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Uni Watch

College Football Weekend Uni Roundup

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An unusually large amount of college football uni news broke over the weekend. Let’s get started:

• Here’s an updated version of UConn’s really ugly helmet.

• We now have our first real look — i.e., not a Photoshop job or a retail jersey sale page — at the new Penn State jersey. Personally, I wish they hadn’t put the cat at the base of the collar.

• A Kentucky recruit tweeted a photo of a gray jersey and a black matte helmet, whee! Not clear yet if it’ll actually be worn on the field.

• Also in the “Not sure how legit this is” category: Possible new football jerseys for Texas Tech.

• Yet another item that may not make it onto the field: The latest team to have chrome helmets floating around is Ole Miss.

• Lots of new accessories for Nebraska football, including cleats, gloves, and stadium turf.

• Speaking of Nebraska: Starting quarterback Taylor Martinez is being joined on the roster this season by his freshman brother, Drake Martinez. But only Drake is going with FIOB.

• New football uniforms for South Alabama.

• Here’s Notre Dame’s new base layer and Douglas shoulder pads for the coming season.

• We’ve already covered most of Arkansas’s tweaks for the coming season, but there a good summary of them here.

While we’re at it, there’s some NFL news as well:

• Here we have a good look at the Broncos’ new collar. Looks like they’re going with the same super-thick collar that the Texans used last year, but with the Nikelace stripes. The worst of both worlds!

• The 49ers are marking their final season at Candlestick by using the old end zone lettering and the new “farewell season” logo at midfield. They’ve also put together an amazing package for their season tickets.

(My thanks to all contributors, including Dave Wilock, Michael Moore, Chad Back, Warren Junium, Villaroman Santos, David Westfall, and of course Phil.)

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’Skins Watch: Here’s the latest on the ’Skins name and related developments:

• A school district in western New York is thinking about dropping the ’Skins name. There’s been plenty of reaction on Facebook.

• If you have no problem with Native American imagery in sports, then you’ll presumably have no problem with this car commercial either.

(My thanks to Ryan Mallon, Dave Drews, and Nick LaRosa for their contributions.)

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Uni Watch News Ticker: New logo for the Sacramento Republic FC of the USL (from Greg Olsen). ”¦ Someone on Instagram is posting uni photos and calling himself Uniwatch, but it ain’t me (thanks to Tommy Gough for letting me know). ”¦ New 80th-anniversary designs for Lacoste (thanks, Brinke). ”¦ Anyone know the story behind this Seahawks logo? “It’s completely new to me,” says Andrew Cosentino. “It seems to be an alternate/throwback with a play on the pre-2001 logo.” ”¦ Pretty cool Illini soda display (from Steve Winner). ”¦ Starter Jackets are making a comeback (Brinke again). ”¦ Here’s a really interesting historical photo: the Bolivian team at the 1930 World Cup, showing their appreciation for the host country, Uruguay (from Graham Clayton). ”¦ Here’s a cartoon mascot I hadn’t been aware of before: Sammy Sabre (from Dave Kuruc). ”¦ Dave Lundborg notes that the lettering on the Bengals’ 1970s helmets was much smaller than the way it was depicted on Sears-style merch. “My parents bought me Bengals pajamas from Sears back in the day, and this disparity bothered me even back then,” he says. “I guess this foreshadowed my Uni Watch readership.” ”¦ Shame on New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which is considering selling the naming rights to subway stations. ”¦ Holy moly, look at the back view of the 1939 Hollywood Stars! The uni number treatment is great, but those white pockets are really something else (big thanks to Dave Eskenazi). ”¦ “First they came for the Maryland football helmets, and I didn’t speak out because I didn’t wear a football helmet,” says Mike Raymer. “Next they came for the football uniforms, and I didn’t speak out because I didn’t wear a football uniform. Then they came for the airplanes, and there was nobody left to speak for the airplanes.” ”¦ Wuppertaler SV, a 5th-division German club, wears blue camouflage uniforms with big stenciled uni numbers (from Sy Hart). ”¦ Here’s another company that makes wallets out of baseball gloves (from Coleman Mullins). ”¦ NHL news from the Panthers and Ducks, both of which are planning throwbacks (thanks, Phil). ”¦ New logo for Hooters (from Christopher LaHaye). ”¦ Manny Machado of the Orioles started batting bare-handed in the middle of Saturday’s game and promptly went 2-for-4. He then alternated between wearing gloves and going bare-handed on Sunday (from Griff Shirley and Andrew Cosentino, respectively). ”¦ The Giants wore their solid black caps yesterday, instead of their usual orange-brimmed Sunday caps (thanks, Brinke). ”¦ Michael Princip recently scored this vintage Mill-Mont mouthguard, still in its original packaging. Even better, he acquired it from another Uni Watch reader, Brooklyn’s own Jeff Fedenko. ”¦ Latest MLBer wearing mismatched shades of gray: Everth Cabrera (from Paulie Sumner). ”¦ Phil already covered Ron Roeneke’s misspelled “Milwaukee” chest mark in yesterday’s entry. But it turns out this isn’t the first time the Cream City’s name has been misspelled in rather embarrassing fashion: Back in 1998, the Bucks spelled it wrong on their media guide (from Paul Kamras). ”¦ Interesting story on the Anchor Brewing Company’s search SF Seals baseball cards (from James Ashby). ”¦ The Wall Street Journal has picked up on the whole “Let’s track the Mets’ record by uniform” thing (Phil again). ”¦ Japanese baseball’s Pacific League is going to have a throwback week called the Legend Series at the end of August and beginning of September (from Jeremy Brahm). ”¦ What would happen if important scientists had their own brands (or maybe just signed endorsement deals with Nike)? Maybe something like this (from Kurt Esposito). ”¦ Soccer news from Pedro Naranjo, who writes: “Was watching the Pumas UNAM vs. Puebla Liga MX game and noticed that Puebla, for reasons unknown to me, covered the Volkswagen logo. They had done this previously in 2011, because of a diaagreement between Puebla ownership and VW. Not sure why this time.” ”¦ Aussie football has always been NNOB, but that may soon be changing (from Leo Strawn Jr.). ”¦ Serious public service by Sean Lewis, who’s provided us with our first look at Dimitri Papantonopoulos’s 15-letter NOB. ”¦ The Dunedin Blue Jays — Toronto’s single-A affiliate — held a 1929 throwback night on Saturday. “Everyone gets into it, including the ushers, mascots, and a good number of the fans, as you can see from those pictures,” says Kevin Kleinhans. “They also have features like 25-cent Cracker Jack and a bingo tournament (because bingo was invented in 1929).” ”¦ The Reading Fightin’ Phils are using European-style 7s. “It was the same with the player wearing No. 27,” says Kurt Nelson. … Magical little encounter I had yesterday: After road-tripping around the Delaware Valley and Finger Lakes regions for most of the weekend, some friends and I ended up bowling at Scott’s resort, which has four early-1900s lanes. You have to set the pins yourself, which we were doing, and then this very sweet eight-year-old girl named Paris, whose family was staying at the resort, wandered over and asked if she could set the pins for us. I showed her how to do it and we worked together for a bit, setting the pins as my friend Robert bowled. We talked about where she was from (Massachusetts, but her family is about to move to Tennessee), her family (she has a younger brother, whom she wouldn’t let anyone else hold when he was a baby), and so on. Then we had this exchange:

Paris: You said your name is Paul, right?

Paul: That’s right.

Paris: There’s a man called Paul in the Bible.

Paul: Yes, there is.

Paris: Are you a Christian?

Paul: No, not really. [Bit of a pause while Paris processes this information.] Is that okay?

Paris [after another moment of thought]: I guess so.

And then we went back to setting pins. It was all very, very special.

 
  
 
Comments (97)

    The Portland Sea Dogs are the team in the navy and red in that picture. Not sure who they’re playing with the euro-style 7s.

    “… … Shame on New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which is considering selling the naming rights to subway stations. … ”

    New pre-recorded announcement, revealed by WikiLeaks: “Next stop Microsoft Columbus Circle. Transfers for the Goldman Sachs You Are Number One Line, with connections at Walmart Plaza…”

    I guess I don’t have a huge problem with renaming transit stations if it’s indicative of a major attraction or something right near the stop. I mean, here in Chicago, the Red Line stop by Comiskey (er… USwhatever) is called Sox-35th. The Addison stop by Wrigley has the Cubs logo on the sign, and usually is right next to the stop on display maps.

    There are also more subtle ways of raising revenue in this way, too. Apple paid to renovate the North and Clybourn stop (which is a few feet from an Apple Store). Subsequently, every ad in the station will be an Apple ad for ten years. If you didn’t know the story, you’d never think Apple had a stake in the station.

    There really are ways of doing this where it’s non-intrusive, but also easier for people who may not take CTA (or in this case, MTA) all that often. From reading the article, it doesn’t sound like MTA wants to articulate a policy, but not necessarily widely implement it (if they even do at all).

    Little Paris’s asking Paul about his religion reminds me of a similar question put to Marc Cohn in “Walking in Memphis”:

    Now, Muriel plays piano
    Every Friday at the Hollywood
    And they brought me down to see her
    And they asked me if I would
    Do a little number
    And I sang with all my might
    She said, “Tell me are you a Christian, child?”
    And I said, “Ma’am, I am tonight!”

    The mill-mont mouthpiece is fantastic. I used to have a version of that in the early 80’s for youth football, and I forget the brand (adams maybe) but it was similar to the one shown, but came with 2 clear hard rubber plugs that could go in the hole in.the mouthpiece. Anyone know what purpose they served?

    Apparently besides being “really ugly”, the UConn logo on the helmet promotes a “rape culture.”

    link

    As you can see, that story broke back in April. I ignored it, didn’t link to it, because it was ridiculous. Let’s please continue to ignore it and move on. Thanks.

    No offense intended. I agree with your assessment of the claim but I also believe there is value in shining a light on stupidity, a value which is exhibited (and appreciated) a number of times each day on this blog.

    I do too. I think it’s great. They’re doing something original and different that will likely have a longer shelf life than the Maryland flag nonsense, for instance.

    I’m not a huge fan of the execution – ditch the red, and the helmet sides should be blue, not white – but I love the concept. I’m a big fan of football helmets that break the mold of “slap a logo on the sides”. That’s why link is my favorite Redskins helmet of all time, and very nearly my favorite NFL helmet, period. Running the mascot’s face over the center in place of a stripe – that’s a good helmet concept. I just wish it were better executed.

    I always liked link Colts helmet (except for the fact that it implies that the player was kicked in the head!). Also have always been a fan of the Bengals. Now that helmet was wild when it came out. Talk about breaking the mold.

    the Bengals helmet has always had me thinking they could have done better. I don’t care for how it looks from the Front and back. Just me maybe.

    Anyone know the story behind this Seahawks logo? “It’s completely new to me,” says Andrew Consentino. “It seems to be an alternate/throwback with a play on the pre-2001 logo.”

    Casual Industrees is a local Seattle company that started printing Northwest themed t-shirts out of their garage a few years ago. If memory serves, there is a garage graphic on the inside collar tag. All their graphics are Northwest based, and feature modified sports logos from Northwest teams. Last year, Nordstrom (originated in Seattle) began carrying their shirts, and even held events where they printing them in their stores right in front of you. Pretty cool local success story.

    If the ’12th Man’ symbolizes the Seattle NFL team’s fanbase in general, does that mean the logo is a depiction a generic fan, not necessarily of Northwestern American Indian heritage?

    I’ve been a Seahawks fan since I was 10 years old. I remember thinking that the logo was “futuristic” when I was a kid. Then as I got older and wiser, It dawned on me that it was stylized Native American art. I really thought that was cool when I figured it out.

    If you look on the front page of their website, you’ll see the original Seattle Mariners logo upside down (W) and an N to form Northwest.
    link

    For the record, I realize the link I submitted is for a company who is “mass” producing these wallets, and there are no personal ties like one that’s made from your own childhood glove. I don’t like that part, and I can’t believe they’re hocking them for 120 freakin’ bucks. However, they are good subject matter, so I figured I’d send it along anyway.

    Couldn’t get a pic but Eduardo Nunez of the Yankees had a seriius rip in his oants in last nights game

    Is that a new “Giants” mark in the Starter jacket article (slideshow)? All the other teams are using authentic marks but them.

    That Bengals helmet logo look was what they used right up til they switched to the pumpkin look–they never used a helmet logo that matched the smaller actual font…wasn’t just limited to Sears stuff.

    Bugged me too.

    Brinke’s right. That too large BENGALS was their…um…”logo.” They ditched the tiger runningback cartoon after a couple of years, sadly.

    But I came to accept the “logo;” embraced it, even. I chalked it up (or rationalized) that it was just an endearing quirk that set the team apart from all the others.

    Now they have that awful striped B. Yeah, you could say the team’s had some issues in the logo department.

    “If you have no problem with Native American imagery in sports, then you’ll presumably have no problem with this car commercial either.”

    Great comparison of apples to apples (sarcasm). Do you really believe that people who wanted to see North Dakota keep the Fighting Sioux name after 80 years of tradition are on the same page as some greedy car salesman who dresses up as an Indian to sell cars? Are you that delusional when it comes to this conversation?

    Being an Ohio State grad, we rallied around a tree (not a nut like most people think the Buckeye refers to). A tree. We were not trying to degrade the tree. It was a symbol of the university. It was a symbol of pride. That’s what mascots are.

    Being an Ohio State grad, we rallied around a tree (not a nut like most people think the Buckeye refers to). A tree. We were not trying to degrade the tree. It was a symbol of the university. It was a symbol of pride. That’s what mascots are.

    Straw man argument. Nobody has said that North Dakota is “trying to degrade” Native Americans. Intent has never been the issue in this debate.

    Straw man argument? But stating that if you feel OK with Native American imagery in sports than you must also be OK with a crappy car commercial is a valid argument? If mine is a straw man argument, what does that make yours? You have lost any sense of being a credible source on this topic.

    Neither the auto salesman nor the Washington NFL team intend to degrade Native Americans. Both are private businesses using Native imagery to sell goods and services to the public at a profit.

    In terms of intent and conduct, these are actually nearly identical circumstances – once you strip away the meaningless sentimental haze of “but I loves me some [Washington football/North Dakota hockey].”

    ArrScott-These mascots date back many decades. How much goods and services were universities trying to sell/merchandise in 1930? It wasn’t until the rise of television and technology that mascots were used for merchandising, but by then, they were 40 years old. That was not the point or intention of universities 80 years ago.

    These two are not the same. Not even close.

    How much goods and services were universities trying to sell/merchandise in 1930?

    You’re selling tickets. You’re selling what we now call the brand. You’re selling THE TEAM.

    Earl’s counterargument is simply false. First, the Redskins have always been a business selling goods and service seeking profit. Always, even 75 years ago. Second, in the case of colleges like North Dakota, Earl is simply restating the “but I loves me some North Dakota hockey” fallacy of sentimental nonsense. Sure, college varsity sports used to be an amateur pastime. But for at least the last 50 years, college athletics has been a business, conducted with the primary intent of selling goods and services. How the sport was conducted before anyone today was born is immaterial to any argument about the moral or ethical implications of the team nicknames; this is Native imagery used to sell good and services in the marketplace. (Even if one looks only at the school as an academic unit, the chief justification for varsity sports remains raising the profile of the school among potential tuition-paying students and cementing the loyalty of alumni donors. It’s a money chase in either event. Which is neither wrong nor ignoble, but it is true.)

    I usually stay out of the Redskins talk. I do agree with Earl about the comparison of Native American imagery in sports has zero to do with some stupid commercial.

    To me mascots are mascots and imagery is just that.

    I thought I first saw Sammy Sabre on this site. I could be wrong; I saw it somewhere. You don’t forget an image like that.

    “If you have no problem with Native American imagery in sports, then you’ll presumably have no problem with this car commercial either.”

    I don’t have a problem with native imagery, I have a problem with racist imagery. There’s a difference.

    Does the Seattle Seahawks Northwest Indian inspired logo count as native imagery?

    The Nashville Sounds, PCL affiliate of the Brewers, are hosting peanut free night tonight. Never heard of this promotion.

    link

    Sounds good and all, but the really important question is, what do they sing during the seventh inning stretch?

    Buy me some popcorn and nachos, please / I’ll be fine if I don’t ever leave.

    Or, if you don’t want to change the next line,

    Buy me some soft-serve in a mini cap / I don’t care if I never get back.

    … unless I’m lactose intollerent.

    Jerk.

    I laughed so hard I almost cried at that.

    OK, so if we need to go nut-, dairy-, and gluten-free, how about:

    Buy me a bag of sweet potato chips / I don’t care if I come home from this.

    But you’ve gotta kind of swallow “sweet” and really draw out “POHHH-tay-toe” to fit the meter.

    “Buy me fifteen beers and hurry up Jack,
    I don’t care if I never get back.”

    Like the Bengals thing, it seemed back in the 80s and 90s every piece of Steelers merchandise there were black outlines around the yellow, red and blue “hypocycloids” in their logo. But it wasn’t on their helmets. The black outline was even on their field art. But not on their helmets. When Nike took over in 97 the black outlines disappeared from the merchandise. Was still on the field art though. I never liked those outlines.

    Paul,
    Where were you in the Finger Lakes? That’s my area, if you’re ever in my area, I’d love to treat you to a brew, to say thanks for all your hard work over the years.

    Was staying in West Danby for a coupla days, and we tooled around a bit, visiting Watkins Glen and a few other places. Love it up there!

    I’m a couple of lakes to the northeast, Owasco. If you ever plan on being in Syracuse, its about a 45-minute drive.
    There’s some nice places to drink in Auburn and Skaneateles. Could have a Uni Watch meet-up.

    Paul,

    Thank you so much for posting both of my links! It still gives me a thrill to see my name on your website. Just to be a pain, my last name is spelled “Cosentino.” It was misspelled on my Seahawks link. Thank you!

    Hey there appears to be some sort of glitch. When I went to UniWatch’s home page, the first article was from Friday. I was able to find today’s entry simply by clicking on Friday’s entry and typing in today’s date in place instead of Friday’s date. Anyone else having this problem?

    I’ve had that same problem too. I had to go to the Twitter page and click the tweet you sent out with the link.

    I’ve been having the problem since Friday, too, but only in Firefox in Windows 7. IOS, OSX, any other browsers on Windows, no problem. And no, refreshing and even emptying the cache has had no effect so far. Which is OK; I’m happier in Chrome than Firefox anyway.

    I have said several times before but this site and Firefox Text to Image add on is great. I can see the images without having to click on them or most of the time.

    Not sure why others dont try it or mention it much.
    I think there is a setting if the image is smaller than usual though to stop it from “shaking”. But that does not happen much so I never figured out how to adjust it.
    It even works often in the comments section. Not for all posts though.

    I grew up in Western New York and played hockey against the school district that’s considering dropping the “Redskins” nickname. What is really interesting, and what never occured to me until today is that a neighboring district that played in the same league was made up of a sizeable student body from the Tuscarora Tribe, with the Tuscarora Reservation was across the street from the highschool. It never occured to me until today to consider how those students felt about playing a school whose nickanme is “Redskins”.

    Love the Notre Dame letterman’s jacket. It’ll look great with the reflective gold helmet.

    Little Paris’s exhange with you, Paul, was priceless. Kids say the darnedest things.

    Apparently I had never noticed that my original hometown Augusta Greenjackets’ logo features a pair golf clubs:

    link

    I’m assuming there can’t be many more logos out there that feature sports equipment from another sport. Any idea?

    Well, one could argue that the Brewers ball/glove logo actually has a tennis ball on it – the seam is a solid line, not laces.

    Nah. Mostly. A jousting lance…

    “…. With the spear must be included the lance(fr. lance), dart, or javelin(fr. javelot). (See Pheon). It is different to distinguish them, but the lance is much longer than the dart or javelin, and the head is not barbed….”

    … may evoke a “kingly” time, which sort of explains why lances were late-comers to heraldic design, and started appearing on coats-of-arms only after they had ceased to be used in the real world. Kings themselves hardly ever use lances anyway (possible exception of Richard Lionheart). And besides, a Sacramento King is about as common as a Los Angeles Laker. Can’t we look for something more local? Sacramento Gold-Panners, Sacramento Industrial Agriculturalists? Do the Sacto Solons still exist?

    Can anyone identify the opponent in the Hollywood Stars photo? (Maybe there was a caption accompanying the original?) Thanks

    That Seahawks logo is amazing. I would wear a shirt with that logo all over the place.

    Regarding the airplane… Southwest Airlines has, for many years, used special aircraft liveries (paint schemes) to honor states. The aircraft in question is Maryland One, and it pre- dates the UMd unis by over half a decade, joining the fleet in 2005.

    To really get into the spirit of the Dunedin Blue Jays’ 1929 throwback night, someone contracted polio.

    Which is pretty hardcore.

    This made me laugh.

    In the mid-90’s, when the Houston Areos went with a whole “It’s World War II” advertising theme (they actually showed clips of atomic bomb detonations as part of the goal celebration), I wrote them, suggesting “Internment Night”, when all the Asian fans in the arena were gathered up and stuck in a holding area on the main concourse, while white folks took their seats.

    They never wrote back.

    For what it’s worth, MLB.com has plenty of video highlights of the Indians sporting their turn-back-the-clock uniforms on July 13.

    Yes most of the new helmets are goofy looking.
    I did really like the 1939 Hollywood Stars jersey back.

    On saturday the 20th the Chicago Cubs and Colorado Rockies played a color on color game link not sure if this was covered at all

    Ive heard puebla’s new sponsor is Audi, the official unveiling is prob scheduled this week so thats why the old logo was covered up.

    The new jersey is probably upcoming, so thats why they wore last season’s jerseys with the volkswagon logo covered up

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