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Posts filed under 'Cheerleaders'
Ten years ago, in the middle of a month-long cross-country road trip, I stopped in Shelby, Montana, where I checked out the Marias Museum — a tiny facility devoted to local history. Shelby had been the site of Jack Dempsey’s heavyweight title defense against Tommy Gibbons back in 1923 (it was supposed to put the town on the map but almost bankrupted it instead), and a good chunk of the museum was devoted to artifacts from the bout. It was a great little exhibit on a little-noted chapter in sports history.
Local history museums like the Marias are among my favorite travel attractions — the smaller, the better. Sometimes amateurish but always lovingly assembled, these informal little reliquaries are often filled with amazing photos and other artifacts you’d never find at “real” museums. Two readers have made this same discovery lately — both in Iowa, oddly. The first is Jesse Gavin, who recently sent the following communiqué:
I would probably have been the last one to imagine that there’d be any vintage uni finds in my hometown of Cascade, Iowa (pop. 2000). But when I was home over the weekend, I stopped by a new exhibit at the hometown Historical Museum. They just opened up a new exhibit on Urban “Red” Faber, a Cascade native who went on to play for the White Sox for 19 years and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1964. They had plenty of good stuff there, so here’s a bit of a recap.
First off, they had a pretty cool locker reproduction, including an authentic jersey, cap, pants, and socks. They also had an original seat from old Comiskey Park and a couple of other caps. I’m not sure which team the first of those caps was from, but I’m pretty sure the latter was from an off-season when Faber was loaned to the New York Giants for a world tour.
In addition to the Faber stuff, they also had a few old pictures and uniforms from Cascade-area town teams from back in the day. This Pleasant Grove jersey is from the late ’40s, as are this catcher’s mitt, chest protector, and shin guards.
About a week after I heard from Jesse, I got a note from Neil Berger, who had discovered two more Iowa treasure troves:
A recent family wedding took me to Iowa City, where I visited the University of Iowa Sports Hall of Fame, and Cedar Rapids, where we took in a Cedar Rapids Kernels game and checked out their Hall of Fame, which had uniform samples from the long history of Cedar Rapids baseball.
Neil didn’t fully describe all his photos, but there’s some killer stuff, ranging from the obvious (baseball, football, men’s and women’s hoops) to the not-so-obvious (marching band, letterman sweaters). Treat yourself to a slideshow of his photos here.
Membership News: Two dozen membership kits went out in yesterday’s mail, which means we’re finally caught up. With one exception (sorry, Bobby Hill, your card got botched during trimming and will have to be done over next week), every card that was ordered through last Sunday has now been printed, laminated, and shipped. If you’ve been holding off to give Scott and me a chance to catch up after the flood of orders from late July, now’s the time to sign up — we’re ready for you. And that goes double for the guy who inquired about having us do a Colorado Caribous design treatment.
Uni Watch News Ticker: DeAngelo Hall had a message for Chad Johnson on Monday night (thanks, Vince). … Map manufacturers sometimes put small, phony streets onto their maps, as a way to catch people who are stealing and republishing their maps. Stuart Greenlee reports a similar example from the logo world: “A student from Clemson University once told me that the Clemson ‘paw print’ logo had a notch cut into the bottom of the paw to prevent copyright. Ever since then, I have looked for the notch in other paw-print logos (believe me, there are a lot of them here in the South). Occasionally I’ll see some other school using the logo with the ‘Clemson Notch’ and I wonder if they have permission.” … The DE ROSA-vs.-DEROSA issue is addressed in the next-to-last entry on this Q&A page (with thanks to Jon Aubry). … Cathy Reeder caught an interesting exchange during a Cubs game the other day: “During a discussion of catcher’s gear, color guy Bob Brenly said, ‘Of course there is one piece of protection you ALWAYS wear. In fact, I even wore IT when I was a manager and a coach in the dugout too. I just always felt IT was part of the uniform.’ Now, I’m a girl and I’ve never played baseball, but isn’t it odd that a coach or manager would wear a protective cup? I mean, do you really need one to sit on the bench? Does anyone find this odd but me? Do any other MLB managers do this?” I know there are at least three people reading this who work in MLB clubhouses — what’s the word, people? Do coaches and managers wear the cup? … Entertaining story of possibly dubious veracity from David C. Murphy, who passed along this note that he received from a friend: “When I worked at Airborne Express (’90-’97), occasionally we would see packages go through from whoever made the MLB jerseys at that time. If someone got called up, traded, or needed a new jersey, there would be one shipped out. On more than one occasion, I would get the jersey out and try it on. I think I worked one whole shift wearing a Dwayne Henry Astros jersey. That falls under the ‘It seemed like a good idea at the time’ stories.” … The NFL season is time to start, which means it’s time to make fun of the Bengals’ nameplate/yoke/sleeve inconsistencies. Here’s how it’s supposed to look: Nameplate complete on the orange yoke, which curves down to meets the sleeve stripes. (Note that we matched this style when designing Uni Watch membership cards.) But some players don’t have curved yokes (here’s another example), and sometimes the nameplate extends down into the white area. Yo, where’s the quality control? (Thanks to David Sonny for those pics.) … Separated at birth: Wallace Spearmon and Jeff Weaver. … Here’s something you don’t see very often: a tilde over an A (good spot by Jeremy Brahm). … Follow-up to my recent report on NFL captains probably wearing a “C” designation this season: According to this article (forwarded by Steven Wyder), the Bengals’ captains “will wear the NFL’s new captains’ patch on their uniform jerseys.” Not sure if this patch is simply a C or something more involved, but I’ve got a call in to the NFL and hope to have an answer tomorrow. … These trademark-infringement cases are getting seriously out of hand (with thanks to Caleb Borchers). … Perfect marriage of product and marketing campaign, as Old Spice is now sponsoring Tony Stewart’s armpits (as reported by my new neighbor and longtime Uni Watch pal Doug Kalemba — welcome to Brooklyn, buddy).
August 29th, 2007
New ESPN column today — the long-awaited prototypes installment. Here’s the link.
The prototypes column probably wouldn’t have been possible without the help of Bill Henderson, who’s just published a new edition of his MLB Game Worn Jerseys of the Double Knit Era (formerly known as The Double Knit Era Collector’s Reference). By any name, it’s an utterly essential reference, every bit as necessary a presence on your shelf as Marc Okkonen’s Baseball Uniforms of the 20th Century. Think of it this way: If you care enough about uniforms to read Uni Watch, you’ll totally love this reference guide.
Unlike the Okkonen tome, Henderson’s opus is available on a CD-R or as a downloadable file, not as a printed book. And it doesn’t cover the pre-1970 era. But within its stated area of coverage, it’s absolutely encyclopedic. For each MLB team, there’s list of basic rules of thumb, a chronological chart of basic styles, and then lots and lots of photos showing the progression of each team’s jersey over the past three-plus decades, with plenty of attention paid to sleeve patches, throwbacks, prototypes, BP jerseys, oddities, and the occasional bit of storytelling.
There’s also info on fabrics, undershirts, tagging, typography, and a lot more. The whole thing is over 1200 “pages” (it’s basically a massive PDF file), with over 30,000 photos. And new for this edition, Bill has added info showing what each team’s last set of flannels looked like, so we can see the transition from flannel to double-knit, along with lots of other new material.
I find myself referring to Bill’s research almost every day. Okay, so I probably have more use for it in my daily workday than you do, but you get the idea. Uni Watch’s highest rating.
In addition, Bill is generously offering a discount to Uni Watch readers. If you go to his web site, click on “Purchase,” and scroll down to the bottom of the ordering page, you’ll see a “If you received a special offer…” prompt. Click on it, and then enter the username “special” and the password “bonds” (all lowercase in both instances). This will qualify you for a price of $29.99 — five bucks off the usual price. And worth every penny.
NHL News: Two more NHL teams have unveiled their new uniforms. Let’s start with Detroit, where Reebok’s new tailoring template has forced the Red Wings to move their “C” and “A” designations to the other side of the jersey (full details here). But as Craig Barker points out, putting the designatory letters on that side is nothing new for the Red Wings. I know we’ve covered this before, but I forget the details, so can someone please provide a quick recap of the side-to-side migrations of Detroit’s “C” and “A”?
The bigger problem, it seems to me, is that rounded hemline, which hasn’t looked so bad on most other teams but is really accentuated — and not in a good way — by the Wings’ design.
Meanwhile, if you want a good laugh, take a look at this photo and then check out the headline on this article. I think I’ll let both the uniform (additional views here and here) and the journalism speak for themselves.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Really nice slideshow here, showcasing the flannel uniforms recently worn by a Russian baseball team traveling through the U.S. And although he’d be too humble to say anything, it just so happens that the Ruskies’ duds were designed by none other than our own Scott M.X. Turner. … Underbrim history may have been made last night, as Vince explains: “Last night, Indians vs. Tigers, featured perhaps the first pitching matchup ever to feature both pitchers still wearing their holograms on the underbrim of their hats. Fausto, of course, has a long documented history of this, but the kid the Tigers called up from AA for the game, Jair Jurrjens, had his hologram on also.” … Good survey of recent Cardinals throwbacks here (with thanks to Elena Elms). … Andy R. reports that his sister Kiirsta has just become a Charger Girl (aka a San Diego Chargers cheerleader), which must make Mama R. very proud. “Did you know about their Halloween tradition?” asks Andy. “For the game closest to Halloween, each girl chooses her own costume/uniform. This year, it’s the on the 28th, against the Texans. I found out, though, that they may not be the only team that does it. Also, sadly, I found out that they’re not as interested in being creative and/or different as they are in simply ‘looking hot.’” I may never recover from that stunning bit of news.
August 16th, 2007
For years, if I’ve needed an old Astros photo, the first place I’ve looked has been Astros Daily, an excellent blog with loads of great images. What I hadn’t realized, however, until reader James Poisso recently pointed it out to me, is that the site includes a page of video links, which provide a priceless historical survey of what is arguably MLB’s most visually interesting franchise. There’s too much material to describe fully, but here are a few highlights:
- If, like myself, you’ve only seen Colt .45s uniforms in still photos, check out the very first video link on the page, which features lots of footage showing the Colts’ basic uni plus jackets, ushers’ uniforms, and related merch.
- You probably know that the Astrodome’s roof had to be painted when outfielders couldn’t pick up the ball against the original ceiling design (which in turn led to the development of Astroturf, because the facility’s original grass wilted and died when sunlight could no longer shine through the painted roof). One of the videos actually shows the roof being painted!
- As you might imagine, there’s plenty of footage showing the tequila sunrise design, including some good shots of the original bullseye version.
- According to Dressed to the Nines, the tequila sunrise jerseys were always paired with dark stirrups. But check out this shot of Larry Dierker — he’s definitely wearing orange hose, and they appear to be striped to boot.
And there’s a lot more. Recommended viewing.
Membership Announcement: Lots of you have asked if an additional column can be added to the membership roster, indicating the team and era that each card design was patterned after. I didn’t originally think we’d need to include that kind of info, since I figured the card designs would all be based on familiar uniform designs and that their sources would therefore be self-explanatory. But of course it hasn’t worked out that way — we’ve got throwback designs (the one shown above is a 1970 Indians treatment), minor league designs, soccer and cycling designs, etc. So yes, I now see it would be a nice idea to include this information, so everyone can see what a given card design was based on.
But here’s the thing: The roster chart is already pretty big and unwieldy — I don’t want to add another column to it. But if you go to the card design gallery and click on a given card design, you’ll get the Flickr page for that design — and you can add comments to that page. So I hereby invite all members to click on their own card designs and add an explanation for your design inspiration (turns out member Anthony Giaccone already did this several weeks ago). If all goes well, we’ll have all the team-based card pages annotated in short order.
You may have to register with Flickr in order to leave a comment. But it’s easy and free, and Flickr is a cool site that you really ought to be part of anyway, so it’s a win-win.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Scroll down to the end of this Q&A session with a Cardinals beat writer to see what the Redbirds think of the new BP caps (good find by Jordan Hirschfield). … Excellent catch by Avi Berliner, who spotted the following tidbit buried within this Wall Street Journal article: “Alex Marvez, president of the Pro Football Writers Association … winces at the new [NFL] rule requiring photographers to wear red vests with small Canon and Reebok logos. Mr. Marvez calls the idea of using working press members as advertising vehicles ‘really alarming.’ Neither company is paying a specific fee for the vests, but Canon Inc. is an official sponsor of the league (it pays a rights fee to be associated with the NFL) and Reebok International Ltd., owned by Adidas AG, is a league licensee (it makes merchandise with NFL logos, including jerseys, pants and photo vests).” … Always good to hear from Mike from Queens, who notes that USA Softball has some very odd batting helmets (additional views here and here). … Tour de France note from member Mike Edgerly, who writes: “Members of Team CSC are sporting black Live Strong-style wristbands that say ‘Harden the fuck up.’” Details toward the bottom of this page (and I swear, if today’s comments section devolves into a series erection jokes, I’m gonna pull the plug on the site, so don’t even think about it). … It’s well documented that Bob Feller will do anything for a buck, but this seems like a bit much. … “Could there be an uglier uni matchup?” asks Vince, referring to yesterday’s Brazil/Nicaragua contest at the Pan Am Games. … A reader who didn’t give his full name notes that Matt Holliday appeared to have one sleeve shorter than the other last night. … Reprinted from last night’s comments: With the Sharks and Ducks having added orange to their color schemes, Kris McInnis figures it’s time for every NHL team to go orange.
July 17th, 2007
As you can see, the ticket stub shown at right is from 34 years ago, almost to the day. That date happened to be Father’s Day, 1973 — a day that my family spent at the ballpark.
Looking back, this could not have been much of a treat for my father. Egged on by one of those “Take Dad to Shea for Father’s Day!” ads, I had gotten the bright idea that I would pay for his ticket. But I was so pleased with myself for ponying up the entire $2.75 (no small sum for a nine-year-old whose weekly allowance was a quarter and who wasn’t yet big enough to make extra cash mowing lawns around the neighborhood) that I neglected to consider that he still had to pay for my ticket. And my Mom’s ticket. And parking, and gas, and hot dogs. Plus he had to deal with holiday traffic, which must have been a real bitch. Pop, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry — my heart was in the right place, honest. I just hadn’t thought it all through.
Anyway, the Mets won, thanks in part to recent call-up named Ron Hodges, who hit his first major league homer. I remember reading in the paper the next day that Yogi Berra — then the Mets’ manager — said, “The kid’s got some pop, he’ll hit some more of those,” or words to that effect. And he did — exactly 18 more over the course of a 12-year career, to be exact. To this day, I still don’t understand how such a marginal player managed to stay on a big league roster for more than a decade.
The ticket stub, as you can see, is light blue, which happens to be MLB’s designated Father’s Day color (to promote prostate cancer research, don’tcha know). Among yesterday’s highlights:
• Players have been wearing light blue sweatbands on Father’s Day for years now (I first recall seeing it in either ’99 or 2000), but I think this is the first year that the sweatbands were “DAD”-inscribed — sometimes lengthwise, sometimes crosswise.
• Big Papi really outdid himself with the wristbands: one on the left and two on the right (with a bracelet in between the latter two).
• Many umps wore the blue wristbands too.
• The blue ribbons are old hat by now, but I was mildly surprised to see that they even put one on Terry Francona’s pullover.
• Intern Vince Grzegorek (who took his dad to yesterday’s Indians/Braves game) spotted something I don’t recall having seen before: Santiago Casilla wore a ribbon on his cap.
• As has been the case for the past couple of years, several players also wore blue ribbon temporary tattoos, including Manny Delcarmen, J.D. Drew (who had them on both arms), and Hector Carrasco. (Big thanks to Kelly O’Connor for linking to the Drew and Delcarmen pics in yesterday’s comments.)
That’s all nice enough. But the best thing about this promotion has always been when players wear eye blue instead of eye black. The king of that style yesterday was Felix Pie. If that doesn’t stop prostate cancer, nothing will.
Capital Idea: Here’s a cool opportunity for someone in the DC area. The Capitals will be unveiling their new uniforms this Friday, June 22nd, at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex in Arlington. The event begins at 5:30 pm, with the actual unveiling slated for about 6:40. I’ve been invited to attend but am unable to make it, so Caps media director Nate Ewell has very graciously consented to allow a Uni Watch representative to attend in my stead.
The surrogate in question will be permitted (indeed, required) to take photos and notes, and will then prepare a summary report that I’ll post on the blog the following Monday. If you’d like to represent Uni Watch at this event, send me a note explaining why you’re the right person for the job. Please include your full name, address, phone number, and age. Thanks. No more applications, please — member Mike Forgy, a longtime Caps season ticket holder, has been selected for the job.
June Raffle: I’ve got an extra copy of the 2001 MLB Style Guide, which shows the official specs and colors for each team, and I’m going to raffle it off for free. This particular copy has a great history: It was raffled off once before, at the 2006 Uni Watch Athletics Aesthetics Party in Brooklyn, where it was won by Mets by the Numbers impresario Jon Springer, but he recently gave it back to me so I could give it away again. Since then, the cover has gotten some light scratches from Uni Watch mascot Tucker (I think he was expressing his displeasure with the Rockies’ solid-purple alternates), which is sort of the Uni Watch office equivalent of a grass stain on a game-used jersey.
This is a free raffle: Just send an e-mail to uniraffle at earthlink dot net by 10 pm eastern on Thursday, June 21st. One entry per person. But everyone who’s signed up for membership by 9 pm Thursday will automatically get three extra entries. If you’re a member and don’t bother to e-mail an entry to the raffle address, you’ll still get three entries. I’ll announce the winner on Friday, OK? OK!
Speaking of membership, Scott is busily catching up on the next batch of cards, and I should be able to add the rear designs to the roster page within a few days. I’ve also created a gallery of all the current back-card designs, which will be updated as Scott creates each new one.
As for the actual cards, just about everyone in the first batch should have received their cards by now. If you still haven’t received yours by, say, Wednesday, let me know. The new batch should start shipping out by the end of this week.
We’ve also decided upon a little bonus benefit that will come into play down the road: All members who join by the end of July will have a special “Charter Member” designation added to their cards when they renew next year.
Uni Watch News Ticker: A few of my recent ESPN columns have mentioned Chuck Kinder, who wore No. 100 for WVU in 1963, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of West Virginia’s statehood. Now Craig Mullen has turned up a video clip about Kinder — nice find. … Really interesting note from Chad Stegemiller, who writes: “Friday’s Indianapolis Star had an article about the 40th year of baseball having a state championship. They included a photo showing Arlington High School and Jasper High School playing in the 1967 state semifinals. I immediately noticed the Jasper players having ‘Jasper’ on their back instead of numbers (plus I am sure you will like their choice in hosiery). Unfortunately, there are no front views of Jasper’s jerseys.” … Reprinted from Friday’s comments: Good article here about the history of NASCAR uniforms. … Andrew Daull found some great Cooperalls footage at the 3:10 mark of this video. … On Friday I asked if anyone knew about the little gold circle on the back of Bobby Abreu’s belt. An inside source from an American League clubhouse responded thusly: “It’s a Phiten titanium disc that has become very popular around clubhouses. I’m not sure how well they would work being on the belt (and thus having several layers of clothing between it and the skin) but many players seem to like it, and I even know one photographer who has two on his elbow to help with some pain he was having — he says the stuff works.” And in a related item, several MLB players also believe in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and Barry Bonds’s negative drug tests. … Faaaaascinating note from Ryan Hemminger, who writes: “As I was sitting in the gallery at the 10th hole at Oakmont watching Tiger Woods line up a shot on the green, I noticed that he was wearing one black sock and one white sock. I thought that it was odd, and I figured it must be some sort of superstitious thing he does. However, later in the afternoon, at hole number 5, I noticed that Vijay Singh was also wearing two different colored socks — one navy blue and one white [as you can sort of see here -- PL]. I can’t confirm with photographic evidence (the USGA is VERY strict about not allowing cameras on the course), but is this some sort of trend among pro golfers, or just an odd coincidence?” Anyone know more about this? … Lots to like in this photo of Dunbar High (Kentucky) baseball team (with thanks to Scot Williams). … Bizarre scene at Steelers fantasy camp, where one of the participants was an amputee with a prosthetic leg, which was emblazoned with a Steelers logo (nice find by Dennis O’Neil). … Redskins long snapper Ethan Albright gave up his uniform number to a teammate in what this article describes as a “private barter transaction” (with thanks to Tim Nichols). … Speaking of the ‘Skins, when Chris Cooley played with his fly unzipped last year, I figured it was an honest mistake. But having now seen the hot pants that he’s wearing during Redskins minicamp, I’m convinced that the guy is a serious fetishist (with thanks to Stewart Snelson). … Kudos to Chris Manes, who found this great old photo of the Suns’ 1960s cheerleading uniforms. … According to the second paragraph on this page (forwarded by Rory Gustison), the Patriots are considering “wearing the team’s throwback red jersey and old helmets for at least one game” in 2009. Yes, three seasons from now. … Very odd scene in Japan, where Warren Cromartie — who first played baseball for the Expos and then for the Yomiuri Giants in Japan — recently participated in a pro wrestling event and wore a Giants-style uniform for the occasion (it said “Samuraiman” across the chest). Afterward, he held a press conference, where, as Jeremy Brahm puts it, “he looked almost just like he did when he played in Japan.” … Fernando Rodney’s cap tag was sticking out yesterday. … Very odd find by Patrick Sharon, who was recently at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton and noticed that a Lee Roy Selmon jersey on display had one orange letter. Just a hunch: I’m guessing that the original heat-pressed white letter peeled off, leaving some discolored fabric in its wake.
June 18th, 2007
Before we get started with today’s entry: I ended up making an important addition to yesterday’s ESPN column at about noon eastern. If you read it prior to then and weren’t keeping track of yesterday morning’s comments, you may want to check it out again, because the mystery of Nomar’s pin (and Manny’s too!) has been solved.
Now then: Got a note the other day from longtime Uni Watch contributor Bryan Redemske, who’s noticed something really interesting:
Mark Buehrle has been wearing cycling arm-warmers under his jersey, instead of a long-sleeved undershirt — specifically, these. You can see the blacked-out Pearl Izumi logo on his left sleeve in this pic — mid-forearm, facing down. And the logo is in very plain sight here. A couple of my buddies have those arm-warmers, and the way they shine in the light is exactly the same.
Coupla thoughts here: First of all, I had no idea there was even such a thing as cycling arm-warmers. Second, this brings up the interesting issue of players using equipment intended for use in another sport. Leaving aside the issue of footwear (there’s a lot cross-sport action there), the first things that come to mind are football facemasks, which have been worn by several baseball players and at least one hockey player. And then there’s Dave Parker, who at various times wore a football facemask and a hockey goalie’s mask (although the latter was only for one plate appearance, which resulted in a walk).
There have also been lots of baseball players who’ve worn golf gloves, and football players who’ve worn batting gloves or scuba gloves. Plus I’m sure there are plenty of other cross-sport examples that I’m not thinking of — let’s have ‘em.
Attention Jeremy Brahm!: Got a rather frustrating note yesterday from Ben Wood, as follows:
If you’re ever back in the Twin Cities, you should check out the Ragstock Warehouse in Minneapolis’s downtown warehouse district. Their large selection of used clothes includes a nice collection of Japanese baseball jerseys (which I assume are from high schools or amateur leagues), most of which are under $10 [additional pics here, here, and here]. Some of them have those pinned-on squares of fabric holding the rear uniform number, and some even have all the lettering done up with black Magic Marker. Sorry I didn’t send these to you before your trip to Minneapolis, but the pics have been stuck on my girlfriend’s camera for some time.
Sigh. Now he tells me.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Good article here about tennis equipment sponsorships (with thanks to Dominic Litten). … Mike Milici — the guy who wrote the cap surgery instrux that many of you have found so useful — has posted a bunch of Phillies clubhouse photos on his blog. Among the revelations: Ryan Howard has an Astros jersey hanging in his locker. Further details here and here. … “Last season, Pelle Prestberg, a player for Frolunda HC in the Swedish Elite hockey league, wore No. 100, instead of his usual No. 10,” writes R. J. Pratt. “Based on my VERY rudimentary Swedish knowledge and use of online translators, it appears that he wore it during 2005-06 to ‘celebrate’ the 100th anniversary of Lofsberg Lila, one of Frolunda’s sponsors (as I’m sure you’re aware, European hockey teams have long been victims of extreme logo creep, to the point where the team logos are often secondary). But that’s not the worst. Check out this photo, which shows the team wearing shiny metallic gold helmets. Perhaps the scariest hockey outfit ever worn.” … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: All the Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees are listed by uniform number here. … The Florida Marlins could become the Miami Marlins, according to this report. … The party line is the college football helmt merit decals originated with Ohio State in 1968. But according to this interview (kindly forwarded by Brian Hansen), Nebraska was doing it as early as 1956. To find the relevant portion of the interview, search on the word “Stauber” and read that paragraph. … Ottawa mayor Larry O’Brien wore a Senators jersey (the “M” is presumably for mayor) during a pep rally yesterday (as spotted by Bryan Redemske). … Quasi-logo-related item from Kim Kolb, who writes, “Thought you’d might want to check this out. Who are they? They’re the supporters’ group for the Philadelphia MLS team. Never mind that Philadelphia does not (yet) have an MLS team. They’ve organized, come up with a pretty good name and logo, and even gotten some press. They’ve even got a road trip planned to head up to Giants Stadium to boo the New York Red Bulls, because what Philadelphia sports entity can exist without a little hate for NY? Anyway, they picked the yellow and blue (hoping that a soccer team would follow suit) to match the Philadelphia flag.” … Holy crap.
Holiday Schedule: We’ll have open threads for at least two of the next three days. I might have a new entry on Sunday or Monday — or I might not. Either way, the Uni Watch membership program should be ready to launch when we reconvene next week. Have a great Decoration Day weekend, and watch out for American flag patches falling off of MLB caps.
May 25th, 2007
For a couple of years now, this 1968 SI cover has been a bit of a holy grail for me, because the players shown behind Pistol Pete are wearing the rarest of all uni accessories: vertically striped socks.
The problem, of course, is that the opposing players are small and barely visible in the background. Although you can’t tell from the photos, I knew that the other team was Tulane, because a few years back I’d seen a magazine photo (which I foolishly neglected to save) that showed the jersey fronts as well as the socks. I’ve tried several times to find that photo, or any other good photos of that Tulane uniform — no dice. When I called the Tulane athletic department a year or two ago, they claimed not to have any photos from 1968 (although I still suspect they were just too embarrassed by the socks to share any pics they might have).
But now, thanks to a Maravich photo gallery that went up on SI.com on Tuesday, we finally have a much better view of these north/south hosiery stripes: Behold!
Man, are those tough to look at or what? Obviously, I love stripes in general and striped socks in particular, but I draw the line at vertically striped hose, which inevitably look clownish (well, except maybe when deployed as shown at the top of this page). Still, it’s great to have a better look at this rare design.
That would have been enough to make my week, or maybe my month, but it turns out it was just the beginning. In yesterday’s Comments section, there was a bit of chatter about the Maravich gallery, including this note from Steve Stern: “I believe the Maravich pictures were taken by Rich Clarkson, a former SI photographer who has an amazing collection.” I hadn’t thought to search on the photographer’s name (stupid, stupid, stupid), so I tried that and ended up at Clarkson’s site. That in turn led me to this NCAA photo archive, which I’d somehow never known about before (stupid, stupid, stupid). And that, my friends, is where I hit the mother lode.
Dig it — nearly a dozen photos, all taken at the LSU/Tulane game on January 6th, 1968. Click through the thumbnails to get the full effect, but I warn you, it’s pretty brutal.
How rare are vertically striped socks? So rare that these are the only other instances I’m aware of:
• The 1960-61 Denver Broncos, whose infamous socks (visible to varying degrees here, here, here, and here) were eventually burned by the team at a public bonfire. Fortunately, one pair survives at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
• The mid-1960s Pearl High School basketball team in Nashville, which upon closer inspection actually wore conventionally striped socks over the vertical stripes. (Further info on this historically important team is available here.) Of course, if one high school team was wearing the longitudinally striped hose, others probably were too.
• The Harlem Magicians — presumably a Globetrotters-esque team — whose uniform is shown on here (as showcased on the excellent Dick’s Courtroom site). Again, if this team was doing it, they probably weren’t alone.
Then there are some borderline cases. The stripes worn by the 1914 Victoria Bees, for example, didn’t run the full length of the sock. And Nike’s “Swift” hockey template only has stripes on the front of the shin, not the whole way around. If anyone knows of other examples, fill me in.
That Maravich gallery, incidentally, has lots of other good stuff, including a short-sleeved jacket, a great LSU logo illustration, and, of course, Pistol’s signature droopy socks.
Finally: First person who can post a comment explaining the headline of today’s post without help from a search engine (honor system) gets a Uni Watch T-shirt. Again, post your answer as a comment, not as an e-mail to me.
Motown Tribute: The hockey world is abuzz over the very uni-centric ceremony that the Red Wings arranged for the retirement of Steve Yzerman’s number on Tuesday night. Instead of doing the usual lookalike jersey routine, they were more creative, as David Main explains:
All the former players serving as honored guests had their names and numbers affixed to the current style Red Wings jersey, along with the commemorative “19″ patch. Current Red Wings then lined the red carpet for Yzerman’s entrance, wearing various jerseys from Yzerman’s career: Red Wings from 2002 Cup finals (two patches — one for the finals, and the “19″ patch), Team Canada from his gold medal-winning team, old-fashioned Campbell Conference All-Star jersey, and Peterborough Petes home and road jerseys (with disgusting manufacturer’s logo apparent — I doubt it was that way in Yzerman’s playing days).
In addition, the team’s previous retired numbers were rededicated, complete with vertically arched nameplates, and the current team wore a jersey patch for the occasion. Nice job all around.
Christmas Bonus: When I wrote about the great Xmas presents given to me by Uni Watch hedge fund analyst Jenny Strasburg, I left out one gift: a cool vintage bowling shirt, which turned out to be a smidge too small. We exchanged it a few days ago, and I like the new shirt even better than the first one, in large part because of this spectacular chain-stitched design on the back. Bowling, football, team logos, old-school uni designs, animal mascots, the Midwest — all (well, most) of my favorite food groups!
Uni Watch News Ticker: On Tuesday I jokingly mentioned the possibility of NHL cheerleaders. Turns out they’re no joke, at least not for the Hurricanes, Islanders, Coyotes, and Flyers, among others. Okay, so some of those are actually ice clean-up crews, not cheerleaders, but that’s close enough for our purposes. Thanks to everyone who clued me in on this one. … Minnesota-Duluth has cheerleaders, too. … Ever wonder if there’s a web site devoted to the uniforms of the Japanese national volleyball team? There is (with thanks, of course, to Jeremy Brahm). … And there’s a good history of Mexican soccer kits here (courtesy of Janssen McCormick). … Michael Rich notes that the Gator Bowl patch was coming loose from several Georgia Tech jerseys the other day. … Vacation report from Michael Rich, who writes: “I was in Tombstone, Arizona, last week and discovered an interesting photo on the wall at the OK Coral Museum (famous, of course, for the gunfight involving Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, et al. on Oct. 26, 1881). The photo depicts the Tombstone Football team in 1904. I also saw a fantastic logo for what I’m pretty sure is the local high school. It would have been easy for the Tombstone Fighting Yellow Jackets to steal their logo from Georgia Tech (and, sadly, another sign around town confirms that they have), but this unique logo was both fantastic (love the bow tie and the growl) and bizarre (does it have 3 wings? why are the arm and leg thicknesses so different?). It even appears to have a sailor hat.” … We all know minor league hockey teams tend to have advertising on their jerseys these days. But wearing an ad on your ass is particularly pathetic (as spotted by Dave Sizer). … Remember Joe Pavelski’s upside-down Reebok logo? Here’s an update from Dave Shucosky: “Pavelski switched from No. 53 to No. 8 after the Calgary game on the last Sharks homestand (I guess because he’s staying put), and his road 8 jersey now has the correct Reebok logo. I guess they dug that 53 out of the closet because they didn’t know how long he’d stay up.” … Several readers have noted the USC center Ryan Kalil has a “10″ decal on the back of his helmet, presumably so QB John David Booty (who wears No. 10) doesn’t accidentally set up under the wrong lineman. Here’s a screen shot, courtesy of Don Schafer. … Not uni-related, but I contributed to Page 2’s “List of Lists” rundown the other day. … Good article here about Ohio State’s merit decals (credit a buckeye to Matt McLaughlin). … Uni Watch design director Scott M.X. Turner found this on eBay. “The 1964 World’s Fair was so Mets-oriented [as seen by the sleeve patch that the Mets wore that year],” he writes, “so I’m surprised to see a Yankees program with a World’s Fair tie-in.” … Loads of great contributions from Montreal-based reader Jonathan Goupil: 1) “Montreal’s French newspaper, La Presse, had a story where they recalled how the Canadiens franchise was born in 1909. Here’s a scan of the uniforms the Habs wore in 1909-10 through 1916-17. The caption said that after the 1915-16 Stanley Cup, the owners decided to keep the jersey pretty much as it was, to bring a winning tradition to the team.” 2) “La Presse also ran a contest for readers to send in new logo designs for the Habs.I’m sending you the two that were worth looking at. The others were sent by 8- to 10-years-old boys and were all basically the ‘CH’ logo with flames around it.” 3) “I found this photo of former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and Russia’s Valdimir Putin trading hockey jerseys in 2002. Note that the Russian jersey says (I guess) ‘J. Chrétien’ in Russian, while the Canadian jersey says ‘Putin.’ ” [Also note the back-collar logo creep on Putin's jersey. -- PL] 4) In response to our recent survey of Presidents in uniform, Goupil came up with two shots of JFK: one of his prep school football team (he’s second from the right) and one from his days on the Harvard swimming team.
January 4th, 2007
A few disclaimers to start off the year: First, I watched exactly zero football over the holiday weekend, so you’ll have to forgive me if I missed a few things. Also, I spent very little time on the computer over the past few days (I’m still catching up on e-mail and reading through the Comments sections), so if you sent me something and I didn’t respond or include it in the ticker, hang in there — it’ll take me a few more days to get back up to speed.
Now then: Back on December 20th, I linked to this article about the Redskins’ cheerleaders, which in turn included a link to this timeline. That prompted a my-t-informative dispatch from Becky Stein, as follows:
Thought you’d like to know that that “present” outfit [in the timeline] is actually not the current one. I know, cuz I worked for the company that made ‘em (and the outfits for a bunch of other squads, too) from 1999 until last June. The uni has changed very slightly each of the last few years. The one shown in the timeline was from about 2001. We dropped the waistband on the shorts slightly each of the next two years, redesigned the top (that one was the “420-3F,” and their current top is a version of the “260-2″ halter [you can see these and many of the company's other standard styles here -- PL]), changed the rhinestone patterns, etc. Also: This year Donald Wells — Director of Cheerleaders and Entertainment for the Redskins — asked for a short that has striping on the side to match their neckline trim, and to go with their “jersey tops.”
There’s a good photo gallery here that shows a lot of the company’s cheerleader uniforms. If you go look closely at the New England Patriots pic, you’ll notice that she’s wearing a Buffalo Jills skirt — they screwed up during the photo shoot two years ago!
As far as I know, only a few companies make the girls’ unis, and you might be surprised to know that they aren’t the logo-creepers — at least not for the signature outfit each team wears. The big three are the Line Up, Satin Stitches, and Angela King Designs [you might want to mute your computer's sound before checking out the Angela King page -- PL].
If you want to know more, there’s a blog specifically geared to pro cheerleading, with GREAT photos and links to all the other cheerleading pages.
I think I speak for everyone here when I say I’d like to do a cheerleader on the 50 yard line thanks to Becky for that dynamite introduction to the world of cheerleader uni design.
A few thoughts:
• I like it when a cheerleader’s uniform mimics a few elements of the team’s football uni. Striped sleeves? Good. Striped boots that look like striped socks? Even better.
• It strikes me as nothing short of bizarre that you can dress up your very young child as an NFL cheerleader (additional disturbing examples here and here).
• If the NBA can have cheerleaders on the court, why can’t the NHL have cheerleaders on the ice? A marketing coup waiting to happen!
• Is it just me, or do some of those NFL cheerleaders look a bit androgynous?
Coming tomorrow: a thorough examination of the waitress uniforms at Hooters.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Sunday’s entry about sailor-hatted school mascots brough this from John Okray: “The ‘Strutting Wolf’ of NC State, who also wears a sailor hat, was designed in the 1970s by a student. However, everyone knows that the student ripped off the idea from Bucky Badger of the University of Wisconsin (which was designed in 1940). The logo theft is still a controversy today in Madison.” … Movie review from John Philips: “While watching the Will Smith movie Pursuit of Happyness, I completely irritated my wife with my noting of an erroneous uniform worn in a 1981 Giants/49ers game that’s central to the movie. While the 49er uniforms were the old 1980s style, the Giants were wearing blue pants, which were only worn from 1975 through 1978. My wife gave me a disgusted look and munched some popcorn.” … The minor league Grand Rapids Griffins rang in the new year with tuxedo-styled jerseys (an extra champagne toast to Brittany Mohr). … Anyone know what the story is behind the new jerseys being worn by the Wisconsin hockey team? … The new MLB batting practice jerseys (slightly updated from the last round we saw), straight off of Majestic’s web site. … Great first-hand report from Matt Ryburn, who writes: “I’ve worked the Rose Bowl as an usher the past nine years. We wear a Rose Bowl cap, which we keep, and a Rose Bowl jacket, which has be returned in order to get paid. Anyway, we had these old, ratty button-up jackets for several years, and they were pretty horrible. But this year we got new ones, and I had to smirk when I saw the supplier. But I was very grateful for the jacket’s quality. Our hats are also made by the same supplier, but they were ugly in my opinion, so I did not wear mine.”
January 2nd, 2007
Another university is doing a public service by putting its visual history on the web. Reader Dan Hardin has the details:
Texas A&M has an ongoing project to digitize historic pictures related to the university. Many are of athletic teams, and touch on some of your favorite uni-related items:
• From pre-1900s baseball, here are some interesting collars and pants.
• Here’s another early baseball shot, with some players with pointed collars and some with turtlenecks, a couple wearing ties, and oh my, the socks! [The "AMC" insignia refers to the school's original name, Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. And yes, this baseball team sure looks football-ish, but note the bats and gloves in the foreground. -- PL]
• In 1923, the team name was on the placket. This isn’t the greatest picture, but it’s more notable for who’s included — in the back row, second from left, is King Gill, the original A&M “12th Man.” And in the middle of the back row, the tallest one, that’s Pat Olsen, a former major leaguer for whom the A&M baseball stadium is now named.
• The football team of the 1970s featured some interesting stripeage.
• These 1943-44 basketball uniforms, however, were much more unfortunate, at least in my view. [I beg to differ. -- PL]
This is just a sampling. You can access the entire collection here.
The archive is a friggin’ gold mine, whether you’re into baseball (look here, here, here, and here), basketball (here, here [those sneakers!], here, here [love those matching striped kneepads], and here [is that the most amazing jersey design ever or what?]), or football (here, here [note the refs in jackets and bow ties], here, here [ref now in slacks and broadcloth shirt], here, here, here [rear pants striping!], here, here, and here).
Sorry, got a little carried away there, but that’s how good this material is. And there’s a lot more where that came from. Lots of little anomalies, too — two different members of the 1938 football team, for example, were photographed while wearing a No. 57 jersey, and both of them had mismatched numbers on their helmets.
Kudos to Texas A&M for documenting its own history, and thanks again to Dan for the tip.
Duck L’orange L’jaune: By now we’ve all seen the yellow Oregon helmet shown at right. But until yesterday, I hadn’t seen anyone actually wearing the damn thing. That changed last night, when Uni Watch Omaha bureau chief Bryan Redemske sent me a trio of pics that went out over the AP wire but somehow never circulated on the web. Take a look here, here, and here.
They look kinda like motorcycle helmets, no? Fortunately, I already have plans for Thursday night (gonna be attending the annual holiday fish fry at the completely wonderful Sunny’s Tavern, hosted by the even more wonderful Sunny Balzano), so I won’t have to watch the horrid spectacle of the Las Vegas Bowl.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Logo Creep Alert from Travis McGuire, who writes: “I found this photo on the Arena Football web site promoting their new video game. The funny thing is, the Russell Athletic logo on the sleeve is quite large, but it doesn’t appear on this version of the photo, which is on the Chicago Rush home page.” … “Anquan Boldin looks like he needs a belt,” observes Uni Watch intern Vince Grzegorek, who also sent along this circa-1950 photo of a primitive facemask being worn by Brown goalie (and future U.S. Olympian) Don Whiston. … Yesterday’s post about outdoor basketball prompted several readers to mention that basketball was played on a clay court at the 1936 Olympics (the first year it was a medal sport). Brian Jackson turned up this photo (which doesn’t really show the court, but at least you can tell it’s outside) and a booklet digitized in this PDF file, which includes a player’s recollections of the court (go to the 18th page of the document, which is page 14 of the booklet itself). … Amusing blog entry here about the Redskins’ cheerleaders. There’s also a mention of the now-defunct Steelerettes, who clearly had the best cheerleader unis of all time (further details on them here, but you might wanna hit your mute button first; tip courtesy of Neal Shaffer, who also sent along a page of great Iowa high school patches).
December Call-Up: Attentive readers (which means, y’know, all of you) have undoubtedly noticed my recent references to Uni Watch intern Vince Grzegorek, who scored the trivia quiz and has been helping me out lately with photo research. Tomorrow he joins the active roster, as I’m turning over the blog’s main entry to him for a day. Not gonna tell you what he’s writing about, but I’ll give you a hint: Vince lives just outside of Cleveland, and his debut entry definitely reflects his locale.
Finally, I’m not gonna be around for most of today (Uni Watch hedge fund analyst Jenny Strasburg and I are gonna go see this and this, and then check out what we’re gonna cook for dinner!). So talk amongst yourselves today, treat Vince right tomorrow, and I’ll be back on Friday.
December 20th, 2006
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