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Before You Reach for That Drumstick, Take a Look at This

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As I’ve been saying for years now, the conventional football uniform format of a shirt, pants, and socks is badly outdated. The shirt is no longer a shirt (no sleeves), the pants are no longer pants (more like biker shorts), and the socks are no longer socks (most players wear tights). Why not just go with a one-piece unitard? Turns out Gill Byrd of the Chargers did exactly that back in the early 1990s, at least according to this video clip from the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Okay, so it wasn’t really a unitard — more like a separate uni components sewn together — but it’s still pretty interesting. This seems like the sort of thing that should be (in)famous in uni circles, but I confess I’d never heard about it until this video began circulating yesterday. Anyone else..?

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50 Years Ago This Week

50 Years Ago…This Thanksgiving

Rick Pearson’s look back at what was happening on the gridiron a half-century ago — as documented on his “kid cards” — usually runs on the weekends. But today we thought we’d take the opportunity to showcase his recollections of Thanksgiving football from five decades past. Here’s Rick.

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Nov. 23, 1961…Texas at Texas A&M

TGiving 61 Kid Card

Football on Thanksgiving Day! My oldest memory of pro football is Packers’ Billy Howton flying up the sideline to catch long bombs from Tobin Rote (probably why I wanted to grow up to play “split end”). …So that meant Packers at Lions — once Turkey Day’s perennial matchup — was pretty doggone special (next to seeing Santa at end of Macy’s parade, of course). …On college side, the game that day in those days was always Texas/Texas A&M. …Check this out: Texas with stripe, number AND Longhorn on helmets. …A&M sporting ubiquitous template of the day (even the Packers wore it pre-Lombardi). …Here’s a bonus, I guess: I found game program cover online. …The players? Huntington didn’t play pro ball and Saxton, though fast, flashy and heralded, was drafted low (10th round, Dallas Texans; 11th round St. Louis Cardinals)…Signed with Texans, moved to WR, caught 5 passes in ’62, then was out of football. …Evidently, he liked this pose, though. …Texas won the ’61 game 25-0, btw.

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That’ll do it for today. Everyone have a safe, happy Thanksgiving. I’ll be back with a full-length entry tomorrow.

 
  
 
Comments (111)

    I can’t believe I’m up and at the Macy’s parade. I hate parades. Never again and it’s still 2 hours before it starts.

    I can’t wait to get back to mt sister’s for football.

    Did that 2 years ago with my parents and kids (ages 9 & 7 then). It was my second time (I was taken at chiled at age 8). Never again.

    Sucker #2 here …

    Starting a potential new tradition in the Walaitis household today. Instead of one huge bird, we’re going with two nice size turkey breasts. This aint no county fair – nobody eats the legs, so why kill the entire bird?

    Thighs, baby…thighs.

    But any kind of meat is good as long as it’s piled on top of stuffing, corn and mashed potatoes, and the whole thing is smothered in gravy.

    Hope everyone had a great day.

    Thanks to Paul and Phil and Ek (and Vince and Bryan). And thanks to all the other members of the community whose contributions make Uni Watch what it is.

    I was wondering that too. Byrd now coaches for the Bears — I’ll try to get in touch with him and learn more about the one-piece.

    You would think they would explain how he got in there in the video, or maybe that’s why it was an experiment, maybe he forgot to leave an opening.

    Happy Turkey Day! Gobble gobble gobble!

    re: from yesterday’s comments on the Tribune sports media graphics:

    I couldn’t find the stirrup rule graphic online, but apparently I actually saved the newspaper in my desk drawer back in July & just scanned it now. I knew they had something wrong with it:

    link

    I know they used Juan Pierre’s photo for the left one even tho I don’t think he wears Adidas. The middle striped one is some concoction with the wrong back stirrup cut out, and the latter we all know too well.

    Rumor that UCLA will wear all-whites on Saturday. See sneak preview pic in upper lefthand corner of this website.

    link

    White gloves Wednesday?! from the Pro Football Hall of Fame?! when did this start happening?

    Man, I miss playing touch football on Thanksgiving morning.

    We had a “Turkey Bowl” with basically the same bunch of guys every Thanksgiving morning from 1964 through 1991. My son was old enough to play in the final one. Was youngest player ever to score a TD in the annual “classic”.

    Gonna flirt with 60 degrees here today, too.

    So to anyone who has a game today, enjoy.

    It would have been cool to have the Lions and Packers wear 1962 unis with serifed numbers, with the Packers wearing helmets with the elongated “G” and the Lions wearing their subdued silver and blue helmets.Happy Thankgiving to all uni-watchers.

    I would have seen color-on-color: Honolulu Blue and silver throwbacks for the Lions and the Pack’s 1929 brown helmeted dark blue jerseys with tan pants.

    Non-turkey day here, but holy crapbags of hell were those Isles uniforms disgusting last night.

    For all those who claim “black is cool”, I argue with “New York Islanders alternate uniform on November 23, 2011 versus the Philadelphia Flyers”. And just to bring this turkey thing full circle, I’d then flip you the bird.

    don’t make me drive to cowlumbus and smack you

    that’s quite possibly the worst hockey uniform ever…i think im divorcing myself from the isles

    Why would you need to divorce yourself from a team that plays a sport you don’t care about anyway?

    Columbus isn’t *that* small… good luck finding me.

    i used to care about and enjoy puck immensely

    4 cups in a row was an incredible feat, and it would have been 5 if not for some punks named gretzky and messier

    i used to go to about 20 games a season, too — 10 rows up on the blue line…

    you just don’t shake that kind of awesomeness out of your system, even after 20+ years…but the isles have been such a laughing stock for the past decade…wait, 2 decades…

    that i simply long for a decent team for which to root again

    maybe it’s time to get a new team

    Don’t give up on ’em, Phil. remember the good times…

    link

    …you should write about your Islander memories sometime. I always liked the Islander story—and wasn’t even THAT disappointed when the beat the N. Stars for the Cup (saw it coming). I like that they shared the same home as Dr. J’s Nets, too.

    And they’ve had their share of uniform disasters…ugh.

    thanks for that jim…believe it or not, i’m actually wearing an isles sweatshirt as i type this…

    so many memories came back with that clip…i remember exactly where i was (unfortunately, i wasn’t in the mausoleum that day)…

    and look — white at home…as god intended

    Phil, you know HBIC is a waiting outlet for your Isles memories. You could be the Andy Rooney on HBIC with your wild stories and angry rants about today’s game and how it’s nothing compared to the good ol’ days! ;o)

    Jeff, are you in a turkey daze already? That uniform is what swirls the drain the day after the Fowl Feast.

    I’m not an Islanders fan by any means, but it makes the game look minor-league. That’s what bothers me. The Long Island University Islanders will be a strong NCAA team one day.

    You have to keep in mind that I truly don’t care about hockey or it’s traditional uniform designs. I said before that the jersey looks sorta like a college football jersey… and that’s what I like about it.

    Teebz – you should also be bothered by the fact that TSN compared the new thirds to the Fish sticks jersey!

    And… I agree – those things are truly horrible. Too many things to list…

    TSN is based in Toronto, Jim. You know they already have a learnign disability.

    In all seriousness, comparing this new Isles jersey to the Fisherman is like comparing a daycare kid’s finger painting to a Picasso.

    While the first items may be important to you today for what it means, in a decade everyone will still call it crap becaus eit has no relevance or meaning.

    The Fisherman, like the Picasso, is timeless. ;o)

    What the Islanders SHOULD have done was base their third off the version of the Long Island Ducks seen in Slap Shot. They’d still be ugly, sure, but in an epically awesome way (as opposed to being just fucking horrible).

    Now we know where the Blue Jays and Mets black went.

    Yeah, I know we’ve used that anology before…and that makes it biting, blowing, stinking and sucking all at the same time.

    Yeah, that noise coming from Uniondale… I think that must be the “giant sucking sound” Ross Perot mentioned back in 1992.

    Happy Turkey Day!

    Just saw on the NFL Network that the Ravens will be wearing their black jerseys today. They had the jersey’s on the pads in the locker room when Whatshernuts was reporting it. Have no idea if it’s gonna be the Darth Raven look, but I have no reason not to think that.

    Anyway, I have the Lions to look forward to. Hope the Packers wear their green, and the Lions wear their throwback blue.

    Dangit and I can’t see it. The Ravens black on black is greatest looking black on black ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

    @Phil: Talk all you want about losing, laughingstock, etc… we all know the real reason you can’t take the Isles anymore
    link
    The Gortons fisherman, a logo no one could love and no team could survive.

    Someone here wants a serious beatdown.

    The Fisherman jersey was, and still is, light years ahead of its time. Think of it this way: it was the original Turn Ahead The Clock uniform in hockey. From its wacky wave design to the nealry-impossibly-to-produce lettering and numbers, the Fisherman is phenomenal to the point of being Hall of Fame worthy.

    I’ll take the Fisherman over the orange pylon look Alexei Yashin wore any day of the week, and an infinite amount of times over the black crap-ternatives offered by the Isles today.

    Turn Ahead The Clock – if that’s what the future beholds, then I don’t want to be around.

    The Fisherman jersey was just, a crazy abdominal nightmare of epic proportions.

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    In this pic, the lighthouse shoulder patch is in the shape of a shield instead of a circle & non-wave diagonal stripes:
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    This white jersey actually makes the motion sickness effect even worse:
    link

    And glacier twill of all things to boot:
    link

    I don’t know how I can even take it seriously, it was so bad that it looked like a fish stick box strung out on Mountain Dew that gave you chronic nausea in the form of being sea sick, AND it had the awful trendy teal and gray thrown in. I think people like it because just because it’s so hideous, like those late ’70s Padres unis – ugliest freak to the max.

    Now say if it was a minor league hockey set, I wouldn’t have blinked an eye – the assumption of general overall bush-league crudyness would had been a given and moved on. But for the Islanders? Just so wrong, and so much worse than what it was replacing.

    Teebz, we’ve been through this before but are you off your meds again?

    Happy (Belated?) Thanksgiving.

    “I’ll take the a drunken Fisherman over the orange pylon look Alexei Yashin wore any day of the week.”

    and twice on sundays….

    (fixed)

    the fisherman falls into the “so bad it’s actually good” category, and like others have said, has attained cult status

    the black shit they wore yesterday? i’d say bury it, but then it still might come back up…burn it? probably flame retardant…

    the only way to get rid of the unibomination would be to have superman fly around the world a few hundy times, thereby literally reversing time, and having whoever designed that kill himself before he ever touched the MS paint on which that was obviously created

    Have to say, I’m a bit disappointed neither the packers or Lions are donning throwbacks today.

    totally agree. MAYBE the Cowboys will show the Double Stars? Not a fan of the old plain blue and white.

    Thanksgiving memories:
    Clint Longely. Leon Lett.

    That says it all.

    @Teebz: I like the cut of your jib “From its wacky wave design to the nealry-impossibly-to-produce lettering and numbers, the Fisherman is phenomenal to the point of being Hall of Fame worthy.” The Fisherman is definitely 1st ballot HOF in the worst hockey sweater category

    Really? Is the Fisherman worse than any of the following:

    – LA Kings’ “Burger King” jersey?
    – Anaheim Mighty Ducks’ “Wild Wing” jersey?
    – St. Louis Blues’ Gretzky era jerseys?
    – Dallas Stars’ Fallopian tubes jersey?
    – Carolina Hurricanes’ Black Storm jersey?
    – Any jersey with apron strings/Bettman bib?
    – Colorado Avalanche’s “Ice Blue Rangers” jersey?
    – Boston Bruins’ Pooh Bear jersey?
    – Buffalo Sabres’ Swords Over Blood red jersey?
    – Phoenix Coyotes’ Psychadelic Dog jersey?
    – Tampa Bay Lightning’s BOLTS jersey?
    – Dallas Stars’ collegiate jerseys?
    – New York Islanders’ black collegiate jersey?

    Some grow on you because of how horrible they are. The Fisherman, when introduced, were considered horrible. But I’m willing to bet a vast majority of Islanders fans, given the choice between the Fisherman and the black P.O.S. they wore last night, would choose the Fisherman without even batting an eyelash.

    “- Boston Bruins’ Pooh Bear jersey?”

    We all love that drunk bear! He’s so drunk!

    I don’t see how the Fisherman is any better than any of the awful alternates listed. They’re all just one plateau of even suck-a-tude. Fisherman is totally Rocky Horror cult status.

    The Galloping Gobbler for this year is a frickin’ piece of glass… -_-

    Aside from that, does anyone have any visuals of the UCLA white uniform besides the Facebook profile picture linked above?

    But most importantly… Happy Thanksgiving to the fine people of Uni Watch, from one Autumn-lover to every other Autumn-lover here =)

    All this talk about the “Play 60” campaign against childhood obesity today — if the NFL truly wanted to make a statement against childhood obesity, they’d have everyone wear accessories, cleats, trim, mouthguards, armbands and the refs trim & whistles, etc, in a particular color for the whole month. Then everyone would know they really care.

    Oh, wait that would look stupid.

    I was gonna ask why didn’t the Lions wear they’re awesome-sauce throwbacks, but then I remembered about that gay rule about “no alts after week 10”.

    Then I saw the Cowboys on the TV. Double-starred jersey. There goes that theory.

    Does that rule (is it in effect now?) even count for Turkey Day? If it does, aren’t you also destroying the identity of the Cowboys and Lions on Thanksgiving, since that is what I expect to see on the TV?

    I think the Cowboys throwback is proof that rule hasn’t been adopted yet. As far as I know Bucs are still planning on the creamsicles on 12/4 against Carolina.

    Why the Lions didn’t wear their throwbacks today, I don’t know. Hopefully it doesn’t mean they still have a black alt (which they haven’t worn since the 2009 re-design) up their sleeves.

    I know, but St. Looie wore their throwbacks before week 10 to “comply with the new rule”. Actually, this legislative inaccuracy is something I should expect from the NFL.

    The Chargers one-piece reminds me of that short lived NC State one-piece link That both are from roughly the same time period shows that some designers clearly saw the one-piece sports uni as the wave of the future? Happy Thanksgiving

    I wish teams would stop using field-turf in outdoor stadiums. Football should be played on grass whenever possible.

    Exactly. These teams are making boatloads of money and even if they have to replace the grass now and then, they should do it.

    @Phil: lol Drunk Fisherman > Yashin, priceless.
    @Teebz: most of those are on the same level, craptacular, the only ones worse than the Fisherman are: the BK Kings (uber-creepy), the blues sweater from the lockout year (jazz on acid), and the LIU isles alternate (not bad on its own but looks out of place in the NHL).

    You know, I thought I was going to say “ewwwwww,” too, but after seeing it,
    link
    I’m leaning towards saying, “Ooooooo…”

    This was a classy move from the Texas band:
    link

    You know Jim, when I first saw the uniforms I thought ewwww, however they have grown on me during the game. Its not the best look, but it’s a lot better looking than it was at the start of the game.

    A&M needs a distinct look. They’re slightly more unique than other college football teams because of the maroon, but their unis are so bland. Their move to the SEC would be a great time to get a new look that stands out.

    Full stripes on the sleeves, stripes on the socks, black shoes, and change the helmet logo back to the old one without the thick black line around the oval.

    49ers look good as usual, I think the ravens look good in BBW (don’t say it) although I’m sure I’m in the minority (pun?) on that one. Agree striped socks on SF makes them perfect.

    I like the Ravens in black jerseys, since ravens are black AND NOT PURPLE. I don’t have anything against purple, but the only reason I can fathom that the Ravens would wear purple is because they already have the Steelers and Bengals in their division that wear purple. Either way, they look solid.

    Watch a real raven when it moves. In its feather’s highlights you see a heckuva lot of purple. Actually there’s a bit of gold, too. And purple works for the Ravens because of the gothic tone of the poem from which the team’s nickname springs.

    Or, look at at this way. In a graphic novel based on the “The Raven,” purple would be a fine color to use for highlights to keep the bird from being a solid black mass whenever it appeared.

    The sock situation in the NFL is officially out of control. Both Ted Ginn Jr. and Braylon Edwards have nothing but solid white showing from their shoes to up over the knee. It would be ridiculous enough if it were just solid red showing, but solid white takes it to a whole other level.

    Ha that looks bad. No I was around to see those guys play, but my point is that tonight was different. In that Rice photo, you still have the regulation red/striped top of the sock showing, rules bent as they may be. Tonight’s aberration of nothing but total white sock showing, with NO red at all, constituted a complete ditching of a uniform component altogether, much like pajama pants in baseball doing away with stirrups.

    Nothing better than smoked turkey legs…

    Looking at the chargers unitard, on the back of it between the NOB and numbers is a big flap of fabric. Is it hiding a zipper or some velcro? That’s my guess

    I’ve seen you consistently speak of football uniforms further and further approach the “unitard” both in material and aesthetic. I don’t think this is necessarily going to ever actually happen for one reason and it is something that I don’t think has ever really been mentioned. A true “unitard” a player would basically step through the neck hole and pull up over his body, which is practical until the shoulderpads. Even with the advent of super stretchy material, I just think it would be super difficult for players to have a single uniform piece to actually put on.

    Interesting concept…I imagine the shoulderpads could actually become a part of the jersey but that would probably greatly either reduce the flexibility of the jersey or the amount of padding actually able to be worn.

    If you have ever pulled a jersey over shoulderpads, and I mean real pads a linebacker would wear, which is what I wore, rather than thigh pads taped to a shoulder shock preventer, which is what a lot of receivers look like they are wearing. It is pretty difficult, and with a tight fitting jersey you either need help from another person, or need to fit the shoulderpads into the jersey before putting it on.

    You know what? Seeing Ravens in link isn’t a bad look. A purple bucket and maybe some striped socks, and you gots a winner.

    I mean, I like drop shadow on those link, but colored shadow don’t work on a black jersey, so they should drop it (lol pun). They defenatly need a little more of that old gold too.

    I think I need to fire up my tweaker machine.

    The Lions not wearing their throwbacks was far from the most disappointing thing about today’s game.

    The worst part about Ndamukong Suh’s actions? That he seemed completely oblivious to it afterward. He basically acknowledged that he stepped on Eric Dietrich-Smith’s leg while separating himself from the pile, but just seemed to ignore the fact that he blatantly stomped on his arm afterward. And bear in mind, this came after needlessly driving his head into the ground three times in a row.

    Hope Suh’s already booked his flight to New York.

    Seriously, though, the Lions crapped the bed with horrific penalties, and clearly Stafford’s hand is not right, as he lobbed up way too many wounded ducks.

    All in all, I’m glad the Lions didn’t wear their throwbacks tonight, after that disgrace of a game. The Millen Era drove me to become Lions-free for several years, but now this one game has damn near brought me to make that move again. It looked like any of a number of Lions games under Wayne Fontes or Bobby Ross, except without the benefit of one Barry Sanders to keep things entertaining.

    Dietrich-Smith’s first name is Evan. Watch the video again (frame-by-frame), and you will see ED-S grab Suh’s leg causing him to be off-balance, and thus when he steps its on ED-S’s arm. It was by no means a stomp!!

    And if that (and the Millen era) cause you to not be a Lions fan, than you’re not a true fan. A true fan sticks by the team through the thick and thin.

    Sorry, it was late at night when I had the chance to post, and somehow I got the name transposed.

    And you must not be from Detroit, else you would have a clue as to how frustrating this franchise has been for this area over the past 50+ years.

    We had the BEST FREAKING RUNNING BACK IN THE GAME, and the Lions’ organizational ineptitude drove him to QUIT FOOTBALL.

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