Final Score: Cowboys 24, Giants 14

New York football Giants equipment director Joe Skiba recently sent me a serious blast from the past: a 1976 Giants program. Naturally, it’s full of interesting tidbits, so let’s take a look:

• Here’s my favorite ad in the program. Love the sight of those two players running around the gridiron with giant musical instruments. Also, it’s interesting to see that the league was marketing the NFL Films music at such an early date.

• And here’s my second-favorite ad.

• Remember when it seemed like every single company on the planet would slap its logo on helmet and jersey to create cheesy ads like this?

• This ad troubles me. The facemask is too short, no? Looks all stubby and Pop Warner and shit. And look, this facemask is even shorter! No wonder the mid-’70s Giants sucked — they couldn’t even control their own brand, much less their own team.

• Why does each photo in this ad show a kid wearing No. 42? Look at the fine print toward the bottom of the page (in case you can’t read it, here’s a larger view).

• Whatever you think of O.J., this is great photo.

• The back of the program has a bunch of really nice Giants illustrations, which I think they’d been using over and over again in every program for years. I grouped about a dozen of them into this gallery.

• Weirdest thing in the program: an illustration of FDR in a National Recovery Act uniform.

• I was stunned by the amount of liquor advertising in the program. Not beer, mind you, but hard liquor. I counted 14 whiskey ads (including one for an industrial-sized bottle), plus three more for gin and two for vodka. But hey, the ’76 Giants, who went 3-11, would’ve driven any fan to drink.

• As for the beer ads, the best one wasn’t even for a particular brand of beer — it was for the local bottle-blowers union. So damn cool.

• And as long as we’re talking about vices, I really liked this cigarette ad, which has the feel of a giant league logo surrounded by lots of smaller team logos.

• I love how this ad boasts that Craig Morton will be showing up at these restaurants “from time to time.” Must’ve been a very loose promotional arrangement.

Doubleplusthanks to Skeebs for bestowing this treasure upon me. I promise to treat well in the months and years to come.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Lots of new pin-up illos from the incomparable Rob Ullman. Among the new treatments: Sixers (commissioned by Sixers PR director Michael Preston), Eages (for Brad Minerd), Orioles (for Katelyn McCann), a Sharks vs. Wild catfight (for Jesse Mullan, who moved from Minnesota to the Bay Area), and Blackhawks (for Dave Zalatoris, who got a tattoo of the illustration!). Rob also did a Penguins portrait of his wife, Brooke, for her birthday (”She criticized me for making her look too good,” he says), plus he created the season’s best St. Paddy’s artwork. … When Kevin Werther saw Robert Marshall’s Natty Boh cornhole set on Wednesday, he decided to share photos of his own DIY cornhole set, which matches Miami (Ohio) against Ohio State. “At least in cornhole, my Redhawks have a chance at victory against the Bucks!” says Kevin. “I was able to buy custom bags online that matched my set, too.” … Speaking of Marshall, he rightly took me to task for not including this photo of him in Wednesday’s entry. “Separated at birth?” he asks. “Perhaps. FYI, that shot took about 15 takes to get the timing right. I even bloodied my lip on about take six. I think it was the last shot in this progression. Now that’s dedication.” Quite. … Survey of English soccer kits here (with thanks to Kent Green). … The Hofstra roller hockey team is holding a jersey design contest. … Here’s a new one: TNOL (team name on leg). Those are the Yokohama Baystars. Note the the uni number on the catcher’s helmet, too. The other pant leg just has a partial stripe, no team name (with thanks to, of course, Jeremy Brahm). … Reprinted from Wednesday’s comments: Info on the Panthers’ upcoming third jersey here. … The Cubs are retiring one number for two players. Interestingly, Ariel Shoshan saw this coming more than a year ago. Back on 2/28/08, he was quoted in the Ticker as follows: “I just returned from a Cubs practice at Hohokam in Mesa. The main gate now features 6 ‘batting circles’ — one is a Cubs logo, and the others are Santo 10, Banks 14, Sandberg 23, Williams 26, and Jenkins 31. The thing is, the Cubs haven’t retired Fergie Jenkins’ number. Fans have long thought that they would retire 31 for Fergie and Maddux when the time came, à la Berra and Dickey.” Hmmm, wonder if they’ve now added a designation for Maddux. … New football uniforms for North Dakota (with thanks to Kelly Hellman). … A few days ago I linked to Jordan Wiley’s listing of the best logo treatment for each letter of the alphabet. At the time, I said, “I wish he’d put all his letter choices side by side in one big composite alphabet (get working on that pronto, Jordan!),” and now he’s done just that. … The Gwinnett Braves, relocated from Richmond, have an inaugural logo, which is a disaster of clashing typefaces. … “I was at the Rochester Amerks vs. Manitoba Moose game on Wednesday night,” writes Chris Markham. “There’s a scrolling billboard of ads, one of them for a company that does day trips down to NYC to watch the Mets or Yankees. I guess they’re not too fond of the Mets’ new stadium name.” … Super-cool 1959 Steelers program available here. Note that the little symbol at upper-left appears to be the Pittsburgh bicentennial logo (nice find by Larry Wiederecht). … Joe Barker has been fixating on the Blues’ goalies, both of whom wear pre-Edge socks (yes, I know lots of other goalies do this as well, because the Edge socks are so slick that the leg pads won’t stay put). First, Chris Mason: home, road, alternate. And now Manny Legace: home, road, alternate. … Todd Radom and I celebrated our respective 45th birthdays (his was a few weeks ago, mine is tomorrow) by having lunch on Wednesday at Peter Luger, where our steak for two hit the spot and then some. Among other things, I learned that Todd had designed last month’s NBA All-Star logo, which I hadn’t realized. … And speaking of weekday diversions,my friend Shane and I drove out to New Jersey yesterday to do a bit of pin-bashing at my favorite bowling establishment. I love the name, natch, but that’s really just a small part of the attraction, what with the super-cool parking lot sign, the bowling-themed stained glass, and the four picture-perfect lanes in the back room. Toss in a few post-bowling rippers at Rutt’s Hut and you’ve got a perfect day. … Would you trust this electrician? “I know that there are many varieties of three-prong plugs around the world, but I’ve never seen one with that configuration,” says James Huening, who snapped the photo on his way to work yesterday. … Crummy photo quality, but it’s interesting to see that the Racine Saint Catherine’s h.s. hoops team wears striped socks. Better photo quality but poorer views of the stripes here and here (with thanks to Chris Burks and Geoff Poole). … A New Mexico artist named Paho Mann has a great project: He photographs people’s junk drawers and medicine cabinets (you know just what I like, Kirsten). … The Lusophone Games — the Portuguese equivalent of the United Kingdom’s Commonwealth Games — have unveiled their new logo (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Nick Armstrong notes that Memphis had the following five players on the court at one point yesterday: #1 Willie Kemp, #2 Robert Dozier, #3 Roburt Sallie, #4 Pierre Henderson-Niles, and #5 Antonio Anderson. … Sensational DIY story, of sorts, here. … The Knicks didn’t play on St. Paddy’s Day, so they wore green on the 18th. … Some absolutely amazing — amazing — Steelers/Redskins shots from 1940 can be found here (major discovery by Larry Wiederecht). … Another logo design contest, this time for the Edmonton Capitals. Details toward the bottom of this page (with thanks to Bill Jones). … The PGA’s Memphis tournament is changing its name (thanks, Phil). … Also from Phil: Jockeys who were fined and suspended for wearing advertising patches during the 2005 Kentucky Derby have successfully challenged those sanctions.

166 comments March 20th, 2009

Flood City Film Festival

[Ed. Note: Tonight is the annual Academy Awards presentation. In celebration of this, Doug Keklak approached me about authoring a piece detailing two movies near and dear to him, one of which is an absolute classic and referenced here all the time ("Slap Shot"), starring the recently-departed Paul Newman, while the other marked one of the earliest appearances ever of one-time stud and now scientologist and freak-show Tom Cruise ("All The Right Moves"), both of which were filmed in his hometown. Doug takes an in depth at the various uni-goodness found in both movies below. Enjoy. --Phil]

By Doug Keklak

In honor of Oscar Night, I thought I would share some uni-related memories of two movies filmed in my hometown of Johnstown, Pennsylvania: Slap Shot and All the Right Moves. Although these movies are very different in their tone and choice of sport, they share notable similarities as well. Both are set in dying steel towns. Both have central characters that are plotting their way out of said dying steel towns. Both include bona fide movie stars in Paul Newman and Tom Cruise (two men that would team up some years later to do The Color of Money). However, Cruise’s career was in its infancy when he set foot in the Flood City while Newman was a Hollywood leading man by the time Slap Shot was being filmed, having starred in such blockbusters as Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting.

Although many of you know me as a Pittsburgh guy, I’ve only lived there for ten years. I was born and raised in Johnstown, which is an hour and a half east of the Steel City. To many of us natives of Johnstown, these two movies are a sense of civic pride. For instance, there’s me with my mini-shrine to Slap Shot in a corner of basement with a chair from the arena I got when they upgraded as well as my MacFarlanes. While it’s most likely no big deal for natives of New York, Los Angeles and other large cities to see their cityscape on the big screen, for those of us from small towns there is something extra special about watching a hockey movie with scenes shot in the same arena they had their high school graduation. The same goes for a football movie with scenes shot in the same stadium that you played your high school ball at. So, while I’ve attempted to stay away from getting too sentimental in my post, focusing on uniform and equipment elements, it’s hard for some of those moments not to slip in so I apologize in advance.

Before I get into the meat of the post, I’d like to take a moment to explain the meaning of the title of the post. “Flood City?”, you may ask, similar to the way the Hanson Brothers did in a pregame locker room interview, “what are you talking about?” After the steel industry, when most people think of the City of Johnstown they think of floods and that is because we have suffered through three major floods. The worst of these was the Great Flood of 1889 but there were also notable floods in 1936 and 1977. The high water marks of these three floods are noted on the town’s City Hall. OK, that’s enough of a history lesson other than recommending David McCullogh’s Johnstown Flood and the Charles Goggenheim documentary The Johnstown Flood (which incidentally won the academy award 20 years ago for Best Documentary, Short Subject).

Without further adieu, as T.O. would say, “get your popcorn ready” and let’s take a stroll down memory lane:

ALL THE RIGHT MOVES: Generally thought of as the lesser of the two J-town movies, ATRM is by no means a wasted hour and a half, it’s just that it’s never been thought of as a classic and never really had the same cult following as Slap Shot has. Sure, some of it is cliché but if you haven’t seen this movie, you won’t be disappointed but you probably won’t be blown away either.

The movie is set in fictional Ampipe, Pennsylvania which derived it’s name from the American Pipe and Steel Company (also fictional and where the great majority of the townfolk are employed). Ampipe High’s football team was one of these varsity jackets being worn in town. I’m not sure if extras were able to obtain them or what, but they were a great conversation piece. As to my own memorabilia from the movie, I have an Ampipe practice jersey and a Knights pennant (although I didn’t get a good screencap of that, they were very similar to the Ampipe ones.)

Here’s Stefan Djordjevic (portrayed by Mr. Cruise) strolling across a bridge on his way to school early in the movie. My first sentimental item as those onion domes belong to my church!

Oh no! He gets to school meets up with his girlfriend Lisa (portrayed by Lea Thompson) and look them: both wearing Nikes!

A little bit later we are introduced to Coach Nickerson (portrayed by Craig T. Nelson) and although his character in ATRM was more hard ass than the role he would play on Coach as Hayden Fox, I’m convinced this role typecast him into roles as coaches (he was also a coach in Blades of Glory) and central figures of authority high on ego (The District). Anyway, you’ve got to love that foam front, mesh back coach’s cap. That’s total 80’s right there!

Although most, if not all the movie is shot either in the City of Johnstown or Greater Johnstown School District facilities, Ampipe was given the black and gold colors to most likely parallel the Steelers and other Pittsburgh teams. The ironic twist there is that although many extras in the movie were Johnstown High students, the uniforms worn by Ampipe those of Ferndale High School, a small school in a bordering borough. While Johnstown’s colors are blue and black, Ferndale had the black and gold in football, cheerleader and band uniforms that the movie producers were no doubt looking for.

I was unable to find any Ampipe player wearing anything other than a Bike helmet. You know, the props department could have done such a better job on those award stickers no? As an aside, seeing that gray mask really makes me wish the Steelers would have opted for it instead of the black on their throwback helmets.

Random 80’s goodness: Check out the forearm and elbow pads, you just don’t see those anymore, especially since interior offensive lineman can use their hands now … The power of the neck roll! … Old school down and distance marker … Ricko, you got a goofy looking wristband like that in your bag-o-bands?!? … Also, you might dig that Dave Parker tape job on the Ampipe’s kicker’s shoe! … Today’s high school coaches have all kinds of high tech gadgetry at their disposal — This shot shows an old peg board with tags for the depth chart — This was a mainstay in my locker room which extended through the mid-90s … This character was supposed to be a coach on a recruiting trip from Boston College. Is that a sweater that someone representing BC would have worn? I’m asking because I’ve never seen anything related to the school with just a “B” and I’m wondering if this is a Hollywood-type continuity error or legit gear … Although it’s no big deal in high school ball, where refs still wear stirrups regularly, it’s refreshing to see it in action, either in real or fiction football! … Two things here: peep the sleeve length and full stripes! Also, and I swear I NEVER noticed this pre-UW days, but some early logo creep from Russell Athletic (that logo is huge, even for me, a self-describe anti-logo creep!)

Ampipe’s rival: Walnut Heights: The game sequence in ATRM was between Ampipe and their archrivals Walnut Heights. These two schools were very different demographically. While Ampipe had the blue collar, ethnically diverse background, Walnut Heights were the yuppie, suburb WASPs with the great facilities and white collar families with more money.

Walnut Heights was the fictional name derived because an actual school in the area, Westmont Hilltop, shared the WH initials and their red and gray colors were used in the movie for uniforms. The Ampipe/Walnut Heights dynamic is not unlike the real-life perception Johnstown (the city school) has with the suburb schools (Richland and Westmont Hilltop) and the Catholic school (Bishop McCort).

That’s Walnut Heights’ coach Don Yannessa (playing himself). Although Yannessa only had the one speaking line, he was instrumental to the film as a consultant, especially to the game sequences. In real life, Yannessa just retired from a distinguished career as a high school football coach. A teammate of Mike Ditka at Aliquippa, he became the Quips head coach at age 31 in 1972 and coached there until 1988. He left Aliquippa for Baldwin in 1989 and stayed there until 2002. In 2003 he entered his last job as he coached Ambridge until his retirement last fall. Ironically, Ambridge was named due to the American Bridge Company. Ampipe was loosely based on Ambridge as well.

It’s a crappy shot, but the Walnut Heights award sticker is much better than Ampipe’s. If you decrease the size of the photo, you can make out the detail of the knight on the horse.

I won’t bore UW with the continuity errors that only locals would get, but I will show two uni-related items I have issue with: First, I was in attendance one of the nights the game sequence was shot and as you might guess, that rain was fake. Most of the night was spent watching players slide and get dirty in the baseball infield of the stadium. So, did these extras portraying Walnut Heights’ players spend all that time getting dirty and then hose off their white converse cleats?! How ridiculous does that look? The other questionable item is that although many pro teams and some college teams like to wear white at home, in Western PA it is extremely rare if not non-existent (I’m sure there have been some exceptions to that rule in the past 30 years or so). However, this was a home contest for Walnut Heights, yet they came out in their white jerseys. While I understand that Ampipe was in yellow and not a traditional road white, the home color for Westmont Hilltop’s jerseys (which as we mentioned are the inspiration of the entire Walnut Heights theme, not only from a uni-perspective but overall) were red. It would have been more realistic for the movie folks to go with the red and have a color-on-color matchup because that is much more common in the region than home teams wearing white.

That’s about it on ATRM, other than to say there are enough shots of the cuteness that was early 80’s Lea Thompson to fill an entire blog post (as well as one VERY NSFW picture in the gallery of photos that weren’t used for this post!) But, since that’s not the kind of blog this I’ll leave it at that. As a quality movie, I don’t think Leonard Maltin’s 2 1/2 stars is that far off.

All my screencaps from ATRM can be viewed here.

SLAP SHOT: Moving on to Slap Shot, I say this without any bias, this is my absolute favorite movie of all time. Not my favorite hockey movie. Not my favorite sports movie. My favorite movie, period. I am of the opinion that the late Paul Newman was the greatest American actor of our time and his portrayal of aging player-coach Reg Dunlop was absolutely brilliant (not to mention he did all his own skating). I’m only stating this because I want to get out of the way my feeling for the movie itself. Not that I don’t have the emotional attachment of it being filmed in my hometown, but I’m speaking only in terms of the quality of the movie. Some people watch Star Wars movies or Monty Python movies and know all the words, well, this is my version of that. I’ve seen this movie so many times I’ve lost track. I won’t watch it with someone that hasn’t seen it before because my reciting the movie word-for-word would probably be pretty damned annoying.

Leonard Maltin gives the movie 3 stars but another critic, the late Gene Siskel gave the film a mediocre review at first but upon further review said that was his greatest regret and that the Slap Shot was one of the greatest American comedies of all time. Of course I couldn’t agree more!

The movie is set in fictional Charlestown, home of the Chiefs, the toughest team in the Federal League. Other Federal League teams included the Hyannisport Presidents, the Peterboro Patriots, the Syracuse Bulldogs, the Broom County Blades, the Long Island Ducks and the Lancaster Gears.

Since Slap Shot has much more game action, this part of the post will break down each team in the movie, then the briefly the refs and finally a miscellaneous category as a “catch all”.

CHIEFS: Being that fictional Charlestown was really Johnstown, it made sense that the Chiefs cribbed the style of the actual minor league team that was in town at the time, the Jets.

Although the first Chiefs jersey we see on screen is the road blue, the first game action we see it at home in front of a less-than-capacity crowd at the War Memorial. I always wondered why Reg didn’t wear the “C” as he was a player-coach. Wouldn’t that make him the unquestioned on-ice leader? However, the honor of the “C” went to Johnny Upton (Allen Nicholls), who was also the only main character to wear a helmet on the Chiefs. Speaking of that helmet, what was up with it? What is that, a piece of foam or rubber on the back of it? Was that a popular, early-style helmet back in the day? I’m also not familiar with the brand name “LANGE“.

Alternates were Jim Ahern (Stephen Mendillo) and Jean-Guy Drouin (Yvon Ponton).

That’s Morris “Moe” Wanchuk (Brad Sullivan), the sex-crazed one of the bunch and although it’s a fictional character, that’s a good “athlete smoking” shot.

Aside from the Hanson Brothers (don’t worry I’m getting there), one of the more eccentric characters was Yvon Barrette’s portrayal of Denis Lemieux (no relation to the Magnificent One). Check out how his mask changed from the tame to the wild as the Chiefs’ personality as went from boring to old-time hockey. Also, who else forgot that Louisville Slugger made sticks?

Meet the Hansons: that’s Steve, Jack and Jeff from left to right, so masterfully “portrayed” by Steve Carlson, Dave Hanson and Jeff Carlson respectively. I put portrayed in quotes because I’m not sure how much of an act they were doing! As many of the other actors in this movie, these guys actually played hockey. In fact, the reason Hanson was called on to play the third Hanson was because the third Carlson Brother, Jack, was called up by the Edmonton Oilers to play in the WHA playoffs while the movie was being filmed (here’s a shot of him from his days as a New England Whaler). The real-life exploits of the Carlson Brothers were no doubt the inspiration for the fictional Hansons and to this day, the line between fiction and reality with these guys is blurred to a point of no return.

The Hansons were picked up by penny-pinching GM Joe McGrath (Strother Martin) from the fictional Iron League. In fact, the boys are all sporting jackets with the league’s logo on them. Although the Iron League doesn’t exist, it’s inspiration may have come from the first professional squad the Carlsons played for: the Marquette Iron Rangers.

What section of the Hansons would be incomplete without a few shots of the boys puttin’ on the foil?!

BULLDOGS: Without a doubt the biggest rival of the Chiefs in the movie, led by their coach and “chief punk” Tim “Dr. Hook” McCracken (Paul D’Amato), who also wears the “C”. Overall, Syracuse’s jersey is pretty bland seeing that their mascot is a Bulldog but whatever. Also, orange and black reminds me of the Flyers so of course I’m going to hate it! I will say this though, their goalie had a pretty cool mask.

GEARS: Lancaster was the first road trip for the boys but the game sequence isn’t that detailed, in fact, this is the only quality shot of the Gears’ jersey I could get. Looks inspired by the Detroit Red Wings and sort of reminds me of the logo the Johnstown Wings used later in the 70’s.

BLADES: This sported a multi-colored deep green, white, yellow and red ensemble (that’s “lard ass” Barclay Donaldson as portrayed by Ross Smith). Donaldson went sans helmet, but this player opted for a very nice dark green Cooper model. Speaking of helmets, check out this shot of their bench and mix-and-match approach taken by the players, some with no helmet, some with white and some with green. Here’s a shot of their goalie.

PATRIOTS: This was the most underwhelming jersey of the film, especially since the logo on the Federal League page that I posted earlier has such great potential for a hockey jersey. This is a shame too, because it’s this team that gives us one of the more famous scenes in the movie, the pregame fight with no refs on the ice.

DUCKS: The Long Island Ducks were actually the name of a team that played in the Eastern Hockey League in the late 60’s and early 70s. When the EHL disbanded, two leagues formed, the NAHL and the Southern Hockey League, with teams from the defunct league moving to where they fit geographically in one of those two leagues. The Slap Shot version of the Ducks wore a very distinct looking black, gold and white jersey with some wavy stripes at the top and a unique shoulder and neckline pattern. Yes, that’s Hanrahan, the goalie that Reg drives off the deep end by making some less than polite remarks about his wife! Here’s a slight consistency issue: although all the lettering and numbering on the Ducks’ jersey are either black or black trimmed in white, the Captain’s “C” is just white for some reason.

PRESIDENTS: Aside from the Chiefs, the Presidents are the only team we get to see in both their home and road unis. These unis are probably my favorite in the movie, aside from the Chiefs. I especially like the green road unis with the white shoulders (dig that old goalie equipment and mask and Northland stick). This was the first hockey uniform I can recall, real or fictional, with the front number on the top corner of the jersey. I viewed the sequence with their road jerseys several times to find a “C” or “A” but couldn’t find one. However, you can make out the “A” on the white home jersey I linked above. (Continuity error: that’s the same character, Brophy, in both shots, yet he’s wearing the “A” in one shot but not the other.)

REFEREES: Pardon the poor image quality on this shot, but for the movie you can see that while the linesmen wore traditional black and white zebra stripes, the referee sported red and white. Another nice touch were the names AND numbers on the backs of the jerseys. (A couple of other good looks here and here).

MISCELLANEOUS: I’m not sure what the deal is with both Lily and Ned Braden sporting this ratty looking St. Louis Cardinals hat. Neither Lindsay Crouse or Michael Ontkean hail from the midwest … Although the blue and black of my alma mater was snubbed in ATRM, it figures prominently in Slap Shot as the band plays at both the championship game and the celebratory parade … There was some talk in the comments not too long ago about whether the patch on the Chiefs’ jersey was a Federal League patch or a patch for the All-American City. This shot shows it was the latter … Grammar fail from the Charlestown fans! … Who’s that foxy lady with the 70’s flair? None other than Newman’s daughter Suzanne.

All my screencaps of Slap Shot can be viewed here.

Phil asked me to explain “what’s the story with that dog?” Reg Dunlop’s “that’s the dog that saved Charlestown from the 1938 flood” is a line that has confused local folklore for years! For the REAL story, check out these links.

Art imitates life: in Slap Shot, fictional Charlestown was going through tough times as the mills were closing and the Chiefs were going to fold. In real life, the Jets were forced to fold in due to the 1977 flood. They would have had to sit out the year anyway because the NAHL folded. Hockey came back for a two-year span that gave Johnstown fans the lowly Wings and Red Wings for the 1978-79 and 1979-80 seasons. Poor attendance and decreasing economic woes caused the sport of hockey to leave Johnstown until 1988.

It was that season that Johnstown was awarded a franchise in the now defunct All-American Hockey League. You want to talk about old-time hockey? That first season had games with all-out brawls on a regular basis (including goalies). The next season the ECHL was formed as the East Coast Hockey League and although the squad has struggled to average 2,000 fans a game in attendance, they are currently the sole charter member of the league that has survived.

When it came time to name the squad, the new owners wanted to name them the Jets but the previous owners would not relinquish the rights to that name. So what was their second choice? Obviously, the Chiefs!

The Hanson Brothers make regular appearances at the War Memorial and from time to time the Chiefs sport throwbacks of either the movie Chiefs or the Jets. People from all over the world make pilgrimages to the Cambria County War Memorial to say they were in the arena where Slap Shot was made.

Well, that’s all folks, I hope you enjoyed your double-feature of Flood City cinema. I’ll leave with the immortal words of Charlestown Sportswriter Dickie Dunn (M. Emmett Walsh): “I tried to capture the spirit of the thing.”

Thanks Douggie! I think it’s time to fire up Slap Shot on the ol’ DVD real soon. Lets try to keep the Slap Shot quotes to a minimum ;).

This and That: Got this note late last night from UW reader Jeff Shirley: “Phil, Here’s a closeup of the patch the Jazz wore tonight in honor of Larry Miller’s passing. I thought the patch looked great. I also thought you might enjoy the tribute, complete with the old school note. (too bad they didn’t wear the high striped socks too).” Nice touch. The Jazz basketball team owner Larry H. Miller died of complications from Type 2 diabetes Friday, Feb. 20, 2009. He was 64. … Talk about your color on color matchup … can someone who follows soccer please explain What the hell is on Pumas’ kit? … Dude (or is that a chick?) — You’re wearing the wrong color sweater … good to see there’s no logo creep in boxing … nice closeup here of Roberto Luongo’s facemask — complete with vector wordmark … Interesting take on the “rent-a-player” joke … and despite shutting out the Dev’s 4-0, I still HATE the Isles socks they wear in their third uni.

Enjoy the Oscars. — Phil

86 comments February 22nd, 2009

Game Theory

Still don’t fully understand yesterday’s tech hiccup, but let’s hope it’s behind us. Sorry for any hassle.

Now then: I’m several weeks late with this, but Will Radie checked in a while back with some uni-related news regarding the MLB 08 video game. As most of you are aware, I’m not a gamer myself, but I know many of you are, so here’s Will’s report:

TakeTwo Interactive is starting to ramp up its coverage for their latest installment in the MLB 2K Baseball franchise. They’ve released a bunch of screenshots from the game, and there’s some decent uni-related stuff in there:

• You can see the different choices in undershirt sleeve length: full, below the elbow and above the elbow. You can also choose not to have any undershirt at all.

• Like Last year, the game includes the newer helmets and armbands.

• Also like last year, you can edit the players’ cleats with different colors as seen here.

• For minor league teams, the MiLB logo appears on the backs of helmets and jerseys.

• Some players have their baserunning gloves sticking out of their pockets.

• They’ve added the spike-cleaner mat to the back of the mound.

• And you can still put uni numbers on the armbands.

If the game follows the same pattern as last year, then all of this stuff will be editable for each player. That means if Juan Pierre should choose to ditch the stirrups, then you can go ingame and make the change as well.

As if anyone would want to take the stirrups off of anyone. Still, Will’s basic point is well taken.

Meanwhile, Mike Reilly reports that he’s played the game’s demo and noticed that the first and third base coaches aren’t depicted wearing helmets. Could Larry Bowa be moonlighting as a game designer?

Uni Watch News Ticker: Neil Flagg of SportsPosterWarehouse.com has given a shout-out to Uni Watch by sportlighting some posters featuring rare uniforms. … Check out the awesome “WS” collar embroidery and the hidden button placket in this 1919 White Sox shot (with thanks to Jim Kohan). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: This year’s green Red Sox jerseys for St. Paddy’s day will be trimmed with navy, instead of red trim used in years past. … If you look at the second photo in this gallery, you’ll see that the Nationals are flying a No. 10 banner, for Nats fans. “The problem is that the franchise has already retired No. 10 for both Andre Dawson and Rusty Staub,” notes Stuart Greenlee. … Kansas State wore a “VS” patch last night, a memorial tribute to Vanessa Stewart, mother of team member Clent Stewart, who died yesterday afternoon. Detail here (with thanks to Phil Hecken). … The fallout from that Yankee Stadium vendor’s uni just refuses to die. Latest installment: Todd Radom sent along this link about CBS/Yankees art director Lou Dorfsman. … Andrew Tanker, who works for the Orange Bowl, recently uncovered some old OB pics. “If you check out this picture, you’ll see how they had the letters on the front of the helmets (when did it switch to the sides?). This shot is from Georgia Tech and Tulsa from 1945 — I thought the shiny pants were interesting. And this one shows the refs wearing zip-up shirts — the one in the background is showing quite a bit of skin, in fact. Must’ve been hot. And here’s a 937 game where everyone is wearing dark jerseys, but the helmets are different colors. Again, the refs have the zip up shirts that are not quite zipped up. Very Miami look.” … The International Ice Hockey Federation is celebrating its 100th anniversary at the upcoming 2008 World Championship in Canada by having 15 of the 16 participating teams (all but Denmark) wear throwback jerseys for one game during the tourney. Each nation selected a poast design from what they considered to be an significant year (with thanks to Jeff Barak).

188 comments March 5th, 2008

Monday Morning Uni Watch: Super Bowl Edition

Okay, so maybe the red-trimmed uniforms aren’t so bad after all.

Pretty good game, right? After it was over, I went out and did what any Giants fan would do: overturned some cars, lit some bonfires, that sort of thing. Then I started drunk-dialing random phone numbers in Boston and singing “We Are the Champions” at the top of my lungs to whoever answered the phone. Good times.

Not much of a Super Bowl from a uni-related standpoint, unless you count David Tyree catching that ball on his helmet, or maybe that weird-ass Bud Lite commercial with the dude in the ABA-ish hoops uni.

Aside from those junctures, the closest thing to a Uni Watch moment was the odd sight of Bill Belichick in a red sweatshirt, instead of his usual gray. Several Pats fans e-mailed me early in the game and said they felt this was a bad omen. Brent Anthonisen went further and noted that Belichick used to wear a red windbreaker when he was the Giants’ defensive coordinator (including their victories in Super Bowls XXI and XXV), to make it easier for the defensive captain to find him on the sidelines and read his signals. So the Giants are undefeated in the Super Bowl when Belichick wears red on the sidelines.

I don’t know any of the Giants’ players personally, but two of them have always struck me as particularly decent people — class acts who make me proud to be a Giants fan. One of them is Amani Toomer, a 12-year veteran who never showboats, always respects the uniform, and has expressed more awareness and thoughtfulness about the non-sports world than most contemporary athletes. The other is Jeff Feagles, the oldest active player in the league and now the oldest to have appeared in a Super Bowl — his first, after 21 seasons. Good for him.

One guy I do know personally is equipment director Joe Skiba, who gave me all kinds of access this past season, fed me lots of inside info, and taught me lots of stuff (not the least of which was that I didn’t know nearly as much about the uni world as I thought I did). Enjoy the victory, Skeebs — you da man and all that.

But I’m happiest of all for my father, Irwin Lukas, a lifelong Giants fan who turned 84 years old two weeks ago (he actually attended one of their games in the Polo Grounds, which is where they played up until 1955). It was a treat to watch the game with him yesterday, to shout alongside him when Plaxico caught that touchdown pass, and to hug him when Brady’s final pass fell incomplete. Hope you had as much fun as I did, Pop.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Reprinted from Friday’s comments: Hilarious uni-blooper moment in Thursday night’s Cavs/Sonics game, as Cleveland’s Donyell Marshall tried to enter the game wearing only an undershirt, not his jersey. Check out the video here. … Also from Friday, we can add a new member to the exclusive club of MLB players who’ve worn facemasks: Al Cowens. … Ask and Ye Shall Receive Dept.: Here’s a shot of Dick Allen with his “Wampum” NOB, courtesy of John Moist. In case you don’t know the story, Wampum was the name of Allen’s hometown high school, and he was in the class of ’60. … Great 1921 girls’ hockey team photo here (with thanks to Mike Kemezis). … Yikes (courtesy of Roy Ellingsen). … Tucker is a star. … “Pitchers and catchers report in a little more than 10 days,” says Nick Hanson. “So in the spirit of spring training, check out the simultaneous crotch grabbing going on behind Big Papi in this picture I took last year.” … Interesting note from Jim Mischler, who points out that according to the Basketball Hall of Fame’s page devoted to Mendy Rudolph, “Rudolph’s uniform number 5 has not been worn by another NBA official since his passing.” Didn’t realize the NBA had essentially retired his number. Have any other officials in other sports had their numbers taken out of circulation, either officially or unofficially? … Nicole Haase was at a hockey game in Madison recently and momentarily thought this guy might be me (no doubt because of the stripes). Of course, a careful observer would note that the gent in question is wearing his watch on his left hand, which means he’s right-handed, which means he’s not me. … Mario Fontana made these cakes for his Super Bowl party. … Awesome story here about the Ohio factory that makes the NFL’s footballs. … Kevin Brotzman has created a web site devoted to the Orioles’ uni numbers (modeled after the wonderful Mets by the Numbers site). Check it out here. … Final Super Bowl thought: Anyone who watched Tom Petty during halftime instead of switching over to Puppy Bowl IV on Animal Planet has some seriously misguided priorities.

284 comments February 4th, 2008

Kicking It Around

By Vince Grzegorek

About a week ago, I wrote a blog for my humble little alternative weekly in Cleveland about why no reasonable fan should care that LeBron’s new Nike kicks are inspired by the Bronx Bombers. Even after the flak Bron Bron caught for wearing a Yankees cap at Jacobs Progressive Field during the Indians’ divisional series against the Yankees, I didn’t think the new shoes, replete with pinstripes, would be such a big deal. At least, I didn’t think they should be.

Of course, as the days went by and news from the blogs reached those who write for our daily newspapers, and those who produce our local daily news shows, James’s new shoes became quite the story yesterday. Locally, the Plain Dealer dedicated almost a full page of the sports section to comments received about the footwear (check out the full list of the “eloquent” comments here). Nationally, the story got play on SportsCenter, and the boys at PTI debated whether LeBron has taken his love of all things pinstriped too far, ultimately declaring that the King should have reigned in that love a little bit. [Sounds like a slow news day to me. -- PL]

My take: Ideally, we’d all like our hometown athletes to be beacons of our city in all regards. So it would be great if LeBron was a rep for the Indians, Browns, Lake Erie Monsters, and even the new Cleveland Gladiators. Hell, he should be out pimping the Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Museum of Art too! Instead, LeBron parties with Jay-Z in Vegas, Tom Brady wears a Yankees hat, and Paul Pierce shows his support for the New York Giants.

Still, I think LeBron’s new shoe is nothing to get upset about. In fact, LeBron and Nike have made many shoes together. There’s an entire site dedicated to his shoes. And that’s where I found that Nike and LeBron have also made an OSU style shoe. As you can read here, that doesn’t mean James is heading off to OSU after this year to play for Thad Matta. It doesn’t mean he’s slighting his hometown Akron Zips in any way. In fact, Nike and LeBron made another shoe that has a map of Akron on the sole!

LeBron is at the point of his career where his role as a Nike-sponsored businessman is fast approaching or surpassing his role as basketball player. He’s made no secret of his desire to be a billionaire, and if he’s going to get there, Nike will play a big role in that, which means this is hardly the last set of sneakers they’ll collaborate on. Would I prefer that LeBron didn’t love the Yankees and instead made a shoe based on the Tribe? Sure. But the sad truth is that our athletes owe us nothing outside of the sports they play. I’m in no mood to watch the Cavs cross their fingers over some ping pong balls in the lottery, so I want LeBron here, no matter whose baseball cap or shoes he’s wearing.

Research Request: Paul here. Many, many people over the years have told me about the time the Patriots held a logo “election” during halftime of a game back around the late ’80s, when Pat Patriot was still the man. They supposedly had one guy dressed up as Pat, someone else dressed up as a proposed newfangled spokescharacter (not Flying Elvis), paraded them both around the field, and had the fans vote by applauding. Or maybe they had giant cardboard cutouts of the two logos, instead of live actors (I’ve heard the story told both ways). Either way, the new logo was booed off the field.

I’ve heard this story enough times to believe that it’s true. Only problem is that nobody has ever provided a photo of the losing logo. If anyone can provide any visuals on this, please get in touch. Thanks.

While we’re at it: Another prototype that I’ve often heard about but never seen is the new Chiefs helmet that a play-by-play man supposedly held up in front the camera during a game about 20 years ago. If you’ve got it, let’s see it!

Uni Watch News Ticker: Good article here about how the Chargers’ equipment manager tried to prepare for the cold weather in Foxboro (with thanks to Eric Stangel). … The Sean Taylor mourn-athon continues. … Check out the third “news” item at Thebrushback.com (good find by Mike Nachreiner). … A set of 1936 White Sox pants — plus the accompanying belt! — were just up for sale on eBay (with thanks to Jason Libes). … Check out the collar on the guy on the right in this shot. “Looks like Count Chocula,” opines Greg Riffenburgh. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: The Dallas Stars are wearing an “MM” decal on their helmets and backplates in memory of front office employee Matt McKee, who died of cancer last week. … Marc Rabinowitz was watching a replay of the 1996 NHL All-Star Game and noticed that John Vanbiesbrouck’s mask-mounted camera was actually painted to match his mask. … As many of you are already aware, the NBA All-Star Game uniforms will look like this and this. Definitely looks like one of those designs that can’t be properly assessed via an illustration — I’ll reserve judgment until I see some photographs Ah, screw it, let’s just beat the rush and start hating them now. … Meanwhile, the Chinese Basketball Association recently had its own all-star game (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … This just in: All players in the Pro Bowl will wear Sean Taylor’s No. 21, plus the competition committee will consider a proposal to have the entire league wear No. 21 next season, and the American flag will be redesigned to have 21 stars and 21 stripes. … Speaking of memorial gestures, I know everyone’s upset about Heath Ledger, but these brokeback moments are getting out of hand. … Awesome audio slideshow here about a 1952 game in which the Harlem Globetrotters suffered a rare loss — at the hands of a sleeve-clad Seattle Chieftains team (spectacular find by Sam Wasson). … Speaking of the Chieftains, we’ve all seen football jerseys with crotch extensions, but I’d never seen one on a basketball jersey until Warren Humphrey showed me this page — scroll down to the bottom for the horrible truth, then check out the rest of the pics for lots of sleeve-o-rama action. … Really interesting high schhool football helmet discovered by Jimmy Neilly. “The team is the Mount Diablo Red Devils,” he writes. “Two of the three prongs of a pitchfork are wrapped around the sides of the helmet, and then the middle prong is used as their helmet stripe.”

163 comments January 24th, 2008

Monday Morning Uni Watch

For most of my life, I feel like color schemes have pretty much made sense. There are color combos I really like, like green/gold/maroon, and ones that I don’t like, like most pastel combinations. But whether I like them or not, I feel like most of the combinations I’ve seen over the past four decades have made a certain kind of intuitive sense.

Lately, though, I’ve been seeing color schemes that I simply don’t understand. Foremost among these is pale blue and brown, which I now see practically everywhere. Doesn’t work for me at all, but it’s obviously working for someone, because it’s becoming unavoidable.

I also don’t get the Seahawks’ combination of steel blue and neon snot. The latter hue makes no sense — it doesn’t match up with or complement, um, anything. It just sticks out out like a sort whatsis. And I say that as a guy who’s a lifelong fan of green.

So it was pretty horrifying to see lots of the Seahawks wearing green-trimmed footwear on Saturday. I mean, really, is this any way for an NFL player to look? Or this? The term “offensive line” has never been more literally accurate. Looks like some of the players even wore green shoelaces (as if Matt H.’s green-trimmed muff weren’t bad enough). Seriously, is there anyone who doesn’t think this looks way better?

Even worse, the fans seem to be embracing the radioactive jade shade. Fortunately, the ’Hawks will be playing in Green Bay next weekend, so we should see fans with a greater sense of decorum.

In other NFL news from the weekend:

• Matt Hasselbeck broke a thigh pad in the third quarter, which led to third-stringer Charlie Frye pulling down his pants and removing one of his own pads to give to Hasselbeck. Details in the middle of this page (with thanks to Nick Collecchi).

• I’ve written several times about the Giants’ curved nameplates, which match up with one of the rear jersey seams. But Mike Slesinski has spotted something new: Amani Toomer appeared to be wearing a completely different tailoring template yesterday, which (among other things) had the effect of pushing his nameplate much lower. Mike also thinks Toomer’s front tailoring pattern is new, and that his red triangle patch at the base of the collar is wider, although I’m not sure about either of those claims. Joe Skiba, fill us in!

• Did you see that new Mac commercial with the football referee? He’s clearly supposed to be an NFL ref, since he goes under the hood for a video review, but he’s not wearing NFL zebra stripes or NFL socks. More egregiously, his pants are cuffed WAY too low — lame. (Thanks to Randy Williams, John Okray, Chad Todd, and Phil Hecken for the screen grabs.)

Uni Watch News Ticker: The Portland Lumberjax are taking their name rather literally (with thanks to Travis Demers). … Mr. Horse Collar is changing uni numbers next season (with thanks to Patrick Nance). … Good catch by Jon McKay who noticed two officials wearing white hats during the Independence Bowl (apparently the umpire lost his black cap). … Friday’s entry about players wearing earplugs led to this from Andy Head: “Freddy Garcia, then pitching for the Mariners, pitched with earplugs in for much of the 2003 season because he had suffered perforated eardrums from flying on numerous team flights with a cold the previous season.” … Bit of a pad controversy for Rick Dipietro. … Bruce Menard sent along this awesome old St. Louis Cardinals team portrait. Dig those double-breasted jackets! … Check out the bizarre pants Washington State wore in the 1994 Alamo Bowl (additional pics here, courtesy of Jon V. Buerstatte). … At the 2:28 mark of this video clip, you’ll see something rare: Randy Moss with an “R. Moss” nameplate, which he apparently wore for one game in 2000 (good find by Nick Noyes). … You expect to see plenty of logo creep in a game called the Under Armour All-Star Game, but this is still a bit much (with thanks to Brandon Pratt). … Fun bit here about Les Miles’s hat (as forwarded by Minna H.). … The other day I asked if anyone knew the story behind Fresno State’s three different-colored merit decals. Anthony Johnson found the answer here). … Interesting FNOB find by Roy Ellingsen, who writes: “I’ve just returned to Norway after a quick visit to the Czech Republic. There, I saw that Sparta Prague’s leading points scorer, Petr Ton, wears ‘Ton Petr,’ as you can just about see here, right below the number. It’s common to use family name before given names in Eastern Europe. Petr Nedved, for example, wears ‘Nedved P.’” … Speaking of FNOB, Erik Little was watching some old Rams footage and spotted Ron Brown with the rare double-decker FNOB (road jersey too, but poor image quality). He also spotted this guy. “Not sure who that is,” he writes. “The only Rams LB with #59 that I can confirm is Bob Brudzinski. Not really a good shot, but the surname seems lowered to allow for a first name (à la Ron Brown’s jersey).” Can anyone shed more light on this one? … Stripe-o-rama yesterday, as Stoke City faced Newcastle in Round 3 of the FA Cup (with thanks to Morris Levin). … “Damaso Marte, who plays for the Pittsburgh Pirates, is playing in the Dominican Winter League for the Tigres del Licey,” writes Jean Oliva. “He’s wearing No. 143, since his regular number (43) is retired by the team.” … Speaking of uni numbers, scroll down to the middle of this page for a history lesson in Cubs uni number protocol (good find by Jeremy Brahm). … “I was at the Bruins game on Sunday afternoon and noticed something I’d never seen before,” writes Jeffrey Israel. “People were getting their jerseys personalized as they waited in the middle of the Garden concourse.” … I had planned to bid on that Packers dickey, but the price got way out of hand — dang.

255 comments January 7th, 2008

Monday Morning Uni Watch

Big uni-related story in the NFL yesterday was the range of Sean Taylor memorials. Here’s a quick rundown:

• The Redskins wore a “21″ jersey patch. The Redskins’ coaching staff and owner wore it, too.

• In addition, Clinton Portis wore a Taylor tribute T-shirt under his jersey (here’s another view).

• John Eubanks wore a Taylor do-rag. At first I thought this was one of the towels that fans were given, but now I think it was actually the sleeve from a Taylor jersey.

• All teams wore a “21″ helmet decal. This led to some pretty crowded rear-helmet groupings, especially for the Broncos (who already had their dual memorial for Darrent Williams and Damien Nash) and Browns (who added that “BW” decal this week in memory of Hall of Famer Bill Willis — not to be confused with the “BW” decal for Bill Walsh that the 49ers have been wearing all year).

• I was hoping we’d see some facemask stripes, like Taylor sometimes wore. Didn’t happen, but Antonio Pierce of the Giants did something similar: He taped Taylor’s uniform number onto his mask. This was the only personalized tribute to Taylor that I spotted. (Special thanks to Ryan Perkins for the screen grab.)

Meanwhile, in non-Taylor developments:

• Tommie Harris had “Psalms 91″ (which also happens to be his uniform number) written on his Breathe Right strip.
• The Jets took the unusual step of wearing their Titans throwbacks on the road in Miami.

• Joseph Addai was showing some serious skin in the 2nd quarter.

• No photo yet, but I saw for myself that Dallas Clark’s American flag decal was still missing — a particularly egregious omission when you consider that the equipment staff had to add the Sean Taylor decal to his helmet, so you’d think they would’ve noticed the missing flag. Bryan, whose wife went to high school with Clark, is still working on getting the full story on this one.

• Also no photo, but several readers reported that Braylon Edwards was wearing white shoes and going bare-calved, NCAA-style, early in the Browns/Cards game. Then he added brown socks but still had white shoes. He eventually switched to black shoes like the rest of the Browns.

Uni Watch Calendar Update: Several meet/greet opportunities coming up over the next week. Here’s the deal:

• December 6th: Marc Spears of the Boston Globe and I will be fielding questions from students in a media seminar class this Thursday at Boston University. I’ll be convening a Uni Watch party at 8:30 that evening at Boston Beer Works, which is right across from Fenway Park. Meanwhile, if anyone wants to attend the seminar class, which begins at 6:30, the professor has graciously agreed to accommodate a few extra people. If you’re interested, get in touch and I’ll let you know where to go.

• December 10th: The completely wonderful City Reliquary, of which I am a proud card-carrying member, will be holding its annual benefit gala at the Automotive High School Auditorium, and I’m one of the two featured speakers this year. I’ll be doing a Power Point presentation about Brooklyn Dodgers uniform history, but the real attraction is the other speaker: Lawrence Weschler, author of Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder and Boggs. The evening will also feature a short documentary film, a live samba band, and — if you shell out a lot of extra $$$ — dinner at Bamonte’s, one of Brooklyn’s oldest and most storied red-sauce Italian restaurants. Full details here.

• Sometime in January: I’m going to be one of four presenters at the inaugural edition of a new speaking series called “Adult Education,” which is being curated by my longtime pal Carrie McLaren (editrix of the excellent consumer-culture magazine Stay Free), who describes the series as “sort of grownup show-and-tell,” complete with visual aids. The theme of this first installment will be “Micro-Genres”: Carrie, who’s mildly obsessed with chimps, will be talking about people who’ve tried to raise chimps as part of the family; longtime Uni Watch pal Liz Clayton will talk about painfully obvious fast-food restaurant conversions (she has an entire site devoted to this phenomenon); Jim Hanas will talk about “meta tourism” (i.e., photos of tourists taking photos); and I’ll be talking about the strange world of trade magazines (Elevator World, Hay and Forage Grower, American Funeral Director, Demolition, and so on, each of which is as obsessively subject-specific as Uni Watch is). The exact date is still TBA, but it’s definitely going to be on a Tuesday in January, and the venue will be Union Hall, which is conveniently located around the corner from Uni Watch HQ. Further details on this one as they become available.

Membership News: I’m happy to announce that we’ve now gone over 500 enrollees. But I can’t announce who the 500th member is because that was a gift membership and the gift-giver has asked that I keep the order secret until Christmas.

Speaking of which, remember, this Wednesday is the deadline for ordering a discounted gift membership for the holidays.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Lots of pics here from the upcoming hoops movie Semi-Pro (with thanks to Mike Nachreiner). … Bizarre uniform sighting here (courtesy of Eric Trager). … Looking for new and creative ways to lace up your cleats or sneakers? Look here (with thanks to Mike Blinn). … Roman numeral alert: Charlie Coley III of Charlotte (with thanks to intern emeritus Vince Grzegorek). … “Once upon a time, Marquette had a football team,” writes proud Badger State booster Nicole Haase. “Here’s a pretty cool collection of 1940s program covers.” … “Check out the difference in the helmet stripe thickness for the two players in green, who play for Mentor Lake Catholic High in Ohio,” writes Tim Snyder. “I figure it’s some kind of merit award, but they also use more conventional merit decals.” Anyone know more about this? … Paul Bridge reports that Utah Valley University, which will have D-1A status by 2009, has some new logos. Details here. … Very odd NOB typography being for Jonathan Zebina of Juventus (and, presumably for the rest of their players): The “Z” and the “E” look like a “2″ and a backwards “3.” It’s apparently so fraught with confusion that the “E” ended up being applied backwards for Saturday’s game against AC Milan (all this courtesy of Jeremy Brahm). … Mizzou’s Stryker Sulak had some sleeve patch problems on Saturday (with thanks to James Wortham for the screen grab). … Nice little recap of Lakers uniform history here (as forwarded by Matthew Wolfram). … Ryan Perkins notes that R.W. McQuarters of the Giants had some helmet decal issues yesterday. … Several readers noted that Wabash wore some ill-advised pants in Saturday’s D-III quarterfinal game. … Georgia will wear black in the Sugar Bowl. … Speaking of black, Texas A&M’s hoops team wore their black alts yesterday. … “The Barbarians, an invitation-only rugby club that plays a handful of matches per year, took on the newly-crowned world champions South Africa,” writes Eric Bangeman. In addition to wearing classic black-and-white uniforms, the Barbarians ask each player to wear the socks from his home club, which makes for some interesting hosiery contrasts.”

225 comments December 3rd, 2007

None of the Above

New ESPN column today — here’s the link.

Meanwhile: The people were encouraged to vote, they let their voices be heard, and then a bunch of higher-ups decided to hijack the results and impose their own solution.

But enough about the 2000 presidential election — instead let’s talk about Iowa State’s new football uniforms. As you may recall, the Cyclones made a big fuss about letting fans vote on the school’s new helmet. But when the new uniforms were unveiled yesterday, none of the white helmets made the cut. Instead, the team will be wearing a red-on-red helmet, which seems like a major mistake, especially since it just accentuates the home uniform’s similarity to USC’s design. The road uni is better, especially when executed with red pants (yes, I know they’re actually “cardinal” — whatever). All in all, not a bad makeover, but it could’ve been a lot better without the red-on-red helmet.

Meanwhile, why encourage people to vote on three white helmets if you’re not going to use any of those designs? That question somehow goes unaddressed in the FAQ that the school put out. But I was told a few days ago that the three choices that were put up for voting all turned out to be wildly unpopular. So maybe going in a different direction really does reflect the will of the people. But in a sports world where so many things seem predetermined and calculated, it’s too bad that Iowa State appeared to be setting up a mechanism to give people a voice and now appears to have moved the goalposts. At the very least, it seems like there were some serious miscalculations made along the way here.

Membership News: Lots of new designs now on display in the membership card gallery, with more to come in the next day or so. Comments encouraged, as always.

Uni Watch News Ticker: According to a small item on this page, Jose Reyes now has his own Nike-designed logo, “represented by his uniform number 7 interwoven with his initials and sports a crown on top.” Given Reyes’s recent level of play, maybe this would have been more appropriate. … Good interview here with the guy who runs EyeBlack.com. … Some examples of logo creep are worse than others (as spotted by Rob Montoya). … Lots of MLB division champion T-shirts available, regardless of who wins. … Bryan Redemske and I both want to know what’s printed on next to the CCM logo on the jersey shown in this photo from Bobby Hull’s number-retirement ceremony. … The Indians were technically the home team in the first game of yesterday’s Tribe/M’s doubleheader (they batted last, even though the twinbill was played in Seattle), but they wore road uniforms anyway. … As previously reported, the All Blacks didn’t wear black last weekend. Compounding the problem, they wore a uniform fairly similar to their opponents’ design, which was apparently rather confusing to the players, as noted in the last several paragraphs of this article (with thanks to Caleb Borchers). … Funny item on the Chris Creamer boards about Mississippi Attorney General candidate Al Hopkins, whose star icon appears to have been taken straight off a Cowboys helmet, plus his “Hopkins” wordmark is borrowed to boot.

188 comments September 27th, 2007