The Old College (Football) Try

As most of you know, I’m not a video game guy. But many Uni Watch readers are, and several of them were all abuzz over the weekend, because the Teambuilder for NCAA 12 has gone live, which means a lot of new uniforms are now accessible.

We’ve seen some of these new designs before (sometimes in video preview clips, sometimes in official unveilings), but it’s fun to see them all in one place. Reader Douglas King has done a good job compiling all of them — here’s his rundown, including his commentary on each new design:

• Boston College: “It’s hard to see in those screen shots, but the numbers now have the same stained glass design that the basketball team had last year, as does their sleeve (similar to Maryland’s, but without the piping), and their cuffs and collar have been modified. The pants also have skinnier stripes.”

• Colorado: “They’ve made their throwbacks from last year their primaries and added an away version. Pants are only available in gold and black.” (Reader Jeff Alexander points out that you can see the school’s mascot, Chip, wearing the new road jersey in this shot.)

• Hawaii: “Very Tennessee Titans-y. Not bad for a modern uniform, until you get to the pants (why stripes are increasingly being moved to the ass is beyond me).”

• Louisville: “Stripes on the uniform now match those on the helmet. No black option, at least not yet.”

• Maryland: “No black helmet, even after we previously saw screens of them. The Teambuilder site went live several days sooner than had originally been advertised, so it’s possible that it’s still a work in progress and that the black helmets will be added later.”

• South Carolina: “They have corresponding garnet and white versions of this design, too.”

• Texas Tech: “I like that they went to a number font that’s consistent with their wordmark. Also, note that although the road version looks a bit gray, it’s actually white (there are quite a few white uniforms that are for some reason darker on the Teambuilder site).”

• UCF: “Their new black jerseys are shown, but their gold jerseys are only available in their old design. Could this mean they’re downplaying the gold? They have dropped the Golden from their name.”

• USF: “Gold gets a little more attention than it has in the past few years, with the inclusion of gold pants and more gold on the green jersey.”

• Washington State: “Remember those dark gray pants they showed off with their new uniforms? Apparently there is a jersey with the same colors (swap the two grays on the gray uniform they showed off, and there you go).”

• Western Kentucky: “UCLA stripes, a silver alternate, and three pairs of pants (same color as the three jerseys).”

One other note: Reader James Comfort notes that the Teambuilder site shows Auburn wearing the design as last year. That runs contrary to what I’ve been told and reported. Hmmmm.

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Collector’s Corner

By Brinke Guthrie

This Sunday, the Mets visit the Giants for the ESPN night game. It will be absolute Armageddon in the line to get inside the park, and I’ll be there like three hours before gates open @ 3pm, to get one of these.

So that’s something I’m hoping to avoid having to buy on eBay. But here are some items I (and maybe you) wouldn’t mind snapping up:

• Reader Jon Leib writes: “As an avid license plate collector (and Uni Watch reader), I knew Massachusetts had issued plates to Boston Bruins players in the 1970s. I didn’t realize they’d also issued them to Whalers players back when the team played in Boston, before they moved to Hartford.”

• Always have to showcase anything that’s 1970s NFL IHOP, like this standings board.

• As you might expect, a book called Big Hair and Plastic Grass is about MLB in the 1970s. [But ugh, that apostrophe catastrophe on the cover — grrrrr. ”” PL]

• Look at this! A nine-DVD set of This Week In Pro Football from the ’70s, with Brookshier and Summerall.

• Dig the ’70s logo goodness on this ABA serving tray.

• I actually went to Johnny Bench’s restaurant back in the day.

• One more shot from the ’70s: this great Wheaties New York Rangers poster.

Seen something on eBay that you think would make good Collector’s Corner fodder? Send your submissions here.

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Uni Watch News Ticker: As most of you probably know by now, all players selected for the MLB All-Star Game began wearing little gold stars on their jerseys yesterday, and today they’ll start wearing them on their caps as well. ”¦ The West Michigan Whitecaps held Space Alien Night last Friday (with thanks to Tim Miller). ”¦ Did you hear that they held a women’s pro bowling tournament at Cowboys Stadium last week? Further details here. ”¦ Soccer stuff from Kenny Loo: New away and keeper kits for England and a new home shirt for PSG. ”¦ Patrick Mackin reports that the Lake Erie Crushers wore Cleveland Browns-themed jerseys on June 30. ”¦ The member of the Mexican women’s soccer team at top-left in this photo has a different collar style than her teammates do (good spot by Jonathon Binet). ”¦ Here’s an unusual find from Mike Hersh: an experimental U.S. Navy baseball cap. ”¦ Here’s a close look at Under Armour’s HydraStrike Pro FG, which is being worn by the by American team in the Women’s World Cup. Those three colorways are not available at retail. ”¦ The Padres are apparently considering a uniform change. ”¦ According to this page on the Mets’ web site, “Four college football games [were] played at Shea Stadium (two in 1965 and one each in 1974 and 1975). The first college contest paired two of the most traditional teams in college football: Army and Notre Dame.” But Ryan Dowgin has turned up a program cover indicating that a Colgate/Kings Point game was played at Shea a full year before the 1965 Irish/Army game. ”¦ Here’s a really good piece on the science and history of camouflage patterns (thanks, Kirsten). ”¦ The old Ole Miss helmet on the school’s stadium façade has been painted over. “Most Rebel fans I’ve talked to had wanted the helmet removed for a long time because it was so dated,” says Michael Martin. ”¦ Friday’s post about colors prompted a note from our old friend Bob Halfacre: “I can chime in on this one first-hand. The most difficult thing to do in manufacturing uniforms is textile colors. The Brooklyn throwbacks we made [for the Dodgers] should have been a touch darker. Sometimes you just have to go with what’s available out there. It’s especially tricky when you have a uniform that has two or three different fabrics used in it. I know of two cases specifically where a team actually changed their uniforms because the fabric combination couldn’t come together properly. MLB does an amazing job in matching colors from socks to jerseys to caps. Look at old photos, especially royal blue clubs, and see how much better the matching is now.” ”¦ ’Twould appear that the rehabilitation of Michael Vick’s image is now complete. ”¦ The Vancouver Canadians are the short-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, so it’s not surprising that they wear a Jays sleeve patch. “The strange thing is, the patch is the old-school Blue Jays logo, not their current one,” says Hovan Patey. ”¦ Remember Chase d’Arnaud’s unusual NOB? Some sportswriter in Pittsburgh thinks it’s in bad form. I say fuck that — if his surname starts with a lowercase d, then let his NOB start with a lowercase d (with thanks to Jack Borrebach). ”¦ This is pretty funny: One unexpected ramification of the NBA lockout is that the league has removed all player imagery from its web sites. ”¦ If you can’t stand how kids leave the stickers on their baseball caps, then you’re gonna absolutely love this (big thanks to Brady Phelps). ”¦ New uniforms for the Japanese men’s and women’s gymnastic teams (thanks, Jeremy). ”¦ The Amarillo Sox’s new mascot — the one who basically looked like a giant anthropomorphized boner — has been sent back to the drawing board. ”¦ The L.A. Galaxy have revealed their third kit. “Surprise-surprise, it’s black,” says Adam Yarnevich. ”¦ Rob Hoscheit reports that the new Vanderbilt Medical Center helicopter pilot helmets resemble Vandy football helmets. ”¦ Tommy Gough designed himself a Naming Wrongs-style shirt for Saturday’s Phils/Jays game. “I lost count of the comments after about three innings,” he says. ”¦ Pretty cool-looking Quaker State NASCAR pit crew uniform available here. ”¦ British heavyweight David Haye went FIOB for Saturday’s bout against Vladimir Klitschsko. Not sure what that was about, since it’s not like there were any other Hayes in the ring. If anything, it’s the Klitschsko brothers who should always go FNOB, so we can tell them apart. ”¦ Haye also entered the ring wearing one of those high-tech blanket thingies that look like aluminum foil. ”¦ You know the whole stupid trope with Freedom Fries, Freedom Toast, etc.? Jimbo Huening went to the john at a gas station in Illinois the other day and spotted this. “Sadly,” he says, “I had no quarters.” ”¦ A new election season means the usual boilerplate articles about campaign articles. ”¦ Trenton Thunder players are required to go high-cuffed, but Derek Jeter chose to ignore that rule for his minor league rehab assignment. As you can see, he also brought along his single-flapped Yankees helmet. ”¦ Speaking of the Thunder, they really outdid themselves — and everyone else — in the flag-desecration sweepstakes. On the bright side, it’s probably the first time Jeter’s had anything in common with Abby Hoffman. ”¦ Robert Ruszczyk points out that Jeter also wore his own personally branded T-shirt instead of Trenton’s BP jersey. ”¦ Here’s more info on England’s new blue soccer jersey. Oh, and the keeper kit is an instant laughingstock (with thanks to James Vetter). ”¦ Check out these 1948 Indians aprons (nice find by Larry Bodnovich). ”¦ Ron Roza notes that Rodrigo Lopez’s NOB appears to have been rendered in the wrong font. ”¦ The Halos wore their halos on Sunday night. “I can’t decide if it’s the best or worst cap ever,” says Phil, but you can probably guess which side I’d come down on. Too bad they didn’t add the halos to the batting helmets, since that looked extra-cool back in the day. ”¦ Ervin Santana needs to button up. ”¦ Remember how we were wondering how the Predators’ new “guitar string” number font would look for numerals other than 1? The answer can be found in this photo set, which shows their new practice jerseys (big thanks to Paul Richard Cook). ”¦ “Mitchell & Ness used to sell a 1937 St. Louis Browns jersey with yellow graphics,” says Joe Dotzman. “They sold this style for years. I saw it in the Philadelphia store a year or two ago. Now they’re selling the same jersey, but with orange and brown graphics, which is more in line with Dressed to the Nines. I assume M&N corrected an error in issuing a new version of the jersey. And what about all those folks who bought that completely off base yellow version for years? I guess they’re stuck with an inaccurate jersey.” ”¦ A lot of additional Ticker contributions from yesterday will end up running tomorrow. My apologies for the delay.