Posts filed under 'Warmup Outfits'
Back in January, reader Warren Humphrey pointed me toward this page, which features lots of interesting Seattle Chieftains uniforms. I linked to it in the Ticker and that was the end of that.
But if I had bothered to click around on the site where that page was hosted (which I’ve now finally done, thanks to a tip from Dave Hembree), I would have found a ton additional material. The site is Both Teams Played Hard, and it’s amazing. It’s run by Warren, who describes himself as “a collector,” although I think “historian” might be just as apt a title for him. His strongest suit appears to be basketball, mostly non-NBA stuff, although he has at least a few jerseys from all the major (and some minor) sports. Here’s a small sampling of what you can find once you start clicking through his site:
• Totally digging this Knicks warm-up pullover and this snap-front design.
• The front of this Kentucky State shooting shirt is nice, but the real prize is the design on the back — check it out.
• Here’s a doozy: tequila sunrise and sunset!
• I’d never seen a basketball jersey with the school name in between the two uni number numerals before. How did they handle the design for jerseys with single-digit numbers?
• Awesome 1960s Cleveland Barons hockey jersey here.
• You can really see how the Jets’ shade of green has changed over the years when you look at this old salesman’s sample.
• Love the chunky Phillies script seen in this 1948 batboy jersey.
• Good thing Warren already sold this 1930s football jersey, or else I’d be reaching for the checkbook right now.
• We all know that the Cubs’ mid-century road design has also been used by minor league teams, but I’d never seen this version before.
• OK, so we all know how I feel about purple, but I might make an exception for this jersey.
• You also know how I feel about the combination of green and gold, and that goes double for this uni. GodDAMN that’s gorgeous!
• Greatest rear-jacket design ever? Could be, could be.
• The Globetrotters weren’t the only show team playing in Harlem back in the day. There were also the Harlem Travelers.
• Rare to see a shooting shirt with a big design on the front.
• It’s hard to imagine a jersey that screams “early 1970s!” more than this one does. Here’s the road version.
• I know there have been teams called the Quakers, but I’ve never seen one called the Quaker Oats. Must have been a factory team.
• Magnificent satin jersey here.
• Warren also has a huge page devoted to old photos, ranging from the gorgeous to the bizarre. Too many notable pics to list here, so let’s just say I strongly, strongly recommend scrolling through the entire set.
• Last but absolutely not least, Warren has also been compiling a tagging archive. Click on the individual brands to see loads of great tag designs.
And there’s more — a lot more. Good luck getting anything else done once you start poking around through Warren’s collection.
Great Seven-Inch Sell-Off, Continued: I’ve put yet another batch of old indie singles up for sale on eBay. Start biddin’!
Uni Watch News Ticker: Some really nice old baseball program and yearbook covers on display here. “My favorite is this one, for obvious reasons,” says Ray Barrington). … Oooh, check this out: Prior to Saturday’s Blackhawks/Avalanche game, Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, Denis Savard, and Tony Esposito took the ice in period-appropriate uniforms. “Note the NNOB and older crest on Mikita and Hull and the gold trim on the crest with the sans-serif C on the shoulder patches for Esposito,” says James Huening. “Dunno why Savard had to wear an Edge jersey, though. And I’m pretty sure the numbers weren’t positioned so low on the back during the NNOB days.” … “Clemson football player Stanley Hunter was forced to quit the team right before the season started because of his ongoing problems with epileptic seizures,” says Benji Boyter. “As a tribute to him, a different player on the team is wearing his No. 17 for each game.” … You know how turf fields typically include those little pieces of ground-up tires? Turns out they could be toxic. … Good spot by Teebz, who notes that Chicago Wolves goalie Drew MacIntyre was still wearing his blue Predators pants the other day, instead of black like his teammates. … The Penguins will wear their blue throwbacks this Saturday. The full schedule for wearing them this season can be found here (thanks, Kek). … Good spot by Jesse Buckner, who notes that the Rangers have been wearing navy gloves, instead of royal. Is that a new thing? … Best news of the week! … USC is adding a helmet decal this weekend for Stafon Johnson, who suffered a serious training injury. … New logos and colors for the New Orleans Zephyrs (with thanks to Bruce Richards). … Todd Usher notes that Maurice Creek is shown wearing a numberless Indiana jersey on this page. “I’d never seen an Indiana head shot that didn’t include the number,” he says. … Great story about an old Arkansas pennant here (nice find by Charlie Shields). … FNOB alert from the late ’80s. That’s Kerry Cash of the 1989 Longhorns (as noted by Gordon Reid). … Look at this: Nike is selling Oregon State replica jerseys with different TV numbers on the two sleeves. “It’s so people don’t have to choose between the two best players on the team, brothers Jacquizz (#1) and James (#8) Rodgers,” says Malcolm Byers.
October 14th, 2009
Well, that was fun while it lasted.
Last Tuesday I agonized over whether I should FedEx an American flag decal to Ladainian Tomlinson (for those who’ve been under a rock, his helmet has been flag-free all season). I never did send it, and now Tomlinson has made the matter moot, because he finally wore Old Glory in yesterday’s game against the Vikings, thereby ending the NFL season’s most entertaining uni-related storyline and bringing our weekly “Will he or won’t he?” game to a conclusion.
But a new game may be afoot. Several posts in yesterday’s comments section reported that Chargers wideout Chris Chambers was flag-free yesterday. No pics yet, but I’m looking. Not sure if Chambers wore a flag last week (which was his first game of the season), but it sounds like someone on the Chargers’ equipment staff is either asleep at the switch or else has a good sense of humor.
In other NFL notes from yesterday:
• Remember this? Something vaguely similar happened yesterday to Kansas City defensive lineman Tamba Hali, who delivered a big hit that sent part of his chinstrap sailing through the air. Not quite as cool as the flying number decal, but still something I’ve never seen before.
• Randy Moss’s numeral 8 was upside-down again.
• What do you get when you combine artificial turf, one team wearing solid black, and another team wearing solid black below the waist? Pretty much the ugliest game ever.
• The Eagles wore white at home last night to force the Cowboys into their “bad luck” blue jerseys. Didn’t quite work out the way they drew it up.
(Special thanks to Randy Williams and James Wortham for their Tomlinson screen grabs and to Blaine Williams for the Hali pics.)
Big Papi? No, Little Poppies!: With November 11th approaching, Canadian-born coaches and coaches of Canadian teams are starting to wear poppy pins on their lapels (for futher info on this phenomenon, look here). As it happens, I was in Toronto over the weekend for a wedding and saw lots of poppy-clad people all over the city. At one point I was talking about the poppies with one of my Canadian friends, and she mentioned something very Uni Watch-ish: The current poppy pins have a black center, but until a couple of years ago they had a green center.
That raised lots of questions: When exactly did the color change, and why? And who makes that decision? Like, is there an executive poppy committee somewhere in the governmental bureaucracy, or did the pin manufacturers just run out of green felt? Also, since real poppies have black centers, why was green ever used in the first place? What about the other British Commonwealth nations, which also wear poppies — do they go with the black or the green? My Canadian pals couldn’t answer any of these queries. Anyone..?
Other things I learned about the poppy pins: They tend not to stay on very long, because they have no backing clip; the lack of a clip also makes it fairly common for the wearer to get pricked; and apparently it’s customary to pick on the dorkiest kid in the class by covering him with as many poppies as possible.
I had hoped to buy a poppy pin myself (I was told to look for “the oldest, stooped-over-est old man you can find — he’ll probably be selling them”), but I didn’t come across a vendor during the course of my weekend. Dang.
Sock Summit: Longtime readers know I’m a huge fan of the pseudonymous sock savant known as Witesock (whose admirably obsessive web site is here, plus there’s a lengthy interview with him available here). So it was a big thrill for me, after years of false starts and missed connections, to finally meet the man himself over the weekend. I’m happy to report that he’s a peach of a guy. Over plates of chicken teriyaki and bibimbap (which he generously paid for), we spent the better part of two hours talking about socks, collecting, travel, socks, work, socks, and more socks. We probably could have kept going for a few hours more, but he had to get back to work.
Naturally, we compared socks: I was wearing my usual basic striped tube socks while Witesock had a twofer: black rugby hose over a pair of Miami Dolphins socks (to go with the jersey he’d worn for the occasion). “But doesn’t wearing two pairs of socks make your shoes a bit too snug?” I asked. To which he replied, “Oh, I usually buy my shoes half a size too big, to allow for that.” Now that’s dedication.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Interesting primitive facemask on display in this 1930 photo (with thanks to Kevin S. Whisman). … Speaking of primitive facemasks, look what Jared Wheeler found up for auction. … Interesting bit of uni lobbying on display here (as forwarded by Jacob Reed). … Ewww. … Now here’s a uniform category you don’t often see: Iranian women’s rugby. Details here (with thanks to Peter Chambers). … “Converse has resurrected its 1933 All-Star, which was the team shoe of the legendary Harlem Renaissance basketball team,” writes Steve Eschenbach. “They had to resort to eBay to get an original to work off of.” Details here. … Andy Enright, who says he works in the sporting goods biz, contributed a mother lode of insider info the other day: “Both the Schutt Ion and XP will not be offered in XL for 2008. Schutt does have the capability to make XL for NFL and college players when needed. Both helmets are fitting a little smaller than their counterparts, the DNA and Air Advantage. All Schutt large helmets are sized to fit 7 to 7-1/2, but I tried both helmets on today, size large, and both were a little tight, even though I wear a 7-3/8. The molds for these helmets cost about $200K each, so Schutt is waiting for public demand before moving forward on the XL size, probably late 2008 or 2009. Also, Eli Manning will wear the new helmet probably next year or later this year. They are having issues installing the radio earpiece. Schutt will also have a signature shoulder pad featuring Reggie Bush as well as Eli Manning, for use at the youth level. The individual pads will be in Saints and Giants team colors. Also, I’ve attached some pictures of LT’s new cleats to hit stores in April ’08, both the molded as well as the detachable. Didn’t take Nike long to replace Vick.” … Interesting logo creep placement here (as spotted by Jeremy Brahm). … Take a look at this (which was sent my way by David Soline). Did the Bulls really wear pink warmup jackets? … The Pacers debuted their yellow alts on Friday. … These high school football socks would be awesome if not for, y’know, obvious reasons (big thanks to Michael Orr, who also sent along a rare high school example of FNOB). … I’m sure his parents are proud. … The Islanders brought Al Arbour back to coach one last game on Saturday night — the 1500th of his career — which occasioned lots of uni-related news items: (1) The team wore white at home. (2) They wore a special jersey patch. (3) As Mike from Queens points out, the patch caused a logjam with the “A” and “C” designations. (4) Arbour’s “retired number” banner, which had been No. 739 (his number of coaching wins) was replaced with a new banner. (5). Since the Isles won, the new banner will reportedly be replaced with yet another banner — No. 740. … Good info on the UMich hockey uniforms here (courtesy of Craig Barker). … Florida went with solid blue on Saturday. … And Oregon realy outdid themselves. But here’s a confession: As a big yellow/green fan, I kinda liked what the Ducks were doing on Saturday. All the diamondplate nonsense still rankles, natch, but I thought this was one of their better mix-and-match combos. … Great article here about a guy who works in Riddell’s helmet-testing facility (with thanks to Matt Lindner). … NHL jersey update here (with thanks to K.C. Kless). … In happier hockey news, good update on the NHL Winter Classic here (as forwarded by Sean Leahy). … And the Rangers continue to look much better with their straight-hemmed jerseys. Kudos to whoever made the modification decision. … I used to think the Quad Cities Swing were the only team with unevenly sized numerals (well, unless you count this), but that was before Blair Hough pointed me toward this photo of two ringette players. … Doug Linder spotted UCLA’s Luc Richard Mbah a Moute wearing some very unusual leg sleeves during a preseason game Friday night. Also, some of the UCLA cheerleaders suffered from Adidas logo creep, while others did not. … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Nice ad in yesterday’s Boston Globe. … I’m going to be busy until at least mid-afternoon. Vince will be minding the store until then.
November 5th, 2007
As I’ve lamented several times, basketball is by far worst-documented of the major sports, at least from a uniform perspective. So the best way to catch up on hoops history is often through memorabilia sales, one of which is currently underway over at Grey Flannel Auctions, which is conducting its second annual Basketball Hall of Fame auction. Tons of great stuff here, including all sorts of stuff I’d never seen before. Here are some highlights:
• We all love the Warriors’ “The City” design, with its cable car uni number. What I didn’t know until now, however, is that the team’s warm-up jacket from that era was arguably even better. My compliments to the chef.
• It’s come up several times that Brooks Robinson used to run his own sporting goods operation (which produced, among other things, these), but until now I’d never seen the company’s totally gorgeous tag design. So many odd things about this tag: Did they have permission to use that O’s logo? Why’d they put a uni number on Brooks’s sleeve (a completely erroneous detail)? Isn’t it a little weird to a baseball player depicted on a basketball uniform, even if only on the tag? This is probably my favorite discovery of the entire auction.
• The House of David is famous for its baseball team, but they also played basketball, as evidenced by this magnificent warm-up jacket.
• The Globetrotters weren’t the only Harlem-based barnstorming team — there were also the Harlem Magicians, formed by former Globetrotter Marques Haynes in 1953.
• Speaking of the ’Trotters, check out this warm-up set, complete with striped stirrups!
• When I first saw this Peoria Cats jersey, my initial reaction was, “Whoa, a snap-on crotch tab!” But then I read the full auction listing and learned that “Cats” was short for “Caterpillars,” which of course makes perfect sense, because the construction equipment company Caterpillar is headquartered in Peoria. (Even better than the Cats uni: this Cats warm-up outfit.)
• If you like vertically arched lettering, you’ll love this, this, and this.
• I knew Walt Bellamy wore the nickname “Bells” on the back of his Hawks uni in the early ’70s, but I’d never seen a photo of it — until now.
• This jersey struck me as odd, because the front uni number is so much more compressed than the rear number. (Also, note the size tag — 42. If you look through these auction lots, you’ll find that many of the jersey sizes are surprisingly small.)
• Here’s something you don’t see very often: an ABA all-star jersey.
• I’d say this one might qualify for the “So bad it’s great” category.
• But this one is just great — no qualification needed.
• That was one weird-ass font that the Kentucky Colonels used for their player names.
• Note to self: Compile a list of uniforms with diagonal uniform numbers. Here’s another. Who’s got more?
• Last but not least, if you’re dying to own John Havlicek’s jockstrap, here’s your chance.
Want to see more? You can scroll through all the auction lots here.
(Big thanks to Jason Taylor, who tipped me wise to this auction.)
Uni Watch News Ticker: Actually, there’s no Ticker today, because I was on the road all day yesterday, didn’t get home until 2 a.m., and was too pooped to deal with the 100+ e-mails that had piled up. But I will pass along this major bit of news: The NFL is revamping its logo (further details here). I’ll have more to say about this next week.
Speaking of which: We’ll have open threads on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday; regular entries will resume on Tuesday. A happy Labor Day weekend to all.
August 31st, 2007
You probably know that the Devil Rays played a few “home” games in Orlando last week at the Disney Wide World of Sports Complex, which, despite having only 9000 seats, was no doubt an upgrade over Tropicana Field (and where, as you can see at right, Richard Petty threw out the first ball for one of the games). Reader Andrew Ranck attended one of the games and documented some interesting factoids regarding the 246th stadium to host an MLB game:
The field in front of the dugouts had logos commemorating the 10th anniversary of the complex (who knew). The on deck circles had MLB logos on them, and they seemed pretty worn. I’m guessing they may have been spring training holdovers, but they didn’t seem to get much use anyway.
Left field had a collection of pennants representing some of the Rays’ regular sponsors. Also the area beyond the left field fence was grassy, with families spread out on blankets and kids running around.
Center field was pretty bare, and the scoreboard gave little batter information. Besides the line score and the current count, we only saw the batter’s uniform number and batting average. Right field had a temporary Jumbotron, which only displayed the basic graphics from the player intros and whatnot. In the foreground of that last photo, you can see the soft drink race, which took place after the 4th inning.
The only beers for sale that I could find were 24-ounce cans (for $8.50!). The Anheiser-Busch products had Rays logos on them. This surprised me, because Disney is known for not selling that much in the way of A-B products, because Busch Gardens and Sea World are main competitors.
Thanks to Andrew for the first-hand report. Meanwhile, if anyone wants to give a similar account of the proceedings at the Trop, that might be amusing.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Big kudos and thanks to Trevor Williams of the Brainerd Dispatch, who attended the Uni Watch party in Minneapolis two Saturdays ago and then wrote this very nice article about it. … Lotsa stuff you might have missed over the weekend, beginning with Boise State’s new football jerseys, which were unveiled late on Friday. They’ll look like this, this, this, and this. Further details here. … Also from Friday: Roger Clemens warmed up for his minor league season debut wearing high cuffs and white-striped Adidas cleats but later switched shoes and pant styles. … Reprinted from Saturday’s comments: Friday’s blog entry about Chris Sampson being told to remove his hospital bracelet (in case you missed it, look here) should have included a reference to Rob Mackowiak, who hit two home runs while still wearing his hospital bracelet on the day his baby was born back in 2004 (full details here). … It was Armed Forces Night in Milwaukee on Saturday, with the Brewers and Twins wearing military-themed caps. … Interesting thread on the Chris Creamer boards regarding the Cincinnati Jungle Kats, an AF2 team with a pretty innovative helmet design. … More arena football news from Michael Alper, who notes that Kenny Higgins of the Nashville Kats (again with the stoopid spelling) is wearing red shoes, even though there’s virtually no red in the team’s uniform. … The Orioles are denying reports that they’ll put “Baltimore” on their road jerseys next year (as forwarded by Jason Reddish). … Antiques Roadshow recently had a nice little segment on this medal. Details here (with thanks to Jeremiah Conway). … Anyone know why a manufacturer would refer to this pant style as a “Clemson Cut”? Also, who knew there was a hidden interior stirrup in there? (Good find by Rick Subrizio.) … Grant Emerson notes that Angel Pagan’s helmet logo appliqué has been crooked lately. … Club Deportivo Chivas USA has a new jersey sponsor. Full details here (with thanks to Jeffrey Israel). … If you’re interested in Tennessee high school uniforms, tons of photos are available here (courtesy of Marc Walls). … Texans cornerback Jason Simmons came up with a novel way to sell his uniform number to new teammate Ahman Green. … Ronnie Poore noticed something interesting in this photo of the 1965 NFL draft: The little figurines on each desk are wearing stirrups, instead of football-style socks. Most NFL players did wear stirrups in those days, but they also wore shin-length white socks over them — odd that the figurines didn’t get that final finishing hosiery touch. … Good story here about this Texas company, which makes varsity/letterman jackets. Further background info here. (With thanks to Matt Mitchell.) … Follow-up report from Jen Muller, who recently provided the photo of Dane Richards with his name misspelled: “At a Red Bulls ‘meet the team’ event on Saturday, I had a chance to ask Richards if he knew his name was spelled incorrectly on his jersey. He said he had no idea until he saw it later on the internet. Maybe he’s a Uni Watch fan.” … Check out the socks on Dong Tam Long An of the Vietnamese soccer league, who’s been playing in the AFC Champions League this year (as spotted by Jeremy Brahm). … Can’t say I thought much of Cory Spinks’s trunks or glove colors during his fight against Jermain Taylor on Saturday night. Weirdest bit: When Spinks’s trunks started slipping down, his corner tried to secure them with tape around the waistband — never seen that maneuver before. Meanwhile, check out the fringe on Taylor’s trunks. … Former Knick John Starks is promoting a new line of basketball warm-up pants, which are supposedly easier to pull off in one motion. Details in the “Starks to NBA” section about two-thirds of the way down this page (with thanks to Eric Stangel). … Lots of great stripes on display in this rugby photo, taken by Rick Collins. … Odd logo/number format being worn by the Texas City Stings (good catch by Seth Harris). … A little birdie tells me that the U. of Texas hoops team will go to Nike’s tight-fit jerseys next season. … Matthew Lepke notes that as of yesterday, Ron Gardenhire was still wearing his Mother’s Day ribbon on his windbreaker. … Matt Meltzer and I both want to know what’s printed on Dice-K’s left undersleeve. … Seth Horowitz forwards the following, from yesterday’s NY Post: “Tom Nieto, the Mets’ catching instructor, now has a tilde over the ‘N’ in ‘ÑIETO’ on the back of his jersey. He didn’t have one in his previous two years with the Mets but had it switched this season so that it would be properly pronounced.” … Nike’s latest brainstorm: a new and “improved” design, featuring a black jersey, for the Miami baseball team. … Awesome stirrup display by Brian Garman of the UC Bearcats (with thanks to Buckeye Mike, who says he’s known Garman since they were both about five years old). … Uni Watch design director Scott M.X. Turner and I attended last night’s Yanks/Mets debacle. The shameful truth: I was cold, tired, and depressed by the game’s proceedings, so I left in the middle of the 8th inning. Let the record show that Scott stayed to the bitter end.
May 21st, 2007
For the most part I don’t get too bent out of shape about Adidas’s three stripes. I mean, I like stripes.
But last night’s NBA All-Star game was too much. From the warm-up suits to the side piping on the uniforms to the refs, the whole thing felt like an Adidas commercial. The biggest surprise was that they somehow forgot to add stripes to the cheerleaders’ outfits.
Other notes from All-Star Weekend:
• Gerald Green won the Slam Dunk competition while wearing a Red Auerbach memorial headband, essentially the road version of the one Paul Pierce wore at the beginning of the season.
• As noted in our weekend comments, only the defending champions got to wear home uniforms for each of the skills competition: the San Antonio team in the Shooting Stars competition; Dwyane Wade in the Skills Challenge; Dirk Nowitzki in the Three-Point Shootout; and Nate Robinson in the Slam Dunk.
• Putting the conference names on the headbands is one thing. But putting them on the socks is a bit much, no?
• I hate that little triangular patch of fabric that keeps showing up at the base of the collar on so many jersey designs these days. Utterly pointless. A classic example of failing the “Is it good or is it stupid?” test.
• The two-tone rear design didn’t look so bad when the dominant tone was white, but it bothered me a lot more when the dominant tone was dark.
• Despite all of the above, a pretty good-looking game, no?
Uni Watch News Ticker: Reprinted from Friday’s comments: Great piece here about how former A’s feel about the team’s white cleats. … Charles Sliter came across this cool photo of the 1907 English Lacrosse League champions, Old Hulmeians from Manchester. … Very condensed history of the UK soccer jersey here (with thanks to Mike Munch). … “Here is a great resource for looking up old football uniforms,” writes Jeff Barak. “The great thing is, you can look at all the teams from a set or scroll down to the list of teams and look at just cards from a particular team. My favorite is the 1951 Bowman set, since each card has a classic logo on it.” … Reprinted from Saturday’s comments: I didn’t know that when Eric Davis made his MLB debut with the Reds, he didn’t have a uni number for his first plate appearance. … UCLA and Arizona went color-vs.-color on Saturday. … It’s not often that you see a manager doing the inside-out pocket thing, but check out new Nats skipper Manny Acta. … Ramon Castro appears to have changed equipment sponsors, from Louisville/TPX to Rawlings. … Interesting volleyball typeface here (as spotted by Jeremy Brahm, who also points out the odd slogan on this jersey, although I’m more interested in the collar design). … We should have another Distant Replays gift card to raffle off later this week — stay tuned.
February 19th, 2007
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