Uni Watch

There’s No Service Like Wire Service, Vol.4

2010-02-08T14:55:51Z

That was a pretty uni-uneventful Stupor Bowl (unless you count Pete Townshend’s pale white underbelly repeatedly peeking through his shirt, which I definitely could have done without), so let’s bid adieu to the NFL season and turn our attention to another round of wire service photos. Our last batch featured images of historical significance; this time around we’ll be looking at photos that are simply interesting.

• I really ought to know this (esp. since I have the nagging feeling we’ve covered it before), but what’s that patch on Willie’s jacket?

• Love this Hebrew sign that went up during the Twins’ 1965 stretch drive.

• If you think the Gazoo helmets look weird, check out this Giants batboy working at Wrigley Field, circa 1970. Note the inconsistent use of Dymo Tape labeling.

• And if a batboy can wear stacked helmets, why not a first base coach?

• Here are the Mexican Little League champions from 1968. Interesting to see that a Little League team had piping on its belt tunnels.

• Here’s an awesome shot of the Tiger Stadium grounds crew installing new sod in 1970. And here’s a similar shot from ’72.

• Here’s another Tiger Stadium groundskeeping shot, this time from 1958. There’s something really perfect about the composition of this one — the juxtaposition of the old guy next to the young player. According to the caption, he’s dying the grass, not watering it. Also, note that high rate of belt-loopage on the Tigers’ pants, a style that the team still uses today.

• Look at all those striped stirrups hanging in the St. Looey clubhouse — tasty.

• Speaking of striped hose, look at those Sabres socks!

• Always good to see John Riggins in his mohawk phase.

• Who’s that on the lanes? It’s golfing great Sam Snead. Looks like they didn’t enforce the “You must wear bowling shoes” rule on him.

• Here’s Jacques Plante as a Ranger. Interesting to see that the sleeve number was applied over the yoke seam, which seems a bit counterintuitive to me.

• You rarely see good photos of this Pirates uniform, circa 1941. (Here’s how it looked in color — anyone wanna try colorizing the photo?)

• I’m not sure which is better: Al Kaline’s kid in a child-sized uni (with vertically arched NOB lettering!) or Paul Foytack’s kid in a full-sized uni.

• According to the guy who was selling this photo, that’s a minor league team, not the NHL Habs. Interesting to see the “CH” logo as a sleeve patch, though. Love the cardigan on the guy at top-right, too.

• Here’s one of Charlie Samuels’s predecessors. Interesting to see that they painted the helmets with a brush instead of a spray can. Judging from the way all the helmets are sitting flat, it appears that they’re all flapless.

• In the words of Jim Vilk, I’d wear that.

• Can’t decide if this shot of Connie Mack with a batboy is sweet or creepy.

• To understand the significance of this 1954 photo, you need to see the caption. Hadn’t heard that story before.

• Lots going on in this 1940s Red Wings shot. The “V,” obviously, is for victory, to support the Allied war effort. Underneath it is the Morse code for V — dot-dot-dot-dash. But what’s that patch on the other sleeve? Anyone know? Also note that the V — but not the other patch — is visible in this shot. Not sure if these two photos are from the same season, but there’s enough info in the two captions to figure it out. I haven’t had time to do that myself, but maybe someone else would like to tackle that? (It’s worth noting, incidentally, that NHLuniforms.com doesn’t list any sleeve adornments for the Wings during this period — another reminder that we shouldn’t take online databases as gospel.)

That’s it for today. I’ll have another batch of wire service pics within the next week or so.

Giveaway results: The winner of the Jaguars jersey box is Scott Callahan. As for all the rest of you, we’ll have another raffle on tap tomorrow.

Hawkeyes contest results: We received over 50 entries for the Cooperstown Hawkeyes logo contest, and team owner Tom Hickey has chosen the winner, which was designed by Kevin Bennett. “I was really impressed by every single one of the submissions,” says Tom. “It was a very difficult choice.”

We can’t show you Kevin’s design yet, because there’s some legal paperwork that has to be dealt with first, but I’ll soon be posting all the non-winning entries in a Flickr gallery. If you submitted a design and don’t want it shown in that gallery, let me know asap. Thanks.

Culinary Corner: If you’re human, you like bacon. If you’re not a wuss, you make your own bacon at home instead of just ordering it when you go out for breakfast. And if you’re smart, you save the rendered bacon fat to use in other cooking projects.

But here’s something you may not have thought of: Use the bacon fat to pop popcorn. Simple. Delicious. You can thank me later.

Uni Watch News Ticker: On Friday I linked to this awesome Penguins patch, which prompted the following note from Dan Anderson: “I used a similar patch to make a DIY North Stars sweatshirt. The NHL must have released a series of these patches at some point.” Indeed, someone in Friday’s comments section turned up a Sabres version. We definitely need to see the entire set of these. Hey, Jon Helf, should the Fleer Sticker Project be all over this one? … Hmmm, the Hackensack Water Company’s logo looks a lot like a certain NHL mark, no? (Good sot by Trevor Kruger.) … New goalie gear for Sebastien Giguere (with thanks to John Muir). … Nick Wojciechowski’s brother-in-law works for a company that makes knit caps based on NCAA football helmet designs. … I’m pretty sure we’ve covered this before, but note the inconsistent Bills pants striping in Super Bowl XXVII (with thanks to Sean Kautzman). … Mark Bolding saw this 1964 AFL All-Star Game program on eBay and thought he spotted something important in these photos from the front and back cover. Note how the Chiefs’ helmets have more of an arrow than an arrowhead — never seen that shape on a Chiefs helmet before. But as I then pointed out to Mark, the pics appeared on the 1964 all-star game program cover, which means they’re from the previous year’s all-star game, which was played in Jaunary of ’63. Lamar Hunt didn’t announce that he was moving the Texans to KC until May of ’63, so those players would still have been wearing Texans helmets in the ’63 all-star game. They must have touched up the photos because they didn’t want a defunct logo appearing in the ’64 program. Odd that they didn’t just find photos that didn’t show any Texans players. … See the “Quicken Loans Arena” logo on the Cavs’ court? Jimmy Dembski says the logo is sometimes situated in another spot on the floor for certain games. Vince is my go-to guy for Cleveland questions, so I asked him, and he asked one of his Cavs contacts, who told him this: “For nationally televised games we are required (by the league) to change the in-floor, under-scoreboard, basketball goal pads, scorer’s table, and baseline signage.” … New uniforms for the San Jose Giants (with thanks to Zachary Charles). … A Texas Rangers fan has broken down the team’s uni number history. “One observation he made is that #21 hasn’t been worn by the same player two years in a row since 2000,” writes Greg Stamps. “In fact 13 different players wore 21 from 2001 to 2009.” … In a rare rebuke to the Swooshkateers, Michigan State has decided not to revise its primary logo after all. Additional details here. … Michael Kinney was Senior Skills Challenge and noticed that the Nike and Adidas logo creep was consistently covered up by the event patch. Interesting. … Trevor Williams found an old Sports Illustrated article about uniform laundering and another about football helmet logos. … Scranton-Wilkes Barre Penguins did the camo thing on Friday night (with thanks to Chad Sitler). … The Brooklyn Cyclones are doing a bunch of Thursday jersey giveaways this season. Further details here (with thanks to Terence Kearns). … New uniforms for the Kia Tigers (as noted by Dan Kurtz). … Korean soccer news from Jeremy Brahm, who reports that there are new uniforms for FC Seoul and the Suwon Bluewings. … And in Japanese soccer news, Jeremy also sent along the new uniforms for Shonan Bellmare. … Moving over to Japanese baseball, Jeremy reports that the Rakuten Golden Eagles have new road uniforms. … Still more from Jeremy: Bit of a controversy over the Aussie Olympic team’s banner in Vancouver. … Nice little batch of old MLB patches available here. … My latest vintage uniform catalog acquisition is this groovy 1940s Goldsmith catalog poster. I took close-up photos of the various sections, logos, and illustrations, which you can see here. … Here’s what the medal platforms and medal-bearers’ uniforms will look like in Vancouver (Jeremy Brahm yet again). … Oooh, check out this old satin baseball uni. … Hakim Warrick has quite a look going with those socks. … Saturday night was the first Thrashers home game since Ilya Kovalchuk was traded, in case you couldn’t guess (as spotted by Jonathan Trapp). … The Jeremy hits keep on coming: New green uniforms for the SK Wyverns and the Chinese national baseball team. Look at the dragon-shaped C! And yes, that’s Brian Cashman on the left — that’s because the Yanks are taking the Commissioner’s Trophy on a tour of Asia. … Darth Brooks (a pseudonym, I assume) designed a bunch of NFL fields for an online game he participates in. “It’s called Goal Line Blitz,” he says. “It’s a MMORPG based on football. They show the football games being played, and if you use Greasemonkey you can replace the fields with ones you make.” … An Expos cap might not be Andre Dawson’s cup of tea, but apparently it’s a big hit with the ladies. … Mild hilarity in Sweden, as a hockey player forgot to remove his skate guards before hitting the ice (big thanks to Chad Todd). … President Obama hosted a Super Bowl party yesterday, and Riddell made him a helmet for the occasion. There’s a very short video about the helmet’s manufacturing here (with thanks to Joe Nguyen). … Matthew Hackethal picked up some football cards that show today’s players in yesteryear’s uniforms. … Matthew also picked up a 1973-74 New York Rangers program with some interesting ads, including one featuring Willis Reed wearing his jersey backwards (the advertiser didn’t have licensing deal with the NBA) and one featuring, well, lots of odd stuff, but note that the goalie appears to be wearing a football helmet. … The Hornets’ the Mardi Gras alternates are every bit as awesome on the court as I’d hoped (yes, even with the two-tone action and all that purple). … Chris Heintzelman is the latest reader to create his own team jacket by starting with a blank coat and having a bunch of patches sewn onto it. … Some web site is conducting a poll/bracket to choose the best college football uni (with thanks to Spencer Seaner). … Very late-breaking notes from the Senior Bowl: Rashawn Jackson had four Virginia decals on his helmet, and there were some major sock inconsistencies (screen shots courtesy of Patrick Karraker). … Blondie — the one who’s married to Dagwood — was wearing genuie NFL-style zebra stripes in yesterday’s strip (as noted by David Teigland). … Totally digging this old Shorpy photo, esp. the pinned-on numbers (big thanks to Larry Bodnovich). … Great shot of Gary Simmons’s old snake-plastered goalie mask in this 1977 Kings/Canadiens clip. … Chris LaHaye was attending a game at Plaquemine High School in Louisiana the other night when he spotted these awesome comics-style illustrations on the wall. “Their boys’ basketball coach told me they were done by Phil Neel of Birmingham, Alabama,” he says. … Okay, okay, you want Super Bowl coverage? There were interesting uni notes from two of the ads: The Flo-TV spot (the one where the guy has gotten a “spine-ectomy”) showed two different views of USFL footage (“That’s a Michigan Panthers home game from 1984, against either the Houston Gamblers or the Pittsburgh Maulers,” says Doug Brei), and the first of the three Denny’s ads included this scene. See those helmets on the wall at far left? David Shucosky I.D.’d them as being from the WLAF — the Orlando Thunder and Montreal Machine, specifically. … I watched the game at a Manhattan party hosted by No Mas. Reader Giancarlo joined me, and at one point he mentioned that he’d recently noticed something interesting while watching YouTube highlights of the 1953 NFL Championship Game between the Lions and Browns: “On kickoffs, the receiving team always had one player who ran straight ahead toward the placekicker and tried to take him out of the play.” After we both got home, he sent me the video link, and sure enough — see for yourself here, here, and here. Of course, in those days the kicker usually doubled as a position player, not a scrawny little fella like today’s kickers, and was therefore a genuine threat to tackle the returner, so I guess that blocking strategy made sense. … Uh, right.

When The Saints (& Colts) Go Marching In

2010-02-07T17:44:49Z

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.

~~~

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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In 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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In 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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What 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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Guess 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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As 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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Back 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!

Fields (& Logos) of Dreams

2010-02-06T04:55:19Z

By Phil Hecken, with Jim Vilk and Michael Malinowski

With Super Bowl Sunday only mere hours away, we’ll kick off Super Bowl weekend with a look back at the fields and logos of the past games. Today, I’m joined by Jim “I’d wear that” Vilk, and Michael Malinowski, better known by his nom-de-post MEMAL. Jim will begin the show with a look back at the past Super Bowl fields, since each offers an unique snapshot of the most important game of the football season, and Michael will give his take on the logos of the past, and, in rather Vilkensian fashion, offer up a “Top 10 and 5 Worst” list of past Super Bowl Logos.

Jim has won the toss, and elected to receive, and Michael will start the second half:

~~~

Fields Of Dreams
By Jim Vilk

From its very beginnings, the Super Bowl has been a spectacle — the ultimate “look at me” event from “the ultimate team game.” Everything is bigger at the big game … well, the field is the same size, but it’s always been done up quite nicely, thank you. For those of us who enjoy the aesthetics of athletic uniforms, here is what hopefully will be an equally enjoying look at the fields of Super Bowls past.

It all started in January of 1967, with the AFL/NFL Championship Game at the LA Coliseum. The “Grand Old Lady” was tarted up for the affair with endzones painted with the Packers and Chiefs’ names and colors, and their respective league logos on each side of the names. At midfield was a football with a crown on it, with “1967″ printed above the crown, and “NFL–AFL” printed on the crown. Also, for this Super Bowl only, there were yard-line numbers printed every five yards instead of every ten.

For the next two years, the Orange Bowl hosted the game. The endzones now had team logos on the left side of the names and league logos on the right. As for the midfield, in Super Bowl II, the Packers and Raiders’ helmets faced each other at the 45-yard lines. In Super Bowl III there was a Super Bowl trophy inside a blue rectangle. These two midfield designs merged the following year in Super Bowl IV, but it was hard to see in the mud at Tulane Stadium.

With the AFL merging into the NFL, there came more field changes for the next Big Game. The new artificial turf at the Orange Bowl had the trophy with “Super Bowl V” painted at midfield, while the colored endzones now featured team logos on the left of the names and either AFC or NFC logos on the right. For VI and VII, the trophy at midfield was replaced with the NFL logo.

Super Bowl VIII saw one more change — helmets were now painted in the endzones on either side of the names. The left one looked just like the team helmet, but the right one had the conference logo in place of the team logo. This endzone style would remain unchanged for the next 22 years. In Super Bowl IX, the only difference was the league ruling that season which moved the goalposts from the goal lines to the end lines.

Starting with Super Bowl X, there has always been a logo of some sorts between midfield and the goal lines. With kickoffs then at the 35-yard line, there was a small NFL-like shield at that point with an X in it. The next year, the shield had “Super” on top of “XI” over “Bowl.” The twelfth game featured the same type of logo, only in the Broncos and Cowboys’ team colors.

Each Super Bowl has its own logo, but it was never shown on the field until Big Game number XIII. The following year, the logo was painted inside a white football at the 35. Then a great peace settled upon the land, for the fields were designed the same way for the next eight years. The white footballs were not used for XXIII and XXIV — just the logos.

For the 25th Super Bowl (at this point I got a little tired of the Roman numerals thing, so I will just use numbers now), they put the game logo at midfield and the NFL logo at each 35. If you squint you can see that in this photo. Games 26, 27 and 28 reverted to the style of games 23 and 24. Game number 29 saw two changes — kickoffs were moved back to the 30, so the game logos followed, and the NFL’s 75th anniversary logo was placed at midfield. In Super Bowl 30, the NFL logo returned to midfield and the game logos were at each 30-yard line.

After more than two decades, the NFL decided to shake up the Super Bowl’s field design. Games 31 through 36 saw the game logo moved to midfield, team helmets now faced each other from the 30-yard lines and the endzones featured conference logos to the left of the names and the NFL logo on the right. For Super Bowl 37 the helmets were moved to the 25, even though kickoffs are still from the 30 — probably a symmetry decision more than anything else. Not content to stay with this design, In games 38 and 39 the NFL logo returned to midfield, the game logo was painted at each 25, team helmets went back to the left side of the endzones and conference logos filled the right side.

For the last four Super Bowls there have been no helmets painted on the field, breaking a 32-year trend. The NFL and game logos stayed in place from the previous year. In games 40 and 41, however, team logos were painted on the left side of the endzone and conference logos with a grayish background were painted on the right. For games 42 and 43, the grayish background was removed.

As we have seen over the years, there have been many ways to show off the playing fields that show off the two best teams in the NFL. I’d like to know what your favorite design was. Personally, my favorite was the style from games 14-22…until they came up with the design from games 31-37. Maybe bring back those yard-line numbers for every five yards as well? That would be…well…super, don’t you think?

~~~

Logo-a-GoGo
By Michael Malinowski

As everyone endures the nonstop media blitz that Super Bowl weekend has become, you will be certain to see this logo everywhere the next two days. Some will be preparing for a party, some will be preparing to party and others will be reflecting back on Super Bowls past and recounting the tales of magnificent triumphs and glorious defeats. As uniform aficionado’s and observers of the finer, non-athletic details of the games, some of us will find ourselves focusing on other aspects of past Super Bowls. One thing I have grown fond of lately is the Super Bowl logo itself.

There was something about the balance and symmetry, the large and imposing size of the XL of Super Bowl 40’s logo that seemed to add some kind of added importance and prestige to the game that managed to dump an extra bucket of butterflies into the stomach of this Pittsburgh Steelers fan. Strangely, though, I found those extra butterflies to be absent last year when the Steelers returned to the big game. Could it have something to do with this lamer, not as imposing and intimidating of a Super Bowl logo? I certainly saw it all around Pittsburgh and on the television as much, but it didn’t have the same affect on me as SB 40’s did.

This year, I remember thinking to myself when I saw the logo for SB 44, “Are you serious?” The letters and numbers look like those plastic, blow up, freestanding advertising signs you would see sitting on one of those parking lot island dividers outside of the stadium advertising a radio station or something.

Today I am going to exhibit my list of the top ten best and 5 worst Super Bowl logos in Super Bowl (SB)chronological order. I’m making my determinations according to originality, design, reflection of the location the game and how it uses the Roman numerals. I am also leaving the game out as a determinant for my logos since sentimentality can get in the way of objectivity. Another thing to note, the first twelve SB logos(with the exception of one) don’t have much to them. Of course, the SB was young then and still growing in popularity, so we can understand just why not as much artistic focus was put on these logos. Because of that, I’m basically excluding them from either list since they would fall in the middle anyways. Alright, enjoy the article and for sharing your own thoughts as well!

Top Ten

Super Bowl III: This logo is simple, like most of the first twelve logos are, but the simple addition of stars in the letters add so much more character, which is lacking early in SB logo history. Another big factor to the inclusion of this logo is that I feel this logo could be(dare I say it) reused in the future. Think about it…invert the colors to white letters with appropriately colored stars….update the roman numerals and maybe make them black…you could even outline the whole logo in a symbol of the host city (rose, peach, bridge) and Voila! The NFL just saved itself some thousand dollars.

Super Bowl XX: Like the logo for SB 3, the style of this logo could be replicated again in the future to make another timeless logo, especially if it’s played in New Orleans. That is because, in one of my favorite elements of any SB logo, the outline of the logo almost mimics the outline of the Superdome(save the bottom) itself, a subtle reminder of where the game was played. I tried to look up and see if this was intentional or if I am just imagining things but I didn’t find anything.

Super Bowl XXVII: Beautiful. That’s all you need to say about this logo. Its elements are simple and stylish, the colors are beautiful and the effect is tremendous. This logo looks as though it borrowed a shield logo of the Rose Bowl for its own use, though one doesn’t actually exist. For the designer to compliment the location of this game in such a way with the logo pays a tremendous amount of respect to that hallowed facility. It’s a shame the NFL rules forbid playing games in cities that don’t have NFL teams, so until a team moves to LA we won’t be seeing any more beautiful rose adorned Super Bowl logos.

Super Bowl XXVIII: Can you feel the southern style emanating from this logo? There’s just something about those letters flowing slowly on the light blue ribbon (note how it kind of looks like a blue ribbon from a fair?) that feels laid back. And just like the rose for the Rose Bowl, the peach tells us all the location of the game so simply that those who had forgotten now instantly can recall without another hint.

Super Bowl XXX: The colors. Just by looking at those colors you can tell that this game was going to be played in the southwest. Overall, the logo is bold and balanced and those Xs just look so strong and, dare I say it, prickly like a cactus?

Super Bowl XXXI: Like the SB logo that proceeded it, the colors! There was no doubt when you saw those Mardi Gras colors where this game would be played. The logo looks festive, yet I feel an intensity when I look at the X’s of the logo. Perhaps some subliminal messaging towards death (Xs in the eyes of cartoon characters)?

Super Bowl XXXII: The logo that started the tradition of affixing logos to the jerseys picture for any big game that we see everywhere today, this is probably one of the most original logos. To a casual viewer the letters seem kind of abstract, but that helps them to really pop out at the viewer’s eyes! I am not sure if it was the intent of the designer to have the compass points allude to the naval base, but the overall effect is great.

Super Bowl XXXIII: I remember the first time I played Grand Theft Auto-Vice City. I stole a hot looking car and started to cruise down at night time while Billie Jean played over the radio in front of all the hotels with the neon’s all a glow. I just had a feeling I was in Miami and that something great was going to happen, and that feeling of excited anticipation is a character that I’ve found is not easy to achieve through look alone for a SB logo.

Super Bowl XXXVIII: Houston: The Space Town: Home of the Eighth Wonder of the World. The bold roman numerals allude to something grand, while the letters for the Super Bowl look as though they were stolen from Space Invaders. Add that Saturn-eqsue (the planet) ring and you got yourself a space themed logo! The whole logo itself is balanced and looked great on the team’s uniforms.picture

Super Bowl XL: I liked this logo even before the Steelers made it there for the reasons I mentioned previously.

Five Worst

Super Bowl XXI: This makes the list because I feel that there is a mismatch of styles that doesn’t work and the layout of the elements doesn’t help. Three things specifically that turn me off about it are: 1. The blocky rose. The Rose Bowl’s symbol isn’t treated very well here, it’s all block and abstract and make it look like the ugliest rose I have ever seen. Now, the Super Bowl font mimics it and helps to complement the style, however… 2. I don’t like how “Super Bowl” covers up the rose and where it’s located. Also… 3. The Roman numerals don’t match the style of the other two elements. This makes the logo feel unbalanced and if it had been designed to look like the same kind of font style as the rose and the word “Super Bowl” it would have better complimented the logo as a whole. Good idea, just missed excellence with a few details.

Super Bowl XXIX: I understand that Florida is the Sunshine State and that’s why a sun is peeking over the Roman numerals, but the colors are just ATROCIOUS.

Super Bowl XLI: This logo is not only very plain, but they also included an end zone pylon, which is the last thing anybody thinks of when they think of the game of football. I like the curve on the bottle of the Roman numerals, but overall this logo needs something more.

Super Bowl XLII: Remember how awesome SB 30’s colors were? Well, these designers decided to do the exact opposite with the SB logo when it returned in Arizona. Maybe those from the southwest might relate to those colors better than someone from Pittsburgh does, but to me they ruin what otherwise is a good design (I really dig how those shooting stars create an upper and lower border for the Roman numbers).

Super Bowl XLIV: For all the previously mentioned reasons, plus, not to be crude, but can’t you kind of see someone giving you the “red eye”? Yucky.

~~~

Thank you both, gentlemen. Quite an impressive look at the fields and logos of the Super Bowl. What will next year’s logo look like? Will it even compare to some of the beautiful logos that have gone before? Well, if first impressions are anything, the answer is decidedly “meh”. That’s our first glimpse at next year’s logo, for the game to be played in Jerry Jones’ new palace. It’s being described as a “simple, monochromatic design featuring the Lombardi trophy.” If you know me at all, I like simple design, but when “monochromatic” and “football” are used in the sentence, it’s generally not a good thing. But wait, it gets ~~better~~ worse. When separated from the “host city base”, the logo alone looks like this (which is good). It’s a nice image.

But the NFL has embarked on their “genius” logo move by declaring, for all intents and purposes, that the design seen above will remain a constant for the next several Super Bowls. Starting with Super Bowl XLV, the template of all Super Bowl logos will virtually remain the same. The only differences from year to year will be the stadium backdrop and the Roman numerals for the game. So for Super Bowl XLV, Cowboys Stadium is featured and “XLV” signifying the forty-fifth Super Bowl game. The next game, to be played in Lucas Oil Stadium, will feature the identical logo only with some kind of graphic representation of that Stadium.

Several readers remarked in Thursday’s comments that the design of the logo is a bit cumbersome, and will make for an either large or awkward jersey patch, and likely both. While there are good years and bad years for color schemes and such clashing with the uniforms, this may actually eliminate that problem — but at what cost? While I find the patch completely unnecessary, it’s become an unavoidable uniform accoutrement now, and we can look forward to at least the next few Super Bowl jerseys all having basically the same treatment. To use Paul’s favorite “Is it good or stupid” test, I wouldn’t say it’s completely stupid, but on the sliding scale (good being on the left and stupid being on the right) — this one trends Republican.

So how will the “patch” look on a uni? If they go with the typical “square” patch, probably not very good. However, should the NFL braintrust actually use the “outline” of the trophy with the Roman numeral designation? It might not look too bad. I would expect to see this on the uniform of the NFC representative next season.

However, knowing the NFL, it’s just their way of telling us what they think of us fans — and now they’ve just taken the next logical step — right?

What say you, Uni Watchers? Did you have a favorite logo or a favorite field? What do you think of Michael’s ratings? Is next year (and beyond) a pass or a fail?

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The NHL White Jersey Poll Results are in, and I’m now joined by UW Pollster extraordinaire James Huening who is here to bring you the rundown. Any surprises? About what you thought? Did the “Original Six” score, well, in the top six? Let’s find out. Here’s James:

~~~

It will probably come as no surprise to most of you that the six highest scores went to the Original Six. They were, in order:

1) Chicago Blackhawks
2) Montreal Canadiens
3) Detroit Red Wings
4) Boston Bruins
5) New York Rangers
6) Toronto Maple Leafs.

Rounding out the top ten were:

7) New Jersey Devils
8) Philadelphia Flyers
9) Vancouver Canucks
10) Washington Capitals

Also, the Blackhawks were named most often as best uniform and the Canadiens did not receive a single vote for worst.

What about the other end of the spectrum? For the NFL surveys, Buffalo earned the dubious distinction of having the worst home AND road uniforms. Could the Sabres suffer a similar fate?

The bottom five looks like this:

26) Florida Panthers
27) Anaheim Ducks
28) Buffalo Sabres
29) Nashville Predators
30) Atlanta Thrashers

So the Buffalo three-peat was not to be.

The Thrashers collected the most nominations for worst uniform as well. The Ducks were not chosen by anyone as having the best.

One thing I noticed in these results was that there seemed to be a disproportionate number of Blackhawks fans that responded. It made me wonder if that skewed the results at all, so I threw out the votes from Hawks fans and recalculated the numbers to see if it made a difference. As it turns out, the results were virtually unchanged.

As for the burning question of whether white should be worn at home, a whopping 53% said yes, the home team should wear white. 29% felt that it should be the home team’s decision as to what color to wear. Only 14% felt that the home team should always wear dark jerseys. As for the remaining 4%, the general consensus is that white jerseys should be worn at home for half of the season and dark jerseys for the other half.

Once again, thanks to all of you who took the time to vote and thanks to Adam Walter for putting the data in a user-friendly PDF, which can be found here.

Also, if you’d like to see the raw data, you can download the file as either an Excel spreadsheet or comma-delimted text.

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Back again with a full batch of 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.

~~~

Starting off this week’s show is Ronnie Poore, who has a look at the Patriots, Cowboys and Chargers:

What if the Patriots went retro, except with blue jerseys?!

What about a Cowboys alternate with a silver jersey and white pants?!

Chargers with gold pants.

Chargers with powder blue pants.

Ronnie Poore

~~~

Next up is Ryan Bowman, who, with spring just around the corner, has some Colorado Rockies tweaks:

Phil–

After working tediously on a tweak for the official contest, I fear I may have become addicted to uniform tweaking. If there’s some kind of 12-step program for such people, please let me know as soon as possible.

Haven’t the slightest clue what gave me the urge to do this, but I believe I was inspired when someone posted in the comments yesterday about how abysmal the Colorado Rockies’ uniforms look. Being of like mind and inspired to help, I think I’ve created a much more distinguished set for the Rockies without even modifying the color scheme at all. (I know keeping purple would make Paul very happy.)

The new home uniform is a derivative of the pinstriped vest with the “CR” insignia the Rockies have worn as an alternate previously. Probably the most notable change is that insignia. I modified it so that the C is purple and the R is silver. It really stands out and creates a cool, almost interlocking feature. That same insignia appears in modified form on the hat, with a purple bill. This is the only hat provided; it’s for both home and road games.

The home uniform still has pinstripes, but they’re black pinstripes; no more purple pinstripes. On the back, the only major change is that the player name and number are now purple outlined in silver; they used to be black with silver.

The pinstripes are (finally!) gone from the road uniform, and the team name now appears in similar fashion to the previous home uniform. The mark “ROCKIES” is in purple, outlined in silver, but the R in Rockies is still in silver, as it is in the new cap insignia. I thought that would make for a rather unique and interesting road uniform — so many teams really give nothing unique or special when it comes to the road set.

Last, and quite possibly most important…mandatory stirrups. :) Two images attached; first image is the proposal, and the second is a comparison between the proposal and last year’s set.

Once again, thanks for everything you do for the site. Seriously, look into that 12-step thing. :P

Ryan Bowman

~~~

Closing down the show today we have the one and only Rick Pearson, who has put together many of the tweaks he’s attempted all season long:

No redesigns here. Just honest-to-god tweaks.

SAINTS. Standardize the gold (preferably more the real old gold of the original Saints, not the Vegas gold shown here) and add white to the pants stripes. And lose the black pants. Look like a frickin’ ballet class, which women notice, but the players don’t seem to see. Go figure.

BILLS. They want to wear navy, that’s obvious. Okay, but ditch the navy pants because they make ‘em look like they work at Valvoline Oil Change. Deep six all the yokes and side panels, all that gingerbread, bumper sticker stuff. Go with a “super graphic” on the shoulders (same size as helmet logo).

BENGALS. Bye-bye black pants and jerseys. A Bengal Tiger is an orange and white animal with black stripes…and no one in NFL uses orange as their primary jersey anymore. Stop beating us over the head with the tiger stripes. Leave ‘em on the helmet and shoulders as signature elements. This look would, finally, separate them from the Browns, too.

VIKINGS. The side panels mask the “Viking horn” suggestion on the shoulders. Get rid of ‘em. Pants panels are disjointed and relate to nothing.

REDSKINS. Go back to Super Bowl look. White shoes. Stop farting around with combinations. No monochrome, no leotard. White high socks with the burgundy pants.

PACKERS. Lose the striped neck trim. It’s just too much of a good thing.

JETS. Fix the shoulder panels. It isn’t that tough. Just look at a Namath era jersey and try to come a bit closer to it. I’d like to see the green pants go away, but can live with ‘em (just not the mono green). Don’t mind the white socks with white jerseys and pants. Kinda old school. And, since only they and the Bears do it, not like it’s a look that’s running rampant through the league.

TEXANS. Shoulder stripe/loop so small almost might as well not be there. Go for the full-on USC arch. And lose the red pants. Please? Texans threatening to become the Oregon of the NFL. Not a good idea. NFL doesn’t need an Oregon. In college is kinda fun and funky. In the pros is comical.

COLTS, COWBOYS, 49ERS. Go back to stripes on socks (2 white on Colts & Cowboys, 3 on Niners). There is no expanse of blue or red on their unis that goes without some interface with white numbers or trim. Except socks, which are a huge mass (glob?) of color. Particularly evident when wearing white jerseys. Maybe white shoes for Niners, too.

LIONS. Five words: Barry Sanders. No blue pants.

BROWNS: I’ll be a smartass on this one. Didn’t address truncation, disappearing sleeves, etc., cuz apparently can’t fight City Hall.

~~~

Well — there you have it. Another set of Uni Tweaks. Keep them coming. You know what to do. Send ‘em in.

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When “The Pump” goes bad, part the next. Here’s Rick:

Speed, if we’re unaccustomed to it, is both exhilarating and frightening. Especially when created by unexpected developments. But for that moment or so, there IS that wonderful rush.

Here’s your Saturday Benchies.

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Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Despite today being an article on the Super Bowl, today’s scoreboard deals with a different sport. Of course, that will be fairly apparent the second you click on the link. Kinda ties in my team and my “new favorite” team, at least after the Deep Freeze. 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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And some more hockey news/questions comes to me via the Email Bag, this one from Timothy Tryjankowski, who writes:

In the NHL the pro-jersey has a neat shoe string for a neck lace…It is about 12 inches long…and hardly anybody ties it…

Yet, when you buy a replica jersey the strings hang so long…about 20 inches…and look foolish.

Now try and find/buy a 12 inch athletic shoe lace…I can’t find any.

So the question is ..why? Why would Reebok make one jersey with a players lace..yet the replica jersey looks…well dumb.

Thanks for the question, Tim. Any hockey guys want to take a shot at the answer? Think there’s a market out there for guys who buy a replica jersey and want to replace the 20″ lace with at 12″ one?

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Well, that’s going to put a nice shoelace on this post. Hope you enjoyed the beginning of the pre-Super Bowl festivities — back tomorrow with another round of uni goodness to prep you for the Big Game.

Everyone have a great Saturday.

Putting the Y in DIY

2010-02-05T13:11:47Z

Got a note the other day from Terence Kearns, who wanted to tell me about his latest DIY project. Along the way, he raised an interesting question. Take a look:

Here’s another one of my hybrid DIY varsity jackets — a 1930s-inspired Chicago Blackhawks jacket. Just like my last one, I found all the patches on eBay and the jacket was right off the rack, so the whole thing cost me about $120.

When you posted my ’86 Mets jacket last month, someone in the comments said, ‘It’s not DIY if you pay someone to sew it on for you.’ JimV suggested calling it DIO (Do It Oursleves). Now, I don’t have the skills or equipment to attach chain-stitched or chenille patches to thick wool melton or leather sleeves, so I outsource the sewing, and I’ve still created a one-of-a-kind, quality sports schwag in the DIY spirit that I think is awesome. And that’s the point, isn’t it?

It’s an interesting question, one that reminds us that everything is relative. After all, if you really wanna make a DIY jersey, shouldn’t you sew the shirt together yourself, instead of buying a blank one at Wal-Mart? For that matter, shouldn’t you grow the cotton from which you make that shirt? If you’re making a DIY wool jacket with leather sleeves, shouldn’t you shear the sheep and tan the leather?

Obviously, that’s an unreasonable standard to impose. But those examples are useful reminders that almost every DIY project includes elements that have been, as Terence puts it, outsourced. Does it matter? Is there a hierarchy of DIYness?

This debate reminds me of something I used to hear back in the 1990s, when I published a zine. At that time, zines had been around for many years but desktop publishing software and internet networking were starting to make some zines look more slick, like “real” magazines. This led to a lot of chatter about whether something deserved to be called a zine if it was professionally printed instead of being xeroxed at Kinko’s, or if it had any full-color content, or if it had advertising, or if it had corporate advertising, and so on. Lots of litmus tests.

My feeling, then and now, is that a zine is an independent publication whose subject matter, voice, and point of view are largely a reflection of one person’s distinctive sensibility (preferably an interesting, articulate person with an eccentric sensibility, but you can’t always have everything), and all the rest is a big gray area. Similarly, I think a DIY uniform project is anything conceived and executed by one person’s vision, even if some of the execution is done by someone else.

Would it have been “better” if Terence had sewn the patches onto his jacket himself? Sure. For that matter, he could have made his own patches, instead of buying them on eBay. But he wanted pro-level patches, and that’s fine. He also didn’t have the resources to sew onto leather, and that’s fine too. Still counts as DIY in my book.

Then again, maybe I’m not the right one to be offering that assessment, since I’ve never made a DIY jersey myself. And I understand that someone who does all his own sewing, like Bryan Justman, might take a dim view of Terence’s approach. What do all you other DIYers out there think?

Giveaway Reminder: Today’s the last day to enter to win the Jaguars jersey box. Details here.

Scott Reminder: Remember, Scott Turner’s going-away party is tonight at Rocky Sullivan’s. Don’t miss.

ESPN Reminder: In case you missed it yesterday, here’s my Super Bowl column on ESPN.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Ladies and gentlemen, your new, semi-permanent Super Bowl industrial complex logo. Key quote, from the NFL’s huckster-in-chief: “We feel that 45 is a special year. It feels like it’s the perfect time to launch it.” It must be very interesting to be the sort of person who can give that kind of quote with a straight face. … I meant to post this earlier in the week but forgot: Nike’s “Pro Combat” marketing campaign has gotten out of hand. … Latest organization holding a logo-design contest: the National Endowment for the Arts (with thanks to Todd Radom). … Here’s something we missed from last weekend: The Maple Leafs wore camouflage jerseys during pregame warm-ups last Saturday. “I believe they were honoring Canadian soldiers who had come home from Afghanistan,” says Jenn Walsh. … Interesting longjohns controversy in the soccer world. … Some interesting Rochester Red Wings pics from Paul Bielewicz: First, these 1960s shots of Joe Altobelli and Boog Powell show the team’s “ball with wings” logo wrapping around the sides of the batting helmet. … The Fleer Sticker Project has hit the holy grail, the mother lode, the pièce de résistance: NFL Chiquita Banana stickers. Full details here. … More Fleer Sticker goodness: NFL soft drink promotions. … The good folks at Strictly Fitteds are celebrating their third anniversary with a giveaway contest — one lucky winner will win 100 fitted caps! Details here. … You can see Chuck Bednarik strapping on a leather helmet with a facemask here (great find by Giancarlo). … You probably knew this already, but it’s always good to be reminded: That Reebok jersey you’re wearing was probably sewn together by woefully underpaid Third World labor. … R. Scott Rogers sent along some awesome jersey photos he took at the Cedar Rapids Kernals ballpark museum, plus he pointed me toward a nice little photo gallery of historical team photos. … Bruce Genther collects vintage uniform catalogs, just like I do (read: We often bid against each other), and lately he’s been scanning the most uni-relevant pages from the catalogs in his collection. First up: 1962 Wilson and 1973 Rawlings. … Last week’s issue of Fortune magazine (which I was once the marketing columnist, believe it or not) has a nice little piece on concussion-sensing football helmets (as forwarded by Joe Nocella). … Here’s a cool article about Vermac, the Belgian company that outfits lots of cycling teams (with thanks to Sean Clancy). … Also from Sean: “SpiderTech, the prepackaged kinesiology tape, is sponsoring a road bike team in Canada, called SpiderTech presented by Planet Energy. At the launch, Canadian cycling legend Steve Bauer auctioned off one of his yellow tunics from the Tour de France. The team sported the tape while dressed in full kit at the official team launch, so they were all taped up and just standing around in sneakers. … Major development on the package design front, as Heinz has revamped the single-serve ketchup packet (big thanks to Adam Brodsky). … Some goot chatter about hockey stick taping here (with thanks to Ken Juba). … Good catch by Eric Trout, who noticed Michigan State’s Draymond Green wearing Sacramento Kings practice shorts underneath his game shorts. “With MSU being a big Nike school, they probably wouldn’t be thrilled with the three stripes flashing underneath their uniform,” he notes. … Ugliest sneaker ever? It’s certainly in the running (with thanks to Austin Chen). … According to this article, Colorado football ” will likely wear 1990 throwback uniforms throughout next season” (as noted by Matthew Robins). … Whoa, check out this totally groovy Penguins patch! Never seen that one before. Anyone else? (Awesome find by Jason Bernard). … You know how medical journals always have stories about people who show up at the emergency room with Coke bottles up their ass or crayons in their urethra or whatever? Here, at last, is a uni-related version of that kind of story (blame Paul Wiederecht). … Rob Harrigan wrote up a nice ode to his favorite bowling shirt. … I’m several days late with this, but RIP, Jane Jarvis — you were a crucial part of the soundtrack to my childhood.

You Can Take the Boy Out of Brooklyn…

2010-02-04T14:31:47Z

Back around 2005 — before this blog existed — I went to see the band Les Sans Culottes at Southpaw. I remember saying to my then-galpal Ruth, “Man, that guitarist has a really good look.”

I didn’t realize that the guitarist was the same guy who’d recently been contributing odd and ends for my ESPN column. He called himself Scott M.X. Turner, and he was clearly more uni-fluent than most of the other readers who were communicating with me at the time. At some point we figured out that we both lived in Brooklyn, so we met for a beer, at which point I realized he was the guy I’d seen onstage at Southpaw. We hit it off immediately.

In the ensuing years, Scott has provided all manner of support that’s been vital to Uni Watch’s success. When I was gearing up for the first-ever Uni Watch party in March of 2006, he took it upon himself to create a T-shirt design, which he invited me to use. When this site launched later that spring, he happily agreed to modify that design so it could serve as the site’s masthead. He later designed assorted T-shirts, secondary logos, and, most notably, about 900 membership cards (and counting). He’s also given me several gorgeous vintage jerseys and jackets, taken me along for a tour of the Stall and Dean warehouse, been my road-trip partner and softball teammate, and a lot more. He’s been a comrade, an ally, a co-conspirator, a dear friend.

And now big things are afoot for Scott. The good news is that he’s accepted a new gig with Ebbets Field Flannels; the bad news, at least for those of us here in New York, is that this means he’s relocating to Seattle — first for a month or so, just to get his feet wet, and then likely for good. I’ll really miss having him around.

For you NYC-area folks who want to send Scott off in style, it’s not too late. For the past few years, he’s been hosting a weekly trivia quiz at Rocky Sullivan’s in Red Hook. His final quiz will be tonight, 8pm, and I know it’ll be a doozy. And tomorrow night Rocky’s is hosting a going-away party for Scott, who’ll be Seattle-bound the very next day. If you have a membership card, if you have a T-shirt, or if you just want to buy a beer for a great guy, come on out tonight and/or tomorrow — Scott deserves it, and you deserve to meet him.

Ace designer, learned uniform scholar, killer musician, consummate Brooklynite, passionate activist, lifelong Shea Hey Kid, good friend — Scott is the total package. Here’s to you, buddy.

Meanwhile: New ESPN column today — the annual Super Bowl installment. Enjoy.

Helmet Watch, continued: Batting helmet history continues to present a very deep rabbit hole. Yesterday I was was directed to this 1989 article, which has lots of great info about the guy who helped develop the Pirates’ batting helmets. Key passage: “Rickey, hoping to immediately popularize the helmets, ordered the Pirates to wear them both at the plate and in the field in 1952. Pitchers disliked the helmets, saying they adversely affected their rhythm, so the Pirates wore them only while batting in 1953.”

Well, maybe. I couldn’t find any Pirates game photos from ’53, but I did find several pregame promo shots, all of which showed fielders wearing helmets (including a pitcher). And here’s a 1956 spring training shot that shows a bunch of players in helmets (okay, so they could all be headed to the batting cage, but still…) So I suspect this is another case of a published account that isn’t entirely accurate.

The most interesting thing I found, however, was this shot from March of ’53. Note the dateline and caption. Who knew the Buccos had a training camp in Havana? Apparently Branch Rickey had done the same thing with the Dodgers to avoid Southern racism and later did with with the Pirates as well.

Uni Watch News Ticker: The NFL plans to announce a “new Super Bowl logo system” today. No more roman numerals? No more really sucky logos? No more Super Bowl industrial complex? I can hardly ~~give a shit~~ wait. … Josh Szponar and his brother made a DIY FSU beer pong table. “It’s completely hand-painted, except for the numbers and yard marks, which we did with tape and numbered stencils,” he says. “We completed it during the off-season, and then FSU and Nike teamed up to change the field. It was heartbreaking, but now we have a beautiful table to remember the old design by.” … Got a flurry of e-mails last night from people informing me that Man v. Food host Adam Richman was wearing an “I Still Call It Joe Robbie” T-shirt — nice. … Matt Kuekes notes that the NHL logo was once again missing from Ray Whitney’s jersey last night. … Here’s something you don’t often see: a leather football helmet with a facemask. That’s from a listing of collectibles from the 2008 National Sports Collectors Convention (as found by Paul Deaver). … Matt Kuekes notes that the NHL logo is consistently missing from Ray Whitney’s jerseys. Anyone know what that’s about? … Lance Smith found an old Popular Mechanics article about “pinless” bowling and also came up with a few dozen related photos from the Life archives. Naturally, I’m mostly interested in the shirts. … Lance also posted some spectacular bowling photos in yesterday’s comments. In case you missed them, they’re all linked here. … Lots of Utah Jazz logo and uni speculation in this article. Key passage: “Deron Williams, however, said he’d already seen designs of the new jerseys the Jazz could wear next season. He wouldn’t reveal details, but they are expected to be a return to the music note in updated colors. … The Jazz are not expected to bring back their original Mardi Gras colors of purple, green and yellow. Instead, the updated colors are rumored to be blue, green and gold.” As it happens, I’ve seen next year’s Jazz uniform too, but of course I’m sworn to secrecy. … Not sports-related, but here’s a design contest — with a $2000 prize — to re-brand the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (with thanks to Craig Sallinger). … Also not sports-related: Some amazing 1927 color footage from London (with thanks to Chad Todd). … Good article about how the Cavs chose their uni numbers (with thanks to Matt Sajna). … Georgia wore silver-gray alternates last night. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Good piece on the pros and cons of the Brewers’ untucking ritual here. … Scroll down to the “New Unis” section of this page to see info on Arizona getting new football uniforms. A teeny bit of additional info at the very bottom of this page (with thanks to Joey Ramaeker and Mark Austin, respectively).

Because Nothing Says Cool Like a Middlebrow White Guy

2010-02-03T13:05:33Z

Got a DVD in the mail the other day from reader Kevin Gallo. It contained several uni-related baseball video clips from 1983, including one that by all rights should be legendary throughout the uni-verse, although I’d never seen it before.

“I have a decent amount of old tapes I am currently going through and burning to DVD,” he wrote. “I wish I knew how to upload them to YouTube, but I haven’t had much time to figure it out.”

Fortunately, I know how to upload things to YouTube, so that’s what I did with Kevin’s material. Let’s start with this short Giants commercial:

I always hated that design, and I’d have to think an old-schooler like Robbie would’ve hated it too. Does anyone know if he truly had anything to do with the insignia, or was that just not-very-artistic license?

Next up is an A’s commercial:

Not bad, although it would’ve been better if they’d said “green stirrups and yellow sannies” instead of just “green socks.” The decline of stirrups can surely be traced back to small indignities such as this one.

But the real prize is a truly astonishing sequence starring Tom Paciorek, who was then with the White Sox. It’s hard to express how awful — and, hence, how awesome — this clip is, but it’s definitely one for the ages. Dig:

Whoa. You could write an entire Master’s thesis on all the unintentional brilliance in that segment. It’s like a 1970s porn movie without the sex (although sex was definitely in the air, at least judging by the way the interviewer kept gazing longingly at Paciorek).

I asked Kevin where this clip came from. Here’s his response:

I believe this was from an OnTV series called “Inside Baseball” from 1983. I was 10 years old and our family had just gotten our first VCR, so I taped just about everything sports-related. I think there were six episodes from this series. I still have all of them, but I haven’t viewed them in at least 20 years. They just kind of go through the season and touch on some baseball-realted topics. I remember that episode in particular because I’m a White Sox fan and Paciorek was my favorite player. So I always remembered that clip, and I finally pulled it out. I have no idea why Paciorek was targeted for that piece, except he was always a likable ballplayer, so maybe that’s why they chose him for the segment.

Kevin says he may have other uni-related material on his old tapes — hope so. But he’ll be hard-pressed to top that Paciorek clip.

FlapJackie Update: Yesterday I showed a photo of Jackie Hayes wearing a primitive helmet/earflap device. That led Phil to do a bit of digging. He came up with this article, in which Hayes says, “I was the first to wear a batting helmet. They let me wear it because of my eye.”

More intriguing, though, is this letters column from the July 1999 issue of Baseball Digest. One of the magazine’s readers asks, “When were batting helmets first used in the major leagues and when did they become mandatory? Also, when did ear flaps come into use, and are all players required to use them?” The response begins as follows: “Some sources credit Jackie Hayes, a White Sox second baseman who was blind in one eye, with wearing the first batting helmet in 1940. He fashioned a homemade helmet that also covered his ears.”

Good stuff there, but check out the rest of the response:

The New York Giants used a form of plastic helmets in a game against the Pirate on June 6, 1941.

Phil Rizzuto of the Yankees wore a full batting helmet in a major league game in 1951.

On September 15, 1952, the Pirates introduced full temple plastic helmets, with the entire team wearing them in the field and at bat.

Brooks Robinson is credited as the first major leaguer to wear an ear flap for protection.

In 1957, the National League required all players to wear protective headgear (cap liners rather than full helmets were sufficient). Current players who objected were not required to comply with the ruling.

In 1958, the American League followed suit. Ted Williams initially said he would not comply, but later relented by wearing a liner inside his cap.

In 1962, the A.L. ruled that inner linings were not enough and that helmets had to be worn. However, this rule was not enforced until the 1970s.

In 1971, Organized Baseball introduced a rule which required players at all levels to wear helmets, and minor league players to wear ear flaps. The ear flap rule was gradually extended to the major leagues.

Lots of interesting info there, but I’d say it raises more questions than it answers. For example:

• What is the “form of plastic helmets” that the Giants wore on 6/6/41?

• What is the date of 1951 game in which Rizzuto wore a helmet?

• Regarding the Pirates on 9/15/52, what exactly are “full temple plastic helmets”? For how many games (or months, or seasons) did they wear helmets in the field?

• I have never heard Brooks Robinson cited as the first earflapped player before. When did he wear a flap? Did it predate either Earl Battey’s improvised flap or Tony Gonzalez’s premolded flap?

And so on. We’ve touched on many of these issues before, but it’s interesting to see so many of them addressed in one place. Unfortunately, I suspect there’s a mix of fact and misinformation in the Baseball Digest account.

Meanwhile, remember this Tony Gonzalez photo from yesterday? Morris Levin found a newspaper account of Gonzalez being beaned on 4/16/64 and then, two months later, there’s our wire service photo. Cool!

Giveaway Reminder: I’m giving away that Jaguars jersey box. Details here.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Man, this year’s Super Bowl jersey patch looks really big, no? … Rahaeem Brock wore some interesting socks for Media Day yesterday. … Throwbacks on tap for Colorado State this weekend (with thanks to Patrick Donnelly). … New logo for the Eugene Emeralds (with thanks to Travis McGuire). … Several readers have noted that Syracuse appears to have new shorts for sale (here’s the orange version). Unclear whether this means a new look on the court. … Tyler Mack reports that Terry and Terrance Talbott will likely commit to Michigan today, creating some serious FNOB possibilities for the Wolverines football squad. … The USA’s outfits for the Opening Ceremonies in Vancouver would be nice, if not for a certain not-very-subtle logo. … Here’s how this season’s Dodgers patch looks on a jersey (big thanks to Ben Wideman). … Got a spare $7500 lying around? Good, then you can buy yourself a 1950s Cincy Mohawks jersey (good find by Doug Smith). … Good breakdown of lacrosse gloves here (with thanks to Jeff Brunelle). … Jean-Sebastien Giguere made his Maple Leafs debut last night but was still wearing his Ducks mask and pads (as noted by Corey Davis). … Hey, check out who the Reading Eagle’s sports editor used to be! (Morris Levin found that one.) … Ken Burns is planning to add a 10th inning to his Baseball film (thanks, Phil). … Here’s a good look at Jared Camden’s Cleveland Browns “space” blanket, complete with metallic flip side and maker’s mark. “I won it on eBay and hung it on my wall in college, so I have no idea how well this ‘SPACE age technology’ works on Mars or in Cleveland Stadium, but I do know I feel like it would work like shit,” he says. He also has a bunch of other Browns-related items, which you can see here. … Absolutely gorgeous 1961 Milwaukee Braves jersey photo here (with thanks to Make Mameli). … And speaking of the Braves, check out the little handwritten uni number on the very bottom of the stirrup here. … Second bullet point on this report indicates that Kentucky will have new basketball uniforms next week (with thanks to Chris Edwards). … “Found this 1996 NBA rookies phtoo in the SI vaults,” says Nathan Haas. “I’ve never seen the large logo on the Grizzlies’ shorts before. Also, Kerry Kittles is wearing running shoes.” … Newly added to the Life photo archives: dozens of player portraits from the 1939 MLB All-Star Game (with thanks to Lance Smith). … Whoa, Cleveland stirrup-o-rama! (Thanks, Vince.)

There’s No Service Like Wire Service, Vol. 3

2010-02-02T12:56:45Z

Readers Mike Hersh, Paul Wiederecht, and Larry Wiederecht contributed some excellent wire service photos last week and pointed me toward some good sources for more of them, so I recently spent the better part of a day poring over nearly 7,000 images, culling out dozens of photos that I’ll be sharing with you over the course of several blog entries.

Some of these photos are simply interesting, but others are of major uni-historical significance. Those are the ones we’ll be looking at today. Here’s the scoop:

• As you all know by now, I’m mildly obsessed with documenting the evolution of the batting helmet earflap. Earl Battey appears to have worn the first improvised flap, in 1961, but when was the first premolded flap made available? The answer appears to be 1964. I had always heard that Tony Gonzalez was among the first flap-clad hitters, but this is the first evidence of it I’ve ever seen. But if real flaps were available in 1964, why was Jimmie Hall wearing a makeshift flap in the 1965 World Series? Based on a conversation I had two weekends ago with former Twins equipment manager Ray Crump, the answer may lie in a legal dispute between ABC Helmet and Wilson, who were both trying to bring a flapped lid to market around that time. The litigation between the two companies may have resulted in the premolded flaps being unavailable for a period of time. (As an aside: If you look at again at the Gonzalez photo, you’ll see that the helmet he’s holding has a raised logo appliqué, similar to what the Cubs still use today.)

• But wait — maybe this was the first earflap! Full details in the caption. We reeeeaaaalllly need to find a photo of Hayes wearing this contraption in a game.

• In still more head-protection news, it appears that the Reds required their players to wear plastic liners in 1954. Unfortunately, the caption doesn’t specify whether the liners were required only for batting or if they also had to be worn in the field. (Remember, the Pirates once required their players to wear helmets in the field, so a liner requirement isn’t so far-fetched.) Interestingly, the player in this photo, Roy McMillan, is the same guy who was shown examining that air-conditioned cap four years later.

• Last week I mentioned that reader Jim Lonetti wore this unusual Twins jersey to the Uni Watch party in Minneapolis. He pointed out the atypical version of the team’s script and said it the jersey was a salesman’s sample. But dig this: That script was apparently supposed to be used on the team’s inaugural uniform! That unveiling photo is from 1/16/61, but by the start of the season they’d already switched to their more familiar script (or at least I think they had — does anyone have any Opening Day photos from that season?). Other questions worth investigating: Which script did they wear for spring training that year? And why was the old script resuscitated for a sample jersey in the powder blue era?

• The Twins’ logo apparently underwent some last-minute changes too. Here’s the official logo unveiling shot. But instead of the two characters wearing the familiar “M” and “STP” (for Minneapolis and St. Paul, duh), they’re both wearing an “MT” mark that I’ve never seen before. Does anyone know if that “MT” logo and/or this version of the handshake logo were ever used in any official capacity?

• We all know the 1960 White Sox were the first team to use NOBs. And now we know when they unveiled them: January 22nd of that year.

• Did you know all of the WFL’s logos and uniforms were designed by one guy, or that this marked the first time a single designer created a league’s entire graphics program? I didn’t, but hey, live and learn. I hadn’t heard of the designer, Ray Engle, but he apparently still has his own design firm (although he must be fairly old by now). Unsurprisingly, there’s no mention of his WFL work on his web site. Gonna try to contact him for an interview later this week.

I’m genuinely excited over these photos, which I think represent as much serious historical documentation as we’ve ever featured in one day here on the site. And trust me, this is just the tip of the wire service iceberg.

The Proctor Files, Continued: I mentioned in yesterday’s Ticker that I failed to win this catalog but was nonetheless intrigued by the basketball shorts at top-left on this page. That prompted a characteristically thorough reply from sporting goods historian Terry Proctor, as follows:

Even I don’t remember that basketball pant style from Empire. But I am very familiar with the company. Empire was one of the small cut-and-sew companies that used to populate the sporting goods industry. Empire Sporting Goods Mfg. Co., Post Mfg. Co., and Felco Athletic Wear, all located in NYC, were the “Big Three” of this type of company.

Empire was run by the Rauch brothers, Frank and Nate, I believe. Frank Rauch was their Sales Manager and Sales Representative for New York State. Unfortunately, Frank stayed too long at the dance. Towards the end of his career in the late 1970s, he would come into Rochester, set up in a local hotel, and call the dealers to come in to see his wares. You went only as a courtesy to Frank, who was then in his 70s. It was a scene right out of “Death of a Salesman” with Frank as Willy Loman.

In those days the softball and baseball teams wanted the flashy styles from SandKnit and Rawlings, not Empire’s “stuck-in-1947″ styles made out of rayon/durene or nylon/durene. Unfortunately, none of us had the heart to tell him the truth that his products were out of date, both material- and style-wise. We would just dance around the issue and end up buying some of his nylon pitcher’s windbreaker jackets or Little League socks. It was sad to see.

But Empire did have one last hurrah. Somehow they got the contract to make all of the baseball uniforms and jackets for Robert Redford’s movie “The Natural,” which was filmed in Buffalo. Empire actually did a pretty good job with the film. The uniforms weren’t all historically correct, but they were far superior to what appeared in most other sports movies. Empire had closed their doors by the early 1990s.

Jags jersey box giveaway, finally: Okay, let’s recap: Last spring, around the time that the Lions and Jags unveiled their new uniforms, I acquired this box. Inside was a new Lions jersey — a Calvin Johnson jersey, to be exact — along with assorted inspirational messages (some of them admittedly of dubious hype value).

I have also acquired a similar box for the Jaguars. It’s unopened — still in its original shrinkwrap, in fact — so I don’t know whose jersey is inside, what size it is, or anything else. (Yes, Maurice Jones-Drew is shown on the box, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything; the Lions box showed Kevin Smith.)

I’m going to give that box away to one lucky reader. To be eligible to win, send a blank e-mail with your name in the subject line to this address by this Friday, February 5th, 7pm eastern. Only one entry per person (remember, Uni Watch Membership Program enrollees can no longer send bonus entries). I’ll announce the winner on Monday.

Uni Watch News Ticker: A Swiss basketball player has been told not to wear her Muslim headscarf while playing (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Lots of Redskins uni discussion here (with thanks to Nick Church). … Lots of interesting soccer-related stuff for sale, including lots of classic old jerseys, some retro-style tees,and Erol Yasin’s 1980 NASL championship ring (good finds by John Leftwich and Ed Dailey). … The Padres continue to leverage the military/patriotism thing to annoying lengths, this time with a new logo that’ll be used for military promotions. As you know, San Diego is the only city in America with a military base (unlike, say, Brooklyn). … The good folks at SoccerPro.com are running a contest with a fun prize: a free jersey per year for 10 years. Details here. … Here’s a new one: Xavier’s basketball shorts have been modified so the players can keep little play-calling cards in their waistbands (fascinating find by Ryan Dempsey). … The Notre Dame hockey team wore special jerseys to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project on Saturday (with thanks to Erik Bootsma). … Here’s a place I never expected to see the Expos’ logo: on a Dunny. Josh Brotheim says it’s because the toy’s designer, KidRobot, is from Montreal. … Zac Neubauer found some cool old photos in the Winnipeg Tribune’s photo archive, including a pee-wee football team that wore hockey-style jerseys (was this common in Canada years ago?), the Winnipeg Goldeyes’ new baseball jerseys fresh off the factory line, and an early women’s hockey team. … “I was watching the KHL All–Star game on ESPN 360 and a guy on Team ‘Jagr’ didn’t have a number on his jersey,” says Jay Danbom. “Barry Melrose called it a practice jersey. They added that it was a possible late addition to the roster and gave the guy’s name but I don’t remember it.” … Mako Mameli has sent me some 1990 NFL screen shots showing that the Raiders and Vikings were wearing American flag decals for Desert Storm as far back as Week 16. Other notable data from that game: (1) On the logo creep front, the Vikings wore had the Wilson logo on the left sleeve but not the right (was that really the protocol at that time?), and Herschel Walker didn’t have it at all. And (2) Not often you see an NFL player with an acute accent on his NOB! … Mako also contributed a bunch of other 1990 screen shots, including views of the Dolphins’ Joe Robbie memorial armband and 25th-anniversary helmet decal; some inconsistent NOB stylings by the Raiders; Torin Dorn exhibiting a wristband fetish; and Rodney Peete with no sleeve stripes (shocking!). … Two interesting Raiders-related items were recently posted on the Chris Creamer board: a prototype alternate jersey (seems fishy to me, but someone paid $861 for it) and an extremely overpriced but nonetheless gorgeous Jim Otto sideline jacket. … As we all know, the Pro Bowl jerseys have the player’s team logo on the shoulder area. But the Browns don’t have a logo, so Browns players just have a Browns helmet icon on their Pro Bowl jerseys. But here’s the beauty part: J.C. Parks notes that the helmet icon on the jerseys has a white facemask, while the Browns’ real helmets have gray facemasks. Brilliant, brilliant catch. … Good article about Cavs merchandising (with thanks to Brian Jones). … Evgeni Malkin was one of several Pens players who were missing their collar laces last night (as noted by Stu Uhl). … Latest bit of greatness from the mighty Fleer Sticker Project: a set of Sunbeam Bread cloth patches and display albums. … Reprinted from last night’s comments: Tons of old USFL games available on DVD, for cheap, here.

Which Got Lower Ratings Yesterday, the Pro Bowl or the Pro Bowlers Tour?

2010-02-01T12:33:15Z

While you were doing something comparatively productive with your life (like, say, taking a nap, or scratching your ass), readers Joshua Brisco and Aaron McHargue were actually paying attention to the Pro Bowl. When you’ve stopped laughing, take a look at some of the things they noticed:

• Tony Romo’s sleeves were flaring outward a bit. Why? Because he slit them at the armpits.

• Vince Young’s skullcap featured the old NFL logo.

• DeSean Jackson was doing the one eye black thing (which he apparently used to do back in college.

So there you have it: proof positive that wasting three-plus hours of your life can result in some marginally interesting material. But that’s nothing compared to what Jared Pike did: He attended the Pro Bowl! I didn’t have the heart to ask if he actually paid for the tickets, especially since he sent some interesting photos:

• “I had a blast uni-watching at the NFL Experience before the game,” says Jared. “This kid was at the ‘Kick a field goal’ booth. The tape was covering a Chad Pennington NOB.” That has to be one of the best fan modifications ever.

• “There were plenty of loyal (and accurate) Miami Dolphins fans in attendance, but a FNOB Dan Marino? Seriously? To distinguish him from the other Marinos?”

• “The Bethune Cookman College marching band, otherwise very good, spoiled their halftime show by forming a Michael Jackson figure grabbing his crotch.”

• “I know this will be your favorite: The gentleman in front of us had a Miami Dolphins yarmulke.”

Major thanks to Joshua, Aaron, and Jared for their valuable public service. I look forward to their extensive Olympic biathlon coverage.

Coming tomorrow: Some major uni-historical breakthroughs. Seriously.

ESPN reminder: In case you missed it, my ESPN column about my recent trip to the Twin Cities is available here, and I don’t mind saying I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. Enjoy.

Uni Watch News Ticker: As you may have heard by now, CBS has nixed a Super Bowl ad that showed a guy in a Packers jersey and a guy in a Vikings jersey making out. … What’s with the super-high uni number? It’s a guy from a radio station WSAI, which is 1360 on the AM dial (with thanks to Paul Wiederecht). … Mako Mameli sent along a bunch of screen shots from the 1991 AFC Championship Game, including Mark Kelso wearing the ProCap, a McNOB, the Bills’ kickoff specialist wearing two different brands of white shoes, Torin Dorn with two pairs of gloves, and some inconsistent NOB action. Coupla other things regarding that last link: First, for the image on the left, note that there’s no space between the period and “Davis.” And for the image on the left, note the large-ish American flag decal for Desert Storm — bigger than the ones used nowadays. Frankly, I thought the Desert Storm flags had been added for Super Bowl XXV and didn’t realize they were already in place during the playoffs. Anyone know if they had been added prior to the conference championship weekend? … New uniforms and logos for the single-A Wilmington Blue Rocks — including some totally bitchin’ striped stirrups (with thanks to Chris Ray). … Speaking of striped socks, how long has the Michigan State hoops team been wearing these vertically striped hose? (As noted by Nicklas Lane.) … Nice throwback for Xavier last Thursday (with thanks to Kevin Hastings). … Rob Perkey has found another catcher who wears his helmet brim facing forward: Robinzon Diaz. … New uniform set for the Chiba Lotte Marines (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Also from Jeremy: Here’s the logo for spring training games that the Dodgers will be playing in Taiwan. … If you go to the Life photo archives and search on the term “football dummies,” you get some pretty bizarre images. “Many of the dummies are listed as having been made by Marty Gilman of Gilman, Connecticut,” notes Lance Smith. “A quick Google search shows there’s still a firm called Gilman Gear that makes athletic equipment.” They’ll be getting a call from me shortly. … One of the best things about the NFC Championship Game was the big Sir Saint backdrops behind the goalposts at the Superdome. And now they’ve put Sir Saint on a cap. But jeez, ya think that NFL logo on the back is big enough? (With thanks to Terence Kearns.) … Love the little mascot uniform in this 1896 baseball team portrait (great find by Craig McGlone). … Good article about English Premier League sleeve badges here (with thanks to Timothy O’Malley). … Love the Sears sign in this 1953 photo. But what’s that Coke sign at left say? “Home of Atlanta Crackers” — that’s Ponce de Leon Park in Atlanta, where the Crackers and Black Crackers both played. Those photos are from the excellent Atlanta Time Machine site, which was pointed out to me by Blair Thompson. … Latest league to rip off Jerry Dior’s MLB logo concept: the Women’s National Volleyball Association (with thanks to Jeremy Brahm). … Washington Huskies wore some BFBS alternates on Saturday. … Paul Brandt sang the national anthem at Saturday’s Flames/Oilers game while wearing a Flames jersey with a note instead of a uni number (thanks, Kek). … There are two notable aspects to this Sonny Jurgensen photo. The first one is obvious but don’t overlook the fact that the TV numbers are on the shoulders — unusual, because the mid-’60s Eagles wore northwestern-striped jerseys with TV numbers on the sleeves. Ricko says the Sonny shot is from an early-’60s preseason game, circa ’61 (here’s another photo from the same game, pre-jersey tear), but Tim Brulia says the Iggles wore this style for a few late-’50s regular season games, and that this design marked the first time a team put TV numbers on the shoulders. … Really interesting story about purple Lego pieces (great find by Matthew Edwards). … Unfortunately, I didn’t win this catalog, but I’m intrigued by a few of the photos in the auction listing, including these horrific softball uniforms and the very interesting basketball shorts shown at the top-left of this page. Never seen that circular bullseye insert before. Hey, Terry Proctor, what can you tell us about that style? … Terence Kearns found a site with some very cool soccer-themed T-shirts. … Alex Ozenberger reports that Miramar High in Florida has one of the weirdest hodgepodge uni designs ever — Flying Elvis on the chest, bizarre-o number font, Oregon-style diamondplate (which is reflective, natch), and vertically striped socks. … Typo alert: BYU’s Charles Abouo’s NOB was misspelled on Saturday. And yes, they were wearing pink for cancer awareness (with thanks to Christopher Jones). … Daniel Caceres recently purchased a Cowboys jersey with an odd mix of old and new NFL logos. … Tremendous video clip featuring a 1970 Browns/Bengals game here. Among many other details, check out the jacket being worn by the guy holding the down marker (awesome find by Brinke Guthrie). … More standout video goodness: highlights from the 1962 NBA All-star Game. That’s the introductory segment — see the right sidebar for links to the first half, third quarter, and fourth quarter. Note that No. 4 on the East squad appears to have been wearing a mask. Not positive who that was, but I think it was Dolph Schayes (big thanks to Charlie Panian). … While looking for something else, I came across this shot of Reggie McKenzie wearing glasses on the sidelines. … Also stumbled upon this shot of Johnny Unitas in his first Chargers practice, circa 1973. Love how Johnny U is still wearing his old black high-tops. Also, kinda funny that the Chargers’ practice shirt was a tee with the team’s helmet. … Small item on this page indicates that Nate Schierholtz, who has mostly batted bare-handed up until now, will go with batting gloves this season (as noted by Tremaine Eto). … John Sobotka was watching some old World Cup footage and noticed that the German goalkeeper in 1966 was wearing a newsboy’s cap. … Nice find by Philip Garza, who found this New England Pats bike on eBay. … One sport I neglected to check out while I was in Minnesota: iceball (with thanks to Eric Baukol). … Nick Hanson attended Saturday’s Florida Everblades game and noticed that goalie Chris Beckford-Tseu’s pants didn’t match those of his teammates. … The mighty Fleer Sticker Project scores again, this time with a gorgeous set of NFL helmet-themed Hormel trays. Amazing stuff. … Brinke Guthrie says he remembers seeing a late-’60s white rain poncho covered with all the then-current NFL team logos. “Key point: It had reflective aluminum-y material on the inside, so it reflected your body heat,” he says. Anyone know more? … Interesting story about how Joe Robbie is being prepped for the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl here.

The Who Cares Pro Bowl

2010-01-31T04:36:09Z

By 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.”

~~~

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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Remember 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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Guess 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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Our 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.)

~~~

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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Meet 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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This 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.

Take Me Out To The Ball Park

2010-01-30T13:05:38Z

By Phil Hecken

I’ve always been fascinated by the old baseball parks, especially the ones that were long gone before I was born. So many quirks, so much history — the ghosts of baseball past, if you will. Unlike today’s retro parks (which were, of course, inspired by the cathedrals of the past) and their immediate predecessors — the cavernous concrete multipurpose donuts and municipal yards that were built either on the cheap or without character (oftentimes both), ballparks of yesteryear have always held a special place in my heart. Sure, they’re not uniforms, but after uniforms, they’re my one of my true loves.

I had often wanted to write a piece on some of the old parks, and today I’ll give a quick look at some of my favorites. I have to say, I was inspired to write about these a long time ago, and after some rather intense discussions with some of my Deep Freeze comrades last weekend, where I found my love of these parks was far from unique, I decided to think about it. Then, this past Tuesday, Paul posted a ticker item featuring one of those newfangled computer baseball games in which one can “select” an old school stadium (to be precise the particular game featured seven of my favorites old buildings: The Polo Grounds, Crosley Field, Forbes Field, Griffith Stadium, Shibe Park and Sportsman’s Park) in which one could play a game. That cinched it — and this post was born.

There are far too many stadia (although to be fair, most of them weren’t stadiums at all, but much smaller, more intimate places), most of which featured some amazingly unique architecture or other characteristics which can’t be replicated today, to actually cover in one post (or even 100). So, I’ll just scratch the surface and provide you with a few links so you can ~~waste~~ spend the rest of the day just enjoying the simpler times, before night games, commercial breaks and t-shirt shooting cannon. Back when “lets play two” was a weekly occurrence and you could spend a day at the park without taking out a loan. So without further ado, here’s a look at five of my favorite old-tyme ballparks:

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Ebbets Field: No list would be complete without Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field. Opened in 1913, this wasn’t the first park in which the Dodgers played, but it’s the most famous (sure, Dodger Stadium has it’s finer points, and it has hosted more Dodgers games than Ebbets Field). It was one of baseball’s first cathedrals, and was no doubt most famous for the rotunda. The New York Baseball club that “replaced” Brooklyn (and the Giants) upon their westward move attempted to replicate that rotunda when they christened their new ballpark last season (and didn’t do too bad a job).

But Ebbets had many other glorious features as well: Like many parks of yesteryear, it was shoehorned into the neighborhood, and featured a very short rightfield porch, famously adorned with ads, including the iconic Abe Stark (“Hit Sign Win Suit”) sign, and an angled wall with a high wire fence. The big “Schaefer Beer” sign would tell those keeping score whether a play was a “HIT” (the “H” in Schaefer would light) or an “ERROR” (the “E” would light up). Awesome.

There is so much more to Ebbets Field, and you can read more here, here, here and here.

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Shibe Park: A Philadelphia classic, Shibe Park (later known as “Connie Mack Stadium”) was also an architectural splendor to behold. It featured a magnificent French Renaissance facade, and was the first ballpark (constructed in 1909) built entirely of concrete and steel. Featuring gargantuan centerfield dimensions (over 500 feet from home plate in the early years), it too was built to fit inside a city grid.

Shibe was home to both the Athletics and the Phillies, with the A’s being the original tenant in 1909. By 1938, the Phillies had moved in (and would remain there after the A’s departed for Kansas City), and would stay until the Vet was built.

While devoid of multiple quirks like other ballparks of it’s time, Shibe did have one distinguishing feature: Connie Mack, owner of the A’s, was pissed that those in the neighboring homes could see games for free over the low fence, so he constructed a “spite” fence in right field. The new fence effectively cut down on the “squatters” but didn’t endear him to the neighborhood.

Lots more to read about Shibe, and that can be found here, here, here, here, and here.

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Griffith Stadium: Look at the size of that left field! That’s not an illusion, when Griffith Stadium was constructed, it was a whopping 407 feet down the left field line, and it actually increased to 424 feet in 1921! Another stadium whose dimensions were reflected by it’s relation to the neighborhood, Griffith Stadium also had an extremely unique quirk: the centerfield wall jutted inward at almost a right angle, detouring around a tree and five houses.

The Nationals/Senators called Griffith Stadium home (as did the Negro League Grays and the Redskins), and it was the site of perhaps the longest home run in baseball history. The Mick hit one that was “supposedly measured” at 565 feet (baseball’s first “tape measure” shot, although the gentleman who later claimed to have used an actual tape measure later claimed to have merely guestimated the distance).

Griffith Stadium also featured a high rightfield fence with a giant Natty Boh bottle atop it. The bottle was about fifty feet high.

So much more information on Griffith Stadium can be found here, here, here, here and here.

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Polo Grounds: Another New York icon, the Polo Grounds always intrigued me because of it’s horseshoe shape. It was actually the fourth ballpark built on that spot, and was home to the Giants, the Yankees (for a few years until they’d build a somewhat famous stadium across the river), and after Horace Stoneham paired up with Walter O’Malley to move the Giants (with the Dodgers) west, the New York Metropolitans, who played there for two years. Now, the Polo Grounds wasn’t always an enclosed stadium, but the builders quickly went from this to the fully enclosed stadium shortly after construction. Like most parks of it’s age, centerfield was very deep, and the monument was in play (and is in memory of Captain Edward Leslie Grant, who was mortally wounded in France during World War I).

The Polo Grounds was full of quirks, including the monument and the giant scoreboard and cutout in centerfield between the bleachers (through which players and fans both exited the stadium). One of the oddest features occurred due to the shape of the field, which not only had the deep outfield, but two incredibly short left field and right field walls. While short porches aren’t uncommon in older parks, unlike other fields, they couldn’t erect high fences to keep those short shots in play, as they would block the fans’ views. As a result, pop flies right down either baseline would become home runs. And although the right field fence was closer to home plate than the left, left field featured a somewhat unique overhang, which shortened the distance considerably.

One of the most famous catches in history occurred here, when the Say Hey Kid robbed Vic Wertz in the 1954 World Series. And of course, only years earlier, the short left field porch would be home of perhaps the most famous home run in the world, with Bobby Thompson’s shot heard round the world. This occurred on October 3, 1951, a season in which the Giants would make a miraculous September charge, ~~winning~~ stealing the pennant from the crosstown Dodgers.

Much more information on the Polo Grounds can be found here, here, here, here and here.

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Sportsman’s Park: This grand old park, opened in 1902 and used until 1966, was also referred to as Busch Stadium in later years. Until baseball began moving westward in the 1950’s, Sportsman’s Park had the distinction of being the furthest west park in baseball. While not particularly large or small in comparison to other old parks, it did have a fairly deep center and short right field porch. Originally home to the Browns (when it first opened), the more famous tenants (and later owners) were the St. Louis Cardinals.

While not particularly ‘quirky,’ Sportsman’s Park did have two very cool features: whenever a Cardinal hit a homerun, the Budweiser Eagle on top of the leftfield fence would flap it’s wings. Before the eagle sat atop the fence, like several ballparks, the flagpole was in fair territory.

Of course, when your owner is the inimitable Bill Veeck, there will be some interesting players on the team: Pete Gray, the one-armed major leaguer and Eddie Gaedel, baseball’s shortest player, both played at Sportsman’s Park (note the original dimensions and orientation of the field superimposed on a later shot). Perhaps my favorite quirk of the Stadium occurred during the 1946 World Series, when the Cards dropped the Red Sox and the field featured a crazy ring around the mound. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen this feature before or since in any park.

Additional information on Sportsman’s Park can be found here, here, here and here.

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That’s going to do it for this installment of the old ballparks. If you guys enjoyed it, I’ll do another set in the future. So what say you, do you love the old parks as much as I do? Have any others you consider your favorites? Got any stories of seeing games in any of these? Although, unless you’re considerably older than I, *coughrickocough* I’m guessing most of these were gone before you were born. Either way, whaddya say?

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“Be Like Mike.” Such a great marketing phrase back then. Not so much now. Here’s Rick:

Everything is a learning experience, right? I mean, that’s what they tell us. So why should we doubt that philosophy because something goes a little amiss? We just file it away and move on. Again. Grumbling.

Enjoy your Saturday Benchies.

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Guess The Game From The Scoreboard: Back today for a little college action. This one may give you some trouble, but you never know. Jake was there, and that’s probably even more of a hint than you need. 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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Our 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.

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Our first contestant is UW stalwart Mike Engle, who took crayon to paper to create this interesting Habs mashup:

As we all know (and especially me, as a McGill student), the Montreal Canadiens have been celebrating their old age for two years, while giving five throwback jerseys cameos. Though I am not advocating that the Habs even THINK about adopting this third jersey (I’m not even sure Jim Vilk would wear this thing), I am willing to share the result of my “blue duck syndrome.” I wanted to see what would happen if I took the Habs’ throwbacks, threw them all into a blender, and made one “encyclopedic” alternate top. Turns out, since the Habs have mostly exclusively been bleu, blanc et rouge, I didn’t need special helmets, breezers, or socks. I’d prefer natural leather brown gloves with this jersey, but I’d settle for standard red and blue gloves. Either way, the other team will definitely be wearing white.

Don’t mind the pencil guidelines or the lighter-than-supposed-to-be scanned color pencil. The colors are red, royal, white, and forest green. The NOB and number font are the same as currently used, so any differences there are coincidental as well. The thin white torso stripe and the blue upper is from the 1909 blue jersey; the sleeves are from the barber pole. The green accents are, of course, a recessive gene from the 1910 jerseys. I intentionally dialed back the green since it’s obviously a forgettable 1% of the uniform history. The green is only an accent when needed for extra contrast. The sleeve CA patch is directly from the 1912 jersey. But since I hate sleeve numbers on one sleeve or less, and didn’t want to interrupt the barber pole stripes more, I moved the TV numbers to the shoulders. Hardly the usual, but if Team Canada can do it, so can I. I invented the MCMIX patch for the right wrist as a “tattoo” to bookend the Reebok vector–I’d rather both be hidden than both seen on the ice, but the fans can certainly enjoy the year patch. (That’s Roman numeral for 1909, their first year, and I LOVE Roman numerals.) I put a CH logo front and center because it’s the famous logo, of course; I included a lace-up collar because they are my favorite; finally, the “normal” look below the torso stripe is to tie in with the rest of the non-throwback uniform. And oh by the way, why Ken Dryden for the model? My mom is a Cornell alumna, so I have to love Dryden.

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Next up is James Hayden, who has some new looks for the Washington, D.C. football club:

Hi,

Since I was designing new unis for the “Dead-skins” anyway, I decided to create a full set using my questionable graphic design talents and forward my results to you.

My basic concept is based on the NFL 75th Season throwbacks from 1994 — I always liked the jerseys they wore and even spent a couple bucks on ebay for a Mitchell & Ness Ricky Ervins repro that somebody didn’t read the washing instructions for (the NOB has a distinctive pink-ish cast to it). The current helmet would remain in use (I don’t really see the new GM pushjing for a re-design, since his dad designed it to begin with!), although Gray facemasks are a possibility — the change back to Gray from a colored mask seems to have worked out for the Colts.

Anyway – I’ve created 4 basic designs including a Burgundy Home Jersey, a White Road Jersey, a Gold Alternate and a “George Allen” Throwback – since George’s son is the new GM. Being a modern NFL team – I have three regular pants colors (and one alternate) so they can do the whole crappy high school look if needed (Red over Red – yay!). I’ve also returned to the darker Burgundy color they wore through 1968 (and on their Redskins 75th Alternates) and prefer to use the Yellow/Gold color they are supposed to be using – although they have a habit of using too light of a shade (closer to Packers Yellow that the more correct Steelers Yellow/Gold) – their 1971 Throwbacks from 2008 especially suffered from this issue – thanks again Reebok.

1. Dark Jersey – Based on the aforementioned 1994 Throwback – Dark Burgundy jersey with Yellow/Gold numbers and sleeve gathers, the numbers are “shadowed” in Old Gold. The TV numbers are placed up on the shoulder. The collar is similar to what the Packers wore back in the 1990’s and echos the 1969-1977 jerseys designed by Vince Lombardi. I’ve, of course, deleted any sleeve striping (since modern sleeve striping looks silly) and have placed the Chief Joseph logo on the sleeve ala’ 1930’s (and the 1994) jerseys – but I’ve used the helmet logo from 1982 (the “folded feather” logo). Basically I’ve tried to have some sort of homage to every era of Redskins football combined into a single jersey.

This jersey could (should) be worn with either Yellow/Gold or White pants – it’s not noted on the image, but the pants would have a contrasting stripe based on the Steelers uniforms – i.e. a single wide Burgundy stripe on the Yellow/Gold and White pants and a Yellow/Gold stripe on the Burgundy pants.

2. White Jersey – this mirrors the Burgundy jersey – same collar, numbers are Burgundy, but retain the Old Gold “shadowing” and the circle around Chief Joseph is Burgundy (with a very thin outline of Old Gold). This jersey would most properly be worn with the Burgundy pants (harking back to the Joe Gibbs eras), although White pants could be worn.

3. Alternate Gold Jersey (ugh) – I hated to do this, but modern teams need their alternates and a Black jersey would match absolutely nothing in the ’skins design genre. That being said, there was a (jinx) picture of Jason Campbell on the cover of Sports Illustrated last summer where he was wearing his QB practice “red-shirt” jersey – which, of course, can’t be red so its (the proper shade of) Yellow/Gold with Maroon Numbers and I thought that it looked kind-of cool. In addition, Nike’s WVU Yellow jerseys actually looked okay (for Nike, and I hate WVU’s numbers), so there’s a bit of influence from that quarter as well. This jersey omits the “Lombardi-esque” collar in favor of Plain Burgundy and Chief Joseph’s circle lacks the this gold trim. I’ve also used an alternate number style as the Old Gold “shadowing” wouldn’t look quite right. Either White or Burgundy pants should be worn with this jersey, although I’m sure somebody would want to try Yellow/Gold pants for a nice monochrome crappy high school look.

4. Throwback – modernized version of the 1969-1978 unis worn during the George Allen era, in consideration of the fact that the George’s son is the new GM. Basically the dark version of the 1971 Throwbacks they wore in 2008 (but with the proper shade of Yello/Gold), they use the current lighter Maroon shade used since Vince Lombardi designed “Packer-style” unis in 1969 and are worn with matching special Throwback pants and socks (BTW – the socks echo the jersey striping). They current helmet is worn, of course, since it was designed by George Allen for 1972 and has been used ever since (with the exception of the “folded feather” logo in 1982 – worn in Super Bowl XVII by everybody but Joe Washington and the change to Yellow facemasks. Of course, an alternate Throwback would just be the current unis, since they haven’t really changed since 1978 anyway…

Well, that’s my tweak – I’ve considered doing the Ravens, but all my designs eliminate Purple for either Blue (where they end-up looking too much like either the Colts or the CFL Baltimore Stallions) or Green and Silver like the AAFC Baltimore Colts (which means the look a lot like the second season USFL Washington Federals, or how the Eagles should look) – thanks for your time…

James Hayden

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Today’s final set of tweaks comes from Kaleb Stuckey, who has a whopping sixteen NFL teams he would like to see change their looks:

Baltimore Ravens- I got rid of the God-awful purple and replaced it with a maroon/burgundy to kep with the “dark” Ravens theme. Also, I gave them a new helmet logo.

Buffalo Bills- Probably the most necessary redesign, I gave the team back the old school white helmets, because I am obviously a big fan. Also, I made all the blues on the uniforms the same. The seven or eight different shades on the current uniforms is an eyesore.

Carolina Panthers- I got rid of the silver and, again, gave them white helmets. I changed the blue to actual “Carolina Blue.” And, just for the sake of change, I made the sleeves and jerseys different colors.

Cincinnati Bengals- I hated the old oval numbers and gave them more of a block style. Obviously the biggest change is the helmet. The stripes have worn their way out of my mind. Instead of the tiger stripes on the sleeves, I put them on the pants.

Cleveland Browns- Not too much change to these, just consistency.

Dallas Cowboys- Another consistency issue, I got rid of the ridiculous green pants and royal blue on the white. I also changed the white jersey sleeves with one band instead of the two. I also gave the three tone socks.

Detroit Lions- I got rid of the black on the color and white uniforms. If they want to wear black, they can wear the alternate, but hopefully rarely.

Houston Texans- Probably the most far-fetched concept, I brought back the old light blue from the Oilers days. I also gave them the underarm stripes.

Kansas City Chiefs- I gave more contrast to the two colors. The old red was too light and the yellow was too bright. I darkened the red and dulled down the yellow, as well as with yellow pants.

Minnesota Vikings- Obviously I used the South Carolina Gamecocks template for these, but anything is better than what they have. The new pants colors are what makes these uniforms better.

New Orleans Saints- I like simple uniforms (Colts, Jets), but boring is a different story. The Saints colors are the same as my high school colors were so I have played around with them before, but these might be my favorite. Accents and outlines are what makes them so different from the current uniforms.

New York Giants- Not too much difference in these, except for sleeve cuffs and white pants.

Pittsburgh Steelers- The most important change in these uniforms is that they have the logo sticker on both sides of the helmet (the most annoying idea in NFL uniforms.) The italicized numbers were also agonizing, so I gave them a block style and changed the color to yellow on the color uniforms.

Seattle Seahawks- Probably my favorite, I used the same current uniforms, but with the awesome colors of the former uniforms. Just as long as they don’t use the neon alternate.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers- Not too many obvious changes, but I got rid of the orange color in the accents. No team should have more than four colors on their uniforms.

Tennessee Titans- These didn’t need too much change, so I just adjusted a few things that bugged me. The helmet stripe is changed to the lighter blue. I just hope they don’t mix the light blue jersey/pants with the dark blue jersey/pants.

Thus endeth the tweaks for today. Don’t forget about the Official NFL Jersey Tweaks Contest too, which is separate from the normal uniform tweaks section. Remember, the deadline for the contest is February 1, (this Monday), so the contest WILL be closed down after that date. Keep them coming, and if you have a uniform or set of uniforms you have concepted, send them my way.

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It had to happen sometime, right? After almost 22 years of inertia, this past week I took the semi-momentous step, at least for me, of returning to the university environment, beginning my post-graduate studies in pursuit of a Masters Degree in Journalism. Right now, it’s only one course (so at this rate, I’ll have a degree in four years) for now, but it’s a beginning.

Why am I telling you this? Aside from an ever-so-slight chest puffing, it means I may need to start scaling back some of the weekend columns, depending upon the amount of assignments and such I will have. Or it may just mean I need to better organize my time. Either way, I still fully intend to bring at least as much quality (if not quantity) to the weekends as I have in the past (insert “what quality?” joke here).

My favorite (or one of my favorite) part of the weekends is being able to work with many of you to bring a special or unique-ish main article to the readers, and I’d especially like to continue that. I try to work in one if not two of those per weekend, so I’m going to keep pulling a Tom Sawyer and keep those coming. However, in most of the instances, I seek a co-collaborator or two out. What I’d like to ask of you guys, though, is to come to me.

So, if you have an idea for a uni-related (unlike like today’s article) column, I’d love to see if we can’t put something together. If you have any ideas for a weekend piece, let me hear from you. No idea is too outrageous, so long as uniforms are involved, and all suggestions will be considered. If there is a topic or a sport you don’t think we see enough (or any) of on UW, let’s see if we can’t tackle it together.

OK? OK! I thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.

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And I’m not the only journalism student who needs your help these days. 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,

Kenny

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

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Alright everyone, that’s going to do it for today. Everyone have a fantastic Saturday, ok? OK!