Uni Watch

Auction Action

2009-11-20T13:14:04Z

As you may have noticed, Grey Flannel Auctions recently signed on as a sponsor — a nice partnership, since I’ve been reporting on their auction items for years. Here are some of the more interesting items from their current auction catalog:

• My favorite item in the entire action, hands down, is this awesome Babe Ruth Mutoscope. Further details in the auction listing.

• On second thought, maybe my favorite item is this old Schaefer ad (full listing).

• Totally digging these Indians pencil clips (full listing).

• Once upon a time, the Yankees gave away really cool trinkets for Mother’s Day (full listing).

• Man, remember when the Kentucky Colonels used this NOB font? (Full listing.)

• Speaking of NOB lettering, there’s soooo much to like here (full listing).

• I saw this gorgeous Spirits of St. Louis jersey at the Grey Flannel booth at the National Sports Collectors Convention last summer, and it was a sight to behold (full listing).

• Who did these amazing stirrups and shorts belong to? The All-American Redheads (full listing, plus you can learn more about the Redheads here).

• Several very cool Globetrotters lots here, here (love the globe on the back of the jersey), and here.

• It’s rare to see a zebra-striped NBA ref’s jersey, and even rarer to see one with this incredible chest patch. That gold trim looks chain-stitched, too (full listing).

• Granted, I’m not the biggest NBA fan, but I don’t think I’d ever seen this Spurs insignia before (full listing).

• Nice pair of sub-script NOBs here and here. The second one is particularly interesting because the NOB is on a nameplate, something you rarely see on a basketball uni.

• I’ve always said that the ugliest jerseys make the coolest Uni Watch membership card designs, so someone really ought to sign up and go with this motif. Or maybe this one.

• Okay, so we all know the Eagles used some unusual sleeve stripes in the early 1970s, but the striping somehow looks even weirder when the jersey is viewed all by itself (full listing).

• Old sideline capes are always cool, even if they’re from the NFL’s most annoying team.

If you want to check out additional items, the full auction catalog is here.

The Proctor Files, Continued: Yesterday I mentioned that the Rochester Lancers used different uni number fonts for the front and back of their jersey. That prompted the following note from sporting goods maven Terry Proctor:

I’m partially responsible for the Lancers using two different numeral fonts. We (Ruby’s Sporting Goods) sold the Lancers those striped jerseys in 1968 when they were still in the old American Soccer League. Dick Howard, the goalie at the time, came into our store to order the Lancers’ uniforms. Dick was from England and liked the Bukta jersey style with the stripes. So we contacted the U.S.A. distributor for Bukta, the Peter Green Co. Ltd of West Chester, Pennsylvania, and placed the order for the knit-in striped jerseys, royal blue nylon soccer shorts, and solid athletic gold soccer socks.

The special-order uniforms came in to us directly from England. We had them lettered in Rochester by the Holley-Messner Corp.. who did most of the screen-printing and tackle twill for the Rochester market. The Lancers, who were always a seat-of-the-pants organization, could only afford one-color numbers on the back and no logo for the ’68 season. It was my idea to have the numbers sewn on with black thread to give them a little contrast. H-M used Stahls Pro Block, which is basically plain block, for the back numbers.

When the Lancers joined the NASL in 1970, they decided to spruce up the old striped shirts with the logo patch and front numbers, instead of buying new jerseys. We ordered the embroidered logo patches from Voyager Emblems in Canada through their U.S. broker. Then we had Rose Yacuzzo, our own seamstress, add the front numbers. Rose used Stahls Varsity Block font as her stock style, and that’s the reason for the different fonts.

The Greatest Achievement in Human History, Update: Remember those 1956 Portland Beavers undersleeve stripes, which I was so excited about a few days ago? Dave Eskenazi, who provided me with those photos, has now come up with seven additional pics that show the sleeve stripes. Oh man, does that look awesome or what? And Dave says he probably has more photos buried in his archive, including some action shots. “Coming your way as I excavate them,” he says — can’t wait.

The funny thing about all this is that Dave has apparently known about the sleeve stripes for ages but never thought to mention them to me. The main reason he sent me those first two photos — the ones that formed the basis of my Wednesday post — is that they were in color. Color PCL photos from the 1940s and ’50s are rare, so he was excited to share them with me. He mentioned the sleeve stripes in his e-mail, but he was clearly jazzed about the color, not the stripes. Makes you wonder how many other amazing uni-related tidbits have fallen through the cracks because nobody thought they were noteworthy.

Meanwhile, as you may recall, Jerry Cohen of Ebbets Field Flannels said the striped shirts couldn’t be reproduced in small quantities. But I got a note last night from Bob Halfacre — formerly of AIS Sports and now running his own Bobcat Athletic operation — as follows:

I am pretty sure we can make these in smaller lots. Maybe 100 pieces? We use a local knitter that can knit the striped sleeve panels, it’s just a question of their minimum. I’ll ask, and in the next week or so I’ll try and figure out what these would cost to do.

It would be good to gauge the readership’s interest in a shirt like the one in the Beavers photos. Would you consider buying one for the right price? If so, let me know.

Uni Watch News Ticker: That new powder blue Royals cap, aka the worst-kept secret of the off-season, has now officially been unveiled. … What’s worse than unveiling a really ugly new rugby kit? Unveiling a really ugly new rugby kit and bragging about it. … Here’s a weird one: an old shirt collar with a little bats/ball logo and a “Red Sox” imprint. … Other good eBay finds: a gorgeous rawlings undershirt, an interesting baseball cap, a really nice 1960s baseball jersey (way overpriced, though), a seriously old wool jersey, an Ohio State baseball jersey, a really nice jersey script, a baseball jersey made by Everlast (!), a seriously garish 49ers tee, a simple but very classy cycling jersey, etc. … Jacoby Ellsbury is changing his uni number from 46 to 2. … Check out the awesome maple leaf sleeve patch worn by the 1915 Victoria Bees (typically awesome contribution from Dave Eskenazi). … The Florida Panthers will finally unveil their alternate jersey on Monday evening. I’ll have an insta-review here on the site, much like what I did for the Mardi Gras design on ESPN, at 7:30pm Monday. … Nice visual timeline of Virginia Tech helmet history here (with thanks to Mike Kennedy). … Alberto Rodriguez-Baez sent along some great photos from his mid-1980s youth football team in Monterrey, Mexico. I didn’t realize there was such a football youth culture in Mexico, but Alberto says, “The football tradition [in Monterrey] is h-u-g-e! Growing up in Mexico, my favorite sport wasn’t soccer, but football. Football is still my favorite sport by far.” … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Tremendous color footage from the 1957 NFL championship game (Browns vs. Lions) here and here. … UC-Irvine now wearing yellow at home (with thanks to Nick Fox). … DIY news from Joe DeAngelis, who writes: “I had an annoying vacant spot in my sports room that called for some décor. I didn’t want to place a generic poster or photo but wanted something unique to display. So, after a trip to the local arts and crafts store and spending approximately $25 on supplies, I created a piece I’m very proud of. Granted, it’s no Picasso, especially up-close, but it’s created directly from my eyes and hands, and it’s become a nice conversation piece.” … Oh Dear. Full details here (with thanks to Ethan Hagen). … Will DeFord’s wife has been making Chargers-themed cupcakes. … That was some bright game last night at the Garden. …

What a Cool Sport, Maybe It’ll Catch on Someday

2009-11-19T14:47:36Z

Thanks to Phil’s recent “Worst Uni Ever” poll, you’ve seen plenty of Colorado Caribous photos lately. But most of you probably haven’t seen this one.

That shot, along with a bunch more (click on the thumbnails for larger versions), come from this site devoted to NASL jerseys, which reader Rob Bryant just brought to my attention.

In a nutshell: The site is so awesome that I might just have to become a soccer fan after all. A very small selection of the highlights (click on little pics to see big pics):

• Totally digging the chest logo used by the Montreal Olympique.

• Stripe-o-rama! That’s the Rochester Lancers, 1971. Interesting to see that they used a different font for the rear uni number.

• Love how the San Francisco Quakes used the cross stroke on the Q to form a fault line — or, better yet, to fracture a soccer ball. (As an aside, did you know there was an indoor soccer team called the San Francisco Fog? How awesome is that jersey?!)

• Sort of quaint how Minnesota teams are always named after the state, not after a particular city, as in the Minnesota Strikers. Not such a bad thing when it results in the state outline being depicted on the jersey, though.

• Check out the silver chain-stitching on this Las Vegas Quicksilvers jersey (which also has one of history’s clunkiest, most awkward NOBs).

• Uni typography doesn’t get much more quintessentially ’70s than this Edmonton Drillers design. Only problem is that the jersey is actually from 1982. Interestingly, the 1970s-esque design replaced something that was much more ’80s-ish.

• Very odd insignia for the 1980 Houston Hurricane. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a team intentionally obscure part of the type like that. But it’s probably better than this.

• The Adidas logo really ruined the elemental simplicity of this 1979 California Surf design. Looks better in this overexposed photo, since you almost can’t see the logo creep. (And speaking of the Surf, check out this shot from a game played at Vets Stadium, complete with all the MLB logos in the background. Ah, the indignities of being a minor sports league.)

• My vote for best NASL sleeves goes to the Tampa Bay Rowdies, for obvious reasons. Mmmm, tasty.

• Then again, the Toronto Blizzard had some pretty cool sleeves too.

• What happens you’re your team uses really huge-ass NOB lettering (and, as an aside a sews the apotrophe on backwards)? You run the risk of ending up with a DDNHOB (double-decker hyphenated NOB, duh)! Those jerseys are from the Hartford Bicentennials (now there’s a team name with a short shelf life), who had a very cool chest logo.

• Do you get the feeling that maybe the Detroit Cougars didn’t originally plan on using NOBs?

• On the other hand, the New York Cosmos left plenty of NOB room but didn’t know how to use it.

• So much to like in this photo of the Chicago Sting vs. the Dallas Tornado.

• Now that’s a weird number font. If you scroll through this page, you’ll see that the Clippers used all sorts of weird number treatments in their brief two-season existence.

• Starred socks! As worn by the Houston Stars, natch.

• Okay, I don’t mean to harp on the NOBs, but come on. Joe Hilseberg, where were you when this league needed you?

• I hate logo creep but love ticking stripes. So what do I make of this? Hmmm, that’s a tricky one. The team in question, by the way, is the 1980 Memphis Rogues, although they weren’t the only team using that design element.

• Interesting to see that the Philly Fury used a contrasting placket. Looked pretty good!

• Does this 1967 St. Looie Stars jersey totally look like a thrift store special or what? Yes, I’ll buy it for $6, sold!

And look, the site even has a page devoted to NASL cheerleaders. Would you believe the KC Spurs called their cheering corps the InSPURettes? And the Tampa Bay Rowdies called theirs — wait for it — the Wowdies.

And just to bring everything full circle, reader Raifie Bass has a real prize in his collection: a Colorado Caribous satin jacket!

That settles it, from now on Uni Watch will cover soccer exclusively, the end.

Research Query: Two years ago I wrote an ESPN column in which surveyed the Cowboys’ assorted uniform quirks, past and present. The following summer, I wrote similar columns about the Cubs and White Sox.

Those columns were really fun to write, and popular besides. I’d like to do more of them, but I’ve had a hard time identifying other teams that would benefit from the same treatment. Maybe the St. Looey Cardinals..?

Can you think of other teams that would fit the bill here? Remember, the operative concept here is NOT “Let’s look at this team’s entire uni history”; the idea is to find teams that have had interesting uni histories, replete with quirks and underappreciated nuances. If you go back and read those three previous columns, you’ll see that the Cowboys, Cubs, and Chisox fit this description exceedingly well. If you think any other teams qualify, don’t be shy about telling me. Oh, and please don’t bother suggesting Oregon’s football team, thanks.

Uni Watch News Ticker: New Aussie football kit for Port Adelaide (designed by a seven-year-old girl — no, really, read the sixth graf) and West Coast (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Also from Jeremy: Check out this bizarre baseball jersey patch. That’s the Rojos del Aguila de Veracruz, circa 1940s. … Phil found some interesting shots of Teddy Ballgame wearing cut-off windbreaker sleeves and an undershirt. Here’s another. … Apparently Kareem didn’t get the memo about which shoes and socks to wear to the photo shoot (with thanks to Jeremy Richardson). … Danny Millan has started a new Brooklyn-centric clothing line. I appreciate the sentiments, although I hope the Brooklyn Nets never actually come to pass. … Remember these football gloves? Here’s the next evolutionary step (with thanks to Jonathan Mayer). … Ever wonder why David Vyborny used to use solid-black sticks? Right, me neither, but Columbus Dispatch beat writer Aaron Portzline had this to say during a recent online chat: “David Vyborny was so peeved that he didn’t get a stick deal that he used to spray paint his sticks black to keep from advertising the manufacturer. Vyborny was an interesting dude” (with thanks to Kellen Dargle). … Scandalous news out of New Jersey, where a little birdie informs me that the Devils’ throwbacks, slated to be worn on March 17th, will be lame-o fauxbacks. According to my source, they’re just using the current jersey template with green replacing the black. Also, they’re using the modern red and a darker green. Pfeh. … What team is this? Details here. … Troy Polamalu’s little embroidered cross is suddenly everywhere. Word I hear from league sources is that they’re okay with it because it’s covered by his hair, sort of like if he had a message on a T-shirt under his jersey — out of sight, out of mind — but I suspect the real story is that they don’t want to wade into the thorny thicket of religious expression. … Lots of Mets fans sent me this item about the new cream-base pinstripes, which will be officially introduced in a few weeks. The item implies that the cream pins won’t have the black drop shadow — I hope that’s true, but it does not jibe with the information I have. … Yesterday’s Portland Beavers entry inspired Craig Rockhold to send over a bunch of pics from that PCL exhibit at the San Francisco airport. … In a move that’s waaaaay overboard for a high school, Under Armour is sponsoring River Hill High in Maryland and has provided them with a different uniform for every game this season (with thanks to Jonathan Blake). … Pete Woychick recently rediscovered these two high school hoops warm-up tops in his parents’ attic. Super-offensive logo icon on one of them, but nice pieces nonetheless. Odd to see St. Joe’s abbreviated as “St. Jo’s,” no? … Throwbacks will be in the mix this season for Loyola Marymount. No images yet, but the game dates are listed in the middle of this page. … 1957 A.L. Red Book, in what looks to be tip-top condition, available here (thanks, Teebz). … Back to Uni Watch’s new favorite sport: Coachie Ballgames has done an analysis of World Cup uniforms and concluded that it’s all about the collars.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Your New Orleans Hornets, Mardi Gras Edition

2009-11-18T21:03:39Z

Yes, it’s purple (at least on the front). Yes, it’s two-tone. Yes, it has an abbreviation. Yes, I love it.

Full details over on ESPN. — Paul

In Which My Mind Is Completely and Utterly Blown

2009-11-19T16:45:40Z

It doesn’t take much to make my day — just genius, transcendence, perfection. Serve me up a tall glass of those and I’m an easy fella to please, ask anyone.

Case in point: Show me a 1956 Portland Beavers jesey and I’ll walk around with a big, goofy smile on my face for the rest of the day. The fun Cardinals-knockoff design (which is odd, because they weren’t affiliated with the Cards at that time), the gorgeous chain-stitching (that’s a modern reproduction, but still…), it’s a masterpiece. What could be better?

Oh, maybe this.

Holy shit holy shit holy shit, look at those sleeve stripes mimicking the stirrup stripes! It’s like a perfect call-and-response mating dance. It’s like that beautiful dream that you can’t quite remember when you wake up. It’s like heaven on a stick, only without the stick.

But was it just an isolated thing worn by that one guy? A mere tease to torture us with visions of what might have been? No!

Just imagine it: an entire team decked out in the game’s greatest stripe pattern, high and low. The mind reels, the body trembles. This, brothers and sisters, is what the political and corporate puppet masters don’t want the people to know about. This is the vision that could awaken the masses from their narcotic stupor and upend the establishment. This is How Life Is Supposed to Be.

I know of only one other baseball team that had matching sleeve and sock stripes: the early-1940s Cubs (see photos here, here, and here). I thought they were an isolated example, but the Beavers pics suggest otherwise. This changes everything.

Allow me to suggest a few immediate and urgent items for the agenda:

• There must be other photos of the 1956 Beavers out there. It is imperative that we find them.

• Now that we know the Cubs weren’t the only team with matching sleeve/stirrup stripes, we need to start scouring the old newspaper files for additional examples. I’m confident that they’re out there.

• We must — MUST — find one of these old Beavers undershirts. There has to be one stowed away in someone’s house, tattered and moth-nibbled. It is essential that we find out who manufactured it. (Jeremy Brahm, you live in Portland, so please start snooping around in people’s closets and attics, thanks.)

• Meanwhile, it is just as essential for someone, or perhaps several someones, to begin making reproductions of the undershirt. Jerry Cohen, Peter Capolino, whoever’s running the show over at Stall & Dean this week — I’m talking to you. Get crackin’. (Update: Cohen just told me, “Love to, but it can’t be done. No one will make a garment with knit-in stripes in low quantities. The machinery doesn’t exist anymore in the U.S.” Then he added, “If someone wants 10,000, maybe…” Okay, I’m in for the first thou. Who’s with me?)

• Finally, I hope all you Photoshop tweakers are already busily creating images to show us how other teams might have looked if their sleeves had matched their hose. Imagine a sleeve stripes based on this pattern, for example. Or this. Or, dare I even think it, this.

Okay, brothers and sisters, our mission is clear. But before we adjourn, let’s give a word of thanks — nay, a standing ovation! — to Pacific Northwest baseball historian Dave Eskenazi, who discovered these amazing photos and sent them my way a few days ago. I’ve been in a state of bliss ever since.

Like I said, I’m an easy fella to please.

Update: About an hour after this entry was posted, reader Roger Faso came up with this team portrait. Looks like five of the players are wearing the sleeve stripes in that shot.

Bigger Update: Dave Eskenazi has just come up with seven additional photos showing the sleeve stripes. I’ve put them all here.

Mardi Gras in November: The Hornets will unveil their new Mardi Gras alternates this afternoon. I’m not allowed to talk about them until the unveiling begins at 4pm eastern. So at that precise moment, I will post a short new entry here on the blog (probably just a photo and a few sentences) and will also have a new column going live on ESPN. Trust me — love ’em or hate ’em, you sure won’t be able to ignore them.

Uni Watch News Ticker: You’d think the NFL could use its current logo when turning people down for Super Bowl tickets (that’s the letter Bo Baize got). … Big Ohio State riflery photo gallery here, and a Miami riflery gallery here. … A little birdie — okay, a little birdie named Moe Khan — tells me the CFL will switch to having the home team wear white next season. … Kevin Marks got an excellent shot of Lendale White wearing what appears to be three pairs of socks (or two pairs plus a calf sleeve, whatever, same diff). … CJ Giannuzzi spotted this guy at last Sunday’s Steelers/Bengals game. … Wanna buy 200 really cool vintage sports T-shirts? I have just the link for you. … Jonathan Cain wonders why Benny the Bull’s uniform doesn’t match what the team wears. … You can really see the difference between the Packers’ seamless and standard jerseys here and here (with thanks to Jacob Shell). … This photo is full of Very Famous People but I’m not gonna tell you who they are because it’s such a great photo — why ruin it with celebrity baggage? (But Jen Muller knows who they are.) … Hey look, a big sportswear company has decided to treat its sweatshop workers like human beings after all. What a concept. … Memphis had one player going NNOB last night. Not sure of the story behind that (as spotted by Chris Salove). … Extremely garish new uniform for the Brisbane Lions (with thanks to Heather Hamilton). … Someone has started a petition demanding that the MLB Network air the Dock Ellis no-hitter. Not a bad cause, but it would be even cooler if they’d air the No Mas-produced Dock Ellis no-hitter animation.

‘See, if they let me design it, I’d redo the logo like this…’

2009-11-18T00:48:59Z

The Twins unveiled their new uni set yesterday afternoon, and reader Jeff Barak was on hand to take some photos and get some crucial info. Let’s take a look:

• The new home uni: Pretty much the same as the old one, except they’ve tweaked the insignia (personally, I never liked the old one, so I wasn’t looking for tiny incremental changes — I was hoping for an overhaul) and added the obligatory inaugural season stadium patch (nice enough — here’s a closer look). But the big news, according to Jeff Barak, who specifically asked about this, is that they’re finally scrapping the nameplates and going with direct-sewn lettering, which means no more pinstripus interruptus. So is it good or is it stupid? The NOB change alone is enough to make it good.

• The new road uni: Love the jersey, hate the two-tone cap. There’s already been some griping that the jersey looks too much like the Nats’ road design, but I’m okay with it (and let’s face it, it’s a huge improvement over the old road pinstripes). Other pluses: Direct-sewn NOBs, an anniversary sleeve patch that doesn’t suck (although it also isn’t great — enough already with the beveled numerals, and doesn’t the zero look a little too bulbous?). Only potential pitfall: The insignia breaks across the placket at a less than graceful spot. Overall, though, quite good.

• The new home throwback: Ding-ding-ding-ding! Even better than last season’s throwback, because they won’t be wearing them with that stupid red cap I hated. Plus the pins are nice, the cream base fabric is nice, the sleeve patch is nice (and yes, the cap patch is idiotic, but whaddaya gonna do — endure it for one year and then we can all pretend it never happened), and hey, NNOB! They’ll be wearing this beauty on Opening Day and then for Saturday home games. Very, very good.

• The new solid navy alternate: More of less the same as the old one, except for the insignia tweak, plus they’ll be wearing this one with a navy “M” cap instead of a red “TC” cap (or at least that’s the plan — headwear protocols tend to get very laissez faire after the first month or so). Whatever, solid alternates are always stupid.

• The new home pinstriped vest: Can’t believe they didn’t git rid of this thing. You’ve heard of addition by subtraction? Well this is subtraction by continuation. And it’ll look even worse this year, because they’re gonna put the stadium-opening patch on the upper-right chest, where it’s gonna stick out like a festering sore. ¡Estúpido!

Overall: The Twins will be a better-looking team in 2010 than they were in 2009, but not by as much as they could have been. Maybe next time they’ll have the balls to scrap the home insignia and “M” cap, which reek of 1980s.

(Further press release-y details here and here.)

Uni Watch News Ticker: Hey look, they fished an old billboard out of Puget Sound! Oh wait, no they didn’t. Douchebags. … Underbill alert from Andy Chalifour, who spotted something written under Dave Dravecky’s brim. … A girls’ soccer team in Pittsburgh recently played a benefit game to raise funds to fight children’s blindness, and Tony Bruno’s niece wore a Braille NOB. … There are football gloves and then there are football gloves. “That’s Hamilton Tiger-Cat receiver Dave Stala,” says Jim Vilk. “I kind of like them, even though the first thing I thought of was Audrey Hepburn.” … Yesterday I asked about cross-sport memorials, and Lendsey Thomson came up with this one: “That’s me chucking it when I played at Bradley. On my left sleeve you will see the cross patch that was in memory of Danny Dalquist, a Bradley soccer player killed in a fire before school started in 2007. All of the Bradley teams had this patch or some variation on their jerseys.” … Latest apostrophe catastrophist: Pizza Hut. … Officially speaking, the Orioles do not have any uni changes in store for next season. Unofficially, however, they appear to have made a small tweak to their script, as discussed here. … Is there anything Nike won’t swoosh-ify? Nope (with thanks to Maks Skuz). … Did you know there’s gonna be a National High School Sports Hall of Fame opening in Larry Holmes’s hometown? I didn’t, until Kirsten told me yesterday. … My friends Charles and Carrie have started a “Brooklyn Jews” T-shirt project (available here). Nice, but it ain’t no Jewboys. … Nice shot of Terry Bradshaw wearing the 1969 centennial decal. And man, look at the size of his uni number! (With thanks to Josh McDaniel.) … Check out this interesting front-helmet logo. “It’s a semi-pro team called the Kings, but I’m not sure where they’re from,” says Brian Schulz. … Slideshow of Oklahoma’s riflery uniforms here. “The gloves and cleats are nice, but everything else looks like a knock-off Sooner uni you would find at Wal-Mart,” says Tulsa resident Jordan Guthmann. “Also, no images of the white helmet, but thankfully they took a close-up of the belt buckle. Bogus.” Press release that reads like a love letter to (or, more likely from) the Nike Propaganda Minister here. … Lots of new rugby uniforms in New Zealand (with thanks to Dylan Moran). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Wearing the wrong uniform can land you in the hoosegow. … Jason Bini says this poster is hanging on the wall at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in NYC. “It’s in the middle of a hallway filled with inspirational pro, college, and Olympic athlete photos,” he says. … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Check out the tremendous old AFL and NFL patches available here (thanks, Ricko). … Lots to like in this Shorpy pic, esp. the caded collars on the jerseys and the overall feeling of texture — so much texture! That’s what got me interested in uniforms in the first place (with thanks to Stuart Greenlee). … The U.S. World Cup jersey may have been leaked. If that really is the design, I’m gonna be pretty happy — the swoosh notwithstanding, it’s a beauty. … Skeebs gave Brandon Jacobs the cow-catcher treatment for yesterday’s practice but says it was just a one-and-done kinda thing. “Would look better with a visor,” he notes.

Because selling them is easier than dusting them: After weeks of selling old indie singles on eBay, I’ve now moved on to a few select LPs and zines. Anyone who bids on the Suckdog LP and the copy of Siltbreeze gets a free dinner (well, assuming you’re willing to go a restaurant and walk out on the check, which should be no problem for anyone interested in Suckdog and Siltbreeze); anyone who bids on all five issues of The Baffler gets to hear some funny stories about Tom Frank (he and I share a birthday, which was really fucking annoying in 1998); and anyone who bids on the three copies of Disaster gets a free scan of My Wife (a hilarious one-sheet zine from the same era) featuring a Bill Callahan comic. Bid early and often, etc., etc.

Uni Watch Party Report

2009-11-16T16:30:52Z

Who do those stripe-clad shins at right belong to? As if you didn’t know. That’s me, Scott M.X. Turner, and Phil Hecken engaging in a classic “sock-off” outside Sheep Station during yesterday’s Uni Watch party. Here’s a rundown of who wore what:

• Ryan Connelly came all the way from Pittsburgh to attend the festivities. Okay, so he was already in town to visit friends, but still. If he jersey looks familiar, it’s because he recently wrote about it. Meant to ask him about that “Analog cap but never got around to it. What’s the scoop on that, Ryan?

• Another long-distance attendee: Daniel Dingerson (shown with his galpal, Meghan Dalton), who came down from Boston. Daniel’s Reds cap, incidentally, is a DIY effort: He bought a blank red cap and sewed the logo patch onto it. He said he wants to make more of these but the sleeve patches he finds online are usually too wide. “Most of them are about five inches wide; I’d prefer about three inches wide,” he explained to me. Anyone got a good source for smaller logo patches?

• There were several ooohs and ahhhs when Jeff Lang walked in wearing his Wahlers sweater. And as my flash made apparent, he was wearing a New Zealand All Blacks T-shirt underneath the jersey.

• It was great to meet Ed Westfield Jr., who recently ordered a membership card with infinity as his uni number. He said the T-shirt he was wearing was a recent thrift store find. I was happy to see that he availed himself of Sheep Station’s excellent meat pie.

• Scott Turner wore an umpire’s shirt with really cool patches on the chest and sleeve. Underneath that he had a super-cool German soccer jersey.

• I first met Terence Kearns a week ago at the Brooklyn Beefsteak, where he dressed very appropriately. This time around he was wearing a Sydney FC jersey. My bad for not getting a better photo of him (that’s Scott Turner’s hand making a cameo), esp. since Terence was truly the life of the party — lots of good chatter, good stories, and good cheer. He has a doozy of a membership card design idea, too. Here’s to you, buddy.

• Here’s David Vines, a mere high school lad. His family is from St. Louis, which is what his T-shirt is referring to.

• Kenny Jacobson wore a hockey jersey from a European barnstorming team he used to play on (and also took the photo at the top of this page — in fact, he’s a professional sports photographer).

• I was mildly obsessed with the odd collar on bench coach L.I. Phil’s 2007 Chivas Guadalajara jersey. And hey, see that hole near the end of the sleeve? That’s so you can do this!

• My pal Carrie Klein was recently going through some stuff in her mom’s storage locker and came up with this 1984 Celtics jersey, which she hadn’t seen since high school. As you can see, the back design was definitely a product of its era.

• Carrie brought her buddy Kevin Haley, guitarist in the Bon Savants.

• What would a Uni Watch party be without a new DIY hoodie from Matt Powers? This one featured sleeve patches from variouis eras, along with a questionable NOB and a massive uni number. Say what you want, but Powers actually makes these things himself while the rest of us just gab, and I say good for him. Oh, and he was very excited to see this sign across the street from the party venue.

• Jeff Cohen just moved to NYC a few weeks ago. Can you guess which town he left behind? Looks like he hasn’t quite let go yet.

• Confession: I’d forgotten all about this shirt design (created by former intern Nina Dubin) until Brad Eckensberger showed up wearing it. And look, SOB — that’s slogan on back. (Want to get this shirt for yourself? Look here.)

• Toward the end of the party, I glanced over to a nearby table and noticed some guy who had nothing to do with our group wearing this amazing jacket. “CMYK,” of course, stands for the four color of process printing — cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. The little numbers next to each letter represent the percentage of each color needed to create the green color of the jacket — pretty damn clever. Turns out the jacket was made by a company specializing in design-related apparel.

All in all, a swell day, which made for a happy editor. My thanks to all who attended, and especially to Ed Westfield Jr., who took lots of photos.

Holiday Reminder: I’m about to start working on my annual Uni Watch Holiday Gift Guide column for ESPN. So if you have suggestions for cool uni-related gift ideas, I’m all ears.

Annoying Tech Reminder #1: If you’re so inclined, you can now follow Uni Watch on the Twitter and on the Facebook. If you’re not so inclined, that’s fine too.

Annoying Tech Reminder #2: If you use Firefox or Internet Explorer, webmaster Johnny Ek and I would greatly appreciate it if you could take a sec and add the Alexa add-on to your browser, which will help us crunch some site-traffic numbers (plus you’ll get access to cool analytics for every site you visit). It only takes a few minutes and would really help us out. If you’re willing, the Firefox add-on is here and the IE add-on is here. After downloading them, you’ll need to fill out a very short registration form (age, gender, etc.). Can do?

And as long as I’m bugging you to do stuff…: Wouldn’t it be nice if you nominated Uni Watch as “Best Sports Blog”? Yes, it would. You can do that by going to this comment and clicking on the little green plus sign. Thanks.

Uni Watch News Ticker: The Twins will unveil their new uni set today at 1pm eastern. … Look at Joey Mullen in a neck-roll thingie, circa 1991 (with thanks to Zak McGinniss). … Like I’ve been saying all along, the Bengals’ helmet is very problematic (with thanks to Matt Shevin). … Here’s what the U.S. hockey team will be wearing at the Vancouver Olympics. … One side of the “Don’t give your designs away for free” argument is neatly summarized by this poster (thanks, Kirsten). … Also from Kirsten: Check out these amazing Chinese public health posters. … Last item on this page notes that University of Alaska Anchorage goalie Bryce Christianson forgot his practice jerseys and game jerseys for a series against Wisconsin and ended up practicing in an inside-out Wisco jersey (with thanks to Nathan Fiala). … RPI hockey recently held its “Black Friday” game. “It’s an annual thing they do to celebrate the first home ECAC league game at the Fieldhouse, and they raffle off the jerseys at the end of the game,” explains Jared Sharpe. … In a related item, Louisville Trinity High, a Catholic school in Kentucky that normally wears green and white, celebrated Friday the 13th and the school’s 666th game with blackout uniforms, which just proves that solid-black unis are the mark of the beast, or something like that. … New kit for the Philadelphia Union. … Check out this awesome shot of the 1930 Bolivian World Cup team — love it (thanks, Coachie Ballgames). … David Murphy’s son is my kind of ballplayer. … Lots of photos of TCU’s riflery uniforms in action here, and Virginia Tech’s here. The Hokies, of course, were playing against ~~the U.S. military~~ Maryland. … Remember the Colorado Caribous, who won Phil’s worst-uni poll yesterday? Rob Bryant found an awesome team portrait of them. … Browns vs. Browns? Nope, that’s two high school teams, the Heath Bulldogs and the Ironton Tigers — both from Ohio, natch. Lots of additional photos here. … AirTran has created team-themed jets honoring the Colts, Falcons, and Ravens. ” Ironically, no Jets jet,” notes Dave Montgomery. … All of this season’s U. of Arizona hoops players were recently asked the same set of questions by the Arizona Star. Among the questions: “Who has the best uniform in basketball?” Some of the responses are interesting. Look here (with thanks to Orlando Rodriquez). … Bernard Scott had his belt undone yesterday (good spot by Steven Wyder). … The Avs’ new blue alts made their on-ice debut on Saturday. Lots of pics here and here. … Nice. … Even nicer. … Not so nice at all. … What did Jamaal Charles have in his sock during pregame warm-ups yesterday. … Here’s an interesting question: Is this guy the heaviest No. 11 currently playing college football? The heaviest No. 11 ever? (As pointed out by Matt Mitchell.) … Interesting look at where logos fall on the color spectrum (with thanks to Chad Todd). … New volleyball uniforms for the Japanese team in the Grand Champions Cup (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Also from Jeremy: Instead of NOB, how about NOS, for name on side? That’s Perugia Volley, a volleyball team in Italy’s Serie A Volleyball League. … Benn Wineka, the man behind the Roy Williams Tie Tracker, has put together a list of the UNC hoops team’s sneaker choices. … Here’s a new one: The Missouri Mavericks (CHL) will be wearing Harry Truman jerseys on November 27th. Proceeds from the subsequent jersey auction will benefit the Truman Heritage Library. Give ’em hell, Mavs (with thanks to Jared Speckman). … Big collision in Saturday’s Georgia/Auburn game resulted in at least one of Bacarri Rambo’s interior helmet pads being knocked clean out of the shell — you can see one of them airborne here and landing next to him here (big thanks to Brent Hardman). … Also from Brent: Georgia wore a baseball-themed helmet decal for UGA baseball player Chance Veasey, who was seriously injured in a scooter accident on campus a couple of weeks ago. “Kinda wierd to see a baseball logo on a football helmet,” Can you think of any other cross-sport memorial/honor decals or patches like this?” The most famous example, of course, is the “9″ that the Expos wore in memory of Rocket Richard in 2000. I know there are other examples, but my memory banks are failing me at the moment. Anyone..? … Speaking of the Expos, while looking for something else I came across their 1969 yearbook cover — niiiiice. … Still more Expos arcana: What’s up with that rear helmet decal? Photo is from 1969, showing the first homer ever hit at Jarry Park. … Looks like some of the Colts have gone to that same super-stretchy seamless jersey that the Jints and Jags have been using. Further evidence here (screen shot courtesy of Jackson Bungart).

And now, the Worst. Uni. Ever.

2009-11-15T05:04:20Z

By Phil Hecken, with James Huening

First off. A note of apology to Jeremy Brahm, with whom I had collaborated on a HUGE post for today. Somehow…and I’m not sure how…I ended up deleting an ENTIRE post — and his portion is simply too long to recreate now (as I type this, it’s close to 11:30 pm, Saturday night). I can and will recreate, as best as possible, the rest of what I had prepared (that includes the Worst Uni Ever, Benchies, Guess The Scoreboard, Ducktracker, and 5 & 1) … but the NFL uni mocks and Jeremy’s portion will have to wait. Again, my deep apologies to Jeremy (he’ll vouch for me — I sent him the full mockup of his piece earlier this week). Sorry, buddy, I’ll get to it soon!

Now then, at least I can still bring you the final voting from the Worst. Uni. Ever. poll on which James Huening (my wingman) had provided all the legwork and assistance. So, without further ado, here’s James:

~~~

Here are the eagerly-awaited results for our poll to determine the worst uniform ever worn in (US and Canadian) sports.

9) The Orlando Thunder (1991-92) collected a mere 2.47% of the vote.

8) Gathering 3.23% of responses were the San Diego Padres (1978).

7) 4.38% of you thought the Toronto Raptors (1995-99) were the worst ever.

6) The green glare of the Seattle Seahawks (2009) was disliked the most by 5.43%.

5) Our last finalists to collect less than 10% of responses were the Vancouver Canucks (1978-85), who were chosen by 8.78% of respondents. (OK, the uni had some slight modifications during this time period, but the overall design stayed basically the same.)

4) The University of Oregon Ducks football program (2006-2008) was selected 11.18% of the time.

3) 13.42% of the vote went to the Chicago White Sox (with shorts – 1976).

2) With 22.26% of the vote, the Tucson Toros (1980) were our early favorites and they jumped out to a commanding lead over our eventual #1…

1) …The Caribous of Colorado (1978) who made a valiant comeback to take the top spot with 28.83% of responses collected

Full results can be found here.

Once again, thanks to everyone who participated. And more than 5,100 of you did, which was nearly double the turnout of our previous survey. I wonder if the mention in SI.com’s Hot Clicks had anything to do with that.

~~~

Thank you James (and thank YOU to everyone who participated). We’re going to keep polling you guys, but James needs a little break. His fingers are all cut up from counting all the ballots, and those hanging chads were a biotch to figure out. Hopefully, it didn’t affect his curling skills.

Congratulations to The Caribous (sic) of Colorado. You simply had the Worst. Uni. Ever.

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Boy…Mick’s on a roll these days in Bub’s Pub. And when there’s no ladies around on which to work his magic, well — he gets sage advice on the ladies.

Enjoy your Sunday Benchies

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Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Back to baseball today, and this is an oldie but a goodie from SlimandSlam. I’m pretty sure the difficulty level on this one is quite high, but I also believe the clue you need is right there on the scoreboard. Put on your thinking caps for this one. Guess The Game. And if you want to keep this going through the fall, please send me some new scoreboards! Drop me a line. Thanks!

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UW #1 Seahawks Fan Michael Princip has been tracking the Oregon Ducks and all of their 2,456 possible uniform combinations this season. He’ll be updating it after each game. The Ducks were resplendent in school colors — black and steel are school colors right? And, they were taking Arizona State behind the woodshed (31-7 as I write this). So
Here’s Your Updated Ducktracker.

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Our man in the street, Jim Vilk, brings you his “Top 5″ Best and one WORST college football uni matchup from yesterday:

5. LA Tech/LSU — Love those stripes!

4. Nebraska/Kansas — Normally I like white pants with white-helmeted teams, but the Huskers are a great exception.

3. Iowa/Ohio State — Big Ten teams may be overrated, but these unis aren’t (Oh, and the ANF sticker stands for “America Needs Farmers).

2. VMI/Army — I salute this classically cool matchup.

1. Tennessee/Ole Miss — Another white-helmeted team that doesn’t need white pants, and another title for the SEC.

And the worst matchup: Virginia Tech/Maryland — At least the Terps were saluting REAL warriors.

Thanks again Jim. But I’m gonna have to “Go Off The Boards” with the worst uni pick — and this photo doesn’t even begin to do it the injustice it deserves: TCU vs. Utah. Honorable mention could probably go to Oregon vs. Arizona, but Arizona didn’t look too bad.

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OK, that’s gonna do it for today. Two legacy games (the Bills visit the ~~Titans~~ Oilers in the early game, while the late game features the ~~Chiefs~~ Texans at the Raiders).

And to all the New York City-and-environs denizens, don’t forget today is the UW Gathering at Sheep Station in beautiful Brooklyn. 2:30 till whenever. Hope to see you there.

Everyone have a great Sunday!

Getting It Right: The AFL – 1961 & 1962

2009-11-14T17:19:36Z

By Phil Hecken and Rick Pearson

Well, I’m back again with the master of the early AFL years, Rick Pearson, who is here today to present you the 1961 and 1962 AFL uniforms as they should appear. You will recall the OUTSTANDING post Ricko and Timmy Brulia assisted me with a few weeks ago (if you haven’t read it … stop what you’re doing now and please do so). Even if you did, there’s nothing wrong with a quick refresher course.

Anyway, Ricko has spent countless hours pouring over his “kid cards” and old photos, and now he’s created uniform templates for 1961 and 1962 (and he even went back and reworked his original genius 1960 templates, because he noticed some errors). So, what I’m proud to present to you below is Rick’s fantastic work. The man continues to amaze me with his attention to detail (detail the NFL surely didn’t care about, for the most part), and his efforts are a blessing and a godsend for us all. So, without further ado, here’s Ricko:

~~~

First, a general observation.

I stopped at ’62, because there was a kind of confluence of elements in 1963.

To begin, the under-financed Titans became the financially strong Jets and New York (more importantly the New York media) started taking the AFL a little more seriously. That meant more photos in more places, thereby no longer leaving AFL uni details unrecorded for posterity.

Photography, or film speed, or lenses, or lighter camera bodies, or better TV cameras…I dunno, I’m no photographer …but all seemed to contribute to not only more images, but better images.

I think that’s why I stopped making by Kid Cards that year. It didn’t seem like so much was unknown anymore. It looked like there’d be source material now, where little or none had existed before.

Even the football cards started getting better. Still weren’t great, but they were vastly improved.

Okay, regarding the TEMPLATES…

I didn’t finish a few things, largely because I wanted to get this done for the final true “Legacy” Weekend.

I still haven’t thoroughly gone over all the numeral fonts, but any exotic ones are correct. Terry Proctor, our resident expert on such things, sent Paul a long and thorough analysis of my 1960 templates’ numbers, and I thank him for that. Paul forwarded it on to me, but I’m not an accomplished enough computer artist to attack it precisely. But I will when Tim Brulia and I get to working with FUPP. Promise.

I think the New York Titans had TV numbers on their home navy jerseys in 1962. Perhaps even late in 1961.

The Boston Patriots messed around with two different style crew socks there for a while. Some were the two striped babies shown on the 1961 and 1962 templates. Some were the wide reds shown on 1960. And it wasn’t even consistent from player to player, or from game to game. By ’63 the mostly were gone, but cropped up again from time to time over the succeeding seasons.

The Buffalo Bills 1960 and 1961 TV numbers should be larger. They had the league’s biggest.

I believe the L.A. Chargers wore a darker royal, perhaps a Dodger Blue compared to Cubs blue. I just know that the first time I saw their unis after the move to San Diego they were lighter (“Same color as Colts now,” I remember thinking). Numbers were less ornate, too. They didn’t go to Air Force Blue until ’64, I believe, because ’63 unis were clearly still royal. The true Powder Blue didn’t come along until they were well into wearing gold pants (which first appeared in ’66). Before that it was that blue between royal and powder. I’d say first powder was ’68 or ’69. Know it wasn’t ’67 for sure. That year the jerseys were so dark I think they may have been close to navy. But the high socks in ’67 were powder. And I think the bolt on the pants was royal. Three blues? I believe so.

We see on some web sites that the one-year-wonder 1962 Oakland Raiders helmet stripe was white. It was not. It was athletic gold, like their home jersey numbers and sleeve stripes. I watched them play several times on TV. Even on black and white TV you can tell a white stripe from a gold stripe…because it’s darker than the white pants or white road jerseys. Ask yourself this…if you watch the Steelers or Iowa some weekend in their white jerseys — and knock all the color out of your TV so it becomes black and white — would you be able to tell if the helmet stripe is gold and not white? Of course you would. We’re uni geeks, we’d study such a thing, and get it right.

So, there you go. After 50 years, I have finally passed on my childlike, meticulous recording of early AFL uniforms to the world.

Sure hope someone gives a damn. LOL.

~~~

Wow, Ricko, once again, you’ve ~~knocked one out of the park~~ gone deep for six. Awesome. But the templates above are only part of Ricko’s efforts. Below are all the uniforms for 1961 and 1962, for your viewing pleasure:

Boston Patriots: 1961 and 1962

Buffalo Bills: 1961 and 1962

Dallas Texans: 1961 and 1962

Denver Broncos: 1961 and 1962

Houston Oilers: 1961 and 1962

Titans of New York: 1961 and 1962

Oakland Raiders: 1961 and 1962

San Diego Chargers: 1961 and 1962

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Couple of annoucements for you now:

** As most of you know by now, but I’ll still repeat — tomorrow is the much anticipated UW “Gathering” at Sheep Station in beautiful Brooklyn. 2:30 till whenever. Hope to see you NYC-area UWers there.

—

** Uni Watcher Matt Englander needs YOUR HELP. While not quite along the lines of the “Design-A-Cap” or “Design-A-Uniform” contests, he still has a modest proposal for the readership. Here’s Matt:

I know this comes on the heels of the controversial topic of devaluing logo/uniform design work, but I am hoping that you’d be willing to help me in a somewhat related area: picking a team name. I am starting a 30+ baseball team that will be based in Cambridge MA, so I am looking to pick a name based on something that is historically appropriate for Cambridge. I hope that in considering this as something to open up to readers that I don’t simultaneously devalue the naming process.

—

** Speaking of the Clarksville High School “Design-A-Uniform” Contest, I am hoping to begin running the contest entries next weekend. It’s going to be an enormous undertaking, as I’ve received more than forty entries. I thank everyone who’s sent in their submissions so far, and I’ll try to get them all up for viewing over the next week or so. This is probably going to be a two-weekend event.

—

** And finally, the WORST. UNI. EVER. contest is now closed. Thanks to SI.com’s “Hot Clicks” mention the other day, we smashed all previous polling numbers. JTH and I will have the results tomorrow. Be sure to check back then.

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OK, last Sunday I began running some NFL uniform tweaks/concepts/redesigns, and today, we’re going to take a look at the next batch.

First up is Dan Martell:

Hey Phil,

I noticed on the blog that you mentioned if anyone had some tweaks to NFL unis to send them along. Attached are a bunch I’ve been working on. And below is the explanation for each redesign.

The Giants: I began doing this last week after sitting for several hours looking at excel spreadsheets in the office I randomly was hit with a thought about the Giants uniform. I’ve always loved the look of the Patriots throwback jersey with the stripes on the shoulders similar to the Colts but with more color. I thought to myself, I wonder how the Giants would look with this. That got my mind going and I created the updated Giants Home Jersey. With the help of Chris Creamer’s SportsLogos.net I was able to get premade models of the jerseys to edit. I decided not to edit the road jersey as I felt the design had enough there and did not need shoulder stripes but felt the home jersey could use a little more color.

The Bengals (home, road): After the Giants mock up I felt that the Bengals uniforms were in some need of a new look. It started out thinking why don’t the Bengals use the “Tiger Head” logo (as I like to call it). So I decided to add the logo to the sleeves of the uniform and added the logo to the helmet. I’ve always felt the tiger striped helmet was too much so I instead made it an all white helmet with the Tiger Head logo and a simple Bengal stripe. I feel it gives it a more throw back look to something that may have come out in the ‘70s or ‘60s. Additionally on the Home uniform I made sure to get rid of the orange sides of the jersey (it’s just too much orange in my opinion).

Now the road uniform is a whole different monster. After I finished the home mockup I was trying to think of a good change for the road. One of my favorite animals is the White Bengal Tiger which led me to think how great would it be to have a White Bengal themed road. In this jersey I once again added the updated Tiger Head logo this time in all white but made sure to leave the helmet alone. I thought this came out way better than their current uniform set.

The Cowboys: Let me preface the upcoming redesign with this, like all true Giants fans I despise everything about the Cowboys. That being said, I felt the Cowboy’s road uniforms (which you almost never see) needed some change because quite frankly they suck. Being someone who really loves vintage and throwback looks I felt that it would be a good idea to take the current jersey but to give it an old school twist. I changed most of the grey to white to make it look much like the Cowboys throwbacks but keep the same basic design. At least the Cowboys would look good as I boo them at Giants Stadium.

The Saints (home, road) Another team I haven’t been a big fan of (especially after the thrashing a few weeks ago on Big Blue) but I wanted to see how they would look with a little different twist. For the home uniform I left the black pretty much as is however I decided to change the gold to a little darker shade to make it seem more vintage. This color was based off an alternate logo from the 1960’s according to Sorts Logos.net. I took that alternate logo and added it to the helmet while making the helmet color black. It kind of reminds me of a hybrid between the 49ers and the Raiders. I ended up doing the same to the road uniform but instead of the helmet being black it’s a darker gold similar to the uniform.

The Seahawks (home, road): Last but not least the Seahawks. The first thing I did was figure out a way to get rid of that God awful neon green. I decided to go with a lighter blue to offset the dark blue in most of the home uniform. I updated both the sleeves with this new light blue and added the light blue to the logo on the helmet itself. I think it makes the jersey have a little pop without it being offensive. Additionally, on the shoulders I added the Seahawks alternate logo from Sports Logos.net you mentioned a few weeks back as never seeing. Very simple changes that I think make the uniform a little better.

After finishing the home uniform I couldn’t help but change the road uniform. For this jersey I again changed the sleeves to the lighter blue and added a little bit to the helmet logo. I decided to keep the old sleeve patches for the road to keep things different. Additionally, I decided to add the light blue to the numbers themselves.

Next up is Ben Traxel, and these two designs for the Broncos you’ve actually seen before, since Paul posted them in the ticker a few weeks ago. But since they’re part of the “uni tweaks” folder I’ve been keeping, they’ll get their due below:

After all the Broncos vertical stripe talk I decided we needed to see what they’d look like on their current unis. This also gave me a chance to tweek their not so hot set of today too. I had to get rid of the spike thing that shot into the neck from the side panel and also the way it ended on the pants so I went with a more traditional double stripe. To carry on the blue/orange socks I dashed in some trim on the shoulder. I then changed the sleeve color like they did for a brief time in the 60’s and brought back the Big D logo. The socks definately need to be half white after seeing what the players looked like this year. Finally, I had to get rid of the center stripe spikes and go with something more traditional. This is my first run at tweeking the NFL but I’m sure not the last. We’ll see what team needs it next.

Next up is Stephen Brookman who’s a big fan of the Washington, D.C. team. Here’s Stephen:

Hey Phil…a while back I made some tweak to the Redskins uni set. (I think I sent them in to you a few months ago, so I apologize if this is redundant!) Some of my examples are below.

I am a huge Redskins fan and generally like the current uni set. I just wish they just had some additional options, like gold pants.

The gold pants I’ve designed, use the current Redskins template with the stripes side by side. I’ve also added the old school striped socks, that we saw a few years ago with the throwbacks.

The one thing I’ve always been iffy on about the Skins uni over the years is the yellow facemask. I personally think it makes the helmet look like a toy or kids helmet. Because of this, I’ve added a grey facemask.

So in a nutshell, what I’ve tried to do with my design is keep the current set mostly intact, but with some nods to some of the finer uni moments of the teams’ past. I’d also like if they’d go back to having the stripes on the elastic sleeves go all the way around. About half way around the sleeves, the striping goes from yellow and red, to just solid yellow. To me, that looks totally tacky and flat out lazy on Reebok’s part. I guess if I had my choice of fixing that or having Dan Snyder sell the team, I’d choose the latter.

Thanks Phil…I really love all the work you guys do on the site. It is one of my favorite simple pleasures.

Moving along, we have Scott Lukacs, who’s modified the Cowboys uniforms:

Phil,

Love the blog. Reading it has become a morning ritual. I’ve been thinking about this tweak for a while and when I saw your note about running some football uni tweaks I thought I’d get this off to you.

First for the home white uni. Not much of a change here…more of a look back to the past. The helmet and pants remain as is. The numbers revert to the serif type used during the ’60’s & ’70’s and current throwbacks. TV numbers remain sans serif. NOB goes sans serif as well. Of course the striped socks need to return.

Now for the blue uni. I have never been that fond of the current blue double star jersey so let’s just retire it. I do however, like the current throwbacks and would like to see the team adopt them as their primary blue (away) uni…with some tweaks. The stars on the helmet and jersey shoulders switch to the current design (blue star with white and blue border). Helmet would also be updated to a metallic white. Primary pants would be white with blue stripes. Alt blue pants would also be available with white stripes.

Finally an alt white uni for use on Thanksgiving or other special occasion games. Metallic white helmet would be used for this kit also. Same number and NOB treatments as on the other jerseys. Shoulder stars colors are reversed to white-blue-white. Primary pants would be white with blue stripes. Again alt blue pants with white stripes would be available.

That’s it for now. Keep up the good work!

OK. That will do it for this edition of the NFL uniform upgrades/redesigns/tweaks, etc. There’s still more to come, and (space permitting) I’ll put them in my next post. Thanks to everyone who sent these in, and for those we’ve seen before as well as those still to come. Feel free to continue to send me your submissions!

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Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Another gridiron challenge today. Shouldn’t be all that difficult, but then again you never know. As always, date, location and final score are required. Don’t forget to link to your answer by using Pro Football Reference. Ready? Guess The Game. And if you want to keep this going through the fall, please send me some new scoreboards! Drop me a line. Thanks!

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Who says Mick isn’t one suave character? Certainly not Mick. But, what happens when he meets the woman of his dreams in Bub’s Pub? And they say opposites don’t attract.

Enjoy your Saturday Benchies.

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Wow…almost to the finish line. If you didn’t check out Paul’s latest ESPN column, make sure ya do. Aside from the fascinating bit on tailgating, the third item, “Meanwhile, over on the gridiron” remarks at length about Nike’s new “pro combat” uniforms (yeah, that’s the ticket), three of which are supposed to be debuting today. Make sure to set your DVR’s for those games. I’m still not certain on the third team, but two of the games are definitely confirmed: TCU vs. Utah and VaTech vs. Maryland (the latter of which will feature camo-tinged unis for Maryland and VaTech decked out in their “good guys wear white” duds). Oh baby. Thanks to Paul and UW Sneakerhead Matt Powers for confirming those games. — Only one of those games can make the “worst dressed list,” and I’d wager ahead of time, one of them will.

At press time, Matt still hadn’t confirmed the third team, but I put his super-nike-sleuthing abilities to the test, and here are his thoughts:

My guess is OU because they are playing A&M, a former Nike school who is now Adidas, due to a famous Nike story.

*Doesn’t look like Mizzou cuz they’re playing K-State, another Nike school. Next week they are doing a blackout against Iowa State, another Nike school. They end up with Kansas.

*LSU is playing LaTech…not a big enough stage. It’s gotta be against Arkansas with “Cochon de Lait.”

*Florida is playing the UA clad gamecocks, coached by Spurrier…good possibility considering they only have FIU and FSU left on the schedule.

*The Canes are at UNC and Butch Davis, but both are Nike schools. They are left with Duke, too small, and USF…big game and UA unis…I’m going with USF on the 28th.

*Texas vs. Baylor, both Nike…they are left with Kansas and A&M. Either one is a good candidate although I would love it to be Kansas, a former Nike school who might get wacked twice by Pro Combat.

*FSU had Wake..both Nike. Next week is Maryland. Fear the Spear vs. Fear the Turtle. If this is true, then the Terps are getting smacked twice in the Pro Combat games.

*TOSU has Iowa…both Nike…and Michigan…its gotta be Michigan

Thank you Inspector Powers. I don’t know what we’d do without you.

That’s gonna do it for today, people. Everyone have a great Saturday.

Uni Watch Play Date: RPM and JTH Go Curling

2009-11-13T13:34:38Z

[Editor's Note: Today we're honored to have a guest-written entry from Robert Marshall, who recently went curling with fellow Chicago reader James Huening. -- PL]

By Robert “RPM” Marshall

James “JTH” Huening and I went to the Chicago Curling Club on November 1st as part of their “learn to curl” program. The place was more or less like a country club. There was a lounge with a bar, and the locker room had fancy-pants stuff for your hair and liquids to gargle. There was also tons of great artwork with a curling theme, like this sculpture above the mantle.

And then there was the American Curling History Museum, curated by this gin-swilling fellow named Jim, who was a right proper bully gent. The museum mostly housed pins, but it had lots of cool artifacts too, like this teapot in the shape of a curling stone. Plus there were lots of great trophies that could make the hockey hall of fame jealous (some are shown on this page), and betwixt the museum and the bar was a really great curling-style schuffleboard game, complete with mini-stones.

After we finished casing the place, it was time to watch a short movie about extreme curling. Sort of a combination of this and this (keeping in mind that everyone outside of the curling cult knows the little message at the end of this clip). From there we stretched and headed out to the ice for some tutorials and strategy talks. That’s me on the right, with a few hair-control devices in place to keep my mop manageable. There was one guy on my team who not only didn’t appreciate my barrettes (go figure) but he also really sucked up to the teacher and requested fancy brooms while I, and I believe James too, opted for wood. Did I mention the ice featured a really cool clock?

Once the instructions were out of the way, it was time to throw a couple of “ends.” An end is when both teams throws eight stones (two by each player from the “hack” over the “hog line” aiming for the “button” at the center of the “house”). James was essentially his team’s captain (”lead” or “skip”), as illustrated here by the lady under the Canadian flag holding out her arm, which tells the curler which spin or curl to put on the stone, and where to aim. I was a lowly sweeper, which was quite the cardio workout, and I swear it’s true.

Now I don’t mean to brag (read: I totally mean to brag), but I happened to throw a stone that landed square on the button with nary a sweep. Notice how the ladies chasing it down are not sweeping. Of course, it was later knocked out by one of my teammates, but that’s okay (read: that’s not at all okay).

After our two “ends,” we retired to the lounge for our free Labbatts, which we followed with another free Labbatts provided by a Russian couple on James’s team not using their drink tickets, which we chased with a Labbatts bought for us by the club president who was recruiting both of us, but especially James, to join the cult. I have to say, as much fun as it was, it was very cult-esque, kind of like that table hockey league I played in. So cult = mostly good.

Let us now turn our attention to the Uni Watch portion of our program. Now, if you’ve follwed James’s posts in the comments section, I’m sure you have noticed that he’s a real swell fellow, but he must have woken up with a bee in his bonnet that day, and ready to start a fight — check this out. Can you believe it!? To the untrained eye it’s a nice kit, but let’s take a closer look at that hat. It’s a wool tweed herringbone worn by the IRISH, for the cornmother’s sake. And we were curling, a Scottish/Canadian sport. What gaul (sic)!!! He should have gone tam and kilt. I mean really, was he trying to get us kicked out of the joint with his tomfoolery? It was sooooo embarrassing.

Fortunately, one of us had it together and dressed with the dignity the sport requires. The sweater, I am embarrassed to say, I stitched for like eight hours (or until 5am) the night before. In addition to the tiger on the front, it had this on the back (translation: “Free Fighting / Wrestling Curling Club”) in glittered black felt.

So James, by virtue of being associated with me, was off the hook with the cult members who were shooting cartoon darts out of their eyes at his total fashion blunder Irish messabout. I swear, you can’t take him anywhere.

The best four minutes you’ll spend today: Paul here. The full Dock Ellis video clip, produced by No Mas, is now available. Do yourself a favor and watch it right now:

How great is that? (Answer: Very, very great.)

In case you hadn’t noticed: Page 2 got a big redesign this week, and the revised format includes a new Page 2 Blog, to which I posted a small contribution yesterday afternoon (it’s not perma-linked, so I can’t link directly to it, but it’s the one headlined “Spying on Roy Williams”). We’re all being encouraged to contributie to this new P2 blog, so I’ll probably have my fair share of stuff there. How will that affect this site? Here are some divisions of content I’ve been considering:

This Blog	Page 2 Blog
Main entry	Ticker
Ticker	Main entry
Open comment thread	Actual content
Phil	Me
Fringe sports (i.e., hockey)	Major sports
Ranting about Nike and purple	Everything else
"Benchies"	Everything else
Culinary Corner	Everything else
My eBay auctions	Everything else

In actuality, the P2 blog shouldn’t have any affect on us here, except that I might occasionally take an item that would have ended up in the Ticker, expand on it a bit, and run it on P2. I’ll try to notify you when that happens, probably via this thingie.

Oh, and speaking of tech thingies, Johnny Ek whispered four magic words in my ear yesterday: “Uni Watch iPhone app.” Not a reality yet, but he’s working on it.

Coming soon: Uni Watch cattle-ranching uniforms: Thanks for all the positive feedback on yesterday’s beefsteak entry. Many of you inquired about beefsteak lore, beefsteak protocol, how you can throw your own beefsteak, etc. If you want to educate yourself on the topic, I strongly recommend two articles: The first and (by far the most important) is Joseph Mitchell’s seminal 1938 New Yorker piece, “All You Can Hold for Five Bucks,” which you can download as a PDF here. And at the risk of mooing my own horn, I think you’ll find my New York Times article+video about the North Jersey beefsteak scene instructive as well.

Several of you also inquired about meat-centric cookbooks. Personally, I lean heavily on The Complete Meat Cookbook, The River Cottage Meat Book, Charcuterie, The Whole Beast, Serious Barbecue, and probably a few others that are escaping me at the moment (I could check my kitchen bookshelf, but that would entail walking 15 entire feet, so forget it). That should be enough to get you started, yes? Yes.

FYI: The site will be down from about 2am-4am eastern Sunday, while our web host performs some basic server maintenance.

Uni Watch News Ticker: The Avs have finally unveiled their alternate jersey, which looks just like I said it would (i.e., really bad) more than two months ago. … Awesome set of new pin-up illos from Rob Ullman. I’d say this one ranks among his best ever, plus let’s give special props to Dawn Santin, who’s actually a Yankees fan but commissioned this portrait of herself as a wedding present for her Phils-obsessed husband. … “I was watching some of the new Battlestar Galactica series, which has a subplot about a sports team that ends up turning into a group of resistance fighters,” says Ed Hahn. “The team is the Caprica Buccaneers, and they have a logo. Also, one of the warm-ups from the series was up for sale on eBay Canada.” … Marty Turco discusses his new mask in this video clip (with thanks to William Banowsky). … Okay, so you knew Ron Guidry was nicknamed “Gator,” but did you know he had a little Izod alligator on his spikes? (Nice find by Thomas Huppé.) … How great would it be to play for a team called the Sheetrocks? (Great find, Kirsten.) … New World Cup kit for Russia. … Dylan Houser has designed a shoe collection for Puma, inspired by the 700 level at Veterans Stadium. Further details in this video clip. … Oh man, how cool is this! And no green dot on the back, I’m guessing (big thanks to Zak Kalina). … You know how college football teams sometimes have multiple players wearing the same uni number? That’s a real drag for at least one beat writer (with thanks to Nicholas Roznovsky). … “Happened to catch that Jane Lynch’s character on Glee sometimes wears an Adidas track suit with the logo on the back covered by patches,” notes Dan Cichalski. I mentioned that to Kirsten, who said Lynch’s track suit branding was recently discussed in this All Things Considered interview. “She [Lynch] said they’re slowing switching to Nike,” says Kirsten, “because Fox is big on Nike, or something to that effect. It comes up at the 2:00 mark in the interview.” Faaaaascinating. … Hahahaha, everyone laughed at Jay Cutler last night because he ~~threw a shitload of interceptions~~ wore a cap with the outdated NFL logo (good catch by Chuck Pearson). … Mother lode of contributions from Jeremy Brahm, including new logos for the 2011 Men’s Team Handball World Championships (pretty awesome, right?), the BJ League [basketball] All-Star Game, and the JBL All-Star Game, plus a basketball facemask that looks more like a bad Halloween costume. … And wait, more from Jeremy! “The Saitama Broncos of the BJ League have pickles on their uniform. Actually it is a Japanese eggplant — this is their sponsor. They also have a player whose NOB is a singular T.” … Scandalous news out of the Bronx, where it turns out that Yogi Berra’s retired 8 is upside-down, as you can cearly see by comparing it to Bill Dickey’s 8. Quick, fire the entire staff! … Remember that article from yesterday about eliminating football helmets altogether? Turns out that we could do that and still maintain the game’s visual integrity (with thanks to Russell Goutierez). … Lebron James says he’s going to change his uni number. … Even by the usual standards of corporate douchebaggery, this story really takes the biscuit. Please, Mr. Really Big Asteroid, just plow right into the planet already — we’re ready. Fuck, we’re overdue.

One last reminder: Assuming Mr. Really Big Asteroid takes a few days to process requests (I hear he’s a busy fella), I’ll look forward to seeing lots of you at the Uni Watch party on Sunday, 2:30pm, at Sheep Station. But once the party’s over, Mr. Asteroid, fire away.

Be Afraid … Be Very Afraid … of Salad

2009-11-12T18:24:41Z

Did you know there’s a clinical condition characterized by a fear of vegetables? It’s true! It’s called lachanophobia, which would make a great name for my blog if I hadn’t already chosen “Uni Watch.”

All of which makes a good introduction to today’s very protein-centric content, which stretches across several platforms. Think of it as a three course meal: The appetizer is a piece written by reader Aaron Rich, about a ballpark food ritual called “eating for the cyle.” And the dessert is a new ESPN column about team-themed tailgating.

As for the main course, it’s time to check out the photos from last Sunday’s Brooklyn Beefsteak, which was pretty damn epic. Look at all those lachanophobiacs! Sorry, I’m like a kid with a new toy now that I’ve discovered that word. I’ll try not to overdo it.

Anyway: The organizers bought half a steer, so there were many different cuts being served: mini-burgers, ribeye, short ribs, hanger steak, you name it. The meat was cooked on the sidewalk right in front of the venue and then sliced, plattered, and served, all in a rather frantic fashion.

I gave a short presentation on beefsteak history also had a small onstage role with the mighty Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Company, holding up a few signs to cue the audience during their stirring rendition of “The Song of the Beefsteak” (written especially for the occasion, don’tcha know).

I wasn’t the only one wearing a Meats tee, by the way — Uni Watch reader Terence Kearns had one too (and lived up to it). But my favorite outfit was the one worn by this guy. What uniform is that? America West baggage handler, as it turns out.

Women were barred from beefsteak participation back in the day. But the fairer sex was well represented at the Brooklyn event, thanks to attendees like Kirsten, Baroness Karen McBurnie, Aaron Rich’s pal Shawna, and, especially, this chick. Never did get her name, but she definitely took the award for best apron.

I could go on, but you get the idea. If you want to see more, check out my photos or, better yet, this guy’s photos, which are the best ones I’ve seen so far.

(Big thanks to Kirsten for several of the pics, plus the salad monster illo, plus-plus the lachanophobia story, and apologies to Scott Turner and all other vegetarians.)

In non-meat news: Tim Brulia’s “White at Home in the NFL” page has been updated to reflect the first half of this season.

Because, y’know, why not?: In our continuing quest to take up as much useless internet bandwidth as possible, this site now has its own Facebook page, which you can sign up as a “fan” (or, more likely, be blocked from access because you’re at work). Meanwhile, you can also sign up for the Uni Watch Twitter feed, whoop-whoop! Watch for more exciting — okay, pointless — things to sign up for soon!

’Tis the Season: Got any cool sports-related gift ideas? Know of any companies producing interesting uni-ish products? If so, speak up, because I’m about to start working on my annual holiday gift guide column for ESPN and am very open to suggestions.

Oh, and if anyone remembers the details on that company with the expensive hand-made footballs that I linked to a week or two ago, please fill me in, because I can’t remember the name of the company and can’t find the link. Thanks.

Uni Watch News Ticker: The Green Bay Gamblers (USHL) are conducting a create-a-jersey contest for kids. No word on whether this is devaluing the market rate for child designers. Details in this PDF download (with thanks to Philip Caldwell). … Hey, look what’s being auctioned off! … But that’s nothing compared to this. … Mea culpa for not having mentioned the Habs’ recent 1910-11 throwbacks, which looked my-t-fine on Tuesday night. … Here’s a modest proposal: Let’s get rid of football helmets altogether (with thanks to Jim Vilk). … Went thrifting over the weekend and picked up this varsity jacket. Love the two-tone pocket, the leather UCLA stripes, and the rear lettering. … While I was grabbing that jacket, Kirsten got this awesome ice skating scarf. Great illos, as you can see more clearly in this larger photo. … Fucking amazing electric football video here (with thanks to Chris Markham). … Again with the No. 55 riflery jersey. I’m now getting seriously spooked by this. … Buffalo WR Brett Hamlin has “BAWB” on his neck bumper. “According to a post on his Facebook page, it stands for ‘bad ass white boy,’” reports Dennis Abrams. … Check out this gumball helmet set. Never seen that goalpost display system before (with thanks to Brinke Guthrie). … Cool painting showing Reds uniforms through the years — download it here, and read more about it here (with thanks to Steven Wyder and Ryan Connelly). … There’s still time for you to vote in Phil’s “Worst Uni Ever” poll, which was the top link yesterday on SI.com’s “Hot Clicks” …See, this is why I live in NYC. Where else could you see Orly Taitz picketing Fox News? Try finding entertainment like that in Peoria, you rubes!