jersey. To enter, send an e-mail to uniraffle at earthlink dot net (please note that this is not the usual Uni Watch address). One e-mail per person, but everyone enrolled in the Uni Watch membership program at the time of the drawing automatically gets three bonus entries. I’ll announce the winner next Wednesday.

Membership News: We had a software glitch yesterday on the membership roster. I’ll spare you the details, but the practical result is that about 90 enrollees got wiped off the page. We are (read: John is) restoring them, but it may take a few days, so don’t be alarmed if you suddenly don’t see your name listed. Actually, that brings up a question I’ve been pondering: I know people like to keep up with the latest additions to the card design gallery, but does anyone even look at the membership roster? Or do you just check it once to see that your name is there and then never look at it again? Just wonderin’.

Uni Watch News Ticker: As you can see at the top of the page, we have a new sponsor, Jersey-Joe, which is offering a discount to Uni Watch readers. A fine operation that I’m proud to have represented on the site, just like our other display advertisers. Check out their stuff. … The Hornets unveiled a new alternate logo yesterday — not bad. It will be worn as a patch on the team’s uniforms and will be called — wait for it — the Fleur de Bee. Read-it-to-believe-it details here. … Who knew there was an NFL Alumni logo? (Robert Eden did, actually.) … UGA linebacker Dannell Ellerbe’s helmet has gone askew or come off completely several times this year, so he plans to wear a different helmet model this weekend (with thanks to Brent Hardman). … Amazing case of logo creep discovered by Andy Head: “My wife is taking an online business course through a local community college, and she just got her textbook yesterday. Look what’s on the cover! And the spine, too! I thought, well, surely the author is somehow connected to that company, but no, she’s a proffessor at Lehigh U. Well, maybe there’s a major Nike business case discussed inside, right? It’s a business book, so they are discussed, but the sections on, say Starbucks and Wal-Mart are much, much more substantial.” Incredible. … Not hard to guess what Sunday’s Open Thread photo will be, because New Mexico State will be wearing pink tomorrow. … Throwbacks aren’t limited to sports: James Yeh reports that the Navy is testing some old-school khakis that haven’t been used since the Vietnam era. … Jason Marquis’s helmet logo was AWOL on Wednesday night (with thanks to Ryan Kendall). … Spectacular article here on the varied styles of pinstriping. Although written with the collectors’ market in mind, it’s filled with worthwhile info for any Uni Watch reader — highly recommended (with thanks to Todd Radom, who sent me the link over a month ago but it got buried in my in-box until I discovered it yesterday — sorry, Todd!). … The Astros have been wearing their brick red road jerseys on the road for months now, because owner Drayton McLane prefers them. But last night was the final road game of Craig Biggio’s career, so the team honored his request to wear the road grays one last time. A team source tells me they had to make road jerseys for all the September call-ups — just for this one game. … Speaking of the ’Stros, Brian Crisp attended a recent game at Minute Maid park and noticed that the ushers had ad patches on their right sleeves. And what was the ad for? Here’s a closer look. “And just so you don’t think it is a coincidence, that dealership is owned by THE Alex Rodriguez,” says Brian. “It’s a good thing he doesn’t own dealerships in Boston. Can you think of another active player sponsoring another team?” … The Vikings will be wearing 1970s throwbacks this Sunday. … Yusuke Toyoda notes that Chivas de Guadalajara has been wearing off-center uni numbers. … Here’s a better (i.e., non-Photoshopped) look at the new Iowa State helmet (with thanks to James Ferguson). … By the time you read this, I’ll be headed upstate for a long-weekend getaway on the lovely shores of Lake Seneca. Vince will be minding the store until Monday, so if you have any site-related issues (spam filter acting up, abusive commenters, etc.), let him know. Ticker contributions can still come to me. See you Monday.

232 comments September 28th, 2007

Field of Dreams

New ESPN column today — here’s the link.

Meanwhile: Last week, in the middle of our server changeover, I got an e-mail from Chris Hill, with a subject line that read, “Homemade uniform traditions from Rochester.” For some reason it came through in teeny-tiny type that was nearly illegible, and there were 20 attached photos, all of which was more than I wanted to deal with in the midst of the site’s technical woes. I nearly deleted the e-mail altogether.

I’m glad I didn’t. What Chris had sent me was a document of a pretty amusing little project. I’ll let him describe it:

In 2006 a group of my friends and myself started playing baseball in a kid’s back yard. Within a week or so we decided to mow the grass to create an infield, and used his fence as a home run marker.

We played pickup games throughout the summer, but for the 4th of July we decided to have an All-Star Game. In order to make it official and over the top, we made up two teams: the Maplewood Steamboats and the Jambo City Harbors of Wellington. We also built a scoreboard and brought out a P.A. system and announcers for the game. We had yet to discover how to fully use the screen-printing uniform shop in town, so most of our uniforms were homemade. The Harbors even had separate batting practice uniforms, but no picture exists of us in those.

Winter came along and we decided to do the same thing with a football game. It was slightly less intense, but we once again had the same teams wearing homemade uniforms.

This past summer we all had some money and ideas, so baseball was much more enjoyable. We started off the year making spring training jerseys to wear randomly throughout the season. At some point we realized we were doing the All-Star Game wrong — it should be a game between two leagues, not two teams. So the Steamboats and harbors turned into the League of Steamboats and the Harbor Leagues. From there we created about 16 different teams, all based on inside jokes and cities someone had been to: the Douglas Gorns [that's Chris wearing No. 44; note the all-star game sleeve patch! -- PL], Joe Montana 3-D Graphichs Manipulators, Toronto Tippy Ducks, Gnomes, Tuscon Tra La Las, Mt. Rushmore Compatriots, Boise Canistorshots, Brockport USB-ports and the Ocean City Monsoons. The guy in that last photo got so into it that he had home and away jerseys made, but the shop mistakenly put the team name on the road jersey, instead of the city name, so he bought the botched jerseys at a discount and went back to have it done right, giving him a total of FOUR jerseys, when he just needed one — dedication.

Indeed. And that dedication is what I love about this project. Okay, so the uniforms kinda suck, and many of you probably think the whole thing has “Get a life” written all over it, but so what? The day you’re too cool to embrace your own little field of dreams fantasy is the day you may as well pack it in. Instead of sitting on their sofas watching the ballgame or playing with the latest EA video game, these guys built something real. I say good for them.

Raffle Results: The three winners of last night’s raffle are, in order, J. Yung (who gets his choice of an L.A. Kings jersey, a Washington Capitals T-shirt or an assortment of MLB sleeve patches), Mike Carpenter (who gets to choose from the remaining two items), and Rick White (who’ll get whatever item is left). The three winners should get in touch with me asap.

Thanks to all who entered — more raffles coming soon.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Yesterday’s comments included excerpts from this article, which suggests that the new NHL jerseys are (a) possibly causing injuries during fights and (b) tearing at the seams. I don’t have much sympathy for fight-related concerns (simple solution: ban fighting), but there’s a lot of very interesting info here — start with the sixth paragraph. … Also from yesterday: The UK has produced a really nice series of stamps documenting the history of British military uniforms. You can click through the gallery here. … We’ve all seen photos of Rich Karlis kicking barefoot. But Brendon Yarian found a photo of him doing, well, a little more than kicking. … Dynamite Hanshin Tigers uniform history site here. Even if you don’t care about Japanese baseball, this is worth checking out, because the site is nicely interactive (start clicking and you’ll see what I mean) and many of the designs are wicked cool (nice find by Scott Curl). … Yet another case of a 2 rendered in two different ways on the same jersey: the Rangers. … Still more typography news: Kansas’s university-wide move to the Trajan typeface has resulted in a backlash movement (with thanks to longtime Uni Watch pal Rob Walker, who first brought the anti-Trajan site to my attention on his own excellent blog, Murketing). … Best argument yet for a barter economy: Purple is being added to the $5 bill. Alarming details here. … The Washington Huskies will wear 1960 throwbacks on Sept. 29th. According to this page, the team wore navy back then, but it was called “Northwestern Purple.” Odd (with thanks to Rob Weber). … Who needs a game-worn jersey when you can have Sandy Koufax’s synagogue-worn yarmulke? … Good info here about the Redskins’ throwbacks, which they’ll be wearing this weekend while pounding the living shit out of playing the Giants. … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Texas A&M tight end Martellus Bennett changed his uni number from 13 to 85 to honor injured Bills player Kevin Everett, but his helmet still has his old uni number. … Arguably the weirdest reason ever for choosing a particular uni number: According to this article (forwarded by Jeff Barak), Wild rookie James Sheppard likes No. 15 because he “began wearing it as a 15-year-old midget player because he already had size 15 feet.” … If your coach can grab you like this, then your jersey’s definitely a few sizes too big. … My friend Liz Danzico, who’s more or less a genius, recently started a really good site called A Brief Message, which features a series of 200-word essays about design. I wrote a little something about uniforms for today’s installment, which longtime readers will recognize as a re-hash of the very first post that ran on this here blog. My own redundant content notwithstanding, A Brief Message is well worth checking out for anyone who cares even a little bit about design, sports-related or otherwise.

189 comments September 21st, 2007

Be Careful What You Wish For

Scott Turner and I took an upstate road trip last Thursday, capped off by a double-A ballgame between the Binghamton Mets and the New Britain Rock Cats. And therein lies a tale.

The Mets are one of those franchises that require all their minor league affiliates to hike up their pant cuffs, so we enjoyed the sight of the B-Mets in all their navy-socked glory. But then I noticed something odd about third baseman Vince Harrison: His pants weren’t just hiked up to his calves — they were above his knees, like a baseball version of Dre Bly’s biker shorts. I’d never seen anything like it on a baseball diamond.

My camera’s batteries had gone dead earlier in the day, but Scott pointed out that I could probably still get some decent pics with my cell phone if I got right next to Harrison while he was on deck. So when Harrison’s next turn in the on-deck circle came up, I scooted down to the front row (ah, the pleasures of a double-A ballpark) and snapped a bunch of shots, which I’ve gathered into a slide show here.

Unfortunately, Harrison wouldn’t turn around while he was on deck, so I couldn’t get a decent photo from the front, where the effect was much more pronounced (best I could do was this this). But at one point I yelled, “Hey, Harrison, what’s the deal with the super-high cuffs?” and he quickly turned his head and said, “Just changin’ it up. Tryin’ somethin’ new, y’know.” And that was that.

My feelings about high-cuffed baseball pants are well-documented. But if you made me choose between Harrison’s look and the pajama style, I’d be hard-pressed to say which was worse. Seeing a ballplayer’s knees just doesn’t feel right. It also appeared to be a high-maintenance operation, because he was fidgeting with his pant cuffs all night. Manwhile, just how long were his socks? Like, was he wearing thigh-high stockings, or pantyhose, or what?

In an apparently unrelated development, there was a bat — the kind with wings and teeth — flying around the field the entire night. It mostly stayed near the field’s perimeter, but every now and then it would dart toward an ump or a player (it almost made one of the New Britain pitchers balk). At one point the bat flitted right past Harrison while I was photographing him in the on deck circle. He damn near jumped out of those super-short pants — and then he readjusted them one more time.

Mariners Mystery Solved: Last week I ran the following note from Jon Buerstatte:

In 1992, when the new owners completed their purchase [of the Mariners] in mid-season, the M’s had an “opening day” celebration. To mark the occasion, the M’s wore their usual white home uniforms, but with “Seattle” on the jerseys instead of “Mariners.” That had great significance at the time, because the team was constantly the subject of relocation rumors and the new ownership wanted to send a strong message that the team was the Seattle Mariners, not just the Mariners.

Unfortunately, Buerstatte didn’t have any photos from this game, and I wasn’t able to come up with one either. But then Mariners marketing VP Kevin Martinez got in touch and provided me with this and this. Big thanks to Kevin, and to everyone else who provided tips and leads on this one.

C-ing Stars: An NFL spokesman told me on Friday that the new captains’ patches (first discussed here) would feature “a C with some stars underneath.” And now, thanks to an item on the Lions’ web site, we finally have our first look at what that means, as seen here (and you can sort of see the jersey placement here). As I understand it, each team’s patches will be color-coordinated — i.e., the Lions’ version is blue, but the Cardinals’ will be red, and so on. Not sure why there are four stars, or why one of them is gold, but I’m hoping to get more info today. Update: According to the Detroit Free Press, “The first star is gold. A player will get a gold star for each year he is a captain in the future.” (Thanks to Mike Schmansky for that info.)

Personally, I wish they’d let the teams come up with their own “C” styles, like the NHL and MLB do, instead of imposing a league-wide protocol. But I’m surprised — and relieved — to see that the patch doesn’t include the NFL logo, or a little Lombardi Trophy graphic, or anything else that smells like corporate branding. Verdict: Silly but harmless. Prediction: A one-year experiment that ends up being abandoned next season.

Incidentally, someone over on the Creamer boards said that the Bucs used to designate their captains via shoulder “netting.” I’d never heard this before. Can anyone confirm?

Uni Watch News Ticker: The Penguins will unveil their new uniforms on Wednesday. Details here. … Mike Nolan’s and Jack Del Rio’s sideline suits will be designed by Joseph Abboud. … This eBay auction has ended, but check out those illustrations — great stuff. Anyone ever seen those before? (Nice find by Roger Faso.) … Speaking of eBay, check out this bizarre AHL all-star jersey that Stuart Greenlee found. Never mind the Blues-ish diagonal number — what’s with that misplaced star? … This has resulted in this (with thanks to Chris Flinn). … Did you know that one Vanderbilt player — and only one — wears a special memorial patch every year, in memory of former tailback Kwane Doster? Details here (with thanks to Daniel Brown). … Liverpool FC played a champions league game last Tuesday and they wore a black armband in memory of 11 year old Rhys Jones, who was killed last week,” reports Ed Rickert. “Does the armband look like black duct tape, or is it just me?” … Some uni-related MLB chatter in the seventh question of this Q&A session (with thanks to Laura Koenig). … Marcus Ramsey notes that Brad Johnson’s preseason sleeve stylings have ranged from no stripes to two stripes to one stripe. … As they’ve frequently done for early-season games in recent years, the Chargers will wear white at home for Week 1, to help beat the heat. … Pat Kelly has noticed something interesting about the Redskins: The sleeve numbers for eligible receivers are much thicker than the ones used for linemen and linebackers. “I’ve noticed it for a while,” says Pat, “and a little checking shows that it’s been going on at least as far back as ’03 [thin numbers, thick numbers], and maybe ‘02. That’s the year Reebok began making the unis for every team, and is also when the ’Skins went from screen-printed numbers to sewn numbers, so it may have something to do with that.” I’m fairly certain it also has something to do with sleeve tailoring for players who handle the ball vs. those who don’t. … Here’s something interesting: You probably know that all National League teams wore this sleeve patch design in 1976. But Braden Wheeler recently sent me a bunch of patches, and I was surprised to find that the N.L. centennial patch included a tone-on-tone copyright line. … Everyone talks about the Celtics’ parquet floor as the gold standard for classic inlaid-wood court designs. But check out this 1928 photo of a game between Princeton and West Point — now that’s a floor design. … Marquette is switching to Converse’s Dwyane Wade sneakers. … “English Championship soccer side Queens Park Rangers played Saturday’s game with all players having the name ‘Ray Jones’ on their back,” writes Florian Zenger. “This was in tribute to QPR’s youth international, who died last week in a car crash.” … Uni Watch founding girlfriend Alleen Barber notes that James Blake and Stefan Koubek were wearing the exact shame shirt while playing each other on Saturday night. “It looks like they’re on the same team!” says Alleen. “That’s fucked.” … Michael Romero provided a good screen grab of USC’s Mario Danelo memorial decal. … Elena Elms notes that Jim Edmonds has added a “43″ wristband (in addition to his own No. 15) for injured teammate Juan Encarnacion. … Now there’s a nameplate. … Best. Haircut. Ever. (Thanks, Vince.) … New UConn hoops uniforms on the way. Details here. … While researching something else, I came across this photo of Ozzie Guillen wearing a photo of his former teammate Jerry Royster, who’d just been traded. … William F. Yurasko notes that Florida International uses two different kinds of “2″s on their jerseys: this kind on the front and back, and this kind on the sleeves. Odd. … Good point by Gale Reed, who writes: “With 99.9999% of NFL games being viewed on color TVs, why does one team still need to wear white jerseys? Okay, if, say, the Eagles were playing the Jets, the home team would get first dibs on wearing their color, but why can’t the Giants wear their blue jerseys against the 49ers in their red?” … Alan Kreit was recently up in Cooperstown, where he took lots of cool uniform photos. From there he went to the New York State Fair in Syracuse, where he documented uniforms of a different sort: “At the State Troopers exhibition, a trooper was kind enough to show me his personal collection, including a 1940s uniform. This included a purple tie, vintage pants, and the manufacturer’s label. These were all wool and probably were brutally hot during the summer.” You can see all of Alan’s photos here. … Jay Braiman has been obsessively research the history of the Jets’ logo. Among many other interesting finds, he’s come up with this awesome yearbook cover. … Jim Mellett notes that the drop shadows on Pitt’s new jersey are in the uncommon down and to the left configuration. … Nice to see that the halftime entertainment at last night’s Clemson/FSU game included a taffy pull. … Royce Clayton has changed his uni number to 11, to mark his 11th major league stop. … Interesting find by Chris Manes, who writes: “According to a Spirit Magazine pic I found a few months back, Phil White of the Giants was the first to wear No. zero in 1925.” Slight bit of additional info here. … That’s enough for today. I’ll save my comments on the new NFL logo for tomorrow.

214 comments September 4th, 2007

Game of Shadows

So I was looking through the membership card gallery the other day, and I was suddenly struck by something I’d never noticed before: Most of the drop shadows and block shadows fall down and to the right — call it the five o’clock shadow.

As I started looking at photos, I realized that five o’clock shadows are standardized throughout most of the sports world. The primary exception among current teams is the New York Rangers, whose block shadows go down and to the left (a protocol that holds for all their jerseys). For everyone else, it’s down and to the right, down and to the right, ad infinitum.

I was curious about how this phenomenon became so entrenched. Was it because we read from left to right? Was it because the sun sets in the west, casting an eastward shadow? Was it a something designers consciously considered when coming up with uniform designs, or did they just reflexively go with the five o’clock format without even thinking about it?

I posed those questions to Todd Radom and Scott M.X. Turner, both of whom have designed a few uniforms in their day. Here’s an edited version of their responses:

Todd Radom: Agreed, drop shadows traditionally fall off to the bottom right, and I can only assume that this is a logical function of [our culture's] left-to-right thing. Are there any drop shadows in the new Israeli baseball league that go from right to left? [I don't think so. -- PL]

My 2 cents: Bottom-right is the way to go. And the shadow should be connected to the top layer of lettering, as opposed to just being set off. Also, I think any drop shadow should be darker than the layer on top, so white drop shadows on a black background, for instance, make no sense at all.

The 49ers numbers achieve drop shadow perfection for my money.

Scott M.X. Turner: What Todd said, basically. The Rangers’ bottom-left look has become so iconic that it doesn’t strike me as odd (though it does feel counterintuitive when I do Rangers treatments for Uni Watch cardbacks).

I agree block shadow is a better idea than drop shadow. … I’m not as sold that the bottom layer needs to be darker, however — the St. Louis Browns stuck orange under brown back in the ’40s, and Cleveland did it in 1970 with red under navy [and let's not forget this -- PL]. I guess it depends on whether you’re trying to convey a shadow or a block. If it’s a shadow, then Todd’s right, should be darker; block, then most anything goes.

Unlike the well-documented histories of pinstripes, certain colors, and logos, I’m not sure there’s a way to know for sure why shadows came out lower-right. Just that most of us designers agree that’s the way it feels right. And nine times out of ten, the feel’s more important than the math.

Todd also pointed out what may be the oddest configuration of all: the one used by the late-1950s Washington Senators, whose block shadow ran up and to the right. I’m unaware of any other team having done this. But then again, until a week or so ago I hadn’t given much thought to this topic to begin with.

And that’s the thing — once you start thinking about a subject like this, all sorts of things start jumping out at you. With my “shadow radar” more finely tuned in recent days, I’ve suddenly noticed a few more left-leaning shadows. During my recent visit to Lelands, for example, I turned over this New Jersey Knights jersey and immediately fixated on the nameplate. And when preparing yesterday’s ESPN column about “one and done” designs, I was got a little rush of excitement when I saw the shadow configuration on Wisconsin’s one-day design from 1995.

My feeling is that while drop and block shadows often look good (especially on a membership card), they can also add unnecessary clutter to a design. And while I haven’t done a formal tally, my sense of things is that more teams are employing shadows these days than in the past, because they’re so easy to execute digitally. I’m fairly certain teams like the Mets, Dolphins, and 49ers, all of which added drop shadows within the past decade, wouldn’t have done so if it hadn’t been so easy for a designer to call everyone over to his computer and say, “Look, what if we just did this…” I’m not saying there’s no place for shadows, but most of them these days come with the distinct echo of “Because we can.”

Raffle Results: I’m happy to announce that the winner of the Helmet Hut raffle for a free college football helmet is Vertically Arched member Mike Brodsky. Mike, please get in touch with me pronto to claim your prize.

Thanks to all who entered. And I can absolutely promise, incidentally, that next month’s raffle is gonna be a mind-blower.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Creepy Nike product placement of the day — and one of the best ever — here (with mega-thanks to Chris Dominiak). … The Jets, who were originally known as the Titans, will be having a, uh, Titanic throwback game on October 14th. Lots good Titans info is available here (and be sure to check out the JetsTV video link, which features some fantastic Titans footage — special thanks to Mike from Queens for that link). … Cool-sounding exhibit of military uniforms currently on display in Delray Beach, Florida. Details here (with thanks to Jeff Fishman). … Speaking of military unis, check out this. … Yesterday Todd Radom e-mailed me an article about various lowlights in Phillies uniform history (it’s not web-accessible, alas), and one passage in particular caught my eye: “June 10, 1972. Trying to inject some life into a 19-29 club at the start of a homestand, gimmick-obsessed team vice president Bill Giles suggested that, since the Phillies had been playing better on the the road than at home, they ought to try their road uniforms at the Vet. Giles’ plan bombed. The Atlanta Braves’ 15-3 victory included Hank Aaron’s 649th home run, a grand slam.” The Braves were wearing the “feather” design on the road that year, so it wasn’t gray-vs.-gray, but still — two teams wearing road uniforms? I’d never heard about this before. Anyone else? … When not serving me cocktails, doing my laundry, and changing Tucker and Caitlin’s litterbox, Uni Watch intern Vince Grzegorek moonlights at a dental office. And who should come in for a root canal yesterday but a VP of Sales for Reebok. “He was dressed head to toe in Reebok stuff,” reports Vince. “Shorts, shoes, socks, and the logo was EXTREMELY prominent.” While he was in the chair, Vince slipped him some nitrous oxide and nabbed this Cleveland Browns cap from his briefcase. Then he put a Uni Watch temporary tattoo on his arm, etched a Nike swoosh onto one of his front teeth, and doubled his bill. All in a day’s work. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Major hosiery development Wednesday night, as Esteban Loaiza was wearing special stirrups with the A’s logo on the side. Best photo so far (provided by Roger Faso) is here — you can just barely make out the logo on Loaiza’s left ankle. Anyone got a better shot? I can’t do screen grabs from my backup computer (main machine’s still in the shop, grumble-grumble), but I’m told that there were some close-up views in the first inning. … Here’s a quote for the ages: “It was an interesting lesson to learn in how quickly a fire can happen.” To appreciate the full context, look here (with thanks to Peter Bliao). … The Trenton Thunder unveiled a new identity system yesterday. … And Cleveland State unveiled a new logo (as noted by Josh Yetmar). … Golf report from Dan Sherman, who writes: “At the first round of the FedEx cup, close to 50 golfers were wearing blue belts with silver buckles inscribed with ‘IFF,’ for ‘Ian and Friends Foundation.’” Details here. … I’d heard about the Denver Bears’ “strike zone uniforms” before, but I’d never seen them — until now (with thanks to George McClure). … Can someone please tell the Mariners to stop wearing their BP jerseys in actual games? They did it again last night. … Here’s one I hadn’t been aware of: As you know, the Steelers switched from block numbers to their current font in 1997. But for the first game of that season — and only the first game — they kept their old block lettering for the nameplates, before switching to their now-familiar rounded font in Week 2. … Tired of seeing your favorite team’s baseball cap rendered in all sorts of weird colors? You’re not the only one (good find by Dave Miller). … Latest MLBer to wear toe socks: Brendan Ryan of the Cardinals. This and several other uni-related tidbits can be found in the last four paragraphs of this article. Meanwhile, the second text section of this piece reports that Ryan has some unusual taste in eyewear. (Both items sent my way by Elena Elms, who I’m pretty sure has a crush on Ryan.) … Mike Lowell has been wearing a Jeff Bagwell-style padded batting glove lately. “It was made by using an old piece of catching equipment, an idea conceived by the Red Sox trainers,” says AJ Chalifour. … Got an e-mail last night from Jay Gordon, who’s the editor-in-chief of Uniforms magazine (!), which features lively columns like “The Uniforms Laboratory” and “Ask the Uniforms Guy” (who, for some inexplicable reason, isn’t me). Granted, none of the uniforms are sports-related, but it still looks pretty damn cool. … Jason Cruz notes that there sure seems to be a lot of stuff going on on Lauren Jackson’s shoes. Anyone know what the “153″ is for?

236 comments August 24th, 2007

Switching to a Completely Predictable Color Scheme Is the New Black

Jerry Glanville has always been such a blowhard. The whole “Man in Black” thing, leaving a ticket for Elvis, driving a replica of James Dean’s car — a shtick as hackneyed and cornball as that has to be earned, and anyone with a head coaching record of 62-71 hasn’t earned jack.

But Glanville and his shtick are back this year, because he’s the new head coach at Portland State, which unveiled its new uniforms yesterday. And in the year’s 9473rd-biggest surprise (right after Lindsay Lohan’s latest rehab stint, and in front of Karl Rove’s refusal to answer a subpoena), the team’s previous green-based color scheme has given way to black. (As an aside, check out the kid on the left — he’s wearing NFL gloves, which means they’re made by Reebok. A rare chink in Nike’s promotional armor!)

It could’ve been worse. According to this release, Glanville originally presented his own uniform design (also black, I’m sure), but that one was discarded after Nike came up with their design. “When Nike presented their new look, I realized I may be in the wrong business designing uniforms,” said Glanville. Yeah, because you probably wouldn’t have come up with quotes like this one, from Nike creative director Todd Van Horne: “We (at Nike) huddled together and said ‘there’s energy here.’ We needed to bring that energy very visually to the field.” Don’t you love it when marketers talk like that? Yeah, Portland State has energy — unlike all those other football teams, which presumably have, like, no energy at all, right?

Such bullshit notwithstanding, the most interesting thing about the new design is the helmet, which features a center spear instead of flanking side logos. The most obvious corollary is probably the Redskins’ old feather design — not a bad pedigree. I kinda like it.

As for Glanville, I’ll say this much for him: If the Vikings or Ravens want to hire him, I’ll gladly contribute a letter of recommendation.

Membership News: Scott’s been busy with non-Uni Watch work (that boy needs to get his priorities straight), so the membership gallery hasn’t had any new designs for the past few days, but expect to see more designs added by the end of the week, including some real doozies. Meanwhile, I mailed out two dozen membership kits yesterday and should send out about 45 more today and tomorrow. And congrats to new member J.J. Carton, who last night became our 400th (!) enrollee.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Indiana is memorializing Terry Hoeppner with a helmet decal (with thanks to Mark Fightmaster). … I’ll be interviewed tonight at 10pm eastern on the Face Off Hockey Show, whose principal, Scott Wasilewski, sent along this photo of NASCAR drivers Michael Waltrip and David Reutimann wearing NAPA-branded Canadiens jerseys. … “UnderArmour has made a couple of changes to Texas Tech’s football jerseys for 2007,” writes Aaron Dickens. “The jersey numbers will be much thinner than last season and the UA logo will be black instead of white.” … Oh my. … You probably saw this spotlighted in my ESPN column from last week, but just in case: UniformViolation.com is pretty damn cool. … Everything leads back to Bill Buckner (good find by Jere Smith). … “The Harrisburg City Islanders of the United Soccer Leagues Second Division have what may be the most useless names I’ve seen on a team’s jersey — they’re in blue here,” writes Chuck Nolan Jr. ” Also, Harrisbuirg has worn pink jerseys and Cincinnati (from the same league) has worn pink socks.” Ewwww. … The St. Paul Saints have added a black armband to mark the I-35W bridge collapse. It’s interesting that minor league teams are usually more showy and “wacky” that MLB teams, but in this case the Saints’ response to the bridge tragedy is much more restrained than the Twins’ gesture. … Speaking of memorials, have you noticed that the umpires have been wearing “SC” sleeve patches? That’s in memory of former ump Shag Crawford (father of current ump Jerry Crawford), who recently passed away. … The Thai police department is punishing slipshod officers with a novel twist on the scarlet letter (nice find by Matt Brosseau). … AJ Connelly notes that Terrell Owens “has opted for something from Jimi Hendrix’s wardrobe! Something needs to be done about this before Reebok spots it and make it de riguer in the NFL on Sundays.” … Someone broke a record of some sort last night. It had nothing to do with uniforms, so if you have strong opinions about the record-breaker, please post them on a more appropriate forum, not here. Thanks.

247 comments August 8th, 2007