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Uni Watch

Sunday Morning Uni Watch

By
UCLA USC Football

By Phil Hecken, with Terry Duroncelet

I was all set to go on a rant today about the BS BCS system and all the conference championships we have now (for example, USC kicked the everliving crap out of UCLA last night, with UCLA in their stormtrooper unis, but UCLA had, with a .500 record, clinched a PAC-12 Championship bid)…meanwhile, the second best team in the nation, by a longshot — Alabama (11-1) — sits home next weekend while LSU plays for the SEC title, and Stanford, also at 11-1, also sits home. And it’s quite possible ‘bama gets an invite to the BCS game…in a rematch against LSU. Or, Houston (who?), undefeated as of today, may just be deemed worthy (yeah, right) of a matchup against LSU (assuming LSU beats Georgia next weekend). Then again, it just may be Okie State or Stanford or Boise or … It’s all just getting out of hand, big time.

But I won’t go on a rant, because we’re here to talk about unis. I was going to do a little rundown on the UCLA all whites, but I know Terry is itching to get at that…so, I’ll now turn this over to my NCAA uni-partner-in-crime. Here’s Terry:

~~~

• Hope everyone had a great and safe Thanksgiving. After waking up from my food coma on Thursday, I awoke to the sight of Texas A&M wearing all-maroon, along with a terrible, potentially game-changing “late hit” call by the referee that makes you want to say “What a maroon,” in the last Lone Star Showdown for the next seven years (at least).

• Speaking of maroon… The Arizona State kicker’s neck was looking a little busy with the Swoosh and his number being in the same vicinity.

• Continuing down Maroon Boulevard… Mississippi State wore their Egg Bowl unis last night against Ole Miss. I think they worked. Am I the only one who thinks that they should use the gold full-time? Not a bad look considering they’re usually the worst-dressed team in the SEC. More info here.

• The Clemson kicker’s bicep? pad was hanging out of his uniform. Or is that a medical pad, or what?

• In THE GAME, Michigan still had last week’s Veterans Day/Military Appreciation Day flag patch on their jerseys. When I mentioned Army vs. Tulane about a month-and-a-half ago, I made a comment saying that Army was the only FBS program left that knew how to wear their uniform from the waist-down (proper-sized thigh and knee pads, pants below the knees, etc.). I would like to add that Michigan does a great job of this as well. Plus, one of the Wolverines had a slightly droopy NOB.

• Kentucky did the BFBS thing again, but with the white lids. Only two words.

• Boise State wore their blue jerseys with white pants and standard blue lids at home against Wyoming. Wait, what? Boise State wore a decent combination… at home? That can’t be right. I think I need to get my already-terrible eyes checked out. All kidding aside, I like this look a lot, but it would’ve been perfect if they would’ve worn the orange pants. Oh, and there was this pretty cool catch. Nothing too special.

• Duke wore black pants with their white jerseys (dumb) against North Carolina (dumber).

• Minnesota wore gold-over-white against Illinois. Have they worn this combo before?

• These turducken-worthy muscles are brought to you by Muscle Milk.

• Virginia Tech wore their very awesome maroon-orange-maroon-striping-pattern-everywhere-stormtrooper-retro look against Virginia.

• Florida wore mono-blue against Florida State.

• UCF wore mono-gold against UTEP. Unless you’re looking at the helmets, you can’t really tell who’s who from more than 80 yards away. Credit Jim Vilk for the heads-up.

• Stanford wore their Pro Combat uniforms last night against Notre Dame, and believe me when I say that they stunk without the striped compression shirts (compare #26 to everyone else). *sigh* Never wear another AmPac suit again, Cardinal. Ever. But congrats to Andrew Luck on being only the third Quarterback to beat Notre Dame three years in a row.

• UCLA wore their much-anticipated stormtrooper uniforms last night against USC. Once you get past the dumbass pant stripe and the fact that they were made by — in my opinion — the real satanic demons that have three stripes in place of horns, this actually has a real charm to it. I never liked UCLA’s 2010 move to all-navy and gold for their white jerseys (whether they were super-stretchies or not), but the jersey tops from last night were really cool, especially when paired with the striped compression shirt. One major thing about them was that they weren’t made with the TechFit fabric, even though the promo pics show otherwise. Weird… in a good way, of course. The helmet is a white shell with a navy-gold-navy stripe that stops about 5/6-7/8 of the way down the back, kinda like Virginia Tech, but cleaner. Navy script “UCLA” on the lids, with a navy facemask and gold helmet numbers in that really cool number font shadowed in navy. Count me as a fan of the number font, and — if they’re smart — I hope that they use this font on their regular uniforms next year, home and road (going back to a respectable fabric would help, too). But what kept it from trumping Michigan’s Under The Lights 2.0 road uniforms as the best Adidas uniform ever are those pant stripes. Seriously, those things are a freaking joke. Yeah, Nike has the same problem with the Pro Combat pants, but it looks like Adidas didn’t even try to go for a full-pant stripe (zoom in on the knee). Maybe they were trying to replicate UCLA’s once-respected shoulder stripes? Who knows, but it’s still a hot mess. Final verdict? Nowhere near as horrible as I thought it was going to be.

~~~

Great job, again, as usual, Terry.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Benchies Header

Benchies

by Rick Pearson

~~~

Sometimes he slides into “Win One for the Gipper”…

11-27-11 s-Flag

And, as always, the full-size.

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all sport uni tweaks

Uni Tweaks

We have another new set of tweaks today.

If you have a tweak, change or concept for any sport, send them my way.

Remember, if possible, try to keep your descriptions to ~50 words (give or take) per tweak. You guys have been great at keeping to that, and it’s much appreciated!

And so, lets begin:

~~~

We start with Tanner Karp who has a J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets concept:

Hey Phil,

I created a new image for the Jets like 5 years ago and I finally put it into a uni tweak.

Thanks- Tanner Karp

~~~

Next up is Coachie Ballgames, who want to bring a little OC to the house:

Phil:

Here’s a concept to rebrand the L.A. Angels as the “Orange County Angels.”

The short-lived “Anaheim” moniker never made sense. When most people talk about heading down from L.A., they usually say, “I’m headed to the O.C.” kind of like how New Yorkers say “I’m headed to Jersey” rather than a mention a specific town. “Orange County” has its own unique cache, as it encompasses several great communities beyond Anaheim like the legendary beach towns of Seal Beach, Huntington, Newport and San Clemente.

Better for the team to represent a specific region than nowhere in particular i.e. L.A..

I went with the older-style navy blue and red because I feel the red letters pop better against the blue background.

Regards,
Coachie Ballgames

~~~

And we close with Josh Nelson, who has submitted the redux the Padres should have done:

Phil

Here are my visual thoughts on what they should have done. They took an already bland brand and watered it down even further.

Logo
Home
Road
Alternate
BP
Military Appreciation

I did a whole writeup on my blog here.

Also attached is a pdf of the original proposal that I sent earlier this year.

Enjoy!

Josh

That’s all for this week. Back next weekend with more.

~~~~~~~~~~~

colorize this

Colorize This!

Occasionally, I will be featuring wonderful, high-quality black and white photographs that are just begging to be colorized.

A bit of a twist today, as we’ll have two submissions from the usual suspects (G&G), and one new one — and I have a couple of b&w’s from the past couple weeks that would be great for the colorizers to try their hand at. Those will follow the submissions.

We’ll start with George Chilvers, who submitted this a while back, since he’s on holiday for the next few weeks:

Hi Phil

As I said the other day this may be my last for a few weeks.

It’s Lionel Conacher wearing the uni (see, I’m getting into the phrases!) of Montreal Maroons. Now to be honest I’d never heard of him but apparently he is very well known in Canada, so I don’t know if he is well-known in the States. (If anyone doesn’t know who he is then they can do what I did and Wikipedia the name). All I know is that his nose is certainly something else – apparently he broke it 8 times.

The picture dates from 1937 and the original is here.

Best wishes for the next few weeks – I’ll be keeping an eye on the site while in the UAE :)

–George

Thanks, G. Enjoy the warm weather in Abu Dhabi.

~~~

The next submission comes from Ted Hammond (who actually sent this to Paul, who forwarded it to me):

Paul,

I enjoy doing these from time to time, hope you like it.

Ted Hammond

I’m actually a little confused as to whether Ted colorized that, as the image’s title said, “buck weaver 1916 chicago white sox. by charles conlon” — so Ted, if that’s your work, take a bow (and apologies for doubting you).

~~~

And our final colorization for today comes from Gary Chanko, who went all hoop on us this week (and it just so happens to be one featuring himself):

Basketball is here and time to colorize some vintage photos. Luckily I had one on hand.

It’s your 1958-59 St. Matthews 8th grade (Wilmington, DE) CYO basketball team. You won’t find the B&W original anywhere on the Internet because there’s likely only a few surviving prints.
Somehow I managed to save my copy over the years.

That’s me, No. 10, behind the kneeling player in front. Actually the player just behind me is wearing my actual jersey, No. 3. We did a switch so all the players in the last row had the same jersey for the team picture.

Strangely I’m the only one wearing low cut shoes, Keds I think. There’s a few high top Chuck Taylor All-Stars, other Keds, and maybe a PF Flyer or two for footwear. No leather shoes just yet. Baggy shorts were still another thirty years off.

Although I’ve lost contact long ago with my teammates, I’m hoping some may be Uni-Watch readers today.

Gary

Nice work, Gary! I bet Jim Vilk would wear that.

~~~

Normally, this would end “Colorize This!” but I received a couple black & white submissions, as well as spotted a couple over the past two weeks that would be right up the colorizers’ alley. First, the submissions.

Kevin Feser requests:

Dear sir,

I love this picture for many reasons, if you could colorize it for me it would be very much appreciated.

I have included another pic of the uniform colors for reference, if it helps.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Kevin Feser

~~~

Next is a suggestion from Ben Fortney:

Hey Phil,

A commenter had left a link to a Facebook Group featuring old photos of Long Island and NYC yesterday.

There are many, many gems but I saw this and it’s just screaming for some color. Not exactly a hi resolution image, but there’s a leg up if anyone wants to give it a crack… this.

Keep up the great work.

Ben

~~~

Next, a couple people noticed this incredible shot on Shorpy (Paul even tickerized it this week). Would make for a great colorization. Here’s the Shorpy link with uni details.

~~~

Finally, Ruben Zendejas sent me this beautiful pic in his uni tweaks yesterday. That’s BYU. Reader Andrew Seagraves found a separate colorization of how that uniform might look (a discussion of that was featured in the April 26, 2011 Uni Watch comments’ section). The uni was described thusly:

“I was at my in-laws’ place over the weekend and saw a book about the history of BYU football,” says Eric Westover. “The first part was about when it was Brigham Young Academy, and there were some interesting photos. In this team portrait, some of the players appear to have their positions indicated on their uniforms. And in the 1940s, they added orange to their uniforms so ”˜they could be seen easier.’ That didn’t last long.”

~~~

There you have it readers. A few challenges for the next time. Hope to see more of you trying your hand at this fine and fun hobby.

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Duck tracker2011

2011 Duck Tracker

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, Jake Hurley has stepped up to the plate and taken over the “Duck Tracker” for 2011. What is the Duck Tracker? Quite simply, it tracks each and every uniform combination the Ducks have worn for the 2011 season. He steps in for former tracker Mike Princip, whose non-Uni Watch activities will preclude him from tracking for 2011.

~~~

Here’s the updated 2011 Duck Tracker.

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5 & 1

Jim Vilk’s 5 & 1

And now for the part of the post that I wait up all night for you’ve all been waiting for…

Again, I haven’t taken a look at what Mr. Vilk has in store, but there were some good looking games yesterday — and a few duds. Jimmer had a good week last week, so let’s see if he can’t build upon that success this week as well. Here we go:

~~~

Terp Tracker — A wise move…keeping the red to a minimum against NC State.

Honorable Mentions to UCLA/USC — White For Rivalry’s Sake < Color vs. Color. And to Ole Miss/Mississippi State — Gold For Rivalry’s Sake? Hmmm…

5. FSU/Florida — One of the best mono-blue unis I’ve ever seen.

4. Texas/Texas A&M — Goodbye to yet another rivalry.

3. Iowa/Nebraska — Speaking of rivalries, I still say the Huskers should be playing Oklahoma this weekend.

2. Rice/SMU — Welcome to the big time, you other Owls!

1. Ohio State/Michigan — With apologies to Keith Jackson: Hellooooooo…number one!

And the bad one: Bowling Green/Buffalo — BFBS (Bad Font, Brown Swirlies) vs. regular BFBS.

~~~

I think Joe Dreyfuss will approve of this. I had a hunch you’d put Rice in the top 5 once I saw they had SMU on their sked. And lookie here…OSU and UM actually looked like, well…the Bucks and the Wolverines. Amazing how that works out some times. Kinda thought you’d have pegged UCLA for the BAD one, and certainly Stanford was in the running…good job tho, Jim. You’re on a bit of a moviroll.

~~~~~~~~~~

And that…will do it. Enjoy your Sunday and the league where they play for pay. Back next weekend with more weird, wild and wacky stuff.

~~~

“From the article headline: ‘adidas, UCLA to Debut New White Uniforms Tonight’. I think putting adidas in the headline ahead of UCLA is the definition of logo creep.” — Mike Styczen

 
  
 
Comments (165)

    A. Stormtrooper uniforms are getting *really* annoying.

    B. That Jets concept looks like someone got stuck playing this: link instead of Tetris as a kid.

    …

    Just noticed that one of the pics that I linked to was from last week’s link. Hehe, my bad.

    I have my own little idea for an outright BCS champ, but I’m gonna go back to sleep. Will discuss later.

    Also, Coachie Ballgame’s O.C. Angels concept is pure GENIUS! =D

    If he switched from red to orange, then it would be genius. As it stands now, it’s just really very good.

    Hmmm “Brown swirlies” – not a good look, but the Bulls of Buffalo – not too bad.

    While it’s obviously driven by money, Nebraska in the Big 10 seems a questionable move. They were a big fish in a slighly smaller pond, now they’re kind of get overshadowed by Ohio St, Michigan and Penn St?

    Re: ASU kicker
    The 40 is for pat Tillman. They’ve been wearing it for a few years. Sometimes as

    PT
    40

    You mean the collar logo? If so, than that wasn’t I was pointing out. I already knew about that, but the kicker’s undershirt had a “40” on it, and I saw him wearing #40 as his jersey number. I know that it couldn’t be a Pat Tillman ASU-Era tribute, because he wore #42 during his time there, Unless they were honoring his NFL number by letting a player wear it for a game…

    That was the first (and hopefully last) time the Gophers wore gold over white. That might be their worst combination.

    I wondered here last night if, because they won wearing it, we might not see the gold jerseys more often in 2012.

    Why are the Gophers so consisently bad ? – last Rose Bowl appearance sometime in the 1960’s.

    It doesn’t quite make sense, it has a reasonable population to draw from, it’s the sole university in the state that plays at a major level, yes, it has a relatively low African American population, but that does seem to stop Nebraska? Is it weather, all Minnesota kids want to seek warmer climes at the first opportunity, or do some of the best athletes go the hockey route?

    (Damn, let’s put this where it belongs)

    Someone who knows more than I can explain it in exact detail, but Minnesota and Northwestern (I believe) have higher academic standards than the rest of the Big Ten.

    Doesn’t seem to make that much difference to the Wildcats, though, does it.

    Then again, had Lou Holtz stayed a while longer I think there’d have been a Rose Bowl or two since Jan. 1, 1962 (Holtz, btw, once said of Gopher football, “Our hearts and minds will come from Minnesota and Wisconsin…but our arms and legs will come from Florida and Texas”).

    The scuttlebutt is that the coaching fraternity believes if a quality coach like Glen Mason (and his stock has seriously rocketed in the time since he was let go) can’t win at Minnesota, maybe no one can.

    I’d bet good money that Boise State’s scholastic admission standards aren’t as high, or as stringent, as Minnesota’s.

    Turn of a phrase notwithstanding, Texas didn’t “go” anything. That’s their regular road look.

    Now, ASU in mono black vs. Oregon in mono white (for example) THAT would have been…

    Never mind, I don’t even want to think about how stupid that would be.

    Speaking of such things, Texas Tech (the poster children for mono black) wore white jerseys and pants vs. Baylor last night.

    Someone who knows more than I can explain it in exact detail, but Minnesota and Northwestern (I believe) have higher academic standards than the rest of the Big Ten.

    Doesn’t seem to make that much difference to the Wildcats, though, does it.

    Then again, had Lou Holtz stayed a while longer I think there’d have been a Rose Bowl or two since Jan. 1, 1962 (Holtz, btw, once said of Gopher football, “Our hearts and minds will come from Minnesota and Wisconsin…but our arms and legs will come from Florida and Texas”).

    The scuttlebutt is that the coaching fraternity believes if a quality coach like Glen Mason (and his stock has seriously rocketed in the time since he was let go) can’t win at Minnesota, maybe no one can.

    What the hell? That’s not supposed to be here.
    Supposed to be with the Gopher comments.

    Something different about Google Chrome, I guess. Have to figure out how it’s refreshing.

    Is TechFit falling out of favor? Michigan and UT Vols have both switched back to their older jerseys. Ucla used TechFit “template”, but dazzle/mesh fabric. Anyone got any ideas?

    From a sideline report a moment ago on Sunday NFL Countdown it appears the end zones at Qualcomm have a retro script paint job…

    I’ll bet they’ll wear those “modern” powders anyway. Why did they choose against the Bronco’s anyway? It would have been a better looking matchup against the Raiders or Chiefs. At least their away’s look good.

    I’ll bet they’ll wear those “modern” powders anyway. Why did they choose against the Bronco’s anyway? It would have been a better looking matchup against the Raiders or Chiefs. At least their away’s look good.

    Those modern powders (like that term) are a weak compromise that clutters the whole idea. They should just break out the real deal powders, complete with the gold pants we all know and love.

    I really like the Spanish architecture part of the Padres primary logo tweak! Tho I would get rid of the palm trees..? Love the brown & gold. Great job!

    Anyone else notice a Desmond Howard patch on one of the Michigan players yesterday? I could have been seeing things, but I’m pretty sure someone wore a patch on their upper right chest area. Couldn’t grab a screenshot, but wish I had…

    I love the primary logo and the use of mission imagery. The rest of the concept is very solid, but the vests don’t work for me either, and I’m not sure that those particular hues of brown and yellow work in those particular proportions. I’d like to have seen either gold as a primary with brown outlines or highlights, or much, much less of the gold and more of a brown/white look with just a little bit of gold accent. Just not enough light/dark contrast at play with the colors as-is. Still, that set is one of my favorite recent concepts, and the primary logo, which seems to have the most original work by the creator, is fantastic.

    Aw, never mind. It’s really just the tan road unis that are throwing me off here. The home concept actually is exactly what I say I wish it would have been. Nailed the proportions for the colors exactly. And on further review, the primary logo concept is even better – really one of the best such concepts in a long time. Great idea, perfectly executed.

    The only thing I didn’t like was the use of the SanDiegO lettering. Everything else is I’dWearThatTastic.

    I really loved the Pads concepts. They’re light years better than what SD came up with on their own. I like the unique SanDiegO lettering, and the vests (if they’re worn as true vests, and not sleeveless jerseys).

    Ditto. I think most teams look goofy when they use the vests; they always seem to childish/amateurish, and it’s not as though the color of the sleeves adds a whole lot to the look. As a Cardinals fan who regularly sees his team pitted against the likes of the Reds and Pirates, I was quite happy to see those team switch away from the vests (and pinstripes… ugh!) in the past 4 or 5 years. The D’backs are a third team who have, thankfully, retired that style.

    I think the brown & gold used in the concept is different enough (i.e. not yet another team wearing blue) that it doesn’t need anything gimmicky. The “softball top” looks pretty sharp, however. The color palette lends itself better towards sand or cream-colored uniforms than do the blue/orange or black/orange combos other teams wear.

    Sadly the bfbs look for ub is there best of the year, because they decided to switch to black socks and shoes this year instead of white. Which completely messed up there look.

    Great job with the colorizations everyone!
    I haven’t done one in a while, but perhaps I’ll take a crack at the 1923 Babe Ruth/John McGraw pic.
    Cheers!
    ~B

    That’s the uni the Giants once wore as a throwback, but rendered it in their regular orange and black instead of red, white and blue…
    link

    Oooh, that’s an important bit of information. Orange-and-black would look so good.

    But, BSmile, why do you say it’s a 1923 image? What was the Bambino doing in a Giants getup in 1923? Did I miss some stage in the Red Sox to Yankees saga? Ricko’s info about the uni being a throwback makes me wonder…

    Connie,

    That pic is from an exhibition game held in October 1923. Babe wore a Giants uni for the game. Here’s the original pic from the Library Of Congress: link

    From Shorpy: link

    “New York Yankees outfielder Babe Ruth, in a Giants uniform, with Giants manager John McGraw at an exhibition game with the Baltimore Orioles on October 3, 1923, at the Polo Grounds. Ruth played in the Giants outfield for the game, which was a benefit.”

    “… We’ll start with George Chilvers, who submitted this a while back, since he’s on holiday for the next few weeks…”

    Look, Phil, that’s great work Chilvers sent in. You can count the colorized veins on the 38 places where Lionel Conacher broke his nose. But the fact that he’s talented and friendly in no way allows you to employ the anglicism “on holiday” when there’s a perfectly good standard American usage. I refer, of course, to “on vacation.”

    As much as I like George’s image of Conacher [a name that, if translated literally from the French, becomes rather naughty in both English and American] Gary Chanko’s colorization of the St Matthew 8th Grade basketball team reaches deep. First of all, it’s a beautiful image. Second, it strikes a resonant chord of memory with the many of us here who played on an sub-notable school basketball team. And, finally, it reveals that Gary is one of the oldest coots on UW. He started high school in September 1959! I was one year behind him, part of which was spent on the bench of the St Augustine’s 8th grade basketball team. Green and white. “St A” on the jersey. Ricko is in the chronological neighborhood, but Chanko is provisional champ, I think.

    pardon the use of the british vernacular, conn, i just thought it was making the chap feel a bit more at home, while he’s away

    and speaking of sexagenarians, mightn’t the reverential mr. chilvers have you all beat?

    That was very neat for Gary to colorize his 8th grade basketball team picture.

    Nice work on the colorizations guys.

    I hate the way adidas handled the pants stripe for UCLA. I mean forget all the other many examples of UA and adidas copying nike for a second, this one example sums it all up. I swear to got this is what went through their heads “You know how nike ends the pant stripe before the waist sometimes? Well now people will think we are cool if we do the same thing, but it has to be different in some way. GOT IT! LETS JUST N0T FINISH THE IT”

    Anyway for some reason i could live with nike’s pants stripe tomfoolery but this one is too much, never again.

    Yeah I’m with you on that Jake, I think Nike should put a school logo on he hip where they refuse to finish the striping, the adidas “Lebron” striping is abominable.

    “…I think Nike should put a school logo on he hip where they refuse to finish the striping…”

    It’s not so much as Nike refuses to finish the pant stripe, but more like the can’t, because of how the mesh insert is link, although there are a link.

    What makes the Adidas pants dumb as all hell is that there’s nothing stopping them from doing a full stripe, but they fucked up for the sake of fucking up. If Nike can do a full stripe on a pair of (Oregon State) pants that normally — due to how they’re constructed — can’t really accommodate for a normal pant stripe, then what the hell is stopping you?

    *facehoof*

    I remembered. Auburn gets points off for the tramp stamp. They did at least deserve honorable mention, though.

    About that: my honorable mention picks aren’t necessarily my #6 and #7 picks. They’re just two matchups that didn’t quite make the big time, but I wanted to showcase them. I also could have mentioned link

    Nope, that font is nowhere near as pointy as BG’s.

    Yes, Kentucky slid in despite the tramp stamp, but they didn’t get within sniffing distance of #1. Plus, their unis are an improvement from last year, whereas Auburn’s are an ever so slight downgrade.

    Shows you can never win, ’cause if I didn’t downgrade them, folks would have the fire and pitchforks out yelling, “He can find no fault with the SEC!”

    Oh, and before someone questions picking UCLA…I’ll be honest – if adidas is going to continue to muck up the Bruins’ “shoulder stripes,” I’d rather see last night’s uni than what they’ve worn all year.

    And that Kentucky/Georgia game you linked to didn’t make the Top 5…that was an honorable mention. When the Wildcats did make it was vs. Western Kentucky in the Most Improved Unis Bowl at the start of the season.

    One of the studio announcers complained at halftime that UCLA needed to go back to the blue jerseys for the second half.

    Last night’s UCLA-USC game is symbolic of the many things that are wrong with college football, but at least this is one rivalry that is not going anyway as a result of the pursuit of the almighty video dollar (unlike, say, Texas-Texas A&M, Nebraska-Colorado or Oklahoma, or Pitt-West Virginia).

    However, UCLA deserves a big fat “F” for last night’s effort. They have some of the most beautiful uniforms in the sport and they chose to wear something that was unrecognizable as UCLA. I grew up worshiping the UCLA-USC game from the East Coast. Something about the beautiful light blue and old gold against the cardinal and gold in the sunny L.A. Coliseum had a real appeal for an East Coast guy at Thanksgiving. Except for a rare occasion, that game should be played in the sunshine and UCLA should be in baby blue.

    Someone should do a study of how, more often than not, these teams have FAILED miserably in these hideous alternate uniforms (UGa., Maryland, UCLA being only the most recent prominent examples).

    A recall a poll from the early 80’s (I believe it was a poll of NFL front office types) and unis voted best in the NFL and the NCAA were…
    Dallas Cowboys and UCLA.

    Now, of course, that simply couldn’t happen because UCLA wears no black.

    Oh, look, Grambling has a smilie on their sleeves!
    (Thought that yesterday when I watched a few minutes of the game).

    Who knows, maybe Angelo Mosca will resurrect his Wrassling career, he can play the part of grumpy old manager sitting on a stool in the corner, swatting openents with a cane when the opportunity arises.

    Although, not too be morbid, but he does not look like he has many days left.

    Great job on the Padres tweaks Josh, being originally from SD I can say the current ownership has sucked all the personality out of the team. I really like the Spanish monastery in the secondary logo. The only thing I would rather see is swap the SD logo on the BP jersey with the swinging friar. Great job

    from sfgate;

    At least they (ND) looked good, which is more than you can say for Stanford and its latest shameless sellout to the Nike empire. Descending to the basement level of taste, the Cardinal’s new look suggested red ants, the Cherry Blossom Festival and every two-bit school that fancied all-red uniforms as a really cool thing. It’s a matter of blasphemy that Luck had to be photographed in these threads – “ugly,” as safety Michael Thomas put it so succinctly – as he said farewell to Stanford Stadium.

    I liked the helmets, and hey Stanford could’ve said no. I like schools to wear school colors too but I can’t get that worked up about it if the school doesn’t care. Some schools look good in wacky unis Stanford isn’t one of them.

    Triple bag those things, seal them in a metal vat, and either

    A) dump them from the side of an aircraft carrier somewhere in the Indian Ocean
    -or-
    B) fire them directly at the Sun

    If UCLA had worn a dark blue jersey it would have had a somewhat historical look. The Bruins wore white helmets and white pants in 1946-47.

    Here are 3 screen grabs from the Rose Bowl vs Illinois in color.

    link

    link

    link

    Proving once more that “historical” and “traditional” aren’t the same thing.

    Two of my uncles were at that Rose Bowl. My oldest memory of football is, in later years, watching the 8mm home movies they shot from the stands, and them talking about Ashenbrenner and Jensen of UCLA. Jackie Jensen, that is. This Jackie Jensen…
    link

    PC just arguing with me today.
    Mostly, though, never mind.
    Jensen played at Cal, not UCLA, and I guess I can’t trust my memories from when I was four. Was a later Rose Bowl my uncles went to, cuz Cal played in it a couple years in a row.

    In my mind over years, I figured UCLA must have been playing cuz one of those uncles was a UCLA grad.

    Definitely my PC. Won’t even open the image you linked to. Guess I’d better restart.

    Or take it outside and throw it against a tree.

    “I guess I can’t trust my memories from when I was four.”

    ~~~

    shit, i can’t trust my memories from when i was forty

    Man, the Bills unis look sharp. Despite a few minor flaws, they are quickly becoming some of my favorites in the NFL. And they’re again wearing the blue socks with their white set, which is definitely a good trend. Someone in Buffalo knows what’s up.

    Yup.
    Know what you mean about the details, too.
    I always want to grab that top sleeve stripe and move it below the other one.
    Would make them look less like the Colts and more like the old Bills.

    Bingo. These designers should really consult some of the people around here first before setting things in stone.

    The logos on the hips and above the nameplate are superfluous, and although I thought the wider stripe towards the back of the helmet would bug me, I now actually have no problem with it and think it’s kind of cool.

    As a lifelong Angels fan, I always thought that the team should’ve been branded the Orange County Angels. It has a nice feel to it. The LA moniker never made sense to me. I like that concept alot.

    “Los Angeles” made tremendous sense in 1961.

    In 1961, Orange County (or Anaheim, for that matter) meant little or nothing nationally.

    “California” was just ridiculous. Like the state didn’t have other MLB teams?

    For the Disney ownersship, which put Anaheim on the map (after it previously being known only a part of the train to “Anaheim, Azuza and Cucamonga” on Jack Benny’s radio program) when it built Disneyland, the change to Anaheim also made a certain amount of sense.

    In today’s vernacular, though, Orange County Angels would be great. Not not mention a whole lot less clumsy than Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

    If they’d played in Anaheim right from the beginning they’d still have been “Los Angeles.” The Twins weren’t called “Bloomington.”

    Those secondary names meant zilch in 1961 terms.

    Plus, there’s no doubt MLB wanted to confer upon L.A. the status of having multiple teams (and thought they could handle it), as with Chicago and N.Y….although it did take one more year to get N.Y. back to two.

    The reverse also was true. MLB wanted to expand and be seen as growing. “Anaheim” would have sounded like they put a team in Ft. Wayne.

    “…Weren’t they named the L.A. Angles at first because they played in the city?…”

    Geeman, I remember that there was a coin toss to determine whether it would be LA Angles or LA Saxons. LA Yaquis a distant third.

    I really have trouble believing they seriously considered anything but Angels, given the PCL’s long history and, well, the name of the city.

    Whole lotta old wives’ tales out there (many spun several decades after the fact), just because someones wants a story where there isn’t one.

    I mean, I can imagine them discussing if anyone has a better idea than “Angels”, and but that probably was about it. And it certainly doesn’t mean any of those names ever were really on the table.

    i think conn was having a play on “anglos” (angles) and saxons

    ya know… anglo-saxons…

    than suggesting it was ever under consideration

    always enjoy the uni top 5…only thing nebraska in the past plays colorado the friday after the turkey….thought the UCLA uniforms were sweet…and does anyone else remember A&M in the early 90’s wearing spandex pants over their uni pants? I had this talk with a friend I say they did he not any one else remember as always thanks.

    only thing nebraska in the past plays colorado the friday after the turkey
    Ah, you must be young.
    Back in my day, link was THE Thanksgiving weekend game.

    I still remember watching link I was walking into the dining room, but that play stopped me dead in my tracks. I stood there for a full minute in awe.

    I have never seen that Spencer Tillman play until right now, and I have to say that is about the most amazing football highlight I’ve ever seen. Spectacular, thanks.

    Yes I enjoyed every time Switzer kicked Osborne’s ass. The Cornshitters have the worst unis ever. Even when they wore the Red on Red…the white hat sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    i stand corrected, always enjoyed the neb vs col games 2001 always stands out….any ideas on the spandex angle…

    Just sent an email to a BYU equipment manager to see if there are any answers on the colors of those jerseys.

    Let’s see what’s going on!

    Finding out some more info on those unis – Looks to be circa 1940 according to the photos at Cougarstats.com link
    link

    1939 saw the mix of Friction and numbers with a Spider Leather helmet link

    A few years later (1942) it seems they had gone to just a single sleeve stripe from the neck to almost the wrist (notice the one lone 1940 jersey) link

    link <— if this website is on the up and up – it says their football team wore Blue with Orange stripes on their uniforms in the Early days

    Nice work Andrew. Could well have been orange. Many teams over the years used colors that might surprise us now.

    Well that is before Oregon or other started using colors that are not school colors.

    Wow, UCLA has truly hit bottom. I say this as an alum (from the football glory ’80s): I’m quite sure we would have been dismantled by the hated Toejams anyway, but why we had to suffer that pasting in bad Cal unis is beyond me. Was this whiteout supposed to be “inspirational” or something? Stripes on the lid but not the jersey? No Bruin Blue at all?!? I’m surprised they even kept the gold.

    Powder blue is a school color, you nitwits. Sure, we’ve worn navy occasionally, even to good effect (see basketball homes), but too much of it always brought up the inferiority complex relative to Berkeley (the older, original UC campus). My older relatives even tell me Cal fans used to chant “Southern Caaaaampus!” (as UCLA was officially known for a time) at football games in the ’50s. Our colors and mascot was always just different enough to say “we’re related, but quite different, thank you.”

    So this stormtrooper BS was just wrong, wrong, wrong. Hopefully we can get back to normal to get destroyed by Oregon next week.

    I think the Auburn-Alabama game should be in the Top 5. It was a great looking matchup from the stands. I would love to see this game be color vs color soon. Would look great with the 2:30 timeslot.

    War Eagle!

    Here’s some footage from Tim Tebow’s comeback win against the Jets last week. Notice around the 2:10 mark. The wall linings at Mile High Stadium are still using the old AFC logo.

    link

    I believe this has been discussed here before – it’s because there the logo is referring to the Broncos’ 1977, 1986, 1987, 1997, 1998 AFC Championships. That was the correct logo when they won those. It’s the same thing in Tennessee with their 1999 AFC Championship with the old AFC logo next to a Super Bowl XXXIV logo.

    link

    link

    The Titans’ right tackle, Mike Otto, had the white stripe fall off of his pants, or something. All that’s left is a broad, light-blue stripe, reminiscent of the Steelers’ pants.

    I do approve. And since they’re in the same division, Rice and SMU play every year. I guess I can look forward to at least one week in the top five of something for now.

    I’ve said before one of my biggest peeves is an all white road uniform in football. Very few cases is all white acceptable (Dolphins). So of course I despised the UCLA look. I hated that number font as well. I did like the navy facemask though. One of my other huge peeves are teams wearing gray facemasks if they have no gray in their colors. I hope the navy mask stays on the regular helmets but not holding my breath. USC could learn from this as well & drop theirs too. Nasty.

    And as much as I hate retro/feauxbacks I like that Padres concept. Give them regular uniforms for the home & road & swap out the gold for orange and it would look great, as long as that plate logo is used over that awful swinging friar. But either way it looks much better than what they just changed to.

    There is something very cool about this Jets makeover, Tanner Karp…

    link

    …the Padres shoulda listened to you Josh Nelson…

    link

    …and as for the Angels, Coachie, Maybe the name ought to be the “Los Angeles California Angels of Anaheim Orange County USA in Disneyland”. LACAAOCUSADL. Can you do a quick hat mock up for us?

    Just a couple of quick fixes and the UCLA uni would have been just fine. Eliminate the “flare” and take the pant stripes all the way down.

    link

    Although I would rather have seen powder blue…

    you know…when i was preparing the splash, i was sorely tempted to do up a mock with a blue top, gold helmets and gold pants on top of their actual uni to eff with people’s heads

    never did, obviously

    turns out i had plenty of time awaiting the 5&1 & terry’s stuff ;)

    (i kid, i kid) … man, i haven’t photoshopped in ages…but i’d love to see that ucla getup both with a plain powder top and also a powder top with gold lid/pants

    If you photoshop one thing this year, let it be this.

    (since I know you won’t photoshop any hoops stuff for me)

    Josh Nelson’s tweak of the Padres is more in the direction the team should have gone! Bring back the Brown! The home and roads need to ditch the brown sleeves though. The home should have the swinging friar cap, and the road should have the alternate SD cap. Alt jersey is fantastic and could be wore on the home or road. Kudos to Josh though! Will link his blog on my facebook!

    Great call on the &1 today Vilk. That Buffalo and Bowling Green matchup is about as bad as can be.

    Thanks, Kevin. A few FCS games looked even worse, but as far as FBS this week, it wasn’t much of a contest.

    I was very excited to see that the University of Oregon Athletic Department added banners to each corner of the endzones for Saturdays Civil War game. The banners which said “We stand with the hat” are in support of University of Oregon president Richard Lariviere, who is being pushed out of his position by the State board of Higher Education. Most in Oregon think this is purely political since Lariviere fought to give the University more power to control itself. Grass-root support for the president has come in the form of blogs written by faculty, countless disapproval statements from state and local leaders and celebrities, a facebook page with thousands of likes, and an online petition that has at the time of this comment gained almost 5,600 signatures in support of the president against the Board and the Governor of Oregon John Kitzhaber. Photos of the banners and more information at this link: link

    Why are the Chargers allowed to wear their powder blue alts this week? I thought new NFL rules prohibited alternate uniforms after week 10?

    Great Benchies, but I gotta know, Ricko…who got fined for wearing the wrong pants: Ozzie or Mike?

    Ozzie’s mono gold looks great in the snow.

    So if tonight’s match-up was the Super Bowl match up, with the Steelers in white and KC in red – would it be top 5?

    well…movi’s #1 fav uni is the chiefs, so you’re pretty much guaranteed of a top 5 unless they’re playing seattle, arizona, tennessee (even their gorgeous white over powder combo), minnesota, baltimore or houston

    did i miss anyone (bad) jimmer?

    I love the Padres concept unis. I’ve been very disappointed with their recent changes. They are the mayonnaise of MLB logos and jerseys. Change that, they’re the light mayo of unis and design.

    Great to see Buffalo get a mention. I’ve bee complaining about these unis since the unveiling but other fans Don’t Get It.

    The pad on the Clemson kicker’s shoulder was because he’s spent most of the year out with a broken bone in his shoulder from making a tackle earlier this year.

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