Old Time Hockey

By Phil Hecken

In yesterday’s comments section, long-time reader Jet, who we will hear from shortly, posted an amazing video along with this comment:

WOW! A 1947 film on hockey in Montreal, shows kid hockey all the way up to the pros!

Some notable scenes ”“ closeup of the Montreal goalie in the dressing room ”“ with two catching gloves! No “waffle” blocker glove! Also game footage against Toronto shows both teams in dark jerseys! And every time there’s a scrum, sticks are WAY high in the air!

However, before I even read Jet’s comments, I clicked on the film, and it was amazing. Check it out, and after the jump, we’ll hear from Jet:

How great is that? Now, for those of you who read the comments section, you’ll know that Jet is a HUGE hockey fan, so I contacted him and asked him if he’d like to describe the amazing uni-goodness (and there is so much) that is contained in that film.

Turns out that “Jet” does have a name, (It’s Pete M.) — and I’m almost positive he goes by that monicker in honor of the Golden Jet — if you need to look that one up, then maybe hockey’s not your cuppa. Anyway, here’s Jet describing the film we just saw:

“Iced Lightning is a 10-minute film from 1947 highlighting the hockey experience in Montreal, from youth pickup games up to the NHL Canadiens. For a more archeological review of the film, I refer you to this blog.

“As always, we will focus on the more uni-related aspects of the film. Being in the signs/lettering profession, I was loving the hand-lettered opening title screens, replete with flashy illustration. The opening sequence shows players from McGill University taking the ice for a practice on an outdoor rink, and they’re wearing white and dark jerseys with numbers. From there we see young boys playing pickup on a snow-covered street, and a few have Toronto Maple Leaf jerseys replete with crests. Anyone who’s played as a child will relate to the scene of the boy deftly demonstrating how to stuff a schoolbook inside his striped hockey sock for padding.

“Next we see pee-wee teams on an outdoor rink, and they’re wearing light and dark jerseys with numbers. The boards are wooden and snow is piled so high beyond the boards that spectators and players are standing at a height greater than the skaters on the ice! There are dozens of boys with sticks on the sidelines and I don’t know if they’re extra players for the teams on the ice, or waiting for the next game to begin. After that is a short segment on women’s hockey with the McGill team playing in skirts and numbered sweaters, and a fascinating look at an all-black team from the Canadian Legion, a subject which merits further investigation when time allows. Their jerseys have a contrasting shoulder bar so broad that the number on the back encroaches onto it.

“Finally, we see the NHL Canadiens enter the dressing room in suit/tie/suspenders as their jerseys hang invitingly on the wall, numbers showing. No individual cubicles! Most fascinating is the close-up of goalie Bill Durnan’s gloves – he uses two catching gloves; no blocker! He’s apparently ambidextrous as the practice sequence that follows shows him holding the stick with either hand – imagine a goalie attempting that today! On to game action against the Leafs, and both teams are in their dark jerseys, yet the narrator points out that Toronto “is in the dark jerseys”. Since this was prior to televised games, is it possible that the teams were requested to both wear dark for the purpose of the film, or was there no hard rule on light vs. dark jersey usage? Also, in every scrum in the brief game footage, all of the players’ sticks are in the air and waving around, and sometimes they come down with a chop! No helmets, minimal padding, and sticks waving above shoulder level – anyone doubt the toughness of ‘old time hockey?'”

Great job with that! I have to say, after watching that film, I actually surfed around the tee-vee set and found an NHL game — the first one (other than the Winter Classic) I watched all year — and began to remember why I used to love hockey so much. Of course, it didn’t hurt that the game was the Blackhawks at the Red Wings, two teams which feature some of the best uniforms in the game today. It was a spirited matchup, with the Wings taking a 2-0 lead, only to have the Hawks come back to tie it at 2 in the final minute and send it to overtime. New school hockey…old time hockey.

Thanks again Jet.

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Colorize This!

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

While we have only three colorizers this week (I’ll give you a guess at two of the), they have been busy. Very busy. And the third has completed a master work.

So, lets get right into today’s G&G show.

Up first is Gary Chanko:

In 1946, Alfred Eisenstaedt photographed Howard University students for a LIFE magazine photo essay. Among the photos appearing in the November 18, 1946, issue was this image of sophomore Bill Toles (center) and other members of the Howard University football team. You can view the original B&W picture (scroll to page 114) and the entire magazine here: LIFE Magazine, Nov 18, 1946 issue.

For the colorized version I found little reference material concerning the football team. The team colors today are blue, white, and red. So for the colorization blue was selected as the primary color. Hopefully Uni-Watch readers may know something more about this team and can identify the other players in the picture.

Eisenstaedt took several other photos of the football team, none of which were incorporated in the photo essay. They can be found, however, in the Life photo archive hosted by Google.

If you not familiar with the legendary photo journalist Alfred Eisenstaedt, you might recognize his work, notably the iconic photo VJ Day Kiss among others.

Gary

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A few weeks ago you posted an image submitted by a friend, Douggie Keklak, the Beaverdale [High] Beavers of 1923. I thought the image, with the great fog shrouded background, was a good candidate for colorization after some clean up and repair of the original scan. The colorization was a bit tedious (unless you like colorizing twenty-five Waldos)!, but I believe the final product turned out well.

For background research I was dependent on the information link you provided to establish the primary uniform color, red. The balance of the colorization was educated guess work. One oddity in the players’ uniforms is location of the “B” on the jersey front. All the players appear to have the B positioned on the left side, except for one where it’s centered. There are also a few variations in the sock design. This is the type of minutia that evolves during these colorizations!

So now that the image is complete, I’ve become curious about a few things. Perhaps friend Douggie can help with answers:

• Is this actually the High School team? The background information notes the Beaverdale school class size was only three for the year 1920! Three years later the school grew large enough to field an entire football team. Several of the players look too old for high school age, but maybe I’m just deceived by the image.

• What is the source of the image and what, if any, importance does it hold for Douggie.

• Names of any of the individuals in the photo?

• Plans for the completed colorization

Gary

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And finally, a great ending(?) for a colorized photo:

Thought I’d share this with fellow colonizers wondering what to do with their work.

Some weeks ago (Nov 13th 2011 edition Uni Watch) I completed a colorization of Sonny Jurgensen during his college days. It turned out well and made a great print. So I sent copies to Mr. Jurgensen; one he promptly autographed for me.

Gary

How awesome is that? Great stuff Gary!

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The other half of the G&G boys is, of course, George Chilvers who was also busy busy busy…

Hi Phil

This one, for next week, is a proof-of-concept following my ice skater Xmas message.

One of the earliest cinematographic records of Manchester United is from this 1902 short — in a game against Burnley.

I have taken a frame from this and colourised it. Obviously it is nothing like a standard colourisation, due to the very poor quality of the original, so has had to be a bit more ethereal and Impressionist – best viewed at a bit of a distance. A difficult one to do actually.

I’d be very interested to know if UW readers think it works or not.

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Hi Phil (again)

Here’s another one for next week. A fairly standard portrait, this time it’s Dennis Hodgetts who played for Aston Villa, this picture dating from 1886.

I like this picture for two reasons: one is that the colours are good with the club badge. In fact it’s no longer the team badge but as was common at the time the arms of the city of Birmingham.

Secondly, I just think it’s a good portrait, considering it’s 125 years old. Dennis, if he was alive now, would be 148 years old. A very modern looking picture I think.

Best wishes,

George

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George also had an “admonishment” for would-be colourizers:

Not one of mine ;)

I came across this picture of the British 4000 metre cycle pursuit team from the 1932 Olympics in LA.

It has clearly been colourised – either tinted at the time or maybe colourised since. But I see the colouriser has fallen for the “pale tone must be red and the dark tone blue” trap. Because look at the Union Jack!!

Best wishes,

George

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and finally,

War Risk Insurance Basketball team 1919. Not bad for 110-year-olds :)

Original is here.

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I don’t want to give the impression that these are easy to do and can be churned out on a production line, but this little guy from Friday’s Wire Service yelled out to me across a hundred years to be colourised, so I’ve spent the last few hours just working on this. And doesn’t he look as though he will go home to his iPhone and computer games and microwave meal?

George

(Sorry for sendimg so many this week!)

George, please don’t be silly — I love all your work!

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And finally, we have our Colgate colorizer, Ryan Dowgin, who has finished the work he showed 2 weeks ago:

Hey Phil,

Finished the picture of the Colgate ‘Scrimmage Machine’. At least I think I hit everything. Hope everyone enjoys it.

Ryan

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Great work Gary, George and Ryan! Back next time with more colorizations. If you have a picture you think would make for a good colorization, or want to send me one of your own, drop me a line.

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Uni Tweaks Concepts

We have another new set of tweaks, er…concepts today. After discussion with a number of readers, it’s probably more apropos to call most of the reader submissions “concepts” rather than tweaks. So that’s that.

So if you’ve concept for any sport, or just a tweak or wholesale revision, send them my way.

Please do try to keep your descriptions to ~50 words (give or take) per image — if you have three uniform concepts in one image, then obviously, you can go a little over, but no novels, OK? OK!. You guys have usually been good with keeping the descriptions pretty short, and I thank you for that.

And so, lets begin:

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We start with Clint Richardson, who has some Ole Miss concepts:

I was watching the LSU-Ole Miss game, and realized how blah and boring Ole Miss’s uni’s are. So I changed that. Added a stripe outline, a number outline, and even a third stripe on one of the jerseys, to match the grey alternate. Also created some new helmet, including the retro light blue Archie Manning helmet.

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Next up is Paul Diker, who wants to fix the just fixed Jays:

Hello Phil,

I’m a fan of the site, and check it often. This is my first submission.

Like many, I love the new Jays set ”“ with a couple of disclaimers.

1.) The Maple Leaf is too big
2.) In the main mark, the stem of the leaf should line up with the outline of the baseball
3.) Was never a fan of the logo on the front of the jersey (I much prefer numbers there)

So, with that, I have tweaked the logo to include the above revisions, and provided a new uniform set (based on a Jose Bautista template I created).
As you can see, I switched out the logo for numbers, and placed the main mark on the sleeve. I think it classes it up a bit, and makes a great set even better. This is the Blue Jays as I’ve always wanted to see them, hope you like…

Feel free to run it if you choose…

Thanks,
Paul

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And concluding the show today is Bill Schaefer with a new hue for the Lions:

How much bettter…

…would the Lions look if they used the same blue of their field logo and end zone script?

This is a quick mock-up done on spur of the moment using dark blue like the Lions used back in late 60s and into the 70s.

Bill

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That’s is for this week. Back next time with more.

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Benchies

by Rick Pearson

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“Yeah, well…you’re wearing parquet shorts”…

And, as always, the full-size.

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That’s all for today — sorry for the delayed opening, but we’re back in business now. Not sure why we can’t access (or at least I can’t) yesterday’s comments, but we’ll get that worked out. So, no final quote from a reader for today. Instead…

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“He has Van Gogh’s ear for music.” — Billy Wilder