Friday Morning Uni Watch

With so many college football games on the slate last night, there was a fair amount of uni-related news. Here’s a rundown:

• FBS uni change that nobody saw coming: Kent State, which has changed from New Balance to Nike. Apparently yesterday’s game was the first time the new design had been shown in public.

• FBS uni change that we sort of saw coming but didn’t expect to see so soon: In my ESPN college football season-preview column, I mentioned that Tulane had been practicing in white helmets but quoted an article that said, “[Coach Bob] Toledo said the white helmets probably won’t transfer to games, but the program does have the white helmet game option if it desires.” I guess they so desired, because they went ivory-capped last night. As you can see in that photo, they’ve also added a fleur de lis at the base of the collar.

• In that same game, Southeastern Louisiana wore “C o G” on their helmets. That stands for “Children of the Gulf,” a gesture of support to all those affected by the BP oil gusher disaster. Nice idea, but that’s a brutal font choice. Further details here. (Big thanks to Chris Mycoskie for cluing me in on that one.)

• As you can see in today’s splash photo, Matt Barkley wore a captain’s C. Is that a first for USC? (Weird thing about that photo: He’s not even close to having his fingers on the laces.)

• Buffalo has switched from white socks to black. (Credit Spencer Seaner for that one.)

Not a bad for the first day. And I got through the whole thing without using the words “Pro Combat” (oops).

Yellow Jackets Might Be Yellow After All: I’ve written a bit about Georgia Tech and their two white jerseys. But Douglas King, who’s apparently a Tech alum, has provided some interesting info indicating that the team probably won’t get away with wearing white for every game this year:

Georgia Tech will have to wear a colored jersey at least once this season, as NC State has denied our request to wear white, and rumors are that Miami will do the same. My guess (and hope) is that navy will never be worn under Paul Johnson again except for a particular occasion (which I’ll get to), as Tech actually has a terrible history wearing navy. They like to reference 1990, but I like to reference 1979-1984, 1985-1988, 1992-1994, 2006 (ACCCG), 2009 (Chic-fil-a Bowl)). So gold will likely be the color of choice for September 25th, when the Jackets face the wolfpack.

What’s interesting about the Miami game (November 13th) is that it will be the day that we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 1990 national championship team. So if they do decline our request to wear white, it would make sense for the Jackets to break out the navy throwbacks worn that year. Such an occasion is the only time it is really appropriate to wear the navy, as it’s really the only time we had success in those colors.

Odds are that replicas of the current jersey design will start popping up in colors other than white. But until Tech actually wears them, the policy is often that they don’t exist (they don’t deny their existence but don’t acknowledge them either).

Uni Watch News Ticker: The Cardinals’ BFBS design made its on-field debut last night. Lots of additional photos here, but why not do something more fun, like slitting your wrists? … Like many catchers, Francisco Cervelli wears Wite-Out on his right-hand fingernails. But he also bats bare-handed, which makes for an interesting display in the batter’s box. ”¦ A’s pitcher Brett Anderson fell down while covering first base on Wednesday night. That led to a rare sight: an American League pitcher with a dirty uniform. ”¦ We all know about the Toronto Maple Leafs in the NHL, but there was also a minor league baseball team by that name. Is that a gorgeous jersey or what? And their caps were sometimes worn by Punch Imlach, coach of the NHL team (great find by Brian Codagnone). ”¦ Speaking of the Leafs, Eric Romain notes that Nazem Kadri was wearing Reebok-branded socks for a photo shoot the other day. The exact same thing happened with rookie photo shoots last season, but the logo creep didn’t carry over to the official game hosiery. Let’s hope that’s the case this time around as well. ”¦ Excellent spot by Mark Snider, who writes: “Oregon State is selling a 1942 Rose Bowl T-shirt, which says, ‘Pasadena, CA.’ But because of the bombing of Pearl Harbor a couple of weeks before the game, the Rose Bowl that year was moved out of California, due to military concerns about large public gatherings on the West Coast. The game was actually played in Durham, NC, in Duke’s stadium.” ”¦ Superb, thoughtful piece about the inherent conflicts between “Nike Pro Combat” and actual military combat here (big thanks to Matt Schudel). ”¦ When I was a kid, I was a nerd who played the violin. Today I’m less nerdy (well, somewhat), I’m much happier, and I wear Chucks. Which means this catalog cover sort of sums up my life (awesome find, Kirsten). ”¦ Great shot of the Blackhawks’ center-ice logo being painted on (with thanks to Jeff Wilk). ”¦ Did you know Colorado briefly wore blue sleeve stripes in the mid-1980s? I didn’t, until Matthew Robins sent me these screen shots from an ’86 game. Further background on the Buffs’ color history, including an explanation of the blue stripe, here. ”¦ The copyright dispute between the Ravens and the guy who designed their first logo refuses to die (with thanks to Todd Brock). ”¦ Ah, those merry Swooshkateers, always making new friends wherever they go. ”¦ It’s one thing for a Red Wings goalie to have octopus imagery on his mask, but what about Dr. Octopus? That’s Jimmy Howard’s new mask design (with thanks to John Muir). ”¦ You know what makes for surprisingly interesting reading? The history of marching band uniforms (great find by Lindsay Resnick). … Anyone else think it’s odd that Under Armour would produce a pant stripe that looks so much like a swoosh when it’s in motion?

Laborious Day Weekend Schedule: Phil’s taking some time off for a well-earned breather, so I’ll be handling the holiday weekend. I’ll have something of interest for each of the next three days, although they’ll probably be on the short-ish side. Might even run that rarest of animals, the weekend Ticker. In any event, we’ll get back to full-size entries on Tuesday.

Everyone have a great holiday, stay out of the way of hurricanes, eat as much meat as possible, and for chrissakes do not watch that Boise/VaTech game on Monday.