Cross-Dressing

There’s been a fascinating development over at IPFW — that’s Indiana-Purdue at Fort Wayne, whose teams are called the Mastodons (love that). They have a player named John Peckinpaugh, who’s had trouble with concussions. So lately he’s been wearing boxing headgear, which among other things probably marks the first time the Everlast logo has appeared on a basketball court (although maybe Rudy Tomjanovich, pictured at right after his friendly chat with Kermit Washington, should’ve worn it).

Looks like they cut off the cheekbone padding from Peckinpaugh’s headpiece, presumably so as not to restrict field of vision, and then taped over the areas where the padding had been cut away. But even with the modification, this is the first time I can think of boxing gear being worn outside the realm of boxing, wrestling, MMA, and the like. It’s gotten me thinking about the larger issue of equipment from one sport showing up in another sport. Here are some past examples that came to mind:

• There have been several instances of baseball players wearing football facemasks.

• We’ve also seen hockey players wearing football facemasks.

• Conversely, there’s also been at least one case of a baseball player wearing a hockey mask. (Full details on Dave Parker’s mask odyssey can be found here.)

• I know of at least one baseball player who’s worn NFL gloves.

• Early baseball batting gloves were actually golf gloves.

• Early football gloves were scuba gloves (although I’m not sure if scuba qualifies as a sport).

• And of course there are many, many examples of sport-specific footwear being repurposed for other sports. That seems like a whole separate topic, so let’s save that for another day.

I’m sure there are loads of other examples I’m overlooking. If you know of some, post them in the comments and/or send them my way.

(My thanks to Jason Martynowski and Matthew Dowell for bringing Peckinpaugh’s boxing headgear to my attention.)

Gift sourcing reminder: I’m working on my annual holiday gift guide column for Page 2. If you know of good uni-related gift ideas — or if you’re offering some product or service yourself that you think might be appropriate — please let me know. Thanks.

Uni Watch News Ticker: Major snafu last night in college hoops, as Seattle wore red at home while hosting Oregon State, which created a ruddy mess on the court. Seriously, what were they thinking? ”¦ Follow-up regarding that Nike armored truck that was parked at an Ohio high school earlier this week: I’m told that it’s part of a contest in which high schools currently outfitted by Nike can propose a new uniform design to the company and reasons why they should get the new set donated for free. The players are responsible for coming up with the design and pitching it to company reps. All of which is fine — more than fine, in fact — but why is it necessary to promote this initiative with war-mongering imagery at a high school? Inexcusable. ”¦ New gold alts for Baylor (with thanks to Josh Lassiter). ”¦ Eric Nuhfer points out that Arizona State appears to be wearing a jersey swoosh but no NCAA logo (the other patch is their conference logo), which runs counter to the way I thought the new NCAA authentication program was supposed to work this season. I’ve asked the NCAA for a clarification — stay tuned. ”¦ One of the vintage jackets I featured yesterday was an FFA jacket. Now Ward Black has provided some good background info on that jacket style. ”¦ Notre Dame will be wearing green jerseys for that game at Yankee Stadium. ”¦ Here’s a great find: an original Navy jersey with SLOB (that’s slogan on back). Details here (with thanks to Eric Stangel). ”¦ Susan Freeman now reports that Texas Tech wore red pants all the way back in 1964 (and in 1958 too, although she doesn’t have a photo for that). ”¦ Also from Susan: some 1963 screen shots showing Texas A&M with inconsistent helmet striping. It’s hard to be sure without seeing more images, but it kinda looks like eligible receivers wore a stripe and linemen did not. ”¦ I understand why the Giants left Barry Zito off their postseason roster, but it sure would’ve been nice to see more of these. ”¦ “I just finished editing a great pic of the 1917 Washington Senators on Opening Day,” says BSmile. “Looks like they’re doing a mock-military formation to show support for the war. They’re wearing the rare jersey with the American flag crest, which appears to have been a patch that was open on the bottom. Also notice the multiple variations of sleeve lengths — they’re all over the place! In fact, the player all the way on the right looks like he has detachable sleeves, which makes them full-length.” ”¦ Peter Macaluso has raised an ugly possibility: As it becomes more and more likely that Oregon could end up in the BCS title game, will Nike come up with a special uniform for the occasion? The mind boggles. ”¦ Love the uniforms worn by Texas Western — that’s UTEP’s original name — in this old defensive training film (great find by Ken Fabela). ”¦ As you may know, Ohio State football wore jerseys with totally boss shoulder yokes back in the 1950s. Now Larry Bodnovich has discovered that this same design was also worn by OSU’s lacrosse team. ”¦ Lots of cool cycling trading cards here (with thanks to Sean Clancy). ”¦ Latest team to put advertising on their practice jerseys: the Red Wings. ”¦ Check out this shot of the Rolling Stones rolling stones. I’m not sure which is worse — the foot fouls, the poor lane courtesy (you should always wait until the guy in the adjacent lane has tossed his ball), or Keith’s missing cigarette (with thanks to Steve Mandich). ”¦ New hoops uniforms for St. Mary’s (with thanks to Mark Chiarucci). ”¦ Here’s a fascinating little bit about an early three-point line from 1945. Click on the photo for a larger view, which will allow you to read the rather entertaining caption (with thanks to Mike Kingery who also says there are rumors about Boise State wearing orange jerseys and/or a white helmet on Friday, but you know how rumors are). ”¦ Remember those studies a while back indicating that red or black uniforms led to more aggression? A new study says otherwise. ”¦ Did you know Wilt Chamberlain once had a volleyball team called the Big Dippers? (Nice find by Jeremy Brahm.) ”¦ Rajai Davis, who’d been wearing those A’s logo stirrups in recent years, was traded to the Blue Jays yesterday. Remains to be seen how this will affect his hosiery stylings. ”¦ The Rangers wore their retro alts for the first time last night, and there were several nice details that we hadn’t previously been privy to: (1) The dark blue helmet with the “New York” insignia that matches the jersey lettering. (2) Gloves with off-white trim, to match the off-white jersey trim. (3) Dark-red shells worn over the usual bright-red pants, to match the red in the jersey. As you may recall, the pants had been a particular concern of Joe DeAngelis, but he’s much happier now. ”¦ For the second day in a row, we have a photo of the Winnipeg Jets’ first-year sweater — only this photo’s much better. Looks like the lettering on the front was actually chain-stitched! (Big thanks to Paul Jones.) ”¦ Next person who sends me the link to those Nike NFL concepts and breathlessly asks, “Are they real? Do you think they’re real? I mean they’re probably not real but they might be real so do you think they’re real?” is asking for some serious knuckle sandwichitude. … Remember the shot of Billy Martin wearing angel wings? Here’s a much better photo, complete with caption. Now we just need to find out more about the Yankee Follies of 1953 (big thanks to Bruce Menard).