Sunday Morning Uni Watch

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By Phil Hecken

Candy striped shiny helmets.

Highlighter yellow versus bright orange and white.

Black for Black’s sake.

Throwbacks.

This weekend had it all and your Sunday Morning Uni Watch guide Terry Duroncelet was on top of it. I regret that I didn’t get to see nearly as many games (almost none, in fact) as I had wanted to yesterday. But I saw enough. And I saw highlights. So, here with what you may have missed, and all that’s in between is TJ with the …

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Sunday Morning Uni Watch
By Terry Duroncelet

This Week 3 gave us quite a bit to digest. But that’s okay. That’s what the rundown is for: for me to eat all of this up and hopefully not get food poisoning from some of the schools’ shenanigans. Let’s get to it.

From Thursday:

• Texas Tech wore all-grey uniforms against TCU. Umm… I don’t think that outfit works in crowds, whoever you are. This might have been noted before, but Horned Frogs RB B.J. Catalon III has RNOB.

• Tulane wore their anthracite pants from their Week 1 uniform against Louisiana Tech, who wore red jerseys as opposed to their usual blue (yes, Terry Bradshaw has the correct [and 100X better] number font for 2013 while the guy from Duck Dynasty has the block-font-that-shall-not-be-named from last year).

From Friday:

• One thing that I miss about California (and the west as a whole) is the way dark clouds would hit the mountains and foothills with the sun and create that amazing contrast. That was the scene at the Boise State/Air Force game on Friday. Oh, and the Broncos did the all-blue thing in conference play for the first time since 2010 (correct me if I’m wrong on the year). [sarcasm]Oh, it’s extremely difficult to find the players on the field. SO unfair.[/sarcasm] Also, this happened. That’s it. The Internet is over. Everyone go home. Good show, everyone.

From Saturday:

• Kentucky wore this against Louisville. Gross, but I suppose it could be worse.

• Indiana wore their striped helmets against Bowling Green. They actually don’t look half-bad! Just change it to a traditional finish, and you’re set.

• Minnesota wore maroon/gold/maroon against Western Illinois. I dig this look a lot. Sadly, Western Illinois didn’t look as good as the Golden Gophers, which is a shame, given that they call themselves the Leathernecks.

• HOLY SHIT, I will never complain about Nike’s wraparound pants stripes again (or at least, not so much). Also from that same game, Michael Cossey writes: “The helmet of Southern Miss defensive back Ed Wilkins somehow fused to the jersey of Arkansas running back Alex Collins during a play in the 2nd quarter of today’s game. Two officials tried to remove it but athletic trainers have to use pliers and screwdrivers to separate the two.”

• You could make the argument that today’s uniforms are so tight and snug on a player’s body, that it’s almost like they’re a prisoner in their own uniform. Well, Nebraska and the Three Stripes figured “Why not make it look like they’re prisoners too?” What’s sad is that in another world, this uniform would be considered a decent design. Actually, in this world, it’s not a bad-looking design. It just doesn’t make sense for the Huskers. Maybe there’s a potential future for the numbers. Other notes include UCLA wearing white pants, and that shot of the coach also provides us a look at the #36 memorial for Nick Pasquale (patch for the Bruins, decal for the Huskers). Lastly, here’s something that Jimmy Atkinson caught: “Jerry Neuheisel is a backup QB for the Bruins, so he holds on field goal attempts. Take a look at his uni here. #11 on the helmet (which is his actual number), but #39 on the jersey, with no NOB. But, if you look really closely (and squint), I swear you can see “NEUHEISEL” on whatever he’s wearing under the jersey. I wonder if he might be wearing his regular #11 jersey on underneath the #39 and maybe there was some sort of malfunction with it. Any idea?”

• West Virginia wore gold helmets and pants with navy jerseys against a certain well-known YouTube drummer’s school (Georgia State). GSU also wore dark-grey pants and helmets, which I don’t think I’ve seen them wear before.

• The Stanford/Army game was my first look at the 2013 Black Knights uniforms. Eh, I’m not a big fan of the Army logo they added at the right side of the chest. I feel like the uniform looks a little cluttered now. At least the (modified) helmet from last year’s Army/Navy game looked great, and I dig the black pants. Funny how Army makes something look good that the Saints (my favorite team) constantly look ridiculous in.

• Oregon wore all-yellow– excuse me, all-Lightning Yellow against Tennessee. I like! Only one thing: this would’ve been a great opportunity for the Vols to wear their “smokey” uniforms to provide a bit of better contrast.

• During the lead-up to the Bama/aTm game, the guys at College Gameday had the maroon Texas A&M helmet on display, but not too long after, they were tipped off that the Aggies would be wearing their white helmets in that game, and quickly made the correction. Also, what’s the significance of the ‘C’ at the collar point? Captain? I didn’t see it on all of the Aggie players. And that’s it for that game. Nothing out of the ordinary he– … *sigh* The shit I find on the Internet sometimes…

• Oklahoma State looks… NORMAL?

• Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Toledo wore brand-new black uniforms on Saturday.

• Jason Heminger saw that Hardy Nickerson of California had some helmet decal issues.

• Last week, I wrote that LSU wasn’t wearing their purple jerseys against UAB, even though this was a Tigers home game and UAB wasn’t a conference opponent. What I didn’t know was that LSU wears their white tops for their first home game of the season, NO MATTER WHAT. With the second home game being against Kent State, LSU wore Paul’s favorite color the purple tops. Also, while I like the upgrade to Kent State’s uniforms for this year, they’re missing a LOT of gold in the road uni (hard to see with this small image). They probably didn’t want to wear their gold pants against the Tigers’ gold. LSU’s Anthony Johnson is a big dude. So big, he apparently utilizes a knee brace as an elbow brace. Hey, if it keeps him healthy, no-harm, no-foul. I mean, look at all of the drummers that use Ride cymbals as Crashes.

• Lastly, for those of you who can’t get enough Pac 12 uni news, Kyle Hanks brings us this link to their conference-exclusive uniform watch. Thank you!

That does it for this week. By the time some of you read this, I’ll be at work. Luckily, I get off at 2:00, and the Saints game is slated for 3:05. See you next week.

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Thanks, TJ. There was also that awesome Iowa State throwback game yesterday. Most really “old time” throwbacks don’t look great (due to jersey cuts, modern helmets, etc.), but ISU looked great in their Jack Trice-era duds.

Catherine Ryan’s 5 & 1

There was certainly an interesting bunch of uniforms and combinations for Week 3 of the NCAAFB season. Some good, some bad. But how did they look when faced against each other?

Here’s Catherine with the…

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5 and 1
By Catherine Ryan

5 – Louisville vs Kentucky: I loved the all-white against the black/bl5ue

4 – TCU vs Texas Tech: I hate GFGS but I loved this match-up.

3 – Mississippi State v. Auburn: love Auburn’s uni and this weekend was underwhelming enough for me to pick them

2 – Alabama vs Texas A&M: Great match-up. Classic unis. I thought this was going to be a great game but then it was a blow out.

1 – UCLA vs Nebraska: How could you not like this match-up?

And the bad one (+1):

Cincinnati v. Northwestern State: All-white/All-black. #thisismynightmare

Duck Tracker

Tim was busy attending a Northwestern game last evening but he sent me the graphic for the Ducks versus Tennessee (a huge win for the Ducks, dontcha know?). You can click to enlarge:

Tim loved the electric, highlighter yellow from head-to-toe (as did I). You can read more about this game and see more pictures at Tim’s Duck Tracker website.

Uni Watch News Ticker:

Baseball News: Take a look at this base for sale at Miller Park. “Never seen the battling Eagles before,” says submitter Stanton Foster Smith. … “My grandfather, Victor Harkin worked for the U.S. Mint and played for their baseball team,” says Jonathan Daniel His mother sent him a photo of the team and wasn’t sure when it was from, but their best guess is 1930s. “My grandfather is in the front row, 3rd from the left and played catcher. He later landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day and was the officer in Charge of the Gold Vault in Fort Knox until he retired. If you’ve ever seen video of the time the vault was open to the press in the 70s, he was there. He’s the man standing in front of the vault in the last photo in this article.” … Here’s a video clip (in color!) of an exhibition game at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, CA on November 7, 1948 between a barnstorming team of Negro League players called the Royals (And featuring Satchel Paige) and the Gene Bearden-Bob Lemon All-Stars (A collection of MLBers). … The Chicago White Sox had their annual “6 months until St. Patrick’s Day” last night, with the Sox wearing green caps and uniforms with green pinstripes (thanks, Samuel Selker).

NFL News: Joshua D Wren found this, “what I would call gem, on Buzz Feed today. Its pretty self-explanatory but these 3 guys saw a fashion show with takes on Women’s NFL Apparel and gave comments which are pretty great but of course biased.” … Did this German football team rip off the Tom and Jerry cartoon for their logo? (that question asked by Jason Johnson. … Not sure if this belongs in this category, or NHL, but Andrew Domingo saw a Chargers fan with a customized Wayne Gretzky Chargers jersey at the Monday Night Football game.

College Football News: Here’s a look at the t-shirt for the retirement of Eric LeGrand’s number. “Of course, Subway has to get their mitts on it,” says Don Silsby.

NBA News: An update on the Calvin & Hobbs-esque logo comes from Robert Silberman, who notes the Belgian team in question is sponsored by Spirous Magazine, a comic book on par with Tintin. They’ve got a neat logo of a ball w/a bellhop’s cap (like Spirou) hat you can see here. “But it’s the equivalent of say, a team in the US being called the Des Moines Archie and Jugheads,” says Robert. “Unfortunately, the uniforms seem to be pretty blandly Euro/ad infested. Too bad — a bellhop/basketball uni or one featuring the character would be pretty sweet.”

Hockey News: Notre Dame hockey joins Hockey East this season, but their boards in the Compton Family Ice Arena still has the CCHA logo. The Blackhawks opened training camp at the Irish home arena (nice spot by Terry Mark).

College Hoops News: Here’s a great old photo found by James Ashby: Jerry Norman of the University of California at Los Angeles Bruins drives against the defense of LaSalle College Explorers teammates Larry Foust (#14) and Jim Phelan (#10) at Convention Hall in Philadelphia, PA on December 27, 1949.

Grab Bag: Here’s a neon sign for Paul (in the daytime and at night). That’s the Oakdale Dam Inn near ‘absolutely nothing in Indiana’ (thanks to Eric Bangeman). Here’s another for Paul (although I think he knows these): In Brooklyn, plenty to do without crossing bridge” (thanks, Brinke).

That will do it for this fine Sunday. Thanks as always to TJ, Catherine and Timmy, er…Tim E.

The Bills will be wearing their gorgeous 1960s throwbacks today, and the Bears will also be throwing back to their even more gorgeouser 1940s unis as well. So, we’ve got that going for us. Everyone enjoy the games today. I’ll catch you all next weekend!

Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken.

Peace.

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“You won’t make many friends in Birmingham (Warwickshire, England) if you say that Aston Villa play in “powder blue and magenta”! A faux pas of the highest order. It’s “claret and blue”. Nothing more, nothing less. :)”
— George Chilvers