When The Saints (& Colts) Go Marching In

By Phil Hecken, with Rick Pearson and Tim Brulia (with photo assistance from Larry Bodnovich)

The Big Game is today, or the Super Bowl, as most of us call it. Which means, it’s time to take a look back at the uniforms of the two combatants in today’s contest: the Indianapolis (nee Baltimore) Colts and the New Orleans Saints. Now wait, you’re about to say, “Didn’t Paul already do that on ESPN.com this past Thursday?” Well, yes he did, and a splendid job he did. But, having enlisted the aid of uniform historian Tim Brulia, the original Uni Watcher himself, Rick Pearson, and with several photos provided by Larry Bodnovich we’re going to take a much more in-depth look at just how closely the uniforms the two teams playing today resemble those of their predecessors, and how what they’re wearing today came to be.

Tim, as usual, has provided us with the parameters, studiously denoting all the minor (and major) changes of the teams throughout the years, while Ricko will handle the finer points of the uniform progressions. Since the New Orleans Saints are the new kids on the block, playing in their first Super Bowl (and the “younger” team in terms of service time), as well as the “designated road team” and decided underdog, we’ll take a look at them first, followed by the Colts. Let’s go!

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SAINTS:

The New Orleans Saints entered the NFL in the 1967 expansion, playing in Tulane Stadium until their current home, the Superdome, was constructed for the 1975 season. Frequently the laughing stock of the league, the Saints often sported horrible teams and frequently had fans showing up wearing bags over their heads. Frequently referred to as “The ‘Aints”, they were born wearing black and gold, and a design which has remained remarkably unchanged since it’s inception. But changes have been made over the years, often what we refer to as “tweaks” rather than wholesale revamps. Let’s see where they began, and how they got to today. Ricko and Timmy present this wonderful timeline:

1967: Brass gold helmet with black fleur-de-lis logo outlined in white, black/white/black stripes; jersey: Black with gold numbers with white outline on front, back and shoulders. Sleeve stripes Browns-like, white/gold/white/gold/white; white with gold numbers with black outline on front, back and shoulders. Sleeve stripes on road: black/gold/black/gold/black, and on home: white/gold/white/gold/white. Pants: gold with black/white/black stripes. Socks: black with stripes as on black jersey. Wore numbers of two different thicknesses. The SI “debut” cover (with the training camp helmets) shows the thicker ones. Note that these uniforms are *NOT* copper, as some have believed — it’s due to a poor scan of the SI Cover — that image is from Ricko’s original SI Issue, and shows the color much more properly than other photos on the Internet. Saints wore both thick and thin at same time. Bonus pic: check out Sir Saint in the endzone!

1968: Preseason games featured no sleeve stipes at all. Early in season, switched helmet stripe to white/black/white and also stripes on the pants to white/black/white. However, many players kept the old black/white/black striped pants. Both styles worn simultaneously. (*Note, this photo is from 1967 — apparently at least one player had the “reversed stripe” pattern [white/black/white] prior to the changeover in 1968)

1969: Preseason wore black helmets with a gold fleur-de-lis outlined in white and stripes were white/gold/white, but reverted back to 1967 helmet style when regular season began (in training camp, helmets had been solid black). Early in season, they wore a black jersey with white front/back/shoulder numbers that featured Packer style sleeve stripes of gold/white/gold/white/gold separated by a sliver of black. They later reverted back to 67-68 style black jersey later in season with thicker numerals. The white jersey also featured thicker numerals. The pants were gold with the 67 stripes for all players. Socks were black, but sanitaries had separated stripes of gold/black/gold. 50/NFL patch worn on left sleeve between TV number and stripes.

1970: The early season 1969 black jersey was now normal jersey. The white jersey now had black numbers on shoulders and sleeves. For the first time, NOB’s were added, matching number color.

1971: The Saints started wearing white shoes.

1974: Wore white jersey for every game.

1975: Added black V neck to white jersey, TV’s moved to sleeves, sleeve stripes narrower, gold outlined added to numbers. Black jersey added a gold V neck and gold outline to the numbers. Gold pants ditched for white pants with black/gold/black stripes. Socks black with stripes like the stripes on black jersey.

1976: Changed helmet facemasks from gray to black. Added black pants to be worn with the white jersey. Gold/white/gold stripes on black pants.

1983: Gold numeral outlines on jersey now separated by jersey color. high socks now solid black.

1986: TV’s move back up to shoulders. On white jersey, state map of Louisiana in black with fleur-de-lis inside northen half of LA on sleeves. On black jersey, state map of Louisiana in gold with fleur-de-lis inside northern half of LA on sleeves. Pants gold with thick black stripe on sides with outline of Louisiana in gold with fleur-de-lis inside northern half of LA in gold on hips. Black socks add a thick gold stripe.

1990: NOB’s got really squeezed tight.

1991: Wore a 25th season patch

1994: Like all other NFL teams, wore the 75/NFL patch on the left collarbone area. Wore 1967 style throwbacks for the NFL’s 75th anniversary.

1996: Wore a 30th season patch. Black jersey saw LA state sleeve patch replaced by gold fleur-de-lis with micro thin black/white outline. Numbers and NOB’s gold with white outline. White jersey also saw LA sleeve patch replaced by gold fleur-de-lis with micro thin black/white/black outline. Numbers and NOB’s gold with black outline. Pants saw LA state outline replaced by gold fleur-de-lis on hips. Socks now solid black.

1999: White jersey saw black numbers return with gold outline. NOB’s back to a normal size with black outlined in gold. Fleur-de-lis on sleeves black with gold/black outline. Black jerseys just changed NOB’s to more normal size and gold fleur-de-lis on sleeve to a slightly thicker black/white outline. Black pants worn with white jersey with thick gold stripes and black fleur-de-lis with white/black outline on hips. Pretty much the prototype jerseys worn to this day.

2000: Helmet logo noticeably smaller, with white/gold/black outline. Same outline adopted for white jersey sleeve logo. Gold pants worn with both black and white jerseys.

2001: Black pants return and are worn for all games. No stripes, just a gold (with black/white outline) fleur-de-lis on each hip.

2002: 1967 black throwback worn for a game. Gold jersey worn with black pants for a game. Black jersey/gold pants, white jersey/black pants and white jersey/gold pants were combos worn.

2003, 2004 and 2005: Gold pants worn all season.

2004: Black cleats return.

2006: Gold LA state Gold LA state map patch on collarbone area of jerseys worn.

2007: LA patch removed. Pretty much the same uni since.

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COLTS:

The Colts franchise was officially created in 1953, but can trace its roots to pre-NFL days. The franchise began as the Dayton Triangles, a founding member of the NFL that was originally created in 1913. The Triangles wore blue and white jerseys. They are seen here, in 1926, playing the Frankfort Yellowjackets.

From there, the Dayton Triangles relocated to Brooklyn and were renamed the “Dodgers” in 1930, (here, the Dodgers are playing the Giants in 1938) and changed the name to “Brooklyn Tigers” in 1944. In the same year, the Boston Yanks are founded. A wartime “casualty,” the Tigers merged with the Yanks in 1945 and were simply known as “The Yanks” (the Yanks player is shown at left). The franchise was cancelled in 1945 by league and the team’s “temporary” merger with the Boston Yanks was made permanent.

Meanwhile, a new league (the AAFC) formed and created the “New York Yankees,” which was founded by the Tigers’ former owner. Another team in the newly formed AAFC, the “Miami Seahawks,” were purchased and relocated to Baltimore and renamed the “Colts” (whose original colors were green and silver). This franchise was dissolved by the league on January 18, 1951. The Colts were gone, but not for long.

Back in the NFL, the Boston Yanks would relocate to New York in 1949, becoming “New York Yanks” (interestingly, they absorbed much of the AAFC Yankees’ roster the next year). Those New York Yanks, much like the Yankees, Dodgers and Tigers were unable to compete with the New York Football Giants, and moved to Dallas in 1952 where they were renamed the “Dallas Texans.” The Texans’ colors were blue and white. Unfortunately, the Texans found themselves without a stadium in which to play, about halfway through the 1952 season, and were dissolved shortly thereafter. Here’s a great shot of the Texans versus the 49ers from 1952.

What had been the “Dallas Texans” franchise (not to be confused with the later, original AFL Texans) was moved to Baltimore on January 23, 1953. The Texans couldn’t really keep that nickname upon moving to Baltimore, so they adopted the “Colts” nickname, and kept the Texans team colors of blue and white. Thus began the current Colts’ 30 year run in Baltimore, which, as we all know, ended badly. The Colts would relocate to their current home in Indianapolis in 1984, and continue playing there to this day. Now, let’s take a look at the Colts (1953-present) uniform timeline.

1953: The Colts started out with a white helmet with criss-cross blue stripes. After one game, they took the criss stripe off. They also wore a plain blue helmet for a day game and a couple of night games. The jerseys were rather generic; white had blue front/back numerals with blue NW sleeve stripes, while the blue jersey had white front/back numerals with white NW stripes. The Colts also wore for night games a plain RED jersey! Pants were white with a thin white stripe down the sides. Socks were solid blue.

1954: They started with the white helmet, but early in the season, they switched to a blue helmet with a white stripe and a small white horseshoes flanking the stripe on the back of the helmet. The 53 white jersey stayed the same, but the blue jersey had a stripe tweak to 3 even sized white stripes. The socks went from plain blue to blue with three white stripes as on the blue jersey. The plain red jersey was worn for night games.

1955: White jersey sleeve stripes changed to match the style on the blue jerseys. White socks with the sleeve stripe pattern worn with the white jerseys.

1956: Helmet changed from blue to white with a blue stripe with the horseshoes turning blue and staying on the back of the helmet. Like 7 other teams this year, the Colts added TV numbers to the sleeves of both jerseys.

1957: Another overhaul, but this turned into the classic Colts uniform. The horseshoes were now proudly displayed on the sides above the earhole and made much larger. The 3 sleeve stripes (who’s that guy? glad you asked) were replaced by two shoulder loops on both jerseys. A second blue stripe was added to each side of the pants. And blue socks with two blue stripes were worn with both jerseys.

1958: Interesting program produced by the 49ers depicting the Colts wearing a combination (blue/purple helmet with gold shoulder loops) that never existed.

1959: Medium sized players’ numbers were added to the back of the Colts helmets.

1964: No changes to uniforms, but Colts would make it to the championship game versus the Cleveland Browns (note the handwritten helmet number), ultimately losing to the Browns in what would be the Browns last NFL championship.

1969: 50/NFL patch worn on shoulder above shoulder loops.

1970: NOB’s were added to all NFL jerseys, and the Colts’ NOB’s were serifed until Super Bowl V where they became sans serif and remain so to this day.

1973-74: Gradually changed to white cleats.

1977: Changed facemask color from gray to white.

1981: Chagned to solid blue socks.

1982: Added silver in between the blue shoulder stripes on the white jersey and also added silver outline to blue numerals to that jersey. Wore white pants with blue/silver/blue stripes with white jersey. Wore silver/gray pants with single blue stripe with a blue horseshoe with player’s number on both hips. Sock stripes returned with two silver/gray stripes.

1988: All silver/gray is removed and back to 57-81 look except for white socks with two blue stripes worn with both jerseys.

1993: Solid blue socks return and worn with both jerseys.

1994: 75/NFL patch worn on collarbone area of jersey. Didn’t really wear a throwback for the occasion.

1995: Changed facemask color from white to blue. Wore blue pants with two white stripes on sides for a couple of early games. Wore white socks with two blue stripes with these pants.

1996: Switched back to black cleats.

1997: Wore a horseshoe on the left collarbone area of both jerseys; blue on the white jersey, white on the blue jersey.

1998: Horseshoe removed from jerseys. Back to white cleats.

2002: 50th season patch on collarbone area of jersey. Shoulder stripes noticeably truncated.

2004: Gray facemask returns. Sock stripes return. Black cleats return. Also wore white 1956 style throwback for T-Day game with Lions.

2006: Back to solid blue socks. Pretty much the same uni since.

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OK, everyone. Hope you enjoyed this “little” lookback on how the Colts and the Saints got to where they are today, uniform wise. Now, when you attend your Super Bowl parties, you can show off your intimate knowledge of the teams — and don’t be surprised if everyone looks at you a little differently when you do.

Thanks again to Timmy, Ricko & Larry for their assistance with this monumental undertaking.

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In probably the worst kept secret in alternate jersey releases in baseball, the Tampa Bay Rays have officially offered for sale their new alternate powder blue jersey. Of course, there has been no actual official announcement yet, but it will be coming. After earlier unveiling their powder blue BP cap, (they will have both a navy and a powder blue BP cap this year), speculation quickly followed that they’d be introducing a powder blue alternate.

Is is good or stupid? Well, it’s not a bad color, but it’s unnecessary. It is my firm belief that a powder blue alternate will only look good if it’s paired powder blue pants. Now, before you dismiss the idea out of hand, here’s how that would look on the field of play. Not so bad, right?

See, I’m not ONLY a white at home/gray on road kinda guy — I just hate the softball look. There were some powder blue teams whose looks I rather enjoyed. I grew up when powder blues were not necessarily the “norm,” but they weren’t foreign either. Of course, back then, stirrups were worn and unis were properly fitted — now…they’d probably wear the powder blues like the Jays and I’d hate it. So maybe it’s best if they just keep the alt and wear it never rarely.

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In honor of the Saints making the Super Bowl, or maybe just because it’s on the schedule, last eveing the New Orleans Hornets broke out their special purple Mardi Gras uniforms.

No…wait. Last night the New Orleans Hornets broke out their special green Mardi Gras uniforms. Wait…that’s not correct either.

Anyway, last night the Hornets debuted their purple, gold AND green Mardi Gras uniforms. You remember them? Paul had a small bit on Uni Watch (so we could comment) and a much larger piece on ESPN, detailing all that went into these, um…beauties.

We won’t rehash all that here (although, feel free to comment), as Paul has done an outstanding job covering all the ins and outs of the design and thought process that went into the unis. Personally, while I love the concept and the execution, the “two tone” nature of the uniform offends my OCD. I “get” why they’re green, gold and purple. I understand the colors and accoutrements and the beads and masks and costumes and general licentiousness and drunken debauchery that goes into all these uniforms stand for. I really do.

I just don’t like two three-toned uniforms. I can overlook this, because of the spirit of the holiday, however. But just how awesome would the uni still have been if they just went with one color or the other?

If you’d like to see more pics of this game, I put 40+ pics in a Flickr album. Enjoy.

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What is it they say about an irresistable force and an immovable object? Here’s Rick:

Super Bowl Sunday. A perfect time to be reminded that, when it comes to its unfortunate conclusion, a wardrobe malfunction can make you feel like…well, like a real boob.

Here’s your full-color, Super Bowl sponsored, Sunday Benchies.

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Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Today we have a ‘guest’ scoreboard being brought to us by reader Chris Rocco. While the location may be familiar, the clues are all right there in the picture itself. Ready? Guess The Game From The Scoreboard. Date, location and final score, please, and be sure to link to your answer. And, as always, if you enjoy the game, please send me some new scoreboards! Drop me a line. Thanks!

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As if you needed another reason to watch the Super Bowl, now you do:

As you all know (or should), the Who will be performing the halftime show. In the comments below, the first person to correctly name each song in the correct order the Who play today will win a prize. So, make sure you post your guesses — if someone has already made a guess — be sure to post a different one, ok? Remember, it’s the first person who identifies EACH song played and in the EXACT order.

I have a whole bunch of uni-related materials lying about the place, and I’m itching to give something away (the prize is as yet undetermined). So, take a guess, and maybe you’ll walk away with something cool. Or not. But you gotta be in it to win it.

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Back again with more Uniform Tweaks, Concepts and Revisions today. Taking a look at all sports from here on out, so, if you have a tweak, change or concept for any sport, send them my way.

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First up is Tom Dempsey(!) who was inspired by the Pro Bowl piece last Sunday, with some Pro Bowl unis:

Hey there,

I was inspired by your column about the Pro Bowl unis and decided to give them a shot. Both have the conferences primary colors with the contrasting color as the secondary, so the game would be color on color. I also added some gold piping to represent the special meaning of being chosen to play in the pro bowl. On the pants, the colors are reversed for each team.

Hope you enjoy,

Tom

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Next up is James Comfort, who has some revisions for the Packers, Bills and Panthers:

For my first batch of uni tweaks i started with my favorite team, the Packers. Their uniform is, in my opinion, the best in the league. But I’ve always wondered what it would like like with metallic gold. Home. Road.

Next to tackle the second worst uni in the NFL – the Bills. I went with a modern uni, but still very clean and free of bumper stickers. Home. Road. Alternate.

Then the Panthers, whose uniforms are very nice, but just nice. And they’ve remained unchanged for a long time. Not a big fan of the silver, so I took it out. The NFL needs a team with a powder blue helmet. Home. Road. Alternate.

Much more where that came from, including a makeover for the Browns and Bengals, as well as a new and different approach to the Cowboys. Stay tuned!

-James Comfort

Moving along, we have some MLB tweaks from Dennis (from Philly, and who would prefer I don’t use his last name), who has taken on your National League Champion Philadelphia Phillies:

Hello — long time reader, first time contributor. I have a few issues with the uniforms of my beloved Philadelphia Phillies, so I decided to go ahead and give my best shot at a slight alteration. Specifically, my two biggest gripes are the cartoonish NOB/number font and the number on the sleeve. I started out by creating a uniform set using the current team colors, changing the font back to the Helvetica style font used in those Vet-era uniforms (with vertical arching for the name) and moving the sleeve number to the front of the jersey. To replace the sleeve number, I added a Liberty Bell patch to the left sleeve. I’m a fan of the Phils’ current alternate unis, especially their use of blue, so I incorporated the color more than it’s used now. The alternate jersey bears a passing resemblance to the current alt and uses the same cap, but is white instead of cream and has some piping. I also made a fauxback alternate with the ‘P’ on the chest, in the current colors and outlined by blue (and sans pinstripes). One of the options is a white cap with a red bill and red piping (worn in the early 20th century), giving this uniform facets of those worn throughout the Phillies’ history.

I also think red (and to a lesser extent, blue) is overused in MLB. The old maroon uniforms worn in the 70s and 80s give the team a good opportunity to break away from this mold and claim a unique color combo, so I tried to envision what a modern take would look like. I also think the maroon went well with the power blue uniforms worn during that period, so I used this as an accent color in my mockups. The NOB and numbers are outlined in powder blue, and the color is used on the sleeve and sock stripes. The alternate features even more powder blue and the white hat with maroon accents. Lastly, I made a vest design based on the 70s/80s Phillies jersey with maroon sleeves and a dash of powder blue. This is the most ‘out there’ of my designs, but I think it works for an occasional game or two.

-Dennis from Philly

PS- I apologize if the color or design elements are off when you open the file – I made these in MS Paint and it is my first time doing something like this. If you do decide to use this, please only use my first name. Thanks, and I hope you like it!

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That will conclude this round. Already, I have more for next weekend, so keep them coming. You know where to send them. Thanks!

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*PHEW*

That’s (finally) going to end this Super Sized Super Bowl piece. After going a stellar 7-3 (which would have been 8-2 had I picked the ‘boys over the Iggles) by “picking the winner based on the better uniform,” I will have to pick the Colts to win today. As of late last evening, the spread was 5 points. So, giving the five, we’ll take the Colts to win. Be nice to close out the season with another “uni win.”

Don’t forget to post your “What will the Who play?” guess down below. Just pick the songs, in the ORDER THEY PLAY them, and you’re good to go. OK? OK!

Oh, yeah. There’s still the matter of a game. So — enjoy the big one today. Cheers!

154 comments February 7th, 2010

The Hockey Wing Has Spoken

by Phil Hecken, with Teebz, James Huening and Adam Walter

Last weekend we previewed, and you voted upon, the NHL third sweater/uniforms. However, there was some question and discussion in the comments as to whether we actually included all the alternates being worn in the NHL this season. While the answer is “no,” the alternates chosen by Teebz were selected because they technically qualify as such, as defined by the NHL — the remaining alternates and throwbacks are really “special” uniforms. We’ll be looking at them today, and Teebz will handle that breakdown.

We’ll also have the results from last weeks poll (thanks to all who participated), along with some analysis. Interesting results to say the least. James Huening (who set up the poll) and Adam Walter (who provided the analytical data) will take part in that section. So, let’s begin with Teebz, who will look at the remaining “thirds”:

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We had the examination of the alternates being worn by NHL teams last week, but we never included the one-offs that some teams were employing. We’ll take a look at these in a Scrooge-like manner.

Ghosts of Christmas Past

* Montreal Canadiens 1909-10 jersey: The Habs went blue-and-white just as they did in their first year of existence. The jerseys are strikingly gorgeous despite wearing the colour scheme of their arch-rivals in the Maple Leafs. Rear font is easy-to-read, one-colour block.

* Montreal Canadiens 1910-11 jersey: The Canadiens opted to represent their second year of existence by bringing back another throwback that was absolutely beautiful. This could almost be a Team Canada jersey, and one might make the mistake of thinking that in viewing this picture. The colour scheme is excellent, and I really like combination of the jersey with the breezers. The rear font is still standard block making it easily legible.

* Montreal Canadiens 1912-13 jersey: And winding up the Canadiens “3-fer” this season are the “love ‘em or hate ‘em” barberpole throwbacks. These must have been something back in the day (here’s how those would have looked in living colour). Now, however, they probably fail the “is it good or is it stupid” test.

These three alternate looks complete the 5 sweater throwback the Habs began last season.

* Calgary Flames 30th Anniversary jersey: The Flames reached back to their humble beginnings to bring back an iconic look. Kent Nilsson wore the scarlet red with the white flaming “C”, and now we have another generation who can appreciate this look. The Flames added the 30th Anniversay patch to their jerseys, and the rear font is block letter, white-on-yellow just like the old days.

Ghosts of Christmas Present

* Philadelphia Flyers Winter Classic jersey: The Flyers, having brought back the retro orange already, decided to bring back some more history for this year’s edition of the Bridgestone Winter Classic. I like the old-time white-and-orange, but I honestly hate the black name plate. Would it really be that hard for the Flyers to wear the same thing as the Fred Shero-led Flyers? Much nicer, and much cleaner. Either way, the visiting Flyers will look good coming down the ice.

*Boston Bruins Winter Classic jersey: The Bruins will definitely be the fashion winners on January 1, 2010 if they look as good as Milan Lucic did during the test skate. The jerseys stand out nicely against the backdrop, and they look iconic on the Bruins’ alumni. The rear font is easy to read, but the numbers might be better for TV with the white outline. Overall, though, I like the look of these.

Just for those that are wondering, here is the setup for the rink inside Fenway Park. The fans sitting in the Monster seats may not be a factor in this game.

Ghosts of Christmas Future

* New Jersey Devils throwback: We’ve all heard that St. Patrick’s Day this season will feature the New Jersey Devils in a one-time throwback. The rumour is that they are going back to their Christmas colours that they wore for so long. What the design will look like, however, remains to be seen. Some have suggested that their current look will simply swap black for the old-style green. Whatever it may be, only this man knows for sure. I’m hoping the the Devils do bring back the look that Shanahan was wearing in that picture. The Devils would make an absolute killing on those jerseys as they are always big sellers on eBay.

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Thank for that Teebz! Awesome rundown. I, too, am assuming the Devils will merely swap the current black for green (as seen in the first concept on the left), although any of those four (obviously the white sweaters would be road jerseys) would be welcome.

Now, we move along to James (and Adam), who’ll bring you the results of last week’s poll. James?

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Here we are again with the results of another uniform survey. With help from our Six Sigma Black Belt, Adam Walter, we’ve got some nifty charts and graphs in both PDF and PowerPoint format.

Since Teebz has already provided a rundown of the “other” special uniforms that will/have been worn this season, I’ll get right to it and present the top and bottom 5.

The Top 5:

1 – Edmonton Oilers
2 – Chicago Blackhawks
3 – Toronto Maple Leafs
4 – Pittsburgh Penguins
5 – Vancouver Canucks

The Bottom 5:

18 – Phoenix Coyotes
19 – Dallas Stars
20 – Tampa Bay Lightning
21 – Ottawa Senators
22 – Atlanta Thrashers

Any interesting phenomena this time around? Why, yes, there were. First, the Penguins finished fourth despite the fact that their unis were named more often as the favorite than any other team’s were. Also, the team itself was mentioned most often as people’s favorite. The Oilers got the highest score despite coming in third place for favorite uni and tying for 20th (with the Kings and Blue Jackets) as favorite team.

The Blackhawks finished second across the board in those three categories and they tied for second-to-last with the Blues for worst uni, so I guess there’s some nice symmetry there.

The Thrashers also ran the table, so to speak. They were our respondents’ least favorite team, gathered the lowest score, received the most votes for worst uniform and the fewest for best uniform. And, like the Buffalo Bills in our NFL surveys, they averaged less than one point per response.

Also interesting to me is that some folks evidently took Teebz ’ joke about the Islanders’ return to the “Gorton’s Fisherman” as their third seriously and didn’t read a little further to where he described the team’s real throwback-inspired alt, resulting in comments like these: “Gorton’s fisherman logo and too many colors” … “They were horrid the first time around, why do I want fish sticks???”

Here are some other comments that I felt were insightful and/or made me chuckle. First up, the reasons for choice of worst:

Thrashers — “it makes my eyes want to puke” … “It looks like Jackson Pollock threw up on it” … “I have seen only one worse jersey this season…the home uni for the Buffalo Bills” … “If they went with ‘ATL’ on the front, it would have been the perfect storm of shit.” … “Look like a moto-cross shirt, should say ‘FOX’” … “the family-style chain restaurant look should be suppressed in all sports” … “Hold on, i just threw up in my mouth a little bit…… ok, its the an ugly, pathetic excuse for a jersey, terrible font, terrible numbers, terrible shoulder logo, terrible marron color… the thrashers should be banned from wearing these turd sandwiches” … “It looks like a Footballjersey that had sex with a Hockey Jersey, and those SOCKS…”

Avalanche — “It looks like a Chinese knockoff.”

Stars — “It looks like it was designed by – or purchased at – Wal-Mart.” … “It’s not even really an alternate. At least the teams with ugly alternates were trying.”

Panthers — “You have a great, distinctive color scheme and dynamic logo and you dump it for something you’d see in the ‘not-quite pro shop’ at KMart.” … “Ugh. They copied St. Louis, Nashville, Minnesota and Pittsburgh with the logo. And with the uniform itself…they shit the bed. Their designer was probably (I wish I was kidding) like ‘Look at Pittsburgh’s unis sell! Let’s get on that train! Boys, we need more powder blue!’ ‘But sir, it doesn’t make any sense__’ ‘You’re fired!’”

Wild — “It reminds me of one of those fake sports jersey from the Gap or Abercrombie & Fitch” …

Predators — “Because everything about hockey in Nashville sucks” …

Senators — “Look – I expect stupid from non-hockey markets…but Ottawa? With its history? Lame.” … “It was a close call between this one and the ‘BOLTS’, but the Senators should know better being from Canada. ” … “looks like NASCAR!”

Coyotes — “I think it’s the worst because I can’t enjoy watching a game the Coyotes are playing in. The whole game I can’t stop thinking about how angry those awful uniforms make me.”

Penguins — “They always lose when they wear it”

And now the comments for choice of best:

Oilers “I like the thirds that are ‘classic’. The Ottawa and Tampa ones annoy me to no end.” … “Classic look, nothing gimmicky. It’s an alt I’d want to buy, and that’s the point, right? Who would buy a ‘Bolts’ sweater?” … “biased fan. actually, objectively it’s kinda ugly, but I grew up in Edmonton in the 80s, so I HAVE to name it as my favorite.”

Kings — “Gangsta.” …”When I imagine Buckingham Palace in the year 3000, I picture something like that logo.” … “looks crisp, like Bond in a tux”

Wild — “It’s GREEN”

Islanders — “fixes many years of uniform stupidity”

Senators — “It is just straight up badass”

Penguins — “Attractive color… Historical accuracy… It makes me orgasm…”

Blues — “While many of the better one are retro, the Blues have a modern era jersey without the ‘douche’ element usually pitched by reebok”

Maple Leafs — “As opposed to may of the others, it doesn’t look like it was thrown together from the random scraps of fabric left over from making other uniforms.”

Canucks — “Stick In Rink. It Rhymes.”

There was one other question we asked. We wanted to know your general opinion of the NHL’s thirds. Surprisingly, only about 8% of respondents feel that the alts are unnecessary and only another 23% think that too many teams wear them. Lots of people felt that only throwbacks should be allowed. Two people got even more specific than that saying that only teams that have been around since before 1980 should have alts.

So the overwhelming sentiment is that alternate unis are fine the way they are or MORE (if not all) teams should be wearing them. A common response was that the alts are fine as long as they’re good.

My personal opinion is that every team should wear two (good) alts — a home and a road version — about 6 or 8 times each. Of course, who decides what’s good enough to be worn?

~~~

Thank you James. And also, thank you Teebz and Adam for the nifty charts and graphs. There you have it — ALL the “thirds” and the results of the “official” alternate uniforms (as the NHL defines them).

An outstanding job by my collaborators, and thank you readers for participating in the poll and for giving us such colorful opinions. Hockey uniforms are, arguably, the most beautiful of all sports, and even though reebok has ruined many of them, there are still some gorgeous ones out there. Maybe not all teams need a third sweater, but clearly, their popularity is sky-high and probably of all the sports, a third look for many teams is not a bad idea at all.

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Tragedy, narrowly averted: The Wild were able to ‘recover’ from their uniform and equipment tragedy on Friday and the game went on as scheduled. According to that article, “goalie Niklas Backstrom wore a catching glove with burn marks across it and backup Josh Harding had an old facemask with the wrong number.” I can’t make out any burn marks, but I believe it.

Obviously, it could have been worse. Still reeling from the effects of the fire, the Sens jumped out to a two-goal lead on the Wild, and eventually won the game 4-1.

According to the Wild’s beat writer/managing editor, Glen Andresen, “game between the Wild and Senators is on, and it wouldn’t be possible if not for the Wild’s equipment staff and trainers, who worked all night last (Friday) night, and all day today (Saturday), to get the healthy players ready for this one. Tony DaCosta, Travis Green, John Worley and Doc Fuller worked all night last night (Friday) to clean the gear that survived, while Brent Proulx flew home (Friday) night and returned (Saturday) morning with Matt Benz, Chris Pietrzak-Wegner and a bundle of replacement gear for tonight’s game.” Interestingly, “The Wild’s sweaters were not harmed in the fire, so the road whites (were) in tact and on display (last night). The Senators (wore) their home reds trimmed in black and white with the trojan casting a steely glare on the chest.”

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As we begin counting down the days till the Rose Bowl, I’m going to be joined by tOSU’s biggest fan Larry Bodnovich and the man who’s been bringing you the Ducktracker all season long, Michael Princip, in a weekly look at some fun Ohio State University and University of Oregon factoids, uni histories and other fun stuff. Larry, of course, will be tackling the Buckeyes, and Michael will handle the Ducks.

Once again, Larry will be starting off the show, with some wonderful looks at old time tOSU uniforms. If you were not aware, one of Larry’s many talents is the ability to colorize old, black and white photographs. Make sure you click on Larry’s album (below). It is outstanding. Here’s Mr. Bodnovich to take an even closer look at some of the early tOSU uniforms, with in-depth descriptions of each:

Two of my all time favorite old Buckeye uniforms are below.

Those were first worn in 1916 and through 1928. While early friction strips were brown these were gray. Many teams of that era wore that style such as Illinois and Red Grange. But as a Buckeye fan these are nice looking to me with the scarlet and gray combo. I have never seen an “away” version of these. From everything I have seen they were worn all games.

After those classic unis the Buckeyes in 1929 and 1929 only wore the plain red jersey with small numbers on the front that is shown in my album. I have seen a picture of the 1929 at Michigan game and they wore plain white jerseys with small I assume red numbers and I assume red pants.

The 1930’s Ohio State had several uniforms. Some were red jerseys with block numbers and some had small and old style fonts for numbers on front. The late 1930’s colorized game vs Nothwestern shows that cool font style.

I also liked the early 1930’s white style (pictured). I love the socks and sleeve stripes of this style.

Ohio State wore this style for some games in the early 1930’s and added numbers on the front eventually sometime in the mid 1930’s. Later in the 1930’s the numbers I thought were red but having seen color film from the HBO Ohio State Michigan rivalry the numbers on front were black. At least late 1930’s Ohio State also wore plain red jerseys with no stripes for the mid 1930’s The uniform I like was worn in early 1930’s until possibly some of 1934. The scarlet and gray so called Gull wing helmet is my favorite throwback or leather helmet.

Here is my album.

I just put together that album of some of my colorized Buckeye uniforms. They are in order of dates time wise. I put captions for them too.

Here is part one covering Ohio State’s 1st 3 Rosebowls.

The first picture is of a small photo I bought and have framed over my desk. The next few drawings were from the Columbus Dispatch. They made a few mistakes though one of which was the 1955 helmet saying it was white when in fact it was gray.

For this colorized uniform history I did slow down in the late 1940’s I can give more info on late 1940’s on when the Buckeye began using plastic helmets.

Thank you Larry. My god those colorizations are outstanding. We’ll definitely be getting together for a full-blown post featuring more of your work in the near future.

We next move on to Michael. Once again, Michael’s contribution to this portion of the column isn’t so much his words, but his expertise and creativity in updating his “Oregon Rose Bowl” history page. Here’s what he has changed since last weekend:

I’ve updated the Duck’s Rose Bowl page:

Basically, I wrote about the 1958 shoulder loop, and several other pictures have been added. Including, a picture of the 1957 Ducks as the Webfoots, and a nice back of helmet comparison between the 1995 team, and the 2009 Ducks team; i.e. player numbers.

West Coast Shoulder Loop: In the 1958 Rose Bowl, the Oregon Ducks had a feature within their jerseys that could be considered distinctly west coast in it’s conception. That is the shoulder loop stripes. The Ducks were outfitted in their away white Nylon-durene jerseys that featured a UCLA shoulder loop, a feature that was popularized by Red Sanders’ West Coast teams in the early 50s. A thin green stripe that bordered a thicker solid middle yellow stripe on each side, for the Ducks. From it’s derivation, the shoulder loop was a very noticeable feature on the jersey that helped Coach Sanders decipher his Bruins on the grainy black and white game films of the time. This west coast uniform feature was eventually adopted by professional football teams in the NFL/AFL; i.e. Vikings, Colts, Chargers(w/center bolt), Patriots, 49ers, NY Titans, and Rams.

And thank you Michael! Be sure to spend a good amount of time checking out that Rose Bowl Uniform history. Mr. Princip has added a lot of updates and factoids.

Truly outstanding work again, gentlemen. We’ll have your final “countdown” feature next weekend, and then it’s on to The Game. A rematch that is 52 years in the making.

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Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Back to the gridiron today, and fans of the two teams featured here probably don’t need a hint as to the game. Better days may lie ahead, but when this photo was taken, both were in their glory days. Shouldn’t be terribly difficult today. Ready? Guess The Game. And, as always, if you enjoy the game, please send me some new scoreboards! Drop me a line. Thanks!

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There really aren’t much better things than the Sunday funnies. If ONLY they included Benchies. Maybe someday they will. And today’s is particularly appropriate for those of use who are digging out of yesterday’s major snowstorm. Here’s Ricko:

The great ones, the determined ones, always find a way to test themselves. Why? Because it’s about being an ath-a-lete. To the very core.

Enjoy your Sunday Benchies.

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Our next round of NFL uniform tweaks/revisions and concepts is upon us.

~~~

Our first contestant today is Kevin Connolly, who brings us some changes for the New England Patriots:

Phil,

Since the Patriots have been wearing their legacy uniforms, I have decided that I like more traditional Patriot look over the current uniform set. This was quite the revelation for me since I’m a big fan of contemporary uniform designs and pretty much love anything that Oregon does. I’ve attached my rendering of a concept uniform set which is a slight twist on the traditional shoulder stripes. At first, I wasn’t sure how much I’d like the look, but am pretty happy with the result. I’ve also included some player models displaying the uniform set. I’ll be interested to hear what people have to say.

–Kevin Connolly

~~~

Next up is Max Morgan who brings us his ideas for the Houston Texans:

About 9 months ago I started this uni design for my favorite team, the Houston Texans(a bunch of choke artists), and I had the uniform relatively done but no logo. Recently I’ve been playing around with it and came up with a new logo as well as tweaked the uni’s a little. I plan on receiving my Undergrad degree in Graphic Design in May, and I wish to pursue a job in sports, so I would love any feedback you and/or anyone could offer. Anyways I’ll try to keep my explanation brief, but this is what I hope to do for a living so I can’t promise anything.

A Texan isn’t something that can be summed up with a regular mascot like a bird, so I opted make a seal with the state and a bull. The logo is sort of a hybrid of the Longhorns logo, the Bulls logo, and the original AFL Texans logo, thrown into a Steelers/Redskins circular frame. There is just something nice about a circular logo. I felt keeping the Bull was beneficial as oil has a bad name these days, and an energy oriented logo… well the Chargers have that taken care of, so the bull stays. The colors stay, as they are the colors on the state flag, and I threw in an updated Dallas Texans logo because people here are proud of their city and state. I chose to keep the logo simple because I have a problem with all of the over designing in sports today. The best logos are the simple ones. I went for the Uber Texan approach instead of the current “Space Bull” approach. The type is Baskerville, simple, classic, serif typeface.

I kept the helmet all “Deep Steel” blue with no stripe and stayed with the pant stripe that is currently used while also incorporating it into the collar and sleeve cuffs. I threw on a Texas flag patch along with the standard gold trim around most flag patches (the flag is sort of a big deal here). Also, I made the numerals thick and bulky as “everything is bigger in Texas”. I like the jersey pant color combos for the Home and Away because they aren’t as common as what we use now, and I’d like to see us incorporate red more than we do. I really like the white top and red bottoms, It’s a look that isn’t seen much anymore, and with the blue helmets it makes a nice mix of red, white, and blue. For the alternate I kept the blue on blue. I really like our all blues, the reds not so much, so I figured I could lose the all reds.

Anyways, I know the design is pretty simple, but I think the simple design is a good look for a team named the Texans. Plus they don’t really sell much merchandise outside of Houston, so a new look with a classic feel could reel in some fans elsewhere in Texas (even though the Cowboys have that locked up) and the rest of the US. I hope this is moving in the direction for a timeless, classic look. Either way I feel it is a step up from what we have.

-Max Morgan

~~~

Moving along we have Paul Barrett, who, like a previous fan of the team from Washington, didn’t actually create what you’re about to see, but liked it anyway:

I’m not very good with computer software to make a uni update, but I did happen to find this redskins update as a happy accident. I did not create this, just found it. I personally like the two on the far left (yellow pants).

Paul Barrett

~~~

And finally today, we have Jared Ongie, who has decided to take on the entire NFL. Here’s Jared:

Colonel Phil,

I figured it was high-time to submit some NFL mock-ups. So I present to you my “NFL Twisted Collection”. As you will see, all 32 teams are represented. In designing each of these, I held myself to two rules…

1.) Change the primary color of each team’s helmet for maximum ‘mindfuck factor’.

2.) Bring out those often under-appreciated ’secondary colors’ (e.g. New England’s red or Minnesota’s gold).

So here they are in all their glory, arranged in a neat and tidy Flickr set…

NOTE: I fully realize how garish some of these uniforms are. The purpose was not to replace the current uniform sets; rather to experiment with what I’d like to call ‘color dyslexia’. I hope you enjoy my NFL Twisted Collection.

– Jared Ongie

That all for today, folks. Hope you enjoyed the latest installment. Feel free to send me more. Back at’cha next week with more.

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Couple last things: There’s still plenty of drama involving the number one LOOK AT ME player in the history of prima donnas. Even when a teammate dies, Ocho Cinco can’t bear to let the spotlight be off of him. I’m sorry, but there is absolutely NO REASON for him to wear Chris Henry’s jersey today, other than for the attention he so craves. What, a “15″ decal on your helmet isn’t enough? Child, please.

Reminded Paul of another look at me gesture from Tim Hudson, who was “Josh Hancock’s teammate in college. When Hancock died, Hudson wore those giant initials in his next start. Biggest ‘Look at me!’ memorial gesture I can think of so far.” Well said, Mr. Lukas. But I think Chad would top it if he could…

~~~

Of course, I left my NCAA Bowl Picks in the office, so I don’t even remember who I picked. If I were smart, I would have gone with Rutgers, just because of the “proximity” to Long Island. Knowing my luck, I’ll be 0-2 when I check the updated board today. Nice turnout for the pool, though, with 247 people joining [or perhaps less, if there were multiple signups -- I'm looking at you, Denver Gregg ;) ]…

~~~

In Baseball news, the Padres will be wearing throwback uniforms for their Thursday afternoon games next season. And the fans get to choose which throwback they’ll wear. It’s too bad they don’t have the good sense to go with the brown mustard or, even better the full-on hot dog condiment uni.

~~~

Hope everyone affected by the “Blizzard of 2009” is making out alright, with heat and power and such. As of midnight, I was still getting Blizzard Warnings from the National Weather Service, and all up and down the east coast, planes couldn’t land, teams were delayed getting in or out of games, kickoffs were moved back and it was generally a mess.

Everyone enjoy your Sunday. Stay safe and warm. Peace.

141 comments December 20th, 2009

How to Dress A Duck

By Phil Hecken, with Kenny Ocker and Casey Martin

It isn’t often the University of Oregon makes it to the Rose Bowl, but for those of us who are intrigued by their fascination with never wearing a uniform combination more than once, tracking the Ducks has become great sport. Whether it’s our own Michael Princip with his fantastic “Ducktracker,” or the multitudes of students who are never quite sure what to wear to a game in Autzen, waiting to see “what they will break out” for every game can be as much fun as the game itself. No one does it like Oregon (thankfully), and opinions on what the Ducks wear range the entire gamut from “awful” and “godawful” to “fresh” and “fly.” Whatever you may think of Oregon and it’s tradition — er, maybe that’s not such a great descriptor — one thing we can never accuse them of is being boring.

I have an extra special treat for you today, as one of Uni Watch’s collegiate members, Kenny Ocker, University of Oregon student and aspiring journalist, was able to interview the man who every week selects the uniforms the Ducks will wear, Casey Martin. Kenny was able to get in-depth with Casey, and has some really amazing nuggets to share with us. So, sit down, kick back, and prepare to meet the guy who many feel has the greatest job in the world, the guy who ‘dresses the Ducks.’ But first, a few words from Kenny:

~~~

I’m a lifelong University of Oregon fan and a sophomore journalism major at the school. I’ve been a Uni Watch member since for more than a year now (my card is of Eintracht Frankfurt, the soccer team my mother grew up rooting for… also, I’m the only member with the number 90), and I read the blog well before that. Originally, I think I was led to it by Page 2, but my interest in uniforms existed well before I ever saw Paul’s columns. You probably all recognize me as “The Hemogoblin”… (Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have admitted that.) In the interest of full disclosure, I’m a copy editor for the Oregon Daily Emerald, the student-run daily paper on campus. The Daily Emerald owns my soul.

~~~

And now, here’s Kenny’s interview with Casey Martin:

Kenny Ocker: How did you end up being the person who gets to choose what the football team wears every weekend?

Casey Martin: Well, it’s kind of an interesting story. I go down there and shoot the breeze with the guys in the coaches’ office… This summer, when they had this black box of all of the drawings of the new uniforms, and I was excited, just going, “Ah, these are awesome”, and he [head coach Chip Kelly] goes “Why don’t you pick our uniforms for us?” and I said “What are you talking about?” He said, “Well, I’ve got enough to do, I don’t want to worry about it; you do it for us. We’ve got too much going on.” I was like “sure, yeah, great” but I kind of thought he was joking, but as time went on I started realizing that he was probably pretty serious and so basically that’s how it happened, it was just kind of a casual deal, it wasn’t any really formal process, so I go down there, and the way it works, it’s not like I pick them. I mean, I guess I pick them, but not really. Chip is in charge. But he brings me down, we shoot the breeze, we lay out stuff, and then he selects what we lay out. He’s still the guy. He does what he wants to do, and he has a lot of opinions about stuff from a football perspective. Mentally, for the team, he likes to overcome, like in the past we’ve lost in certain uniforms and he wants to use them so we can overcome them. Or, if in bigger games, like in the USC week, he wanted to do something low-key, so it wouldn’t be a bigger feel… he’s definitely involved, he has a purpose for it. My purpose is to go in there and have fun.

KO: So this started this year?

CM: Yeah.

KO: What was your favorite uniform combination this year?

CM: You know what? I… That’s a good question. I actually kind of liked some of the away uniforms to be honest. I like the black-white-black, and I like the really standard stuff like green-white-white, and some of the cleaner stuff I like, I like the black-yellow-black. I don’t know if I have a favorite to be honest. There were a few that were interesting and that weren’t received quite as well. I liked the USC week. I like them all, but there were some of them I liked more.

KO: Do you know whose idea it was for the Civil War, who put the new logo on the throwback helmet?

CM: That is a great question. I think how it shook out was this: We went into his office, and Chip was like “Look, we’ve got to go school colors because the Beavers will be in black,” which we all agreed. He goes, “I love the green throwback jersey, so lets do something with that.” But the rules are, you can’t use anything twice. So, it was like, okay, throwback jersey, but we can’t do the full throwback again, so it was like “OK, what do you do?” So, I went in there and what I did was I laid out a bunch of stuff and I took pictures of it all, so you can see how it shakes out. I went in there and started laying out all of these things for him to decide, and “Hey, these are all of the things you can do with the throwback jerseys, or what you might like to do with school colors.” He liked the white pants, so we were going to go with that right there. I think it came out of, one time we were going to talk about the white green white, which we haven’t worn yet, which is my favorite combo but we haven’t worn it yet and he was going “Why don’t we put the old UO on the white-green-white” so that was what we were talking about. And I think it was my idea, but it might have been Chip’s too, to say let’s just go throwback and put the new O on it. So I called the guy down in the equipment room, and said can we do this, can we put the new O on the throwback and he goes no, we don’t have enough time to do the stickers and stuff, and then Chip found out and he goes “Forget it, you’re doing it”, so it was kind of a combination of both of us, we were just thinking of new ways of doing the throwback without repeating it, and that might happen for the Rose Bowl too, we’ll see.

KO: Why did we never wear the chrome helmets that we had?

CM: You’ll have to ask Chip. I tried, that was one thing, I tried for six weeks to do that. One time, he polled the team, and they didn’t want to wear them for an away game, and so we were going to wear them maybe for a home game, but then it got really cold, and there’s some issue with temperature on them and the paint jobs, and so, I don’t know, you’d have to ask Chip. I definitely wanted to, I was dying for it, but he… the one USC week, he didn’t want to do anything out of the ordinary, because there was so much hype about it, and so we didn’t bring them out that week, and then the team didn’t want to wear them I don’t think at Arizona on an away game, we wanted to debut them at a home game, and then for Oregon State, we decided to go throwback, so that’s kind of how they got… they were late to come in too, so that was another thing, they had issues, so they didn’t really get cleared until the USC game and then we just never did it.

KO: I was curious because they got so much attention when they first came out, so I was just curious about that…

CM: It was more Chip’s decision and the team’s decision that they didn’t and I think they’ll save them for next year.

KO: So the team has a say in what they wear too?

CM: Sometimes. Like I said, even though I got tagged as the coordinator, everyone’s got a say. I just go in there and shoot the breeze with the guys and have fun with it. It’s really informal. It’s not like I go in there and say “this is it”, this is what we’re doing, it’s not like that at all.

KO: How long is the “we don’t repeat combinations”? Is that just a year?

CM: [laughter] Let’s hope that it’s just for a year.

KO: We have enough combinations, we could probably go a few seasons without repeating anything.

CM: I hear you… The idea was, what Chip said, let’s not repeat, let’s do something different every week. And then he’ll give you directions, so you kind of have to come up with the best-looking outfit.

KO: Because Coach Kelly didn’t want all of the extra attention during the week leading up to the USC game, is that why they didn’t wear all black, even though the students had planned the blackout? It had gotten so much hype… I mean, the Daily Emerald had even blacked out the paper…

CM: That was just kind of, Chip’s decision that he didn’t want to let the kids get caught up in a lot of that stuff. He just said “hey, it’s just another game” which I really respect, I think it was a great idea. Let’s not do anything out of the ordinary, it’s just another game for us.

KO: It worked…

CM: Yeah, exactly. It worked really well.

KO: So, um… yeah… This is the money question… What are we wearing for the Rose Bowl?

CM: We do not know yet.

KO: Have you not decided, or are you just hiding it?

CM: We have not decided. I was just down there right before I came down here. We have some ideas, we’re basically down to two or three options, but we do not know yet.

KO: Are you going to go with the throwbacks again, like throwback whites?

CM: It’s possible, I don’t know.

KO: I tried.

CM: I can’t tell you, even if I did know. Chip likes it to be secret until Saturday.

KO: I don’t blame him, it’s kind of a big deal for the program. That’s one of our things that, it helps, it draws so much more attention to us when they don’t know what we’re going to be wearing until right then. I do have another question for you. When we went, during the Oregon State game, during that week, all of the pictures on GoDucks.com (the athletic department’s website), had been from the Cal game, so they were all in the throwbacks. Did they know before the game that you were going to go throwbacks? Did they just guess and get lucky?

CM: Yeah. The decision for that wasn’t made until Tuesday. They don’t know unless Chip told them that’s what he was doing. That decision on what we were wearing, I don’t think it was made until Monday or Tuesday.

~~~

Well, there you have it. Everything you wanted to know about Oregon’s uniforms and the man behind them. Fantastic job with that Kenny! Special thanks, also, go out to Casey Martin for allowing Kenny that access. As the days tick down towards the Rose Bowl, I, for one, am greatly anticipating what the Ducks will wear, almost as much as I am for the kickoff on New Year’s Day.

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Some rather bad news in the uni world happened yesterday, as the Minnesota Wild’s equipment van caught fire in Ottawa. Since the Wild are scheduled to play the Senators tonight, naturally their equipment truck preceded the team into Canada. Details are still somewhat sketchy, but this we do know: around 2:30 pm Eastern Friday the truck, which was in the Scotiabank parking lot, caught fire and almost all of the Wild’s equipment was basically turned into a mess of melted and charred unis and equipment. While no one was, fortunately, hurt in said meltdown, this leaves the Wild in quite a quandry. This is certainly a rarity in sports, but hardly unique. UW Prexy Paul Lukas gave us a look at some similar situations that have occurred in the history of sport.

Hockey players, like most athletes, are creatures of habit, and their equipment and uniforms are vital to their performance. Despite Rbk’s claims that their uniforms are 274% lighter, wick sweat away better than a Sham Wow and can withstand heat and fire better than a race car driver’s suit, apparently the uniforms, like the players who wear them, are mortal. Thus, the Wild are sans-unis and equipment, at least for now. The Minneapolis Star-Trib is reporting the players are still debating whether to actually play the game — since they would be required to basically play in brand new equipment. I’m no hockey player, but I understand that new equipment basically requires a solid two weeks to break in, leaving them at a decided disadvantage. And, there’s also a problem of replacing the uniforms.

The team’s official statement, as of yesterday evening, was this:

There was a fire in an equipment van in the parking lot at Scotiabank Place this afternoon. No one was injured, but some of the Minnesota Wild’s hockey equipment was damaged. The Wild is in the process of taking inventory to determine the damage to the equipment. Minnesota is scheduled to play at Ottawa Saturday at 6:00 p.m.

At 6:00 pm on Friday, the team held a meeting and decided to carry on as best they could — but not only do they need to have all new equipment shipped to Ottawa (or find some there), they’ll have to have all new uniforms (or at least whatever wasn’t consumed in the conflagration) sent to Canada. So, perhaps the Wild will be wearing darks instead of normal road whites. If you take a look at some of the damage photos, you’ll see that the very little is recognizable in the charred remains besides gear bags. As of late Friday night, tho, the uniforms were probably of less concern than the equipment.

Probably the biggest loss belongs to goalie Niklas Backstrom, whose equipment was completely incinerated in the fire. Given that goalies are even more superstitious and about their equipment than most skaters, it’s difficult to imagine him being any where near comfortable in all new gear.

Any of you hockey guys wanna discuss this below? Maybe keep us apprised of any developments as the day goes along? Or just want to explain the importance of having a modicum of comfort and feel for one’s gear? It’s hard for me to imagine the depths of this loss.

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Our next round of NFL uniform tweaks/revisions and concepts is upon us.

~~~

First up is Walter Young, who brings his ideas on how to fix the J-E-T-S…Jets Jets Jets:

Phil,

First off, I rather like the Jets current uniform in general. I am not a big fan their green/green, or white/white combinations. I prefer the contrasting jersey/pants look.

I had to borrow all of my graphics, and then went to work with my high-tech crayons (MS Paint). The uniform templates and designs came fro TAG Team Uniforms uniform designer. I just matched jerseys & pants I felt best complimented the other. I scavenged graphics from Chris Creamer’s sportslogos.net (helmets, name plates, sock templates).

All four uniform sets I use the Jets current Hunter/Forest Green and White colors, along with bringing back the old Kelly Green as an accent color (well, as close as I could come to those colors). I made no changes to the Jets current helmet or logo. The set numbering is just my preference after I was done putting them together.

Sets 1 (here) and 3 (here) are essentially modernized versions of the Jets current jerseys with contrasting sleeves and torsos.

Sets 2 (here) and 4 (here) are both takes on modernized solid torsos with contrasting yoke/sleeves. Set 4 came out way to “Tennessee Titians” for my liking, but to much work was put in not to submit it.

Of course, any critiques would be appreciated.

Walt (FormerDirtDart)

~~~

Next up is Daniel Patterson, who has some suggestions for the Seattle Seahawks:

Hi Phil,

It took seeing the green alternates to realize the biggest issue with Seattle’s uniforms. The 2-tone sleeves. They look okay on the away jersey and are easily overlooked on the home, but they look stupid with the green.

On the home uniform, I changed the color of the sleeves and put some stripes on the socks (and of course I chose white pants.). I did the same for the away.

When the Seahawks redesigned their uniforms, they let the fans vote on whether to have blue or gray helmets. I voted for gray, so I thought I’d like to see what gray helmets, plus the required gray pants would look like.

Now that I had a gray helmet, I put together a faux-back. I used the current logo and shade of green. I don’t mind the green, in fact it is a naturally occurring color in the Pacific Northwest, even in December. Which led me to my last endevour. “Can I get a green jersey to work?”

The blue pants just won’t work, they need to be lighter than the green. The helmet needs to match the pants, so that left me with 2 options: gray helmet/pants and white helmet/pants. I don’t think they’ll be using those combos anytime soon, but I think they look better than what they trotted out against Chicago. Plus, the white on green would have fitted right in with the AFL.

Dan Patterson

~~~

Our next tweaker is Michael Fullmer, who brings us these San Francisco 49ers modifications:

Hey, Phil!

I love Uni Watch! I’m glad there are people out there like you (and me) who care about good uniforms.

First, let me start by saying the I loved the 1998-2008 49ers uniform. LOVED IT! I was salty in the extreme when the new look was unveiled. I called it the Willie “Too Big” Hall uniform, paraphrasing the immortal line from the Blues Brothers movie, “At least we got a change of clothes. You’re wearing the same shit you had on four decades ago”.

I have since softened to the new look, especially the colors; the ‘08 colors WERE too dark. But there are three elements of the uniform I still hate passionately: the 1/4 sleeves, the Red-White-Red “NFL stripes” on the helmet and pants, and the MF’ing gray face masks.

To me, nothing screams “I don’t have the first clue how to design a uniform” like a gray facemask where gray isn’t a color in the team’s uniform palette. It’s fine for the Cowboys, Raiders, and Giants to have gray facemasks. It’s an abortion of uniform design for the 49ers, Cardinals, and Browns to do it. The Colts get a pass since technically they don’t have a third color in their pallette.

I know you love NFL stripes, but to me they scream, “1969, all the time!”. And those sleeves – UGH!

So I took the 49ers uniform template available here (to make this a true tweak). My starting concept was to develop a single stripe pattern for the whole uniform. The one pattern that I saw as being a fit for helmet, jersey, pants, and socks was that used by the Giants on their road jersey sleeves.

Then I flattened out the sleeves into more of a 1/3 to 1/2 sleeve, and changed the facemask color back to red. The end result is this — a uniform that eliminates the cliche gray facemask and “NFL stripes” while maintaining links to the past.

Michael Fullmer

~~~

And rounding out today’s set of uniform tweaks is Jay Braiman, who also has some ideas for the New York Jets:

I’ve always thought the Jets needed to move their upper sleeve striping down just a bit, perhaps by reversing the colors of the shoulder inserts. I’m not very good at this, so I thought I’d make an attempt using MS Paint. Simply reversing the shoulder inserts didn’t make much difference, so I redrew the stripes further down.

Note the side-on views eliminate the Reebok logo above the TV numeral. This should make Paul happy, but it would probably have to be on there somewhere.

- JB

Thanks to everyone who sent in their revisions for this round. Keep ‘em coming. Lots more to get to after this.

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It’s hockey season now, and dontcha know, the boys from Bub’s Pub play pond puck too! Here’s Ricko:

“I’m dreaming of a…” freshly plowed rink. The temp has dropped, boards have gone up, water’s gone down, and nature has taken its course. It’s BNIB (Broomball Night in BenchiesLand).

Enjoy your Saturday Benchies.

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Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: We’ve got another reader submission today, and this one comes from Peter Greenberg. It’s a doozy folks, since it’s MiLB. You’ll probably be able to get the location, but the date, teams and final score may prove a bit trickier. Please post a LINK to the answer, and not the answer itself, in the comments below. Ready? Guess The Game From The Scoreboard. And, as always, if you enjoy the game, please send me some new scoreboards! Drop me a line. Thanks!

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That’s going to do it for today folks. Special huge thanks to Kenny Ocker and Casey Martin for that look into the Ducks uniform machinations. And you hockey guys, love to hear your take (and any updates) on the developing situation with the Wild gear and unis. Everyone from the Carolinas north and east through the New England states — be ready for some real winter weather today. Me, I’m under a blizzard warning, so this could be interesting.

Have a great Saturday.

193 comments December 19th, 2009

And Now…The Clarksville Finalists…You Pick The Winner

By Phil Hecken

You will all recall that over the past two weekends, I had the pleasure of bringing you the participants in the “Clarksville ‘Design-A-Uniform’ Contest.” All the entries were outstanding, and it really was a labor of love hosting the contest. But we’re not quite done yet, as Coach Marc Walls has looked over each and every design, for uniforms and logos, and he’s narrowed it down to five finalists in two categories: Best Uniform and Best Logo. He’s allowed me to put his final five to a vote, and a short poll will follow the descriptions. If you want to refresh your memory, here is the full set of every submission. Click on any individual window and it will enlarge that graphic.

I will now turn the post over to Coach Walls, who’ll set up the finalists:

~~~

Hey Phil,

Wanted to chime in on those top choices you asked for. Overall comments: A really fine job done by all of the people who submitted work. Our players would be proud to wear any of your designs. One overall comment I’d like to make, is that I think some of the uniform templates some of the designers used were just fantastic. It really helped these designs come alive, and made me want to see some of the other ones the same way. It was hard to pick these few, but the criteria I used involved these factors:

Is it realistic?: Loved the off the wall submissions from some people, and our players loved seeing the multiple designs. I don’t think I’ve ever seen yellow pants for sale before though, and I think there’s a reason for that!

Is it something I can take to a uniform outfitter?: While the more professionally designed ones were great, I really enjoyed many of the submissions from the more amateur designers. I appreciate the effort because I couldn’t do any better. Unfortunately, for some, I just couldn’t print a picture and say “make me this.”

Is it unique?: Everyone wants to stand out, and for the right reason. I appreciate those uniform sets that are obviously original, because so many teams at the high school level, for budget reasons, use pretty simple designs.

Here then, in the category of “Best Uniform,” are the five finalists:

Joe Hilsberg: One thing I’m not crazy about in this set is the Capitol “C” on the grey Clarksville set. I’m not opposed to a vertical arch with a simple varsity block. Big fan of the “c-ville” logo. Not sure why. It’s kind of gimmicky, but something that would definitely be an attention getter. Overall, just a well thought out set.

Ryan Muraro: Another clean, well thought out set. Not too busy. I like the idea of the “C” logo with the “hs” inside. Plus, paired with the hat we already use, it’s obviously something that will mesh with what we’ve got going on. I like the less is more approach, and I really like the script “Clarksville.”

Steve Lastname: Is “Lastname” really Steve’s lastname? Kind of cartoonish, but I’ve always been a fan of the v-neck top like Stanford wears. I also like the “C” logo on the black jersey with the “cats” inside. Overall, a fun design. White and greys are nice and clean. I would change the “Clarksville” on the white set to the “Wildcats” wordmark on the yellow jersey. City names on the home jersey are always a pet peeve of mine. I’ve always thought you advertise who you are at home and where you’re from on the road.

Andy Altemus: I enjoy this set, and the thought put into it. I like the color set as it is, but would really like to see the set in a more “yellow” gold. I’ve always enjoyed that fancy font and number font. Simple, and effective. A great job.

Jeff Bahry: I really like the work he did on the multiple logos. Really good stuff. As far as the uniforms go, I think it’s contemporary, clean and well designed. Not too busy with the trim, which some might disagree with, but I like it. It’s a realistic uniform design.

An honorable mention to the uniform set by Kevin Callahan, which I think we would all agree was just fantastic, and the sort of throwback set that everyone would love. I loved the color combination, and would be proud to wear it. However, the design would be impossible to replicate unless we were ordering a throwback fit uniform set. But, I just wanted to give a public thanks to Kevin. Hopefully you do this type of work regularly, and if you do I’d love to see some more examples of things you’ve created.

And next are the “Best Individual Logos:”

Jeff Bahry’s logo set: Just enjoyed the overall effort of the design.

Chad Stilson – “C” logo: very creative spin on the Cubs “C” I really enjoyed it.

Ed Westfield – “C” logo with “hs” inside: One of my favorites. Really liked it on the home whites.

Kevin Connolly – Really enjoyed the whole set: the Wildcats script, the paw wrapping the ball.

Thomas Stafford – really enjoyed the “C” with the clawmark: Wasn’t crazy about the jersey font, otherwise the whole uniform set would have been a true favorite of mine

Another honorable mention to the Tennesse Flag alternate logo from David Vines: I really liked it. I thought it was clever, and something we’d love to put on as a jersey patch. A Great job.

Overall, I’m very impressed Phil. There are several of these logos and uniform sets that we’d love to use. I’d like to contact all of those people and thank them personally, and for those where we might be able to change the shade of gold, I’d like to do that as well. What I’d like to do is any time we use a logo or design for anything, we’re going to give that person a copy of their work. If we use a logo on a shirt, we’ll send them a shirt and a thank you note from our players. If it’s a hat, and so forth. We’re launching a website soon, and we’re going to give a thank you to those designers by name. If they run a business, we’ll happily advertise their business at no cost to them. However, I will request that anything we use we can have sent to us in a format that can be used to replicate. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about, but if, for example, all we have of a logo is a jpeg, then the company that does our screen printing will charge an artwork fee to redraw it in their program. Saves us unnecessary fees, and really, if I’m going to pay, I’d rather pay the person whose idea it was. Thanks again for all of your hard work, and if you need any clarification on what specific design I’m talking about, feel free to ask. Thanks Phil.

Marc

~~~

No, Marc — THANK YOU! Obviously you and I aren’t quite done with this, and certainly you’ll have some business with all the participants. But now it’s time to turn it over to the readers for their say.

It’s very simple folks, and I’ll ask for your indulgence one last time. Please take a moment to vote for your favorite uniform and logo in the Clarksville Design-A-Uniform Contest. One vote each for the best uniform set and logo set, as identified above by Coach Walls.

Once again, a huge THANK YOU to Marc Walls and to each and every participant. I’ll be back to let you know the final tallys, but please know, everyone who participated is a true sport and you’re all winners.

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Ahhh…the simple joy of a Sunday Benchies. Ooooohhh…and a new character too! Here’s Ricko:

Always good to “one up” the bar stud. Even if he is dumb as a box of hair. Or maybe it’s even BETTER if he’s that dumb? Hmmm…too close to call.

Enjoy your Sunday Benchies.

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Our next round of NFL uniform tweaks/revisions and concepts is upon us.

~~~

We’ll get started today with Ronnie Poore, who has an interesting concept for the Panthers:

Hey,

Enjoying all the NFL tweaks being posted on the uniwatchblog. Here’s my version of the Carolina Panthers. My take is “what if the Panthers joined the AFL in 1960, what would their uniform look like?” I took away silver, but kept the light blue and black. Gave them Northwestern stripes and a plain block C helmet logo. Even though alternate jerseys weren’t a staple in the 60’s I couldn’t resist the urge to give them a light blue jersey. Whaddya think?

Ronnie Poore

~~~

Our next redesign (more of a tweak really) comes from Dave Ebert, who’s taken on da Bears:

Phil,

I’ve been an avid dropper by to your site for a long time now. I really got excited when you started talking about revising the classic NFL uniforms. My beloved Chicago Bears recent choices have really stuck in my craw. What, with the Awful hack job on their alternate orange jerseys, to the WRONG socks when they come out in “all white”. I would love to infiltrate their uniform laboratory and inject my opinions.

In the designs I threw together, I basically went back to a similar look to the 1960’s uniforms, but added a “C” to the helmet. The idea was to eliminate the white striping on all elements. (shirt sleeves, pants and helmet) oh, and of course a grey face mask. I love the way the orange looks, right up against the navy. Kind of like the Giants’ red helmet stripe. That really does it for me.

Anyway, I hope you like. If I need to become a member to get these out there, I’m thinking I might have to.

Regards

Dave Ebert

~~~

Our next set comes from Lukas Nowinsky, who wants to change both the worst (understandable) and best uniforms in the NFL, the Bills and the Packers. But he explains the Packers tweak with this:

Hey Phil,

Let me start by saying I love the Packers uniforms the way they are, and I hope they stay that way. Since all the teams seem to be getting tweaks from fans, though, I thought I’d give the Pack a hypothetical makeover. I’ve attached a new home and away version.

Once I finished my Packers tweaks I couldn’t help but try to improve some
of the worst uniforms in football, the Bills. I went back to the royal
blue, and scrapped the mono-navy they’ve been wearing.

Thanks,

Luke

~~~

Moving along, we have Joe Katz, who has done some minor tweaking (and one major tweak) on the Rams:

took the Rams uniforms and did a few minor tweaks. Mainly, I killed the all blue look, and added a all gold look (not much of better, but I really like the gold.) I figured, if you’re gonna have a all color uni, and the blue looks terrible, you might as well go with gold.

Also, I took the gold from the shoulder logo, which was lighter than the rest of the gold in the uni, and made all of the gold that lighter gold.

The other changes are here, here and here.

Thanks, Phil, keep up the good work
Joe Katz

~~~

And our last submission today comes from Amos Miller, who’s decided to take on the entire NFC North:

I set out to change up the Vikings current terrible uniforms. I ended up redesigning the entire NFC north. I attempted to incorporate some element of history into each uni redesigned.

With the Vikings I wanted to keep a “modern” look but wanted to create something a bit less cluttered then the rags they don now. I ended up with the shoulder stripe equally being two different colors. On the away uniforms I attempted to incorporate the shoulder stipes of old by adding a line of purple piping underneath the dual stripe design. Upon completeing all I could think of was the Rams current Unis, but I liked them enough that I kept it.

I next set out to give a team pinstripes because I thought it would be novel. I ended up with the Bears due to their history in vertical stripes (‘94 throwbacks and 20’s leather). I threw in the bears claw mark pants for shits and giggles. I began to feel as thought I was redesigning the Broncos so on the away set I put the old iconic sleeve strips.

With the Packers I couldn’t really think of a way to include the old uni elements, so I just started pasting in a bunch of modern stripes and other junk. I later decided to put shoulder yokes in with an attempt the somewhat match the ‘94 throwbacks.

With the Lions I began by looking at some only logos, I of course found the White lion on two vertical stripes of blue and silver. The colors on the logo where slightly darker than the colors used now. I used the two stripe motif across the uni and replace the white lion with the modern logo they introduced at the beginning of this year.

Oh, and in response to your post about D2 football programs, being that my hometown is Bemidji, MN I can tell you that it’s pronounced something like Buh-MIh-gee.

Really enjoying the Uni Tweak section every Sunday.

Have a good one,

Amos Miller

~~~

OK, that’s it for this round of Uni Tweaks. I still have several more, and they keep pouring in, so keep them coming. Obviously, this is a pretty popular feature, and I have to say, some of the submissions have been absolutely outstanding.

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Now that the NCAA football season has basically concluded, I’ve asked our man in the street, Jim Vilk, to come up with a season ending “Best Ten and Worst Five” college football uni matchups, spanning the entire season. Remember, these are his opinions, so be sure to hurl any vitriol in Jim’s direction. Let’s see what he came up with:

10. Temple/Penn State — Rectifying a rookie mistake — I completely left this beauty off my second-ever list…

9. Duke/Kansas — Almost like watching the Manning brothers face off, eh?

8. UCLA/Tennessee — I always thought this matchup would be good in a bowl game.

7. LSU/Georgia — One of the brightest games of the year.

6. Oklahoma/Texas — Beauty in simplicity.

5. Texas/Nebraska — I didn’t wait for the clock to almost tick to zero — I picked this matchup very quickly…

4. Indiana/Michigan — For some reason, I can hear Billy Crystal’s Fernando saying, “It’s better to look good than to feel good.”

3. Tulane/SMU — I like a good horsey helmet and I like green/blue unis, so this matchup is a worthy finalist.

2. LSU/Ole Miss — See the description for matchup #5.

1. UCLA/USC — Too bad the game wasn’t as stellar as it looked.

And Jim’s Absolute 5 Worst:

5. Ball State/Eastern Michigan — I have this thing against all-green teams on a green field.

4. Virginia Tech/Maryland – One over-hyped uni plus one well-intentioned tribute equals one mess.

3. Oregon/Arizona — One has almost no school colors, the other has a bit too many.

2. Tennessee State/Florida A&M — Well, at least it wasn’t monochrome…

1. San Jose State/Boise State — I also have this thing against all-blue teams (in really goofy unis) on a blue field.

I wanted to nominate Oregon/Boise State instead, but that pre-dated the lists (and I think Phil would have overruled me anyway).

~~~

Phil here. Thanks, Jim. How FAMU/TSU can only rank as the second worst game baffles me. And how you could possibly even think I’d let you put the Oregon Storm Troopers as a “worst” also boggles the mind. But a nice job with the rest of the list. Can’t say I agree with all your choices, but your quips are good.

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Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Back to the pros today for a gridiron riddle. Although you can only see a partial scoreboard, that shouldn’t make much difference — either you know this game, or you don’t. Please try to find a link and post the link in the comments. Ready? Guess The Game From The Scoreboard. And, as always, if you enjoy the game, please send me some new scoreboards! Drop me a line. Thanks!

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As we begin counting down the days till the Rose Bowl, I’m going to be joined by tOSU’s biggest fan Larry Bodnovich and the man who’s been bringing you the Ducktracker all season long, Michael Princip, in a weekly look at some fun Ohio State University and University of Oregon factoids, uni histories and other fun stuff. Larry, of course, will be tackling the Buckeyes, and Michael will handle the Ducks.

We’ll begin with Larry today. He found out a fascinating little nugget about tOSU’s Heisman Trophy winning running back, Archie Griffin.

~~~

I was looking though the All-American teams from Playboy. I came to 1975 and see “Archie Griffin” is not the real Archie Griffin. It is also funny how the only guy wearing white is the fake Archie. I do know that Woody Hayes would not let his players take part in the Playboy shoot. A year or so before John Hicks and Randy Gradishar were on the team. But the pics of those 2 look photshopped or airbrushed or whatever they did back then.

I got a kick out of seeing this fake Archie Griifin. I do not know who the guy is. I posted that on an OSU board and one guy said it looked like Greg Hines. But Hines was a lanky guy.

~~~

Thanks Larry. I gotta agree…our mystery man is probably not Gregory Hines. Great stuff. And now, on to Michael’s contribution.

In the spirit of the Ducktracker, I simply present to you Michael Princip’s “Ducks In The Rose Bowl” history. Unis and history all wrapped into one — be sure to click on all the stuff (including rare pictures and video) that’s in there — it’s an AMAZING job.

I learned this week that the Ducks weren’t always called the Ducks, their school colors were once green and yellow, and they have only been in the Rose Bowl a total of four times — 1917, 1920, 1995, and the 1958 game, which featured tOSU against UO — it’s a rematch that’s been in the making for 52 years. And it’s what we’re counting down to in the next few weeks.

Thanks Larry & Michael! Can’t wait to see what you have for us next week.

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Couple last things before the wrap — there seemed to be enough interest in a “College Football Pool” for the Bowl games, but I haven’t worked out the details yet. Well, that, and I haven’t found someone who’s proficient enough at the setup to have a contest ready today. I’m hoping today to make that happen. If not, perhaps Paul can make an announcement during the week. If I get it set up, I’ll post the link back in the main article.

Keep the “rename the Winter Classic” slogans coming. Personally, I happened to like “Pond Bond,” but that’s just me. Lets see if we can’t throw a few more out there.

And now, we’re done. Thanks to Marc Walls for his input on the Clarksville Wildcats Uniform contest. Once again, if you haven’t already please take a minute to vote in the poll. It’s only two choices, so it shouldn’t take you more than a few seconds. Congrats to all the “finalists” and one more big thanks to everyone who participated. Great stuff all.

Have a Super Sunday.

135 comments December 13th, 2009

The Last Train to Clarksville (Pt. IV)

By Phil Hecken

And, finally, today we visit the last round of entries for the “Design-A-Uniform” contest for the Clarksville Wildcats. As with the previous three rounds, we have another outstanding set today. The last two entries, you will notice, are not in alphabetical order — one was received last weekend (as the first entries were being run) and the other was my fault, as I had received the entry but neglected to post it in proper order. So, those two will appear at the end of this entry. I believe I was able to upload every single entry sent my way, but if you sent me something that DID NOT appear, please contact me with your submission and I’ll make sure it gets to Coach Walls (and I’ll run it in a future column). So, lets take a look-see at the final entries:

Dylan Visvikis: submission

First and foremost, thank you for considering my submission.

I used the Rawlings Uniform Builder and took some screenshots.

This uni set is designed for a classic high school look with a modern twist–the “cougar head” logo, featured on the shoulder sleeves of the Home Whites, Road Grays, Blackouts, and the CHS Purples. It is featured on the chest of the Gold Alternates. The logo is outfitted with two of the five team colors, each depending on its surrounding jersey.

Home Whites: Self-explanatory.

Road Grays: Again, self-explanatory.

The “Blackout” Alternate Uniform: Can be paired with the pictured white pants or the Alternate Black Pants. This uni is for night games.

TWO ALTERNATE UNI OPTIONS:

Gold Alternates: The logo-centric option, can also be paired with alternate black pants.

CHS Purple Alts: The CHS option.

~~~

Adam Walter: submission

Phil,

Amateurish at best…but actually kinda happy how they turned out.

I attached both the new logo as well as the uniform line-up (both in .jpg form). Have a good one.

Adam Walter

~~~

Daniel Washburn: submission

I am far too lazy to come up with a complete uni set, but here is a black alt vest set that I put together quick with what was floating around in my head while reading about it. The idea is that the paw is scratching through the vest to show the undershirt. With the pants I wanted to continue that theme by purchasing black pants and then cutting the stripe with a knife. Don’t hem the edges, so they have a frayed look, and then sew a strip of yellow inside the pants. That is my outside of the box part.

20 years with the Cubs hat logo? Time to give the Good Guys their due.

~~~

Geoffrey Waterman: submission

Hey!

I might have a few more (like an away or something) on the way, but here’s what I have so far.

Two versions of home uniforms, and a logo in three colors that could go on a hat. Thanks! Take care!

Sincerely,

Geoffrey Waterman

~~~

Michael Watson: submission

For Clarksville High. First time trying this, only have sorry MS Paint to work with… this was fun.

Michael Watson

~~~

Ed Westfield: submission

Phil,

My submissions for Clarksville HS baseball

Thanks!

-Ed

~~~

Mark Wilkes: submission

Here are my contributions to the contest.

Same interlocking logo design for CHS applied to two different uni sets with and withough gold outline. Did not use the Cubs “C” – why copy, be original! Same cap for both sets as I felt the two tone cap was needed to get some of the gold in and balance the purple.

CHSa – more traditional, minimalist approach to uni. Exception would be the use of yellow sanitary socks to add color/contrast and balance use of gold in cap (only works if the players show their stirrups of course)

CHSb – more contemporary without being over the top. Uses CHS logo with gold outline to help balance stronger use of purple on sleeves.

Thanks for the opportunity to contribute. I would welcome other opportunities like this (even if it means “devaluing” the design profession – which I am in).

Mark Wilkes

~~~

Wesley Willis: submission

Dear Phil,

Here are my three submissions for the uniform contest. Today, I am presenting a home uniform (mostly gold and purple), an away uniform (mostly white and gold), and an alternate (black and gold with purple pinstripes). I hope the UniWatch community likes what I have to show them, and I thank you and all involved for your consideration.

Warmly,
Wes

~~~

Vinny Bove: submission

Here’s my Clarksville uniform submission. Purple and yellow (that’s right, Packer and Steeler fans, it’s ‘yellow,’ not ‘gold’) are notoriously difficult colors to work with, and it was a challenge to come up with something that was both new and classic. In the end, I created a few different versions of the main logo (including a ‘CHS’ version), as well as two different versions of both the home and away unis.

The ‘C-cat’ logo is based off of the actual Chicago Cubs ‘C.’ I traced it, then added all the cat elements on top.”

~~~

Joe DeAngelis: submission

Hello Phil,

My designs have hints of classic uniforms (NYY & LAD) and a modern looking alternate vest jersey that I think would look great over a black T-shirt. The alternate cap is black based featuring a “wildcats” claw as a secondary logo.

Thank You
Joe DeAngelis

~~~

Well, that’s the final round of the Clarksville Design-A-Uniform contest. And a great bunch of submissions on which to end the weekend. As with the other three batches, please let the artists know what you think, and give them all a standing round of applause for their efforts!

As I had previously mentioned, now Coach Walls will review all the submissions, and I believe he’ll be narrowing down his (and his team’s) favorites in both the caps and the uniforms, which we’ll then put to a non-binding vote of the readership. Each and every one of them has been outstanding in its own right. If by some chance (and knowing me, it’s a decent chance) you sent me a submission and I didn’t include it, please send it to me again (a couple of the submissions actually got sent to my spam folder, and while I do check it to make sure there isn’t spam in there, it’s also possible one or two got through that i just missed). I’ll make sure Coach Walls sees them and I’ll include your design(s) in a future column. If you didn’t send me your design, the contest is officially closed, but I expect we’ll have another contest in the future.

Thanks again to everyone who participated! This turned out to be a LOT of work for me, but it was indeed a labor of love. The designs presented in the past two weeks lend me to believe that contests such as this do NOT devalue the work of true graphic designers, but they better stay on their toes, right? Great stuff all.

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Nice, fresh, new color Benchies today. And the author himself to set it up. Here’s the Rick:

“Always good the learn new things, right? Never too old to be a jock, right? Grab life like it’s a flask of Peppermint Schnapps and take a big ol’ hit on it…”

Thanks Ricko. Enjoy your Sunday Benchies.

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UW stalwart Ryan Connelly, whom you may remember more for his DIY failures than his DIY successes, is busy with more projects. He recently made a cameo appearance at Sheep Station in Brooklyn, and shot me an E-mail updating me on his newest “project” — a “Uni Watch wall.” What’s that you say? I’ll let Ryan explain:

My dining room wall is being taken over by UniWatch…

I framed my Pittsburgh sports mash-up, my Swisshelm Express logo, and my Invaders disaster. (Closeups can be seen here and here.) The framing turned out better than i thought it would…

Great stuff. Now, if you read the second article (and I know you did), you’ll also remember that Ryan had painted his family’s shed to look like an old Mail Pouch barn. Well, RyCo just finished his latest mail pouch barn last month and sent along those pics for us to enjoy.

Thanks Buddy! Awesome job too. Keep up the DIY’ing.

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More uniform designs from the readership today. Some shorter descriptions, but the product is just a great as ever. If you would like to submit a uniform redesign for your team(s), please shoot me an E-mail and put in the subject line “Uniform Tweaks for (your team[s]“). Thanks.

Our first redesign today comes from Michael Weinbaum, who has a design concept for the Jags:

I’m a Jags fan (yes we exist) and I know you said you don’t like their new uniforms. I agree that there are a few problems with them, but I think that the road look is much worse off than the home look. You can barely see the thin stripe on the black pants, and the teal borders on the names and numbers never shows up, not even with hi-def TV. With that said, the Jaguars will be wearing black numbers with a teal border on the road for the next 5 years. For the next 5 years, the road jersey will have a thin snakey-thing so the road pants might as well have it too. So what minor change can be made to make this uniform ‘pop’ in a good way, both on TV and in person? See attached picture.

I believe that black pants are always going to look terrible, and I note that the Saints no longer wear them and the Ravens are phasing them out. There is a chance that teal pants might be a better look for the Jags, but that’s a thought for another day. One thing is for certain, as bad as black pants look in football, they look much much worse when mated to black-top socks. Thus my change. The Jags could start wearing these in a matter of weeks if they wanted too, whereas new jerseys will take 4 more years and new pants at least a year. Hope you like it, hope it earns a mention in your blog, hope they start wearing these after you publish this photo.

~~~

Our next tweak comes from Ron Verrecchio, who has a simple solution for the Ravens:

Just a quick fix for the away uni. Changed the helmet stripes to match the new pants stripe.

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Next up is Mike Hass, who has a couple different suggestions for the Steelers:

A couple of days ago I sent you my suggestion for a team (the Steelers) that needs a Uni Tweak. I listed my problems with their current uni, and explained how I would fix them. After thinking about it awhile, I really wanted to see what the new uni would look like, so I just designed it myself. Since I was only tweaking the current uni, I was done after an hour or two. I’ve attached what I came up with, and you can do with it what you will. I think it’s a subtle change, but looks way better.

Just to recap the changes I made. Before (current) and After (new uniforms):

• Block style numbers replace the italic san serif numbers.
• Black outline removed from NOB.
• Yellow stripes with thin black outlines changed to solid yellow, black, and white stripes.
• Stripe pattern added to socks as well.
• White inner stripe added to ultra thick black stripe on pants.
• Yellow added to collar.

And that’s about it. Enjoy!

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Moving along, we have Emanuel Caros, who had some ideas for fixing the Browns:

Phil,

As a means of putting off studying for my law school finals, I figured that I would try and update the Cleveland Browns uniform like a few people did in your last post.

I found a mock-up of a Bowling Green uniform and used it as my basis, adding logos (which i’m sure everyone at uni-watch hates that there are 4 different logos on one uni, but I think since they’re small, they come out as cool little details as opposed to obnoxious), changing the colors, and elongating the shoulder stripes so that they wrap around the entire arm. The helmet logo is supposedly one that was made in 1965 but never used; it looks surprisingly modern to have been made so long ago. I also added matching stripes to the originally solid white socks.

I like a dark/light brown contrast so I wanted to mess around with that two-tone look that comes about when players sweat, a la North Carolina’s kit, but all my ideas seemed too cheesy (“BROWNS” appearing on the side panel). Also, in attempting to be as realistic as possible, I realize that it doesn’t say “Cleveland” anywhere, but I couldn’t find a place for it without compromising my values in regard to uniform designs (I hate tiny words under the neckline!) and so it probably looks a bit too “college football.”

Anyway, I hope you like the result. Have a good one.

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Today’s penultimate concept comes from David Sonny, who has some thoughts on how to redesign the Bengals:

Okay, so I did this a while back to show certain people that a return to the past is not always a bad thing. This is just a mix of the 80’s and late 90’s uniforms with a little modern twist. I only did one color, obviously the white would just be an inverted version as would an alternate orange, so I left it as is. The mock ups only take around 30-45 minutes, but why spend the time when people can use their imaginations?

And that is how I see the Bengals uniforms if they decided to go back to revisit the past.

Enjoy.

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And today’s last set of tweaks come from Mike Forman, who has a couple changes for the Bills and Eagles:

Tweaked the Bills logo by gimping that lame motion eyeball streaky thingy from the current one (here’s how it looks with a new uniform). Also removed a lot of unnecessary black from the Eagles duds. Thanks.

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Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Another reader submission today, this one comes from Brian Bennett, and it may be a doozy. That’s probably because you won’t find a link to it. But it does have a date, location and final score. Put on your thinking caps today, boys and girls, because this one may take some thinkin’. You can probably find something on the web that will indicate you got the game. Confused? Guess The Game From The Scoreboard. And, as always, if you enjoy the game, please send me some new scoreboards! Drop me a line. 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 Saturday’s games:

A posthumous honorable mention to a matchup we won’t see anymore, Hofstra/Northeastern — Somewhere, Wayne Chrebet is shedding a tear and Dan Ross is looking down with a sense of melancholy.

5. New Hampshire/Villanova — ‘Nova looks good anytime, but throw in some snow and a decent opponent and you have a Top Fiver.

4. Oregon State/Oregon — Yeah, it’s from Thursday, but it was a really slow week.

3. Florida/Alabama– Would have been ranked higher with normal unis.

2. West Virginia/Rutgers — My color palette special of the day.

1. Texas/Nebraska — Pithy comments not needed — just look at them and enjoy.

And the WORST matchup: New Mexico State/Boise State — I’d love to see the Broncs bust the BCS…but not in these unis.

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Where’s Your Messiah Now? Well, it was a tough day for the Gators, falling 16-33 13-32 to Bama, to lose the SEC championship. This of course, sent my BCS predictions into a tizzy…couple that with frantic finishes from Cincy and Texas, and the whole kit-and-kaboodle almost went up in flames. Texas still isn’t a lock, but if not the Horns versus the Tide, then who? Horney Toads? Boise? Bearcats?

Nope. Gotta go with Texas, who IMHO got royally screwed out of a shot at the BCS last year, to meet Alabama. The rest of the bowls, kind of a crap shoot…anyway…the BCS predictions (they’ll be announced today at 8:00 pm EST on FOX) … check back then to see if I nailed ‘em. Here goes:

BCS Championship: Alabama vs. Texas

Fiesta Bowl: TCU vs. Iowa

Rose Bowl: Ohio State vs. Oregon

Sugar Bowl: Florida vs. Boise State

Orange Bowl: Cincinnati vs. Georgia Tech

Tough calls this year…and I’ll probably be wrong…but those are my calls and I’m sticking with ‘em. Feel free to disagree or make your own predictions below.

And as for the Heisman, the three finalists will be announced Monday during the 6:00 showing of ESPN’s SportsCenter, so I’ll make my picks now as well. Did Timmy’s meltdown yesterday affect his chances? How about Coy’s last minute save and a beaut? What about that kid from Stanford? Or maybe that kid from ‘bama… I can’t see Tebow winning it again, but he’s still gonna be tough to leave out of the top 3. I thought at the beginning of the year Colt would win, and nothing he’s done this year has led me to change that. So, that’s two finalists. Who’s my third…hmmm.

Gonna go with these three: Tim Tebow, Florida; Colt McCoy, Texas; and … drumroll … Toby Gerhart, Stanford. Real tough to leave out Mark Ingram, especially after he showed Tim Tebow who’s his daddy in the SEC Championship. If anyone sneaks ahead of Tebow, Ingram’s it.

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OK, everyone, that’s it for today. Thanks to everyone who participated in the Clarksville Design-A-Uniform contest. Coach Walls will have some tough choices. I believe we’ll be doing a poll to have you, the readers, pick YOUR choice for the best uni and the best logo, next weekend, but that’s dependent upon Marc. No matter what, though, there will be a new uniform poll.

Special HAPPY BIRTHDAY wishes to out to the man who brings you those polls, James T. Huening, who turns a year older today. Have a good one, JTH. Cheers.

Everyone have a Super Sunday.

249 comments December 6th, 2009

More Uni Design, More Football, and More!

By Phil Hecken

Back with round two of the “Design-A-Uniform” contest entries for the Clarksville High School baseball team. If you missed the first batch of entries, you can see the whole thing here. Today we move on to the second set of entries, and they are every bit as good as the first. So, let’s get started:

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Adam Hainsfurther: submission

-Adam Hainsfurther-

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Peter Halbrooks: submission

I look forward to seeing everyone else’s designs!

Peter

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Joe Hilseberg: submission

Hey Phil,

So I threw a design together. I really like High School uniforms to be basic. Knowing that they already have the Cubs styled “C” hat I though I would work from that.

Home Jersey: I really played off of the Cubs look and feel here by introducing a home pinstripe. It can be black or purple…not gold! I also created a “Cville” logo to mesh perfectly with the existing hat. I think this design can hold up well over time. And of course all of the jerseys feature the Cubs number style…why not go all the way?

Road Jersey: Super clean. Basic varsity font and vertical arching. Enough said.

Alt Black: This jersey introduces a new alt CHS logo as well. I’ve personally always prefered the paw logo over the “angry cat” logo when dealing with cat themed teams. This is just a variation of a paw with stylized interlocking CHS letters. This logo can also be used as a sleeve patch on the home or road.

Let me know your thoughts.

-Joe Hilseberg

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Thomas Huppé: submission

Hope it will help.

Regards

Thomas Huppe

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Patrick Karraker: submission

Phil:

Here is my entry for the Design a Uniform contest. I designed two new logos for Clarksville — one which is a re-colored version of the Clemson paw logo, and a brand new “CHS” logo. For the uniforms, I created an almost Oregon-esque set featuring five jerseys and three caps, although I have preset uniforms so there is none of that crazy “mix-n-match” stuff. The first one, the primary home uniform, is a sleveless model featuring that CHS wordmark that the Clarksville coaches love. I paired this one with the black “CHS” cap. I think if any team is doing a redesign, they should have a pinstripe option, so that is my first home alternate, and I paired that one with the purple paw cap. The second home alternate, my personal favorite, is a black jersey, paired with a black paw cap, special for this jersey. For my road jerseys, my primary set is a gray jersey inspired by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays’ road set pre-exorcism, which I always thought was one of the more underrated uniforms in baseball. This jersey is paired with the purple paw cap. Finally, my road alternate is a sleveless purple jersey which has an LSU feeling to it. This one is paired with the CHS logo cap. Good luck to the Wildcats this season, hope to see them winning with this look.

Patrick Karraker

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Eeth Koth: submission

I’ve attached my submission.
I only did one treatment being I’m a better thinking these things up than executing.

As you’ll see with my MS Paint nightmare.

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Matthew Lanzoff: submission

Hey Phil,

First off let me say I love reading your work. Each of the writers bring a great voice to blog and as an everyday reader it nice to have things change up. Well with out any further ado, here’s what I put together for the Clarksville squad.

As a child of the 80s, hearing the name Wildcats my thoughts immediately go to the Thundercats. So thats where I started with my design. While I hate it on my Mets, I’ve never really minded it on some baseball teams I think it looks good on the field so I took the coach’s cues and put together a black home uniform. The white arm bands, which might be impossible to get from a uniform supplier, are inspired by Tygra’s random yellow embellishment on his sleeve. The chest crest is of course inspired by the Thundercats logo itself.

On the road, I thought the Clarksville squad would look best in a more traditional grey. This time we get the initials woodmark across the chest, complete with cartoon cat inspired font, and the sleeve bands make a return. For the team’s heads I wanted to go with something understated but consistent with the rest of the look, so I whipped up this.

I liked the idea of a school having a running theme through all their teams looks; so as a special bonus, I put the cat logo on a football helmet. I think its pretty appropriate.

Thanks,

Matt Lanzoff

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Steve Lastname: submission

Hi Phil,

Attached are two files. One is the home and away jersey (and pants), the other is two possible alternates. Let me say that I don’t like the logo on the black alt, but I figured I’d explore it. I might like it more if I had more time to design the letters to look like the ones on the Cubs uniform. But then again, a Cubs logo rendered in yellow and purple on a black jersey just doesn’t look right, no matter how good the letters look.

Thanks,
Steve

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Ryan Muraro: submission

Hey Phil,

My name is Ryan Muraro, and I am an aspiring design who just graduated this May with an Industrial Design degree from the University of Wisconsin Stout. Recently I read your entry about the Clarksville High School Wildcat baseball team’s desire for a rebranding effort, and I would like to entry my designs for consideration of fulfilling this request. The entry consists of 3 logos and 3 uniforms, descriptions as follows;

- The logos were built for identity consistency, as all of the logos are built around the cap logo, which will remain as was requested. Currently the Clarksville H.S. teams use several logos from various sources, so the hope was to create a logo set that could be used across the athletic department if desired. The “Chicago Cubs” C is perfect for building apon; being so symmetrical creates a perfect base. The First two logos are the Wildcat logos, one with full body and one with a cropped body. I took inspiration from the University of Kentucky logo primarily, but was sure to keep the logo’s look original. These are simple two-color logos, if there would be a desire to create more detailed-looking Wildcats, there is the option for that. The full version is a primary mark for print materials, spirit gear, etc; the secondary mark is streamlined with the exclusion of the Wildcat’s legs for use on team uniform elements (jerseys, caps; if it were to be used for other athletic teams, it would work for an excellent football helmet logo). The third logo is the CHS lettermark logo, again built off of the Cub C hat logo. Not much description needed for this logo, it’s meant to be a strong, clean, simple, versatile logo.

- The uniforms are pretty self-explanatory. The alternate is very Purple, but I must be crazy for not being afraid of the color. Purple, though, makes for a terrible complement to black, so there is no use of black throughout this uniform set. If black were to be uses, I would suggest either altering the shade of purple used with that uniform set, or just avoiding the use of purple all-together. The home uniform is super clean, the aways have an original script mark, the numbers are standard jersey block style, while the font is a standard sans-serif type (Abadi in this application, but is meant to be altered depended on what the manufacturer has available).

That may be a bit wordy, but I want to make sure there is a good basic understanding of my mindset while undergoing this design process. I hope that, even if this isn’t the design chosen, that my effort and skill are evident in the final product. Best of luck in the future, and thanks for this opportunity.

Ryan Muraro

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Joseph Obermaier: submission

Hi Phil,

Here is my entry in the design a uniform contest. It was enormous fun. I missed out on the Sartell Sabres call…would have loved to try my hand at that one… Love the site! (I, too, once thought I was alone as a uni watcher.)

Here are the four pieces (putting on my best Michael Kay voice from when he was only on the radio):

1. Wildcat “mascot” logos, appropriately mean and inspired (maybe too much) by Halloween.

2. A home uni, proud whites with purple sleeves, trim and gold accents. Home mascot patch above the heart. “Wildcats” across the chest, purple trimmed in gold; matching colors for the oversized number on back. NOB in untrimmed purple. Purple stirrups with gold stripes trimmed in white (must be worn high!). Also with a “CHS” cap that is reminiscent of the great Habs (Canadiens) logo. The font is Copperplate Gothic.

3. An away uni, heavily gray, with plenty of black, and purple and gold accents. Away mascot patch above the heart. “Centerville” across the chest, gold trimmed in purple. Also with a CHS cap and oversized number on back; same fonts as the home uni, but with the colors inverted. NOB in untrimmed purple. Black stirrups with purple stripes trimmed in white.

4. An “alternate” jersey, no sleeves, with black and purple claw marks on upper right, and longer claw marks on corresponding shoulder on the back. “Wildcats” across the chest in a scratchy font called Viner Hand, purple trimmed in black. Number below left, same color scheme. Oversized number on back in same colors. NNOB (would mess with my claw marks). Same stirrups as the away uni; purple pants (I know, but why not for an alternate uni?). The cap is purple, with black brim, large gray panel in front containing the home mascot.

Anyway, there they are. I would love to hear any feedback the other uni watchers have on the designs. And find me some more contests like this one!

Thanks.

Joe

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Well, that’s going to do it for the second round of the Design-A-Uniform contest entries. There are many more awesome ones like the ones you see today still to come. Make sure you praise and comment upon today’s entrants. Their work is awesome (and hopefully, it won’t devalue the profession).

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Got a brand new “Benchies” for you today, and it’s in color, much like the UCLA/USC uniforms last evening. Here’s Ricko to give you the rundown:

“Ah, the Holidays, that time of year when TV introduces the world of Mick and Mike to all the new high tech gadgetry out there. Imagine the excitement in BenchiesLand.”

Enjoy your Sunday Benchies.

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Our next batch of NFL uni tweaks feature more interesting concepts from the readership. Despite one or two posters not enjoying the reader designs, the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, and I have several more tweaks still to come. If you’re interested in this, please drop me a line and put in the subject line: “Uni Tweaks (your team[s])”.

First up is Patrick Woody who bring us this:

Hey Phil,

I know you’re getting bombarded with these things, but I’ve had a few NFL redesign concepts gathering dust for a while in the wasteland of my hard drive.

First up is one for the Titans. Basically I matched the helmet stripes up with the pants, removed all the Jetsons elements, and tweaked the logo to look more traditional and less cartoonish. The three stars on the sleeves probably doesn’t work, but I wanted to slap something on there and didn’t want to replicate the helmet logo.

Second is the Ravens, who to me are the Minnesota Timberwolves of the NFL. Like the Titans, here I wanted to remove the gimmicky cartoon elements (sorry, I can’t stand the superhero/cartoon trend) and make them look more like an established and storied franchise and less like a team playing in the Arena Bowl. Still, I wanted to keep the purple and black, even though I’m not a fan of that combo. On the jersey, I went with single-color block numbers because there is never a time when that doesn’t look good. The mustard pants would never fly, but I wanted to see how they looked. I left the cartoon bird head logo (limited by MS Paint – not much I can do with logos), but removed the superfluous “B”.

And last is the Falcons. Ok, this is pretty much just their recent throwback uniform, but I really think it’s such a damn-near perfect look that you can’t do much to improve upon it. I used a version of the red helmet without the gold stripes, although I do think the gold stripes would work. I also threw in the gray pants as a nod to the Bartkowski era uni’s, but with the throwback striping pattern. Of course, that pretty much made them the Giants pants with slightly different colors. Oh well.

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Next up is Greg Skaljac, who has some thoughts on the Browns:

Love your site and the articles on changing some awful NFL unis — lifelong Browns fan, but can’t stand the current unis — need some modern updates.

See attached “brown jersey”, “wht jersey” and “alternate orange” looks…I also put in a new helmet utilizing the classic “brownie elf” with their original white helmets

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Next up is Matt English, a Bills fan with an idea for a new helmet:

As a Bills fans, I thought they’ve been long overdue for a uni tweak. For starters, taking out the navy and going with a straight white/red/royal blue design. Here’s what I whipped up for a helmet redesign. It was originally primarily red, but I decided at the last minute in Photoshop to make it primarily silver/white. I brought back the old standing Buffalo logo. The stripes through the logo give a sort of Montreal Canadiens vibe, overall I think it has a retro aesthetic without being too plain.

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Moving along, we have Mike Boriotti, who dislikes the current Panthers uniform, and has this to say:

So, I personally hate the Carolina Panthers look. I think the shoulder stripes are way to busy, the pants are ugly, and they completely misuse their quasi-Carolina Blue color; look at the UNC football team and you’ll see the correct way to utilize Carolina Blue. What I did was completely change the Panthers to much more traditional looking jerseys, pants, and socks. Other changes included getting rid of silver as one of there colors all together, using a new logo, and changing the blue to a much darker shade. The new logo is actually based on the 1947-1955 Pittsburgh Panthers logo, which I like better because it shows the entire Panther, and the Panther also looks like it is stalking its prey- very aggressive and masculine. One non-traditional thing I did was following the Jacksonville Jaguars in pairing black helmets with black pants, which for my money, is really cool looking when executed correctly. Also, the seams aren’t meant to be seen like on the Buffalo Bills, they just look that way. Big thanks and keep kickin’ fuckin’ ass UniWatch.

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Last up for today is John Loukadakis, who points out that what follows are not actually his designs, but they are some new tweaks for the Redskins:

First let me say this is NOT my design, I read the Warpath as I am a HUGE Deadskins fan, another fan designed this, I just wanted to bring to your attention.

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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.

The Ducks were idle yesterday, but they’ve got a HUGE game coming up this Thursday (December 3, 2009) in Autzen, when they meet their cross-state rival OSU Beavers in the 113th edition of the Civil War. Always a big game, this one is for a Rose Bowl birth! And, knowing the two combatants, you never know what kind of crazy uniforms they may break out just for this game. Will the Ducks finally break out the carbon helmets? Will the Beavers counter with their own version of pro-combat riflery uniforms that Paul first tipped us off to in his NCAA season preview back in the first week of September? Gonna be a true run for the roses Thursday next.

Here’s Your Updated Ducktracker

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Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: OK, a little bit of twist to today’s entry, which comes courtesy of reader Andrew Leavitt. I know from what sport this comes, but you folks may need to put on your thinking caps. Pretty good puzzler today, but not for you die hards. Please, if possible, LINK to the answer in the comments. Ready? Guess The Game From The Scoreboard. Date, location, teams and final score, please. And, as always, if you enjoy the game, please send me some new scoreboards! Drop me a line. Thanks!

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In case you missed the comments late yesterday, reader Tod Hess (aka “aflfan”) graced the boards with a fantastic write up of some High School football they play in Detroit. I’ll let him describe it, along with the recap of the games. Here’s Tod:

“Every year in Michigan means one thing, Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) State Football Championship. They started in 1975 with four divisions and have now expanded to eight divisions. The finals are now played at Ford Field on the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving and had previous been played at the Pontiac Silverdome and before that Western Michigan University. Below are the photos from this year’s Championships. It is my favorite weekend of the year as I use to do stats for the finals for several years. You see almost every kind of offense you can imagine for spread to I formation to wishbone to veer to single wing and if Menominee makes it down to Ford Field you get to see the single wing. You also see lots of different uniform styles.”

Thanks Tod. And now, here’s a rundown of the games:

The Michigan High School Athletic Association held their boys football finals at Ford Field yesterday and today. Here are some pictures of the uniform match ups

Division 1: Detroit Catholic Central (blue) vs. Sterling Heights Stevenson (white)

Division 2: Lowell (red) vs. Inkster (white)

Division 3: East Grand Rapids (Blue) vs. Orchard Lake St. Mary’s (white)

Division 4: Marshall (white) vs. Three Rivers (Purple)

Division 5: Jackson Lumen Christi (white) vs. Clare (green)

Division 6: Montague (blue) vs. Monore St. Mary’s Catholic Central (white)

Division 7: Traverse City St. Francis (Blue) vs. Hudson (white) — Hudson is way to busy to me.

Division 8: Beal City (white) vs. Crystal Falls Forest Park (black with striped socks)

* Those are photo galleries where you can look through a bunch of pictures. Great stuff, Tod, and 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 Saturday’s games:

Honorable Mention to the best looking university game in Canada yesterday, the Vanier Cup between U. of Calgary/Queen’s U. — Okay, so it was the only game in Canada yesterday…

5. Washington State/Washington — A pretty sweet-looking Apple Cup

4. ND/Stanford — And one dandy of a ballgame, too.

3. Tennessee/Kentucky — Best of a slow week for the SEC.

2. Tulane/SMU — A serious contender for #1…if not for…

1. UCLA/USC – Wow! All that’s missing is Keith Jackson and Frank Broyles.

And the Worst Uni Matchup: Arizona/Arizona State – Wildcats won the game, but lost for the 2nd week in a row here.

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And Finally…the Riflery Unis: I’ve been pretty hard on Nike these past few weeks for their “treatment” of school tradition with their superhero new “Pro Combat” uniforms that will supposedly turn the wearers into mythical warriors. I bashed the manufacturer for their hype, but never really commented on the uniforms themselves. Well, I dragged the man on the street, the man who never met a uniform he didn’t like, to assist with his unbiased opinion of the unis foisted upon us this past week. Yep, Jim Vilk will trade barbs with me on the riflery unis. Here’s Jim:

“This weekend we saw another round of Nike “Pro Combat” unis. Their purpose, of course, is to make my job harder when picking the Top 5 matchups. Okay, actually, their purpose is to give the players a lighter, state-of-the-art and more fashionable (?) uni blending the past and the future. This time, there were seven teams involved, which you will see below.”

Clemson: Exhibit A and Exhibit B.
JV: Fine from the front. What’s that on the backside, chaps?
PH: Agreed. I actually liked Clemson in this. But WTF is with Nike and these pants. It’s like, they imagined a the pants as a picture frame that needed a border or something. With the focus on the buttocks. There is a pattern here.

Florida: Exhibit A and Exhibit B.
JV: Again with the chaps. Otherwise, I really liked this one.
PH: This one is bad. Mono-blue, and the picture frame pants — a signature pattern for swoosh.

LSU: Exhibit A and Exhibit B.
JV: Not bad. I can handle the wraparound leg stripes. I’d rather have yellow, too.
PH: Gold (intersting shade) helmet? Good; Jersey? Good; pants stripes that neither start nor end anywhere? Not good. Liked the “sleeve” stripes tho.

Miami, Fla.: Exhibit A and Exhibit B.
JV: An improvement on the regular uni! Two-color numbers are kind of cool. Stripes too far on the backside, but at least they’re not chaps.
PH: Gotta agree here, as well. Definitely better than anything they’ve trotted out there in the past decade. I don’t mind the two color numbers, and they kept the pants relatively clean. Good job with this one.

Missouri: Exhibit A and Exhibit B
JV: From a distance, and in the right light, that’s almost a Seahawks away uni. Glad to see they managed to find a little room for some gold…
PH: If I am judging this solely as a uniform, I actually like it…a lot. But, could they have taken away any more of Mizzou’s identity in the process? At least the bottom of the cleats and the shoulders had some gold. And that helmet was pretty cool.

Texas: Exhibit A and Exhibit B
JV: A lateral move from a classic uni. Very well done.
PH: Outstanding job. Only two complaints: probably could have used a normal (if that’s possible) stripe on the pants, and, even though they were actually true as they could be to the original, I wish the helmet logo and numbers were either different sizes or that the numbers would have been black. Just would have made it easier on the eyes. But a nice job, swoosh.

VA Tech: Exhibit A and Exhibit B.
JV: Another improvement on the regulars, but that’s not saying much. Don’t mind the fading numbers and stripes.
PH: Another not-so-bad one, but they ruined it with the signature pants “swoosh” or whatever you wanna call it. But if that was their only digression, then I say, not too bad. Better than their current uni, but they should make their throwbacks their full time gig.

Final thoughts:

JV: In short, if you take away all the hype that surrounded these, you end up with what uni makers usually have – some hits and some misses.

PH: While I totally disagree with the entire exercise (did any of these teams really need “new” uniforms to begin with???), and think it’s more hype designed to move more merch, as uniforms, this batch wasn’t too bad. There, I said it.

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OK, whew…another short one. But hey, there was a lot to cover this morning. The pros take over the gridiron today, and don’t forget, tonight at 6:30 EST, the Grey Cup (that’s like, the Super Bowl for Canada) is taking place in Calgary. My buddy Mike Styczen reports that the entire city is sold out of watermelons. Why, you ask? Because Roughrider fans cut them, gut them, and wear them on their heads, like helmets. I shit you not. I guess that’s Canada’s answer to the cheesehead. Anyway, if you get it on your television, it’s a great game (and hopefully, both the Als and the Riders will be wearing their sweet throwbacks) and definitely worth watching.

Uni Watch Winter Classic Update: If you missed last weekend’s announcement of the UWWC, click here and scroll down to the second item, where Ricko describes the whole thing. Both Paul and I will be attending, and among all the other activities described, Paul plans on holding a Uni Watch Gathering at one of the local watering holes. Full details to be announced at a later date, but we hope to see as many of you as possible (so far, besides Ricko and Teebz, I believe rpm, Ben Traxel, jth and at least 20 others are planning to attend). Could be the biggest Uni Watch Gathering to date! Mark your calendars for January 22, 23 & 24, 2010.

Have a fantastic Sunday everyone.

214 comments November 29th, 2009

In Which the Panthers Change Their Stripes

So here’s the new Panthers alternate. The base color looks black in that photo, but it’s actually navy. Hmmm, remind you of anyone else’s recent alternate design? Let’s see, one thing at a time:

• The new color scheme: Idiotic. You’ve got one of the more distinctive color combos in the league — a combo that does not include light blue — so why go with this mood-indigo treatment? And where’s the red? Where the gold? Nice way to chuck the franchise’s chromatic history out the window. So is it good or is it stupid? Stupid.

• The new chest logo: It’s actually just a modified version of the head on the primary logo, but with muted colors (why??) and — get this — no whiskers! C’mon, whoever heard of a cat without whiskers? More to the point, the team’s original logo, much like its original color scheme, was unique; any idiot can design a circular logo. Looks like what the team’s AHL affiliate should be wearing. Stupid.

• The new shoulder logo: You’re kidding, right? You’re all fearsome and snarling on the chest logo but then you’re all morning in America on the shoulders. Not a bad logo for the local tourism bureau, but it doesn’t work for this uniform. Stupid.

• The new typeface: All the numbering and lettering on this design is rendered in a font I’ve never seen before. You can get a good sense of it here — the serif on the 9 is really odd, no? Could work, though. Need to see more. Too soon to tell.

Overall, there’s a lot to like here — matching stripe patterns on the socks, sleeves, and hemline, old-school shoulder yoke, no Bettman stripes, no Ree-box. But it doesn’t feel like the Panthers. This is a new-school team in a new-school city (at least by NHL standards), and trying to fit them into a traditionalist box doesn’t work. Not a bad design, just the wrong one for this franchise.

91 comments November 23rd, 2009

Design-A-Uniform Contest

By Phil Hecken

You guys will recall several weeks ago I ran a “Design-A-Cap” contest, for Coach Jerome Nemanich and his Sartell Sabres, and the results were outstanding. Reader Marc Walls saw the original contest, and thought our fantastic readers could do the “Design-A-Cap” one better — to wit: Design A Whole Uniform!

Here’s Marc’s original e-mail to me explaining his idea:

Love the work you’ve been doing on the website. I really enjoyed the design a cap idea for today’s column. I saw that you had proposed a design a uni option. I think that’s a great idea, and if you’re interested I’d like to offer the school I coach to be the team you choose.

I am one of the baseball coach’s at Clarksville High School in Clarksville, Tennessee. We are looking to undergo a complete redesign, including possibly a new logo.

Here’s the catch, which I think will make it fun for uniwatchers. Our colors are purple and gold! I’ve tried with no hope to come up with uniform designs that use the purple in a way that isn’t awful, and I could really use everyone’s creativity. Our current hat is solid purple with the Chicago Cubs “C” in gold.

Intrigued, but semi-swamped with weekend entries, I did respond to Marc, who then got back to me with more of the guts of the idea, as well as a few pictures from which to base the uniform redesigns:

Our high school is planning to undergo a complete redesign of our uniforms over the next year. I’m going to make some requests, and attach some pictures to show what the team has had in years’ past.

The school has been using the same hat design for the last 20 years, the Chicago Cubs “c” logo in yellow on a white outline. The hat is solid purple. We are probably going to keep that logo, but are looking to add a few alternate logos. I’m hoping the savvy guys at UW can create some great logos for us to use. Here’s what we’re looking for:

* A logo incorporating the letters “CHS” … any font or format. Looking for something unique, even outside the box. We would love a hat design featuring the CHS logo.

* A ferocious looking “wildcat”. Any logo involving a wildcat or paw logo would be outstanding. Our football program has been using the Kansas State Wildcat, and we want something a little better.

* Uniform designs. We are looking for a white, grey, purple, yellow or black (yeah, I know). Our head coach loves black so any black jerseys or hat designs would be outstanding.

If we decide to use any of these designs in the future, we will definitely work out some kind of payment for all of your hard work.

* The parameters: colors are purple and gold, which I know is hard enough, without including the black.

Marc included four photographs to emphasize his points above:

“Purplemesh” … “Purplemesh 2″ … “Grays” … and “Yellowmesh”.

I got one last e-mail from Marc this week, with one or two points he wants to stress:

While we are looking for uniform ideas, we would also really appreciate any logo redesigns and cap designs. That’s almost as important as the uniform designs. And like I said, we will gladly contribute some goodies to everyone who works so hard on those mock-ups.

Well there you guys have it. Another reader has thrown down the gauntlet, challenging you to come up with not just a new cap and logo redesign, but a whole uniform redesign as well. I’m not sure what “goodies” Marc will be able to provide to the contest winner(s), but we’ll worry about that when we get there.

So, anyone who is interested, the “rules” are basically the same as the “Design-A-Cap” contest: Take Marc’s ideas and put them into cyber-reality. Just remember the “guidelines”:

* A logo incorporating the letters “CHS” … any font or format. Looking for something unique, even outside the box. We would love a hat design featuring the CHS logo.

* A ferocious looking “wildcat”. Any logo involving a wildcat or paw logo would be outstanding. Our football program has been using the Kansas State Wildcat, and we want something a little better.

* Uniform designs. We are looking for a white, grey, purple, yellow or black (yeah, I know). Our head coach loves black so any black jerseys or hat designs would be outstanding.

*The parameters: colors are purple and gold.

As with the Design-A-Cap contest, I would ask that when you have your design(s) ready, please send them to me and put as your “SUBJECT” line: Design A Uniform Contest. You can also E-mail me at that address if you have any questions. I won’t set a hard and fast deadline, but I’d expect the contest to be open for at least two weeks — so try to have your submissions to me by the weekend of November 14-15.

If you don’t have any “blank” templates, a few designs can be found here, here, here, and here, or you can simply google “baseball uniform builder”, which will provide ample ways to customize a baseball uniform. There are probably a bunch of other blank uni templates out there too.

OK? OK. Don’t disappoint us Uni Watchers! After seeing those Sartell Sabres Cap designs, I know how great your entire uniforms, caps and logo designs will be.

~~~~~~~~~~Well, folks, in case you missed it yesterday, Uni Watch Prexy and ESPN Page 2 columnist Paul Lukas had a great piece on World Series Rings. Paul didn’t get to upload the column to the main article yesterday, since by the time it was released, he was on his way to Cooperstown. I hope there’s some stuff for him to do up there. Check it out if you didn’t get to read it yesterday — really great, and timely article.

~~~~~~~~~~Dipping into the E-mail bag again, got one this week from Dave Magruder, who has done some fascinating research regarding NFL alternate and throwback uniforms, and the frequency with which they have been worn. Obviously, with the “Legacy” uniforms, and the tremendous number of alternates out there (as well as several teams throwing back this year), Dave wondered which teams were the least guilty of this. Here’s what he found:

~~~“Last night as I was thinking about the widespread use of throwback and alternate uniforms in the NFL recently. It made me wonder: How many teams have NOT redesigned their uniforms, or worn alternate/throwback uniforms since 1995? In other words, how many teams have retained the exact same look and uniform set for every game?

“(Obviously, I thought 1995 was a good starting point since it is still recent history, and most NFL teams wore throwbacks to celebrate the league’s 75th Anniversary in 1994).

“You may be surprised by the answer. From 1995-2009 there is not a single team that has retained the same uniform set for literally every game. All 32 teams in the league have either redesigned their uniforms, worn alternates, or worn throwbacks at some point since 1995. There were four teams that came close to retaining the same look throughout this period, though. I have outlined them below:”

Packers: Green Bay has diverted from their traditional uniform set only twice since 1995. This occurred in 2001 and 2003 when they wore throwbacks as mandated by the league for Thanksgiving Day games.

Colts: Indianapolis donned league-mandated Thanksgiving throwback uniforms in 2004. (Note: Colts have also changed their look in a couple minor ways. The team wore blue pants for several games in 1995–no longer a part of the team’s wardrobe– and permanently switched from a blue to a gray facemask).

Chiefs: Kansas City sported the same uniform until this year’s AFL Legacy celebration.

Raiders: Like the Chiefs, Oakland’s steak of uniform consistency was broken by league-mandated AFL Legacy celebration.

“As you can see, these teams were mostly eliminated for use of throwbacks that were mandated by the league, instead of issued by the team itself. Nonetheless, I was surprised to find that there is literally not a single team in the NFL that has survived the alternate/throwback/redesign craze.

“Thought this may interest readers. Thanks for all your hard work on this blog.”

~~~Thanks Dave! That’s very interesting. Only four teams (and even they are not immune) seem to have escaped the alternate/throwback craze. Not surprisingly, those four also ranked very highly on our recent home and road uniform surveys (results of the road poll here). Obviously, when you have a uniform that works, you don’t mess with it. Wish a few other teams would take a page from their books. Great stuff there.

~~~~~~~~~~Teepee for your bunghole? Oh…wait — that’s Cornholio, not cornhole. Good thing Milwaukee’s finest David Frost (“Frosty”) has some schweet cornhole game boards he’s designed. I’ll let Frosty explain:

Very sexy…not trying to be a whore or anything, but I gotta tell ya – I got done with them last Thursday, took them to my kids’ baseball tourney in Charleston this past weekend…the compliments and inquiries – wow! There’s Packer fans everywhere!

So what exactly did Frosty design? Check ‘em out: here, here and here.

I’m guessing those are supposed to be Packers boards? Probably no significance to the numbers either.

Thanks Frosty!

~~~~~~~~~~ Cleaning out the cupboards today, I wanted to feature a Mets Uniform Redesign (is it me, or do we seem to have a lot of folks clamoring for the Mets to redo their unis? Don’t worry, we won’t be having any “Fixin’ the Mets” full entries this year — that’s what Spring is for, no?.) Anyway, reader Laurence Holland missed the last batch of uni-tweaks, but wanted to send along his Mets redesign concept, so without further ado, here’s Larry:

Hi Phil,

I know the moment may have passed, but with all the buzz about a possible Mets redesign for 2010, I thought I’d pass along my two-cent contribution. I first mocked up a cream-and-pinstripes combo over the summer, when the Mets rocked the oversized-NY throwbacks, so I was very happy to see that it might come to pass. I also tweaked the rest of their uniforms, the idea being to make them simple, classy, traditional, and black-less.

A couple of notes: the racing stripe on the away grays is supposed to be a little more subtle than the original ’80s version, though my ham-handed photoshop skills couldn’t really convey it. And the all-blue alternate with the blue-and-white trucker-style cap isn’t my favorite, but it’s the best I could come up with. Consider it a concession to merchandising reality.

Anyway, please do with this what you will. From my lips to Jeff Wilpon’s ears, eh?

Thanks Laurence. Next up is Bill Jones, who also missed the last “uni tweaks” but had a “Rays” tweak he wanted to share. Here’s Bill:

Hey Phil,

I love the uni tweaks! I know I’m late, but I did this almost 2 years ago had some trouble finding the MS paint file. I thought it was pretty good though, so I wanted to send it to you.

PL has mentioned that he liked the TB Devil Rays unis that featured green as a primary color. I too liked this design, and although I don’t completely hate it, I think the newer Rays unis are too sterile and flat out boring. I did, however, like the introduction of light blue, so I combined that with the deep green. I think it’s a handsome combination, one that is original and nicely captures the tropical feel without the use of aqua/teal (Does the world need more aqua? I think not!)

A couple notes…

For the logo, I kept the actual Ray that the team currently features as a sleeve patch. I also took the liberty of changing the team’s name to the St. Petersburg Rays (maybe it’s just me, but I think calling teams “Tampa Bay” is lame…the cities are Tampa and St. Pete, “Tampa Bay” is the body of water between them, and the Rays play in St. Pete). Besides, how can you argue with that two-tone interlocking S-P (for the hat), and the sweet “St. Pete” sleeve patch? I like the idea of calling the team the “St. Pete Rays”. Also, for that jersey, you may be thinking “what is going on with that that neck trim?” Well, think of the early 90’s Royals jerseys…

I’m proud of this one … and I never got around to it, but I totally envisioned a powder blue road uni (with the dark green hat…it would be killer!). Thanks a lot and keep up the good work!

–Bill Jones (not the gumball helmet guy)

Good stuff Bill. Thanks again to all who have sent me their uni concepts. I expect some time in the near future to begin running your Football Uni Tweaks, so if you’ve sent me something, it’s-a-comin’ — and if you want to send me some NFL tweaks, drop me a line.

~~~~~~~~~~Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: OK, another “apropos” scoreboard today. Shouldn’t pose any difficulty at all. But we’re winding down the major league baseball season so today’s game should reflect the timeliness of the year, no? Of course it should. Most of you, if you’ve been paying attention to events on the national stage, should be able to “name the game” (although, probably not the date) just from site. The rest of you may need to hit Baseball Almanac or Retrosheet. You gotta hit them anyway, in order to provide the link to the game. So, here we go: Guess The Game From The Scoreboard.

~~~~~~~~~~The boys are back for a little football today, (could Mick possibly wear more sweatbands, btw?), and Mick is about to make the acquaintance of one of Mike’s relatives. The things you learn about your friends when you meet a member of their family. So…enjoy the beginnings of a serial benchies:

Meet Mongo

More Mongo

~~~~~~~~~~That’ll do it for today. Hope you guys, especially all you designers (and wanna-be designers) out there really go to bat, no pun intended, for the Wildcats and Coach Marc Walls. If the ‘design a cap’ nominees were any indication of the incredible talent in UW-land, then I’m sure we’ll get some amazing entries for the full-blown “Design A Uniform” contest. Remember, send me your submissions to me, or email me if you have any questions about the contest. Take the last train to Clarksville — I’ll be waiting at the station.

Game 3 of the Fall Classic and lots of college football today — and surely there’ll be some interesting uni-matchups for Jim to choose from. Don’t forget to post some of your suggestions in the comments. There will be at least ONE color-on-color matchup (and maybe more) — with those colors to be black and orange. How fitting.

Hey — how does a monster score a touchdown?

Easy, he crosses the ghoul line.

Have a safe and Happy Hallowe’en everyone.

140 comments October 31st, 2009