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Posts filed under 'Helmets'

A Different Vault to Explore

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A few weeks ago I featured some David Boss photos from the U.S. Presswire archives, but I didn’t spend much time exploring the rest of the U.S. Presswire database. Fortunately, reader Bill Kellick did, and he’s come up with some really good stuff. Let’s take a look:

Helmet carts! That’s from the halftime show at Super Bowl VII. Here are their AFC counterparts.

• Great shot of a 1973 Vikings/Rams game, with a sensational view of the Met scoreboard. Ricko, were you at that game?

• Dwayne Crump had unusual NOB lettering, no? Looks to have been sans serif, and larger than the standard size.

• Don’t think I’ve ever seen Fred Biletnikoff wearing this kind of facemask before. Compare to the images shown here.

• Similarly, Walter Payton usually wore this mask design — but not always. That’s from 1975, his rookie year.

• Maybe the weirdest football facemask of the bunch: Look what Toni Fritsch was wearing with the Houston Gamblers. It’s like like a double-bar version of Scott Player.

• Speaking of facemasks, check out this! That’s Dave Gambee of the 76ers, guarding Elgin Baylor. Reminds me of these.

• Here’s an oddity: a Giants/Steelers photo with the Jints wearing logo-less helmets. The caption lists it as “unknown date,” but it must have been a preseason game.

• Arguably an even bigger oddity: Denver Broncos running back Lonnie Perrin kicking off. The date is listed as 11/13/77. Anyone know if Jim Turner was injured during that game?

• Here’s an unusually good shot of a clear-shell helmet. You can really see how the merit decals are on the outside of the shell while the striping and paint were applied from the inside. Interestingly, the nose bumper has the Wilson logo, but it’s actually a MacGregor helmet. Jeff Fedenko, who’s our resident clear-shell expert, speculates: “There may have been some sort under-the-table endorsement deal for the then-’amatuer’ Mr. Dorsett, as he was in the midst of the Heisman chase during his senior season. His helmet lacked the Wilson bumper in his previous seasons.”

I’m sure there’s more good stuff in the U.S. Presswire archives — updates to follow.

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ITEM! Everyone loves talking about pants and socks: Nick Swisher of the Yanks went high cuffed on Friday night, which prompted the following bit of discussion between announcers Michael Kay and John Flaherty (with special thanks to Joshua Paster, who pointed me toward this one):

Flaherty: Going with the high pants, Nick Swisher.

Kay: Were you a high-pants guy at the end?

Flaherty: No. I laugh when I see the high pants. I always thought if you saw a guy with his pants high, he’s just telling everybody, “I’m struggling, and I’m changing it up a little.” That’s the way I always felt. Now, Nick had one of those days yesterday — he was 0-for-3 with walk, hit the ball hard every time, had nothing to show for it. Maybe switching it up a bit.

Kay: And then you have A-Rod. He wears ’em high, doesn’t struggle. Home opener, Swisher had bell bottoms on.

Flaherty: I was playing for Tampa one year, and Hal McRae came in as the new manager, and he made it a rule that everybody had to wear their pants up high. Randy Wynn, who’s now on the Yankees, was part of that. [This is inaccurate, or at least an overstatement. McRae's actual rule was that players had to cuff their pants at least four inches above their ankles, which is a far cry from Swisher's high-cuffed look. -- PL]

Kay: Did you fight it?

Flaherty: I was not a big fan.

The director obligingly posts a shot of Flaherty during his Yankees days.

Kay: There’s John Flaherty. Shown’ a little sock — a little.

Flaherty: A little. I tried to take the elastics out of the bottoms of the pants so they’d hang down.

Kay: Now you didn’t start your career like that when you were with the Tigers, right?

Flaherty: Well, I started with the Red Sox, and I would wear the traditional stirrup, but I still didn’t like it high. I liked it down by the ankle.

Kay: I want to say one thing, because I know you get sensitive with me: I knew you started your career with the Red Sox. But you really played a lot more with the Tigers. So that’s what I meant.

Flaherty: Yeah, but I still wore my pants the same way, whether I was ridin’ pine in the bullpen or actually playing. You just never paid attention, because I wasn’t a starter.

Kay: That’s a good point. But of course you were a huuuuge starter, and star, with Tampa Bay.

Flaherty: I don’t know if you actually could have been a star on Tampa Bay, with those lean years with the Devil Rays back then.

Kay: But I think you still did a good job there. Signed some big contracts. That’s a star. Let’s take a look back at your time in Tampa. [Screen shows a clip of Flaherty as a Devil Ray.]

Flaherty: See, the pants are down.

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ITEM! Mets actually get something right: I meant to mention this about a week ago, but somehow it got lost in the shuffle. So: I attended the third Mets game of the season and was seriously impressed by the new Mets Hall of Fame. They clearly hired a professional exhibition-design firm — the space is well-conceived, with lots of cool features like video kiosks. Plenty of attention is paid to all phases of the team’s history, including the early Shea era — no Wilponian whitewash here. Bravo.

A few notes:

• Most fascinating artifact in the entire place is a sheet of handwritten notes from Casey Stengel.

• If you liked that, you’ll probably also like this Darryl Strawberry scouting report.

• Never seen this Shea Stadium dedication magazine before. Wish I could’ve seen the interior pages. Does anyone have a copy of this?

• For those of you who are still arguing over what the team’s colors were originally supposed to represent, add this to the debate.

• One thing that’s always puzzled me: During the first 20 years or so of the team’s existence, Mr. Met was always shown wearing an orange-brimmed cap (additional examples here). That even extended to this bobblehead, which I’d never seen before.

• There’s a nice jersey gallery, although it has a serious factual error (the Mets actually switched to double-knits in 1972).

• Funniest thing about the entire exhibit: Ron Hodges made the Mets Hall of Fame! Nice of the Mets to honor his number every April 15th.

All in all, a pretty good job. Would’ve been nice if they’d had it ready to go when the stadium opened last year, but hey, we’re talking about the Wilpons here.

Uni Watch News Ticker: In addition to wearing those A’s logo stirrups, Rajai Davis has also been wearing a gray-underbilled cap, at least on the road. Ditto for Ryan Sweeney (as noted by Brandon Davis). … No photo, but here’s an interesting note from Jackie Robinson Day: When the Phillies received their N.L. championship rings prior last Thursday’s game, they wore their regular uniforms with their standard uni numbers and NOBs. Then they changed to their NNOB 42s for the game (as reported by Kevin Collins). … Rochester Red Wings uni history is available for download here (with thanks to Kris Lincoln). … New memorial patch for Oregon State baseball and softball. It’s in memory of Al Reser, for whom the school’s football stadium is named, so I assume the football team will be wearing a patch or decal this fall. According to Aaron Maisel, the patch design is patterned after Reser’s company logo. … Is this the world’s largest knit jersey? “It’s a knit replica of the Japanese national team uniform, but it does not have the adidas logo, nor does it have the Japanese Football Association logo,” says Jeremy Brahm. “It’s 30 ft. by 23 ft. They are hoping that it will break the Guinness World Record.” … You know those colorful jackets worn by stock and commodities traders? Here’s a nice little item about the company that makes them, plus a video report (as noted by Lori Baker on her Facebook page). … Bengie Molina is refusing to wear those new padded batting gloves, because the yellow padding clashes with the Giants’ color scheme (with thanks to Brinke Guthrie). … Those white cleats that some players wore on Jackie Robinson Day included a little silhouette of Jackie sliding (with thanks to Brian Rowland). … Ryan Connelly came across a photo blog filled with sensational old photographs. Mostly non-sports, but whatever — not to be missed. … You have got to be kidding me (courtesy of Brinke Guthrie). … A little birdie has the following report regarding the Penguins: “They’re scrapping their new alternates for at least a year. The reason is Winter Classic-related. Just found out about it on Friday.” … Rare sight: Kent Tekulve as a Red (good find by Nick Houser). … Now that’s a prom outfit (with thanks to John Muir). … Coupla championship ring questions from Bill Grindler: First, what is the symbol inside the Stargell Star on the Pirates’ 1979 ring? Second what’s the significance of the number sequence on the scoreboard on the Dodgers’ 1978 N.L. championship ring? Anyone know? (Update: I’m informed by several readers that the number on the Dodgers ring represents the team’s attendance that year — the first time an MLB team had drawn three million people.) … Cork Gaines explains the odd quirks of the Rays and Bosox on Saturday night: “They completed a suspended game from Friday night. On Friday all of the Rays were wearing No. 42 (they didn’t play on Thursday). But when they completed the game on Saturday, they were wearing their standard road jerseys. So every player was wearing a different number than he was wearing when the game started. Also, after completing the suspended game, the Rays switched to their navy blue alternate for the regularly scheduled game. So the Rays wore three different jerseys in less than 24 hours.” … New uniforms for Indiana football (with thanks to Jordan Owen). … Mike Hersh was nice enough to send over some scans from this 1976 hockey catalog. You can see the full set here. … Jonathon Binet was looking at photos of Auburn’s spring football scrimmage and noticed that the helmet logo appears to be slightly larger. … Bill Kellick found some spectacular home movie footage of a 1969 Oklahoma/K-State game. Among the many fun details, note that the officials did not have uni numbers. … In case you missed it in Phil’s Sunday report, the Indians wore khaki caps “made from recycled materials” on Saturday. … I may bid on this bizarre 1970s basketball warm-up shirt. I’ve never seen anything like it, but sporting goods maven Terry Proctor has: “I have sold that uniform series before. Back in the early 1970s, SandKnit made a whole series of basketball uniforms, girls’ uniforms, and coaches’ wear that they called SandPlaid, if I remember correctly. They had a few different plaid patterns (MacGregor, Black Watch, etc.) made up in combinations that would coordinate as inserts or panels with team uniform colors. The whole package had a limited appeal and was fairly expensive, and was dropped after a few years. We sold a couple of sets. One was to Wheatland-Chili Central High School in Scottsville, New York — there was a heavy Scottish heritage in the area and the teams were then known as the Scotsmen. Their colors were royal and white and they bought the whole thing with a blue/white/gold plaid pattern.” … As most of you are aware, the Yanks have changed the color scheme of the MLB logo on the back of their jersey this season, going from blue-white-red to blue-white-silver. The thing is, the silver is too light — it kinda fades into the background, so all you see, is the blue portion on the left, which makes the logo look off-center. … David Teigland reports that the U.S. Postal Service plans to issue these Negro Leagues stamps in June. Nice. … One of Brooks Robinson’s stubby-brimmed helmets was recently up for auction (with thanks to Bruce Menard). … Mets outfielder Frank Catalanotto has an “F-Cat” label on his helmet (good catch by Mike Mattison). … Good article about Coyotes goaltender Jason LaBarbera’s wrestling-themed mask designs here, plus a photo gallery Here (with thanks to Jacob Kubuske). … Matthew Hackethal recently picked up some old programs — Giants/Cardinals 11/4/62 and N.Y. Rangers 1/13/52 — and was nice enough to scan the covers and some ads. … There are long NOBs, and then there are really long NOBs. That’s Mats Zuccarello-Aasen, who’s about to sign a contract with the Rangers (with thanks to Seth Horowitz). … Spring football news from Robert Eden, who writes: “In a very confusing move for the Red/White game, Nebraska had offensive players for both teams wearing red jerseys, and defensive players for both teams wearing white jerseys. So how were fans supposed to tell which team was which? By the colors of their pants, of course. The Red team wore red pants and the White team wore white pants. So here’s the White offense against the Red defense, and vice-versa. The whole thing gave me a headache, trying to concentrate on a player’s pants instead of his jersey.” … Some San Francisco Giants uniforms have ended up in a very interesting final destination (big thanks to Jeff La Haie). … Unusual uni number font for Brewton-Parker College (with thanks to Erik Morris). … I hate gyms, so I get my exercise by cycling in Prospect Park for an hour every day, a routine I fell into shortly after buying my last bike in 1998. That bike has served me well, but as of last Thursday I’ve been been doing my daily cruise on a new set of wheels, and I’m very, very happy. Big thanks to Uni Watch cycling guru Bryan Redemske for all his help with this purchase. … The best song you’re likely to hear this year is “The Radio,” by PT Walkley. You can stream it for free (along with two other tunes, both of which are okay but not in the same league) here. Enjoy.

193 comments April 19th, 2010

Pack To The Future

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By Phil Hecken

Late yesterday afternoon, the Green Bay Packers, they of steeped tradition, unveiled a (gasp) third jersey (also known as an “alternate”) during their annual Packer Fan Fest. Basically, what they have created, at least in theory, is a “throwback” to the 1929-30 uniform (the year they won their first NFL Championship). You see, the Packers didn’t just unveil a new jersey, but a whole new uniform. Again, this is supposedly based on their 1929 uni set. But is it?

Let’s take a closer look. In 1929, the front numbers were about one and one half inches high. It’s hard to tell in black and white, but the jersey was blue — just what shade of blue depends upon the artist’s rendering or the colorizing skills of the photoshopper.

If you look at those color prints closely, you’ll see that both players either wore or held a helmet. Now, helmets of the day were leather, but it’s hard to tell if those were painted gold or if that was just the artist’s impression. For the sake of argment, we’ll assume they were brown leather.

You will also note that the players wore white oversock on top of their (one assumes) blue stirrups. As was the style at the time, the sleeves are full length. The best approximation of what they wore probably comes from this model (which Larry Bodnovich graciously provided to me), showing a brown helmet, blue shirt and socks, and khaki pants, with white, rolled up socks.

This was the look the 2010 Packers were trying to recreate for their first ever “alternate” jersey (aside from special games like those played on Thanksgiving and the 1994 75th Anniversary games). So, how did they do?

Well, if the jersey on the left is any guide…not so well. First of all, due to NFL regulations, they couldn’t keep the numbers at an inch and a half high in the front — so, they made them big…like, REALLY big. While that’s in order to conform with uniform regulations, my first impression was “jeez, that looks really stupid. Unfortunately, first impressions are often lasting. I mean seriously, do these two even remotely look similar?

Yes, I know they’re not going to make a modern jersey with full length sleeves. And I know they can’t use the tiny bullseye with the even smaller numbers, but this isn’t a “throwback,” it’s approaching a “fauxback.” And with all the great uniforms in the Packer history, this is the one they chose? Yes, I realize they wore the jersey on the left for their first championship, so it makes sense, but damn…I’m just not liking the execution here.

OK, so the jersey is a little lacking, but what about the rest of the uniform — did that come close to the 1929 version? Well, they went with a brown helmet and tan pants. Those fairly well replicate the 1929 uniform. Unfortunately, the helmet appears to have a glossy finish, when they could have made it matte, but it does have a gray facemask…and a giant warning label. I know they’re required (right?) to have that, but they couldn’t have removed it for the presser? And, obviously facemasks weren’t worn in 1929, so we’ll just accept that the gray is the color of choice. I have no problem with that. They could have made it blue…or worse, black.

Finally, the socks are solid blue. Whether or not this will be how they take the field remains to be seen, but tradition dictates that they should be wearing short white socks over the blue leggings. Another anachronism.

I’ll leave the “is it good or stupid” test to Paul, but based strictly on how this uniform looks, I have to give this a grade “C”. First of all, the giant yellow circle on the front looks stupid. A brown helmet, with a blue jersey and tan pants? Um, no.

But this is a fauxback, and I’ll give them an “A” for effort. This is an absolutely welcome change in a day and age when third jerseys are becoming either alternate colors (or exact replicas otherwise) of the team’s home jersey, or some godawful neon snot thing. It’s refreshingly simple (if not downright gorgeous) at least when viewed from behind. Even the Reebok vector isn’t too annoying. And if they only wear it once or twice a season, I think I can grow to like it for what it is: a harkback to the past.

The official Packer’s website offers their own spin on the new uniform. They explain all the “problems” I alluded to above, and after reading it, I completely understand the effort that went into this. It’s a great effort. It’s just that strictly as a uniform, I’m going to have to learn to love it. It certainly blows away a lot of third uniforms out there. The local TV station, Fox 11 (from which those stills were taken) had a poll at the end of the segment. The poll asks the viewer their opinion on the new uniforms. If I were “voting,” I think I’d go with “I’ll have to see them in action.”

In case you missed it, Paul was interviewed by the ESPN radio station in Wisconsin, and you can listen to that segment (zip ahead to the 27:00 mark). In that, he discusses the new Packer unis. Also, there is about a five minute or so video segment showing the full uniforms as they were unveiled at the Fan Fest. Definitely worth a look-see.

Now, I think I will come around to really liking this uniform, but for now, I’m a bit disappointed. If they had wanted a third jersey so badly, they could have considered this. That’s Ricko’s creation, by the way, and while he didn’t enter it into the “design an jersey” contest, it might have done very well. Here’s how Rick describes it: “Worn once a season (first day game after Autumnal Equinox, to celebrate long history of Packer football in the fall in Wisconsin). Huston-era inspired, but not a true throwback. Vintage sleeve logo. Yoke high enough in back so NOB is white letters on forest. TVs white to not visually break up the yoke too much.” But that’s for another time — maybe in five years, when the blue jersey with yellow bullseye runs its course.

Back to the new uniform: What say you, Uni Watchers? How do you feel about the new uniforms? Did they score a six, or did they fumble? Or somewhere in between. Let’s hear your thoughts.

UPDATE: Here’s the best view yet of the unis on the players.

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Back to the Future, Part 2

By Phil & Rick Pearson

Last weekend, it all started. We got to talking about the return of the striped sock (but not a stirrup) for the Giants, as seen on one Barry Zito. One thing led to another, and I played around with how the Giants might look if they added a teensy stirrup and lowered the stripes. Then, how might that look if I raised the stirrup and lowered the stripes a bit more. Looks great, right? Like a real baseball stirrup should!

Rick Pearson, ever the resident baseball historian, privately remaked to me that “That’s how stirrups used to look” and how that look wasn’t new at all, but rather, a throwback to the 1947-48 stirrups worn by the New York Giants. Then, on Tuesday, Paul posted a ticker item showing that, indeed, Giants Minor Leaguers are actually being outfitted with those very stirrups. A new hope.

Now, the foremost expert on stirrups is, of course, Paul. But Ricko’s a pretty close second. What follows, then, is a very important history lesson on how we’ve almost come full circle on the stirrup. What was once good and glorious can and will be again — provided styles continue to evolve. What’s old is new again.

So, without further ado, I give you Ricko, and a brief history of the stirrup, as we go Back To The Future again. Here’s Rick:

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Let’s begin with an as-brief-as-possible look at the whole origin of stirrup socks.

Starting back more than a hundred years ago, dark color full socks just plain weren’t worn. Dyes were not colorfast and players had to protect against blisters and athlete’s foot and all manner of things getting infected. So they wore white “sanitary socks” under colored socks with a “stirrup” that extended under the arch (football and basketball were the opposite: White crews worn OVER stirrup socks). White had no dye in it, so either way the idea was the same.

In the early years, then, stirrups were ultra low and pants ultra high, like knickers. So stripes originally were quite often positioned really high.

Then as the game moved into the ‘30s and ‘40s, stirrups got slightly higher, probably more to do with socks stretching from use than for “style” purposes. But, players DID begin blousing their pants a bit—or a lot–lower. That meant the pants covered some of any sock striping there was, and left a lot of solid (void) space between the stripes and the stirrups. In the case teams like the Red Sox, for example, the navy above the stripes didn’t show at all.

So manufacturers moved the stripes down a bit, but through and after the World War II era, players came right back by pulling the stirrups even a bit higher.

About that time, manufactures figured out it was best to position the stripes always the same place relative to the stirrups. The idea was to have (hopefully) roughly equal amounts of the base color showing between the stripes and the front stirrup and the stripes and the bottom of the bloused pants.

That created arrived at the look shown on Johnny Mize in 1947 here at UW yesterday, a look that continued through the 50s and most of the ‘60s.

(Also about that time, manufacturers separated stirrup sock designs into two camps, and they stayed that way until the the mid-’70s), when one-piece striped white socks showed up in football, basketball…and on the White Sox.) The ‘50s also marked at the beginning of the “Common Visual Era” (meaning TV), during which far more people than ever before actually got to see unis live and in use.Some see that as the glory days of stirrups simply BECAUSE so many people actually saw them. Others point to the 20 and 30s as the best, holding up Ruth and Gehrig and others in their shorter pants and lower stirrups as the “Golden Age”. Maybe, but other than in still photos, that look was seen by comparatively few fans.

I prefer the “balanced” stripe position of the ‘50s — with not such a huge area of solid above the front stirrup and some of the base color showing above the stripes — because it was the result of a refining process, and has at least a HINT of symmetry, something missing entirely from earlier incarnations (ever see any early sketches on Darth Vader?) Not even CLOSE to as menacing and magnificent as Luke’s old man looked by the time filming began).

I also see it as great because as the ‘60s were winding down was when it started to get weird.

Frank Robinson hiked his stirrups way up, showing lots of sani, even combining two pair of socks into one. Hawk Harrelson did the same, as did others. Even Willie Mays was part of “pull ‘em up; way way up” group. Vida Blue went nuts with it, both with the A’s and, later, the Giants.

Some socks even allowed for that, with the stirrups actually interrupting the stripes.

Before long, there was nothing but ribbon for some.

Then there were the ghastly “knit-in” vertical stripes. Bill Buckner introduced high tops, but they didn’t look so good with that ribbon business. With Eric Davis’ high tops, the low Reds stirrups just looked like solid stirrup-less socks so that became a “look”.

Barry Bonds (and others), though, just wore their pants right down to the shoes.

Guess what THAT evolved (devolved?) into? And now the new Giants are bringing back striped socks stirrups, apparently both as strirrups and black full socks. First exposure, not so good. What Barry Zito’s wearing in this photo is a soccer sock. Plus, pants bloused that high is a look that we have to go back at least 80 years to find. It IS, however, understandable. Doubleknit doesn’t blouse worth a damn. Certainly not as nicely as flannel or cotton blends did.

Okay, so we’ll accept the high pants, not anything hinting at biker shorts football high, but high. Can’t fight city hall, or fabric-dictated difficulties. But let’s add a bit of stirrup, move the socks down to a sensible position (from a design standpoint if nothing else; let alone that MILLIONS saw that look when TV first allowed them to view live action baseball) position with some balanced space above and below the stripes. And recent photos indicate many of the Giants who show socks are choosing that version.

Well, there ya go. Them are some good-lookin’ socks. BASEBALL socks.

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moosemilitaryThe President of the Hockey Wing, Teebz checks in (pun firmly intended) with this little nugget about his hometown Manitoba Moose, who’ll be wearing a very special jersey this evening. I’ll let the Chancellor of Canuckistan explain:

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The Manitoba Moose welcome the Rockford IceHogs to MTS Centre tonight, but they won’t be wearing their normal home whites. And Mathieu Schneider won’t be there either. Instead, the Moose will be holding their annual Salute to the Military, and they will have military-inspired jerseys on. The front of the jersey has the Canadian Military Services logo on it in silver as a tribute to the three branches of the Canadian military. The brown on the sleeve stripes and hem stripe has been replaced with silver.

The back of the jersey has the standard military-esque font for the name and numbers, but there is an additional logo just underneath the numbers. That logo is the 100th Anniversary logo for the Canadian Navy and Marines. 2010 is the 100th year since their formation, and the Moose will be helping that group of brave men and women celebrate the Navy’s 100th anniversary. The yellow ribbon on the hem is there to signify the hope of the safe return of all the Canadian troops serving abroad which, to me, is a very classy move.

Honestly, I’m always happy to see teams honour the men and women who provide us our freedoms that we seemingly take for granted day in and day out, so I applaud the Moose for their efforts. I’ll be at that game tonight, so I’ll try to get a few pictures of the military jerseys, and maybe even try to get my hands on one! Go Moose Go!

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scoreboardGuess The Game From The Scoreboard: Another guest scoreboard today, and it’s brought to us from reader Chris Mayberry. It’s extremely difficult, but two obvious clues are the teams and the location. One more clue: Tugboat. If you’re unable to guess, I may drop in another clue to two as the day progresses. Ready? Guess The Game From The Scoreboard. Date, location and final score, please, and be sure to link to your answer. And, as always, if you enjoy the game, please send me some new scoreboards! Drop me a line. Thanks!

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benchies headerWell, it is baseball season, so the Boys of Benchies are back at it. Here’s Rick Pearson with a two-fer:

So you went to Florida, watched some Spring Training. Know what happens then, if you’re even remotely human? You start…thinking.

And with that, here is a double shot of Benchies for this fine Saturday.

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uni template 2Back again with more Uniform Tweaks, Concepts and Revisions today. Lots of different sports being represented today, and if you have a tweak, change or concept for any sport, send them my way.

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Kicking off the show today is Matt Sajna, who has tweaks for two sports, MLB and the NFL:

The first set is a redesign of the San Diego Padres. I kept the current script but tweaked it slightly and changed the colors to navy and orange. I also changed the road script to match the home, and added a navy blue alternate with an alternate cap.

The second set is a redesign of the Washington Redskins. I darkened the burgendy on both the jersey and the helmet. I changed the helmet logo to add the “R” in the middle instead of the redskin head. I also added the spear on the side shoulders of the jerseys as well as adding yellow pants.

Hope you enjoy them, I’ve got more I’ve been working on too that I’ll send along soon.

-Matt Sajna

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Next up is Jeff Shirley, who also has some multi-sport tweaks:

Phil,

Thanks for including me in your NFL jersey contest (even though I don’t have a prayer of winning). Here are some other uniforms I’ve been working on, usually when I should have been doing work around the house or something ‘more productive’ as my wife would say. My first submission is a tweak of the Bucks’ green jersey of the late 90’s. I wondered what red would look like as an accent to the green, and liked how it looked, although it’s much too 90’s for today’s NBA. My next tweak came from Nate Robinson’s video you posted where he said he wished the Knicks would incorporate the NYK logo onto their uniforms, so I created a home, alt, and road uniform using that logo, while ELIMINATING the black (if only the Mets would do as well). The next tweak is for the Atlanta Hawks, who have never looked good in blue and gray, along with that awful brown on their court, so I replaced their colors with a more tradiitonal red, black, and yellow from the 80’s and 90’s. My next submission is for the Memphis Grizzlies, who’s numbers on their light blue jersey are impossible to see on t.v., so I altered them a little bit, along with their home uniforms to match the same template.

In addition to the NBA designs, I included an altered Cowboys jersey that is similar to the one I included in the NFL contest, only with a royal shade of blue for a road uniform, along with white pants and a white helmet just for fun.

Thanks again for all your hard work.

Sincerely,

Jeff Shirley

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And our last set of concepts today comes from The Jeff, who has a few NFL redesigns Ricko is sure to love:

I’ve been working on my vision of the league and all 32 teams… I thought I’d send in a few of the more noticeable changes I’ve come up with.

Jets — basically I tried to merge the mid 90’s uniform with the current one. Lighter green, added black. I’ve been pondering the idea of home & away helmets so I’ve got both a green and a white helmet. I think it works either way.

Ravens — 4 words: black and purple gradient.

Bills — got rid of the extra colors and things that bug me about their current uniforms, but tried to keep a modern look. Again I’ve got both a red and a white helmet in use.. it’s all mix-n-matchable.

Patriots — sorta revisted the 1993 uniforms only with their current color scheme, and used a silver jersey instead of white, because I really don’t like white jerseys that much.

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Thus concludes the tweak show for today. Back with more next time.

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One last thing: Don’t forget, you can still vote in the Uni Watch Design A Uni Poll, which will remain open until next Friday, after which time, the winner will be announced. If you’ve already voted, sorry — one man, one vote — but if you haven’t, be sure to check out the 11 finalists and pick your choice for the best contestant.

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That’ll wrap it up for today. Have a great Saturday.

The most rewarding things you can do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done. — Arnold Palmer

122 comments March 13th, 2010

Head Games

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When I first ran this photo of Jackie Hayes last month, I wrote, “We reeeeaaaalllly need to find a photo of Hayes wearing this contraption in a game.” As you can see above, done and done (here’s a slightly larger version).

That photo was uncovered by Larry Granillo, who’s been researching the history of batting helmets. It’s one of many, many major finds he’s come up with, most of which he’s cobbled together into an absolutely seminal post on his own site, Wezen-Ball.com. It’s a detailed treatment of an important topic, and it deserves your full attention, so today I’m doing something unusual: I’m handing you off to Larry. Go read his entry on his site — seriously, do it now — and then come back here for the rest of today’s content.

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And now that you’ve done that…: Pretty great stuff, right? Most of that material was news to me. And I’d actually forgotten all about that Larry Doby photo, which I obviously should have referenced during our recent Jackie Hayes discussions.

A few additional notes:

• There’s an important non-helmet detail lurking in one of the other Larry Doby photos. Look — a batting glove! It’s even referenced in the caption. That photo ran on 6/5/56, which means Doby is one of the several players who wore batting gloves prior to Ken Harrelson doing so in the 1960s. (I debunked the “Harrelson was the first to wear gloves” story several years ago, but it’s always interesting to find further evidence.)

• Before he wrote that entry, Larry had been in touch with me and shared some of his research. I was surprised that a few things he showed me didn’t end up in his article, like this great photo, dated 2/5/41.

• Also not included in Larry’s article: a very informative article about the Dodgers wearing helmets in 1941.

Tremendous research, Larry — thanks for helping to fill in so many gaps in the timeline.

Giveaway Results: The winners of the two LPs are Julien Marques and Keith Meyer. More giveaways coming soon.

Uni Watch News Ticker: I had a blog item on Page 2 yesterday about an Oregon politican ripping off the Blue Jackets’ logo (with thanks to John Muir, who was the first of several readers to bring this one to my attention) … Apparently the Foot Locker at an L.A. mall stocks every kind of Dodgers-ish cap except an actual blue one (rare non-Life-related submission from Lance Smith). … Beggs High School in Oklahoma uses TLOB — team logo on back — for its football and basketball teams. “The logo is a Trident (we are the Demons), and I was told that the other end represents a flame,” says Kevin Allen. … Homage Clothing, one of our anchor advertisers at the top of the page, is running a one-week sale beginning this Sunday. … Kansas State hoops player Jacob Pullen has a big-ass sneaker collection. “Although he states that he likes to wear dark shoes with white unis and vice-versa, there have been some occasions when he’s gone dark on dark,” says Sean Kautzman. … Also from Sean: “I found this old KU basketball photo, which led me to this index of Chuck Taylor photos. It includes a gallery of Chucks being used in various athletic endeavors.” … Jim Mellett found a photo of Dick Fosbury (he of the famous Fosbury Flop) with mismatched footwear. … Sean Clancy found a cool page featuring motocross program covers. … Jared Rosen notes, quite accurately, that Salty’s NOB would make a killer membership card. … Cool item about the Mexico City Olympics graphic designer (with thanks to Alan Kreit). … Naturally, I love this 1972 ad, but it’s really weird. The only guys wearing stirrups on a football field would be the officials, but the officials wouldn’t be wearing knee pads or carrying a helmet (odd find by Paul Wiederecht). … “I discovered that the USS Carter Hall’s starboard engines have the logo of each NFL team painted on the covers to each cylinder, arranged by division,” writes Jonathan Sluss. “I was not permitted to take a photograph, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be found — you can see the Jets’ logo in this photo. I secretly hoped I would find the MLB logos in the Port engine room, but alas, that was not the case. There is a surprising amount of great art painted on the walls of these ships, however. Unfortunately, much of it gets painted over in gray or white as the crew revolves out.” … Latest team to be auctioning off a set of St. Paddy’s day warm-up jerseys: the Coyotes (with thanks to Kenn Tomasch). … Lots of Cool stuff in the new Ebbets Field Flannels catalog, including some great new T-shirts (I’m particularly partial to the Tri-City Atoms, Eau Claire Bears, and Hot Spring Bathers designs) and, my favorite, grounds crew jackets. Plus the printed catalog has a really nice memorial tribute to the woman who did the company’s chain-stitching. … Latest entry in the ever-growing library of books about uni numbers: the excellent Red Sox by the Numbers. Highly recommended. … A few months ago I looked at a bare strip of vertical molding in my apartment and thought, “A column of old pencil sharpeners would look really cool there.” So I started collecting them. Now the molding is full and the collection is spreading across the ceiling. … Interesting insignia style on this old baseball jersey, and check out the tri-colored initials on this one and the spectacular “National Milk” chain-stitching on this one. … One of you Twin Cities guys should snap up this baseball jersey. … Use the “Click to Enlarge” on the photos to see the awesome chenille uni numerals on this football jersey. … Very groovy find here: a blank Jaworski-era Eagles jersey, which you can customize as you see fit. Always loved those sleeve stripes. … I think we can safely say that this dude is the coolest curler ever. Love that chest patch (awesome find by Jeremy Brahm). … Julius Peppers will wear No. 90 for the Bears (with thanks to Steve Johnston). … Ever wonder what’s inside a rosin bag, and/or how to make your own? Then watch this really interesting video clip (great find by Tremaine Eto). … John Sheehan sent along some scans of these groovy old baseball photo cards. “They’re very thick like an old photograph, nothing on the back,” he says. … Zac Neubauer was looking through the October 1947 issue of Popular Science and thought I’d be interested in this uniform ad from a Brooklyn operation. The great part about this is that Triangle Sports is still in business at that same location, which is just a few blocks away from my apartment. I buy most of my underwear and sneakers from them. They’re totally gonna shit when I show them the old ad.

101 comments March 11th, 2010

New Gazoo Review

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Last week I wrote about new bats and batting gloves, and now it looks like we may have a new batting helmet too, at least judging by the new headgear Norris Hopper and Kevin Mench were wearing this past weekend.

I’ve sent e-mails to my contacts at Rawlings and hope to hear back from them soon, but here are a few thoughts to tide us over until then:

• I could be wrong, but I think this helmet looks a bit less bulbous than the S100, which is consistent with what Rawlings said at the end of last season, when they indicated that they’d try to make some adjustments to come up with something a little lighter and smaller.

• Hopper and Mench were not among the six players who wore the S100 last year (those were Ryan Dempster, David Wright, Carlos Guillen, Edgar Gonzalez, Micah Owings, and Shane Victorino), which means the new design already has some new potential converts. Impressive.

• As you can see, Hopper and Mench have both been wearing a double-flapped version of the new design. Righty and lefty versions are presumably still in the production pipeline.

• Mench’s helmet has a Rawlings wordmark above one side of the brim. I’m assuming that wouldn’t be there for a regular season game.

Further details on all of this as soon as I have them. Meanwhile, let me know if you’re aware of any other players wearing the new lids.

(Special thanks to eagle-eyed Aaron Clements and Brian Erni for spotting these helmets before I did.)

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Research Project: I’m about to start working on an ESPN column about ticket stubs — stub design, stub rituals, stub lore, stub-o-rama. If you have any particularly nice-looking stubs, or if you have some good stories regarding ticket stubs, or anything else you want to communicate to me regarding ticket stubs, don’t be shy.

Giveaway Reminder: I’m giving away two classic old NFL LPs. Full details here.

House of Hearts Reminder: My continued thanks to those of you who’ve contributed to my House of Hearts Bonspiel sponsorship fund. If you can kick in a mere five bucks (or more, if you’re feeling generous), it’ll go to a worthy cause and help me earn my keep at the charity curling tournament where I’ll be competing later this month. Full details here.

Membership Reminder: The Membership Program is once again open for business. The orders from the past three days are being processed and many of them are already featured in the card gallery. If you want to get on board, there’s no time like the present.

Uni Watch News Ticker: More Wisconsin high school basketball tournament slideshows from Jeff Ash — one apiece for the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Interesting to see how some of the 1970s uniforms were clearly influenced by Marquette. Here’s another example. … Mike Hersh has found one of the greatest auction items ever — a Flying Fathers jersey! Read the item description for details. … Other auction finds from Mike: a very interesting Phillies jacket (note the shoulder inserts, high pocket placement, and unusual sleeve color) and an incredible-looking Red Sox program. … Soccer story from Tyler Ostergaard, who writes: “N. Korea and Venezuela played a friendly match Thursday night, but N. Korea lost their uniforms and had to borrow Venezuela’s away uniforms.” … The Pats will be wearing Grogan-era throwbacks as an alternate look next season. … The Seoul Heroes are now the Nexen Heroes, which of course means new uniforms (with thanks to Dan Kurtz and Jeremy Brahm). … Longtime Uni Watch favorite Mark Penxa is running a contest to give away five illustrations from his latest Stealing Signs art series. For contest details, look here. … Nick Johnson’s recent back injury (presumably the first of many maladies he’ll suffer this year) was the due to wearing the wrong cleats for batting practice. … That crazy Ozzie Guillen wore stirrups on Friday (as spotted by Larry Kurtze). … Latest evidence that we’d all be better off if an asteroid plowed right into the planet: Florida is considering selling ad space on their license plates (courtesy of Jesse Agler. … Actually, let’s just have the asteroid plow into Florida, that would be better. … New uniforms for the Green Bay Blizzard (with thanks to the Rev. Nørb). … Jonathon Binet asks, not unreasonably, why the Auburn baseball team needs six different cap designs. Yes, the second and sixth ones look similar, but the last one has white outlining on the logo and white airholes. Similarly, the first one is white with a navy brim, while the fifth one is gray, not white. … Tom Turner claims that Rocky Blier’s cleats in this shot are actually curling shoes. “They were imported from Canada to use on artifical turf,” he says. “The Univ. of South Carolina also used them (my friend was head manager).” Can anyone confirm or refute? … North Central College’s baseball media guide shows the team’s jerseys from the 1980s through today. Plus the team wears stirrups! (With thanks to Eric Bunnell.) … Good story from Mat Orefice, who plays in the hockey-rock band the Zambonis: “Our lead singer, Dave Schneider, also owns a chain of hip-hop clothing stores in Connecticut, and he recently created a Whalers T-shirt design that he placed in his store window. A few hours later a guy comes in to buy a few for himself and his daughter. Who, you ask? Former Whalers captain Kevin Dineen! Glad to see tons of Whalers gear hitting the streets. Of course, I’m still the only one with a Whalers drum kit!” … People sometimes say I have a uniform fetish. But some people have a real uniform fetish, and those people are apparently creating a brisk black market for Japan Airlines stewardess uniforms (big thanks to Robert Leavell). … Good follow-up story from Mike Edgerley, who writes: “A couple of years ago I sent you some links that explained Port St. Joe (FL) High School’s tradition of wearing striped socks when reaching the state Final Four. Today, however, Tampa Prep finally defeated Port St. Joe and their ‘cat in the hat’ socks for the first time in five tries in the state 2A Final Four. Here’s some excellent video, with plenty of socks action and commentary.” … The Erie Bayhawks of the D-League recently played a game wearing the uniforms of their parent club, the Cavs. But some players had authentic Cavs NOBs while others had bogus-looking nameplate. As Anthony LoPinto explains, “Danny Green and Darnell Jackson were recently sent to the D-League after playing in about 20 games each with the Cavs, so they had their official jerseys.” The other players apparently had knockoff replicas. … College football is along way away, but here’s something to file away: Iowa will wear throwbacks against Ball State in late September (with thanks to Joe Wagner. … Also, when did Riddell go to this logo? I don’t recall having seen it before. … On Friday I asked about the Republic of France’s very Jerry Dior-esque logo. Got a fantastic response from Frenchman Jérémy Crampon, as follows: “I don’t think that republic logo has been inspired by the MLB logo cuz here nobody watch baseball!!! BIG SIGH!!! (I must be one of the only French to watch during warm summer nights some baseball on tv! Thank god i got this european espn version that broadcast games !!!) Anyway i admit we can see a similarity between these two logos!! The French logo is in service since September 1999. It represents our flag color! Blue ,white, red. The white part is Marriane’s head! Marriane is a national symbol of France. And then under the Marriane head there is our moto! I didn’t find yet whom created it and what is the story of the logo! It’s just a official logo that we can see on official papers from governement! When we have to pay taxes or I don’t know!” Merci. … Ooooh, check out these display helmets that Brinke Guthrie found. Amazing, right? What were they for? Also, note that the Saints helmet is black! … Mikey Caldwell reports that NESN did a “Best and Worst Uniforms” segment on a recent Bruins pregame show and used NHLuniforms.com templates without attribution. … Everyone’s gonna like this: Andrew Fladeboe’s father has dozens of amazing sports-themed Matryoshka Dolls. Where’d he get them all? “My dad works in international law and specializes in nuclear nonproliferation. After the fall of the Soviet Union it was important to make sure all the missiles and nuclear material were accounted for (which is still an issue today), so we ended up moving to Moscow from 1994-97. We would go to these huge outdoor markets where you could buy anything, and he sort of befriended one of the guys who made these Matryoshka Dolls. He kept asking my dad to bring him Street & Smith magazines so he could keep track of uniform changes and get the numbers and names right. The artist was also very particular about flesh color and really liked doing the retro uniforms. They were between $10-$15 apiece.” … Dig this super-cool soap box derby pin. … Just don’t give me the slice with the swoosh (with thanks to Brian Shane). … Omir Santos is wearing those newfangled batting gloves I wrote about last week (with thanks to Brian Erni). … Good to see Jamie Moyer’s stirrups are already in mid-season form (with thanks to Matthew Borda). … Ross Yoshida notes that the 4 in Travis Outlaw’s uni number is the wrong font. … Zack Tanner notes that Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen is still using his old Thrashers catching glove. … Great item up for auction: a pair of Hollywood Stars shorts (excellent find by Al Arauz). … New Poseidon-themed mask for Evgeni Nabokov (screen shots courtesy of Sean Robbins). … The Maryland baseball team is wearing stirrups this season (that good news relayed by Matt Shevin). … The Caps finally got around to wearing that 35th-anniversary patch on Saturday night (photo by Cheryl Nichols). … Also, the Caps had a historical jersey display in the lobby for that game, and Ken Pilpel got a bunch of photos. … Jacob Pomrenke was watching some old footage on the MLB Network and noticed that Kevin Mitchell went NNOB in his first game with the Giants in 1987. … Also: Jacob’s wife, Tracy Greer, has developed a specialty of crocheting baby blankets for friends and family members in team colors, like these Phillies and Mizzou examples. … It’s hard to see, but Rangers goalie Alex Auld is still using his Stars backplate (as spotted by John Muir). … Jubilo Iwata of the J-League are honoring Masashi Nakayama, who had played with the team for 20 years, with a uni-themed seat (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Also from Jeremy: these NFL children’s pajamas, which he saw at the Kohl’s in Portland the other day. … Still more from Jeremy: Here are the uniforms from the Top League (that’s Japanese rugby) All-Star Game.

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Virtue Rewarded: I watched the Oscars for the first time since 1998, mainly to see if Logorama would win. And it did! If you haven’t seen it yet, stop what you’re doing now and watch it here. And be sure to turn up the volume so your boss and co-workers can enjoy the finely crafted dialogue.

127 comments March 8th, 2010

When The Saints (& Colts) Go Marching In

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

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

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

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SAINTS:

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

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

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

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

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

1971: The Saints started wearing white shoes.

1974: Wore white jersey for every game.

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

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

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

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

1990: NOB’s got really squeezed tight.

1991: Wore a 25th season patch

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2004: Black cleats return.

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

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

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COLTS:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1973-74: Gradually changed to white cleats.

1977: Changed facemask color from gray to white.

1981: Chagned to solid blue socks.

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

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

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

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

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

1996: Switched back to black cleats.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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rays 2010 powder blue altIn probably the worst kept secret in alternate jersey releases in baseball, the Tampa Bay Rays have officially offered for sale their new alternate powder blue jersey. Of course, there has been no actual official announcement yet, but it will be coming. After earlier unveiling their powder blue BP cap, (they will have both a navy and a powder blue BP cap this year), speculation quickly followed that they’d be introducing a powder blue alternate.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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the who super bowlAs if you needed another reason to watch the Super Bowl, now you do:

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

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

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

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

Hey there,

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

Hope you enjoy,

Tom

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

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

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

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

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

-James Comfort

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

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

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

-Dennis from Philly

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

~~~

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

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*PHEW*

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

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

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

156 comments February 7th, 2010

The Who Cares Pro Bowl

1971-Fran TarkentonBy Phil Hecken

The Pro Bowl (tonight, 7:20pm EST, ESPN) hasn’t always sucked. But now it does, and even the most avid of Uni Watchers will be hard pressed to call this event a “must see.”

If you actually care to watch, today (tonight actually) the 2010 NFL Pro Bowl takes place in Hawaii…er, Miami, the site of next week’s Super Bowl XLIV. Seeking to fix what was broken, but for all the wrong reasons, the NFL has decided this year to play their year-end spectacular before the Super Bowl, and on the mainland. At least when the NFL played the game in Hawaii, the players viewed it as a joke with a nice vacation thrown in. Now? It’s just a joke. There must be some connection between the declining quality of the game itself and the uniforms, right?

This year, it’s even worse — and I’m not going to go on a rant here — but good lord, moving the game to pre-Super Bowl, to try to generate some excitement, has actually worked to the game’s disadvantage. You see, none of next weekend’s Super Bowl combatants are allowed to play in tonight’s game — which makes sense — but it means that, automatically, the following players are eliminated: (from the Colts): Peyton Manning, Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark, Jeff Saturday, Dwight Freeney, Robert Mathis, and Antoine Bethea; (from the Saints): Drew Brees, Jonathan Stinchcomb, Jahri Evans, Jonathan Goodwin, Jonathan Vilma, Darren Sharper, and Roman Harper. So, right off the bat, that’s 14 players, including BOTH Peyton Manning and Drew Brees, who were selected to be the starting quarterbacks. That means we’re left with a matchup of Matt Schaub and Aaron Rodgers.

Add in the following guys who won’t play “due to injury” (Philip Rivers, Chargers; Tom Brady, Patriots; Wes Welker, Patriots; Jake Long, Dolphins; Brian Cushing, Texans; Jairus Byrd, Bills; Nate Kaeding, Chargers; Brett Favre, Vikings; Steven Jackson, Rams; Larry Fitzgerald, Cardinals; Sidney Rice, Vikings; Andre Gurode, Cowboys; Kevin Williams, Vikings; Lance Briggs, Bears; Charles Woodson, Packers; Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Cardinals; and Patrick Willis, 49ers.) That’s 17 more. So, of the players selected to the Pro Bowl in 2010, fans won’t get to see 31 of them. Yeah, that seems like a good deal. If you’re still interested, here’s the full roster. Now, traditionally, lots of players somehow found themselves “injured” and unable to play, but they still enjoyed their Hawai’ian vacation. But there were never THIS many players selected to play in the game who will not. Good move, NFL.

But it wasn’t always that way. Although it has now become the least consequential and likely least watched “all star game” of the major sports (and maybe even hockey, too), the Pro Bowl has actually been played, in one form or another, for decades — beginning with “all star games” first staged in 1939, between the NFL champion and a team of all-stars compiled from the other teams. From 1939 through 1942 (when WW II took it’s toll on the players and the game), the New York Giants, Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears (twice) and the Washington Redskins all took turns scrammaging against the best of the rest.

The first true Pro Bowl took place on January 14, 1951, when stars from the NFL’s National and American Conferences faced off against each other. Accounts of what the players wore during the game are sketchy, however, it was likely blue (for the Nationals) and red (for the Americans). It was certain that during this game the tradition of having the National Conference wear blue (helmets), while the American Conference wore red. Both teams wore dark uniforms (or, I should say, the game was “color vs. color”). Another game would be held in 1952, and according to the game program, it was color on color again, with the National Conference wearing blue and the American Conference wearing Red. The third Pro Bowl game was played in 1953, this time with the American Conference donning white jerseys. Although the program covers for 1952 and 1953 depict white helmets, each team appears to have worn the color of their respective conference (blue for National, red for American).

Beginning in 1954, and continuing until 1970, the NFL would divide the teams up into the “Eastern” and “Western” conferences (this followed NFL procol, which had changed the names from American and National after the 1953 season). For the most part, the NFL kept the teams in their red and blue color designations (including the helmets), although several years had the players donning gold helmets (which occurred from 1967 through 1970) and wearing the NFL decal on the sides — the East wore a red-white-red tri-stripe and the Western a similar blue-white-blue tri-stripe. Players brought their own game helmets to the game, which were then spray-painted and decorated for the contest. (For the 1970 game the helmets featured the 50 NFL logo, which celebrated the first 50 years of NFL football.)

When the AFL came into being in 1960, that league began playing All Star Games as well, beginning in 1962 and up until 1970. Following the merger of the two leagues for the 1971 season, one Pro Bowl for the entire league was once again played. We’ll take a look at the uniforms from 1971-2009 (and also, for today’s game) in a moment.

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Wikipedia, the always trustworthy source, sums up the uniform designations thusly: “The teams are made of players from different NFL teams, so using their own uniforms would be too confusing. The players each wear the helmet of their team, but the home jerseys and pants are either a solid blue for the NFC or solid red for the AFC, while white jerseys with blue or red accents, respectively, for the away team. While it has been speculated that the color of Pro Bowl jerseys is determined by the winner of the Super Bowl, this is untrue.

“The design of Pro Bowl uniforms is changed every two years, and the color and white jerseys are rotated along with the design change. This has been Pro Bowl tradition since the switch to team specific helmets, which started with the January 1979 game. The two-year switch was originally created as a marketing ploy by Nike, and has been continued by Reebok, who won the merchandising contract in 2002.

“In the earliest years of the AFC-NFC Pro Bowl, the players did not wear their unique helmets, as they do now. The AFC All-Stars wore a solid red helmet with a white A on it, while the NFC players wore a solid white helmet with a blue N on it. The AFC’s red helmets were paired with white jerseys and red pants, while the NFC’s white helmets were paired with blue jerseys and white pants. Two players with the same number who are elected to the Pro Bowl can wear the same number for that game. [In the games early years], all players were required to wear different numbers, regardless of what jersey number they wore on their regular team. This changed … when players wore the jersey number on their regular team jersey, thus initially resulting in virtually every wide receiver on the field being numbered 80 or 81, a situation that, predictably, created significant confusion. Thus, it is recommended — although not required — that players use different jersey numbers, and generally when two players share a number, the less experienced one will wear a different number for the game.”

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So anyway, back to the uniforms, throughout the 1971-2009 history. Back in the first several years, as mentioned, the teams simply wore “N” or “A” helmets, with the NFC wearing blue jerseys and white pants. This continued until 1979, when players began wearing individual team helmets on top of their respective teams’ uniforms. No matter what the year, the uniforms remained a constant: AFC in team specific helmets with white jerseys and red pants with white-blue-white stripes, NFC in team helmets with blue jerseys and white pants with blue-red-blue stripes.

This set pattern persisted until 1989, when the NFL kept the same basic color schemes for both conferences, but added stars down the pants stripes (plus an “N” or an “A”) and contrasting colored outlines around the teams’ jersey numbers. This particular style lasted until 1994

Here’s where it all went to hell. Beginning in 1995, when the AFC was outfitted in garish costumes, and the NFC followed suit, uniform design has been, shall we say, lacking. The 1995 game featured the NFC in a “half blue/white” jersey blue pants (with the leotard look to boot), but for 1996 and 1997, they would switch to white pants. The AFC would stick with red pants throughtout the there year run, but in 1995 they wore red undersocks (for the dreaded leotard look), while in 1996 and 1997 they stuck with high white socks. One can only assume the jersey style was influenced by the CFL’s American contingent, since they sported small off-center numbers on the front of the jerseys. Mercifully, the three year run of that jersey design ended after, surprisingly, three years. Those uniforms were manufactured by Wilson.

1998 would usher in a new set of uniforms for the Conferences, with the AFC being outfitted in a solid red jersey for the first time. If one doesn’t count the 1995-97 jerseys as “white,” the NFC wore white jerseys for the first time. These two jersey sets weren’t all that bad (aesthetically), although they did feature rounded, drop-shadow numbers for both teams. Those uniforms lasted for three years as well, from 1998-2000. This was Nike’s uniform set.

The NFL would begin it’s “two and done” run of uniforms in 2001-02, and these were lackluster at best. The AFC was outfitted in red fading to white jerseys (in a gradient pattern) with white pants. The NFC, on the other hand, wore white fading to blue jerseys (in the opposite gardient pattern) atop blue pants. These uniforms were so bad that very few photos exist on the Interwebs of them. Perhaps that’s for the best. Reebok manufactured these uniforms, and would continue to do so through today.

2003-2004 didn’t get much better. Returning to a somewhat more traditional look, the AFC wore white over white, with garish side panels and football shaped designs on the pants. For its part, the NFC was outfitted in monochrome blue, in the reverse pattern of the AFC, also featuring the side panels and amorphous pants design.

A new uniform design would begin in 2005-06, with Reebok contining to trend towards the modern look. The AFC returned to wearing red jerseys, with same color side panels and a “Broncos-esque” pants swoosh atop white pants. While the AFC would have red top socks for a more balanced look, the NFC would sport a reciprocal white over blue uniform, complete with blue socks, for that special dancer look. Both jerseys would feature rounded numerals, and six stars would adorn the jersey and pants side panels, three each on the top and bottom. In a typical “mirror” image, the AFC’s white numbers had a white-blue outline, while the NFC would feature a solid blue outlined in white and red. As far as recent uniforms go, these weren’t too bad.

2007-08 would usher in new uniforms again, with the AFC returning to white over red and the NFC donning blue over white. Continuing the “modern” look and feel, this uniform set would include bumper sticker paneling under the arms and down the side panels, and the pants stripes would also include white and blue panels within the stripes for both teams. But the most interesting feature of these uniforms was undoubtedly the jersey design, which included similarly colored darker stars superimposed on the solid jersey, gradually moving from fully filled-in stars to outlined stars from top to bottom. Whether these new jerseys were following the jersey patterns of the moment or driving them is still up for debate.

We conclude our tour of the Pro Bowl uniforms with last year’s gems, which will be worn again this year. In the final game (at least for the next few years) in Aloha Stadium, the NFC sported a predominantly blue getup, while the went with mostly white over white. However, the uniforms were not without little quirks: while the front side of both unis were solid blue or white (providing a splendid monochromatic appearance for the NFC), the back of the NFC uniform was white (leading to an odd white vs. white appearance from certain angles). The AFC, in mirror-like fashion, had mostly red backs. Both sets of jerseys were textured with stars and had an odd number font. Fortunately, we’ll be graced with these lovelies again in 2010.

That will end the lookback at the Pro Bowl uniforms of the past several decades. Certainly today neither they, nor the game, approach their former, um…greatness. So now, if you do choose to watch the game tonight, in it’s new and temporary home in South Florida (what’s the name of the Stadium now?), you can at least appreciate some of the tradition that has gone into (and the ‘innovation’ that has become) these uniforms.

I’d be remiss without pointing out that by far the best and most comprehensive site (and from which many of the photos in this article were borrowed) is mmbolding.com. If you want to read a description of every Pro Bowl (and All Star Game) ever played, that’s the spot. If you want to simply look at more pro bowl photos, several of which were not in this article and which are fully captioned check out the Flickr album I put together.

Of course, I would be ESPECIALLY REMISS if I didn’t include something from The Ricko Files today. The one and only Rick Pearson was all over the AFL All-Star Games in the early 1960s, producing his famous “Kid Cards” for the 1962 and 1963 All Star games. Note that, unlike the NFL, the AFL teams wore their own helmets for the first two AFL All Star Games (the AFL played their first all star game in 1962).

There is ONE good thing about the NFL moving the Pro Bowl to today — it means that after this exhibition is over, the football season is not. I guess by playing it tonight, the NFL hopes to keep the interest up and fill the void during the week off between the Conference Championships and the Super Bowl. And think of the Pro Bowl this way: you can watch ESPN all day long, after checking out the X-Games, you segue right into the Pro Bowl, and then back to the closing ceremonies of the games. Perfect day, right?

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benchies headerRemember the “Reebok Pump”? Yeah, I don’t either. Here’s Rick:

Technology is wonderful, and some of it is classic, timeless, unforgettable. And the Internet makes all things possible, accessible. So we use it to find any little advantage we can.

Here’s your full-color Sunday Benchies.

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scoreboardGuess The Game From The Scoreboard: You’d think that in honor of the Pro Bowl being played today, I could find a scoreboard photo from a Pro Bowl game. You’d be wrong. So, you’ll just have to settle for the following instead. Ready? Guess The Game From The Scoreboard. Date, location and final score, please, and be sure to link to your answer. And, as always, if you enjoy the game, please send me some new scoreboards! Drop me a line. Thanks!

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uni tweaks headerOur next round of Uniform Tweaks, Concepts and Revisions is upon us again. We’ll be examining all sports now. So, if you have a tweak, change or concept for any sport, send them my way. Since most of you guys have been sending submissions for the Official NFL Jersey Tweaks Contest, (which is separate from the normal uniform tweaks section), it’s a smaller batch today. Remember, the deadline for the contest is February 1, (this Monday), so the contest WILL be closed down after that date.

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Our first entrant today is Thad (who would prefer I don’t use his last name), and Thad has a couple tweaks for Da Bears:

Hello,

I’m a life-long Bears fan and love the uniforms but I have a couple tweaks that would make the set flow better.

I didn’t change anything on the navy jersey because it’s perfect. However, I adjusted everything else, though this set still looks like the Bears. The white pants now have an orange-blue-orange striping pattern, as do the stripes on the white jersey and socks. The navy pants now are white-orange-white.

While this doesn’t change too much on the home set (other than making the pants and jersey striping match if they ever go monochrome again), it makes the striping on the away set more uniform and makes it conform better to the rest of the look. It always bugged me that the stripes on the navy jersey are outlined, but the stripes on the white ones weren’t. If the Bears do the traditional monochrome on the away set, all the stripes match.

Thanks.

(And if you do use this, just refer to me as Thad.)

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Next up is Ronnie Poore, who has some ideas for the N’awlins Saints:

I gave the Saints uni a bit of a tweak. Added a white divider stripe on the pants (never liked the Steelers style wide stripe). This makes the pants stripes match the helmet stripes. Also darkened the pants so the gold better matches the helmets. I’ve attached 2 images, one with plain socks, one with stripes…take your pick.

Ronnie Poore

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Moving along, we have my new Deep Freeze buddy, Ben Traxel, who knows I’m an Islander fan and couldn’t resist mocking up a new logo, just for me:

I mocked this up quickly last night…just for you, Phil. :) It was quick and dirty, just for fun.

Ben

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That’s all for today. Today’s second submitter, Ronnie Poore also sent me a bunch more tweaks that we’ll get to in the next round. If you have any last minute submissions for the ‘win a jersey’ contest, again, tomorrow is the deadline. Keep the regular tweaks coming, though, since that part of the weekends will remain (as long as I have submissions). Send both your regular tweaks and your contest tweaks to me at the same address, but if you’re submitting something for the contest, please be sure to label the subject: “UNI WATCH NFL JERSEY DESIGN CONTEST.” Thanks!

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IMG_0493Meet Flat Tyler. Time for a little love for Ryan Connelly, who send me the following E-mail, which is pretty damn cool:

You guys have heard about “Flat Stanley,” a project kids do for school? They take pictures of this paper guy all over the place? A lady at work (Nancy), has a lady in her group that works in Denver. Well, the lady in Denver has a 6 year old grandson that had a “Flat Tyler” project. The kid’s name is Tyler, and the project (I think, I wasn’t paying ALL that much attention at the time) is to send Flat Tyler out to friends around the country and get pictures in various places. Nancy got it and knew I was going to the Penguins game last Tuesday (Malkin 3 goals, Crosby 6 pts), and asked me to take pics of Flat Tyler at the game. So I took it one step further for the little guy, and made him a little Penguins jersey. Took the image from this page.

I copied the image multiple times into an Excel spreadsheet, sized them down to Flat Tyler’s size, and printed them out. I cut the arms off of the first jersey image to use for the body, then cut the arms off of the other image so that I could angle them on to Tyler’s arms. Then I taped the jersey together and paper-clipped the jersey onto Flat Tyler, so that the real Tyler could take it off and on and do whatever the hell he wanted with it.

So there, quickie little DIY project I wanted to share. Enjoy the pics!

P.S. Those were NOT taken from my seats! I was a “a little” further up. HAHA

Thanks RyCo40…nice job for Tyler!

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help a UWer out 2This next section is a repeat from yesterday, so if you saw it then, you can feel free to skip it today. But if you didn’t, please give it a quick read. Thanks.

You may remember Kenny Ocker, the Uni Watcher who scored the fantastic interview with Casey Martin last month. Well, he’s back at the U of O and he needs your help. I’ll let Kenny explain:

Dear Uni Watch Community,

When I (The Hemogoblin/Kenny Ocker) am not on the internet, I’m a sophomore journalism major at the University of Oregon. This term, I have a class that requires me to write a 100-page research paper. My topic question is “Should cities, counties and states use public money to fund the construction and operation of sporting venues for private organizations as a way to stimulate the economy?” If any of you feel as if you have something to contribute to my topic, you can e-mail me at The Hemogoblin (at) G-mail (dot) com. I’m especially looking for people who I can interview and stories/documents that are relevant to stadium funding. (I know that you all are a relatively educated bunch on this topic, given the success of the “I’m Calling It Shea” t-shirts, and that you’re all dedicated sports fans.) Any insight on my topic would be fantastic. Also, this is why you all will hardly see me until I get through this term.

Thanks,

Kenny

No, thank you Kenny. What say you, fellow Uni Watchers, can you help a brother out?

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That’s all for today folks. I want to thank everyone for their nice comments on yesterday’s post — looks like there will be a uni stadia watch II down the pike. If anyone wants to assist me with a column on the old ball parks, I’d love to work with you (all but Parc Jarry & Exhibition Stadium, tho — I already have a co-conspirator on those). Give me a holler. In fact, if you have any ideas for a future column, let me know. RIP, JJ

Have a great Sunday, folks. Enjoy the Pro Bowl.

217 comments January 31st, 2010

Thank God That’s Over With (or: Only 41 Days to Pitchers and Catchers)

1.jpg

Man, ya think the BCS logo decal on Alabama’s helmet last night was big enough? It was freakin’ huge. It looked smaller on the Texas helmets, but I think that’s because the decal had a thick white border that didn’t show up against the white Texas shell.

In other news from last night’s game:

• Mark Ingram had some serious TV number issues in the first half. Lots of additional views here.

• Ingram wasn’t the only ’Bama player with this problem, as you can see in this shot of Marcell Dareus.

• Love the rickrack on the Texas marching band. (Don’t know what rickrack is? Look here.)

• Now that he’s won a title with Alabama, Nick Saban will coach the Longhorns. Okay, not really. That photo is from an old-timer’s event when he was with the Dolphins.

• Apparently nobody at Nike realized that the Alabama riflery gloves look like a shout-out to Alcoholics Anonymous.

Best uniform of the night.

(Special thanks to Jon Beckmann, Michael Tucci, Jeremiah McElwain, Chris Smith, and Chad Todd for their screen shot and contributions.)

ebay

Help pay off my mortgage: Actually, I don’t have a mortgage, so change that to “Help me buy cat food.” Either way, the idea is that you should bid on these records I’m selling on eBay. Anyone who bids on the Frogs LP gets a free subscription to Honcho, no extra charge, whoop-whoop!

Uni Watch News Ticker: Nike has made new boots for Supercross champ James Stewart (with thanks to Sean Clancy). … This should make everyone’s day: mini helmet buggies! They’re from Tom Turner’s collection. … Killer exhibit of 50 vintage matchbooks here (with thanks to Jeremiah Allen). … Chad Bengal is planning to wear Chris Henry tribute gloves for the playoffs. … Hmmm, purple apparently causes spelling errors (with thanks to Travis McGuire. … Yesterday I asked if anyone knew about swimmers’ athletic supporters. “They were like regular athletic supporters except that the waistbands were very narrow, as were the leg holders, so as to be unobtrusive under a tight, short swimsuit,” explains Scott Dyche. “Not sure when men’s swimsuits started sewing in liners, which made these unnecessary.” … Love this 1935 Oklahoma semi-pro baseball team portrait (nice find by Jordan Guthmann). … The bird’s nest stadium in Beijing, originally used for the 2008 Summer Olympics, is now hosting a winter festival — nice (with thanks to Nathan Haas). … If the Cincy Bearcats can break out the white helmets, why not the Cincy Reds? (As forwarded by Liberty Bowman.) … BYU guard Jimmer Fredette wore a long-sleeve tee under his jersey on Weds. night, due to a body rash he’d developed as an allergic reaction to medication (with thanks to Bryan Bateman). … Also from Bryan: “The MWC has decided that its refs will wear grey shirts with thin black stripes on them for conference games this year.” You can see one of the refs in the background of this photo, and the new jerseys are described on the fifth page of this PDF. … The Hunstville Havoc — a minor league hockey team — will be wearing very tasteful jerseys to raise cash for the local ICU. “Believe it or not, those are more tasteful than the jerseys they wore last season for the same event,” says Stuart Greenlee. … New practice jersey patch — as if anyone really cares — for the Ravens (with thanks to Jack Krabbe). … If you watch this 1979 Redskins/Cardinals footage, you’ll see that the Cards were wearing a huge black sleeveband. “I’m guessing it was in memoriam for J.V. Cain, who had died of heart failure during training camp,” says Steve May. Of course, today’s NFL teams can’t wear sleevebands, because they no longer have sleeves. … Matt Holliday is switching uni numbers (with thanks to Patrick Karraker). … Here’s another high school hoops team with nothing but uni numbers on their jersey. “The team is the Hoopeston Area Cornjerkers,” says Joel Hackler. “The only thing to determine the school is the diamond on the pants with the letters ‘HAHS’ (Hoopeston Area High School).” … Hey look, it turns out there IS a good reason to watch the Pro Bowl: Look how Kris Jenkins introduced himself in the first few seconds of this clip (genius find by Andrew Wagner). … The man who designed Bucco Bruce, Lamar Sparkman, has passed away. … You know how NFL coaches have been wearing those idiotic shirts with the conference or division printed in some annoying way on the shirt? Reebok is now marketing an NHL version of the same concept (with thanks to TJ). … Scott Novosel has envisioned a set of Uni Watch trading cards. And while I never thought about it before, that would actually be pretty cool — just about any uni-related happening that we document here on the site could get its own card. Hmmmm. … Robert Marshall has really been outdoing himself lately. Check out this bobbleraised buttons on the jersey! Love the belt buckle, too. … Tyler Kepner has written a very good article about the Expos, and the first two grafs should appeal to all of us here.

176 comments January 8th, 2010

Because They Couldn’t All Wear His Jersey

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Twenty years ago this month, the Eagles came up with one of my all-time favorite uniform remembrances. After quarterbacks coach Doug Scovil passed away on December 9th, they memorialized him by adorning their helmet wings with strips of black electrical tape, which they wore for the final three games of the regular season and their one playoff game.

I’ve always loved this gesture — simple, stark, effective, and it sort of looked like they’d “clipped their wings,” so to speak. I’ve seen plenty of photos of it, but I’d never seen video of it until a few days ago, when Phil stumbled upon this video clip (be sure to stick it out through the commercial break, which includes Mike Schmidt wearing a generic uni that looks vaguely Cardinals-ish):

Always fun to see the Eagles and Cowboys fighting, too. Couldn’t happen to two nicer teams.

Meanwhile: New ESPN column today — look here.

Raffle Reminder: Today’s the last day to enter the Uni Watch holiday raffle, if you haven’t already done so. Details here. I’ll announce the winners on Christmas Day.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Check this out — a SuperSonics hockey jersey (with thanks to David Smajovits). … Lots of rumors about Arizona possibly wearing white helmets in the Holiday Bowl. … “The cycling blog occasionally features jerseys of the pro peloton from various years,” writes Sean Clancy. Here are jerseys from 1989. Scroll down on the blog’s home page to see more.” … Here’s a closer look at the U.S. Olympic hockey jersey (with thanks to Johnny Griswold). … Here’s the latest on the NBA’s new shooting shirts, which I first reported on in my NBA season-preview column two months ago. … Daniel Caceres found this Vikings helmet cooler in a relative’s garage. … Entertaining gallery of 1970s basketball coaching outfits here. … Really like the black-gold-white color pattern on this old basketball jersey. … Other eBay finds: a groovy old White Sox tee, an awesome football jersey in my favorite colors, and a basketball warm-up jacket that, in Mike Page’s words, “has ‘Merry Christmas, Paul Lukas’ written all over it.” He might be right about that, although so far I’m resisting — better to give than receive at this time of year and all that. … Attention Matt Powers: Check out this shot of Charlie Caldwell, which Tris Wykes found in a 1964 Princeton/Dartmouth program. … Always fun to see a uniform show up on Antiques Roadshow (with thanks to Ian, who didn’t give his last name). … BYU broke out the old blue/gold sideline capes from several years ago last night (as noted by Brian Deutsch). … Not uni-related, except for one small item, but this look back at the Pirates’ decade is really hilarious. And really sad (with thanks to Doug Keklak).

162 comments December 23rd, 2009




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