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A Long-Lost Cardinals Prototype Design

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Nine days ago, when I was still on my August break from the site, there was a one-sentence Ticker item that I think deserves a closer look, so that’s what we’re going to focus on today.

The Ticker item was a link to this short video clip from 1968, which is actually an excerpt from a larger clip (more on that later). It’s only 58 seconds long, so please take a look at it before reading further.

A few thoughts on the video:

• The narrator is clearly ABC Sports broadcaster Chris Schenkel.

• The office building shown near the beginning of the video has a sign for the Celanese Corporation, which is a big Fortune 500 company. They have lots of patents relating to fabrics (look here and here, for example), but I’ve never heard their name used in connection to uniforms before.

• The money shot is the view of Cardinals then-manager Red Schoendienst looking at some uniform mock-ups (see screen shot above), which were apparently prepared by the Celenese crew. Despite the less-than-optimal image quality, we can see several eyebrow-raising elements here. For starters, these uniforms anticipated the move toward the low-cuffed look. Also, the jersey appears to be a vest.

But the most intriguing thing is what’s missing — it looks like there’s no belt! Was this designed to be a one-piece uni, sort of like a baseball version of overalls?

I showed these mock-ups to Brian Finch, who runs the Cardinals Hall of Fame and Museum. He said he’d never seen them before (although he joked, “It appears that we used those styles in 1999 — in the Turn Ahead the Clock game!”). When Brian is stumped on something Cards-related, you know it’s seriously obscure.

I contacted Celanese’s media desk yesterday to see if they had more info on this project. The reply: “I’m sorry, but we do not have any information on this. Celanese moved away from the textiles industry many years ago and our business has evolved to a different product line with our acetate fibers business.” Dang. I’d still like to know more. If anyone has any info on this, please speak up. Thanks.

Meanwhile, I was able to find the original film that the 58-second clip was taken from. It’s a nine-minute promotional piece called Sports in Action, and it includes short segments on the changing aesthetics of auto racing, football, golf, tennis, boating, and swimsuits. Unfortunately, none of those other segments has anything as interesting as the Cardinals mock-ups, but the film is still a fun document. You can check it out here.

(Big thanks to Todd Abramson, who first submitted the 58-second clip, and to Bill Morrow, who provided the full nine-minute film.)

•  •  •  •  •

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Collector’s Corner

By Brinke Guthrie

With the NFL season kicking off, we’re all NFL this week, beginning with this Jets turtleneck. I remember these from the Sears catalog (I think I had a Bengals version with black sleeves), but this is the first time I’ve ever seen one on eBay.

Continuing with our NFL theme:

• I’ve seen a ton of vintage Bengals merch in my day — I haven’t missed much — but this 1970s “Pride of Cincinnati” helmet plaque is a first, and I bet I know why. This absolutely looks like it was carved out from a Hudepohl Beer display. (Update: I was right! Thanks to Michael Neuhaus for the confirmation.) This one is more familiar, and this one has terrible lettering. And then there’s this Technigraph gem.

• This is a tremendous auction: a collection of 65 NFL media guides from the 1960s through the 1990s. Hit the arrow on the auction images to scroll through all the artwork.

• Ha! Look at the goalposts on top of this vintage 1970s Patriots alarm clock.

• Check out this 1960s NFL/Admiral Action AM Pocket Radio. It’s got an Eagles helmet on the front, but the font looks very Patriots-ish. (Here’s a Saints version, and a Giants version.)

• Here are three 1970s NFL board games I’ve never seen!

• Here’s a 1970s 49ers gumball-style helmet buggy still on the card, though it’s been opened.

• He might not be wearing a Steelers uni, but by golly that’s Lynn Swann at lower-right on the cover of this 1979 Mattel Intellivision video game cartridge from Sears. The illo is based on this photo.

• Terrific artwork on this 1968 “This Is the NFL” schedule booklet.

• • • • •

harwan

Membership update: Some new designs have been added to the membership card gallery, including Pete Harwan’s 1980 Phillies treatment, shown at right. I’ve always found the “1” in that Phillies number font to be odd-looking — such a big serif at the top, like Pinocchio’s nose!

People are always telling me how they’ve “been meaning to sign up for a membership” and will “get around to it one of these days.” Now that I’m back from my annual August break, allow me to suggest that there’s no time like the present.

And hey, while I have you here, I only have a handful of Uni Watch 15th-anniversary patches left. If you want one, better move fast.

• • • • •

Baseball News: You knew this was coming: The Yankees will be wearing Derek Jeter patches on their caps and jerseys from this Sunday through the end of the season. This is similar to what they did for Mariano Rivera last year, and a handful of teams have done similar things for their retiring stars (the Braves for Chipper Jones, the Orioles for Cal Ripken Jr.), but I still think it’s unseemly and inappropriate to wear a patch for an active player, and even more so for Jeter to wear a patch honoring himself. … Absolutely spectacular work by Cork Gaines, who’s chronicled some of the surprising ways in which MLB’s replay system has essentially become a big Samsung advertising campaign. ”¦ The Mets will wear orange Los Mets jerseys on Sept. 12. ”¦ Lots of MLBers wore “Strike Out Cancer” T-shirts during BP yesterday. Some additional examples here. It’s not clear to me why cancer struck out looking instead of swinging, but I guess the T-shirts have a great curveball. ”¦ The Columbus Clippers wore flag costumes for their regular season finale on Sept. 1 (from Leo Strawn Jr.). ”¦ “In what some might consider a refreshing alternative to all the branding that’s normally part of postgame press conferences, Rays manager Joe Maddon has been wearing a different charity’s T-shirt at each presser and then featuring them on his Twitter feed,” reports Clint Wrede. “He just solicited more T-shirts to finish out the season.”

NFL News: Here’s a story on Eagles throwback jerseys (from Jim Dornberger). ”¦ Good two-part overview of the Panthers’ uniform history here and here (from Scott Moody). … Dave Dragonette DIY’d himself a Giants motorcycle helmet. “The decals are all Scotchlite, so the pictures flare a bit, but the colors are true in natural light: metal flake blue, red stripe, white letters and numbers,” he says. “I’d love to make it more realistic and would welcome any suggestions you or your readers may have, especially locating the additional stickers for the rear of the helmet.” What say ye, people? … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: The Browns are letting fans vote on the team’s end zone design (from Tony C.). ”¦ Check out this Campbell’s Soup ad featuring Kiko Alonso of the Bills. He’s never actually worn that collar style on the field (from Tom Migliaccio). ”¦ Several readers have noted that the new Madden game mistakenly shows the Patriots’ jerseys with silver side piping instead of the proper red.

College Football News: Western Michigan is using cowboy hat merit decals to honor former coach Bill Doolittle (thanks, Phil). ”¦ Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: “Paul Rogers, the play-by-play guy for the University of Louisville, was on a local radio show,” says Brian D. “One interesting story he shared was that his cousin is Rogers Redding, the National Coordinator of Football Officials. He said they recently had dinner together and discussed uniforms. Mr. Redding told him he gets shipments of all the uniforms to check to make sure the numbers are legible. His method for testing is he puts a uniform on his wife and has her go stand out in their yard. If he can read the number from 30 to 40 yards away, it’s okay.” ”¦ Temple has added a memorial helmet decal for donor Lewis Katz (thanks, Phil). ”¦ You already knew that the college football uni scene is a bit out of hand, but here’s a really good piece on the current state of affairs. Recommended reading (Phil again). ”¦ Here’s an article about the College at Brockport’s new uniforms. … UNC will wear blue over black this Saturday. … Important change to Wisconsin’s jerseys that I hadn’t previously noted: no more TV numbers (from Alex Bauer). ”¦ In a related item, Louisiana-Lafayette’s new unis have, among other things, traded in the TV numbers for fleur de lis (from Tom M.). ”¦ Fresno State will wear white-white-gray on Saturday (from Jared Buccola).

Hockey News: Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: The Penguins are scaling new heights in chutzpah by soliciting orders for their new third jersey even though it won’t be unveiled until Sept. 19. Icethetics says it will be mostly gold.

College Hoops News: Two news items from the Sooner State: New sweatbacks for Oklahoma and a new court design for Oklahoma State.

Soccer News: SC Bastia had to wear its opponent’s practice jerseys for a recent match (from Trevor Williams). … Here’s the inaugural uni set for the USL’s new team, the Tulsa Roughnecks. ”¦ Here are some Bayern Munich players in traditional Oktoberfest garb (from Yusuke Toyoda). ”¦ The USA’s kit colors and numbers have been assigned for the game against the Czech Republic (from webmaster John Ekdahl). ”¦ “In 1995-1996, Italian Serie A team Lazio had Banca di Roma as their shirt sponsor,” says Graham Clayton. “Roma happens to be their closest and most fiercest Serie A rival. It must be the only occasion when a team has a shirt sponsor which features the name of a rival team.”

Grab Bag: New “signature jerseys,” whatever that means, for the Edmonton Eskimos (thanks, Phil). ”¦ Speaking of the CFL, lots of negative reaction to the gun logo on the new Calgary Stampeders jerseys. … The Gaelic football teams Donegal GAA and and Kerry will both be able to wear their traditional colors for an upcoming match. ”¦ Interesting article, written by a Navy enlistee, on the increasing tendancy of military service members to wear their uniforms in non-military settings in order to get stuff for free. … For those of us who love design — which means pretty much everyone who reads this website — nature offers few better examples of design excellence than a spider’s web. … “I’m shamefully late to discovering PBS’s excellent The Mind of a Chef and spent the holiday weekend getting caught up on Season One,” says Markus Kamp. “In episode three, master chef David Chang goes golfing with hip-hop producer extraordinaire Dan the Automator, with both of them attired in some tasty knickers, fully bloused.” … Love this original style guide for WABC Channel 7’s logo (big thanks, Brinke). ”¦ Nice little appreciation of white sneakers. … Walmart employees aren’t thrilled about the company’s new dress code. … Phil does not approve of Roger Federer’s shoe/sock pairing. ”¦ Good piece on what might happen to the Union Jack if Scotland votes for independence (from Mike Thompson). ”¦ Despite all the high-tech synthetic fabrics out there, wool is making a comeback (from Tommy Turner). ”¦ Hmmm, what does this U.S. Open ballboy have under his shirt? (Screen shot by Chris Perrenot.)

• • • • •

What Paul did last night: A retrospective of the great documentary filmmaker Les Blank began last night in my neighborhood. Blank made dozens of films during his career but I’ve only see a couple of them, so last night I went and check out the first installment of the program, which consisted of two early-1970s films about the Cajun culture of southwestern Louisiana — Dry Wood and Spend It All, both of which feature tons of great zydeco music performances, hog butchery, cooking, fishing, eating, drinking, and general exuberance. Here are the trailers:

If you like the looks of those, Dry Wood is available in its entirety here.

I plan to see several more of the offerings in this retrospective — this one, this one, and maybe this one. So cool to have this stuff available just a five-minute bike ride from my house!

 
  
 
Comments (70)

    I’ve had the NFL Strategy game in Brinke’s link for probably 30 years. One of the more well-thought out games of that era, in my opinion. My friends and I used it quite a bit during college when we were supposed to be studying.

    I still have two sets of the game. I never really played the NFL Stategy game, but have used the football field portion for thousands of my NAFL/AFA dice games over the years.

    The 2014 AFA season kickoffs next Tuesday!

    Lee

    As long as we’re talking about possible Cardinals uniform prototypes, I’ve always wondered about the jersey worn by link on link

    Um, that would be Ken Boyer. 7 Boyer brothers played pro ball, 3 in the majors, but none of them was named Jim.

    Was this designed to be a one-piece uni, sort of like a baseball version of overalls?

    I don’t think so. If you look closely, you see a slight bulge at the waistline, and a break in the shadowing. I suspect it was a pair of sansabelt pants, but without team color striping around the waist. This would give you a clean, one-piece look and enable you to have the convenience of a separate shirt and pants.

    The Oktoberfest photos are from last year & have been linked in previous tickers. Great shots though.

    For me, at least, the link to the Oktoberfest pix and the link to the pix of the new USMNT players and unis run together… Looking for the Yank duds puts you in Munich beer halls…Or are the Yanks wearing lederhosen this year?

    I like the mismatch between jersey and short sizes. Joe Gyau seems like the ultimate big-bottomed small, as they say in suboptimal land, while Guzan and Altidore are big-bottomed bigs.

    Also, I have a hard time believing Julian Green’s big enough to fit in to medium shirts and shorts.

    Looks like Schweinsteiger is wearing fuax high socks – almost like he’s got wristbands on his calves.

    I had Pro Draft when I was a kid. It came with Topps football cards, and you had to acquire a full team of players with different positions (determined by the Topps cards) and values (determined by a different set of cards. It was fun. It’s also notable that the cards themselves, although they appeared to be standard 1974 Topps, were printed separately–they could be distinguished by different asterisks in the copyright notice, IIRC. A variation of interest to card collectors.

    Between Pro Draft and the Intellivision game, this was a very nostalgic update for me! B^)

    Couple of things:
    1. Would guess the US Open ballboy has just tucked his ID badge & lanyard to the inside of his shirt:
    link
    2. Odd that San Antonio ABC7 doesn’t realize the Washington, DC affiliate continues to use that logo as well:
    link
    3. They don’t make voices like Chris Schenkel’s anymore.

    link

    Pittsburgh Post-Gazette blog going back through the archives, occasionally show nice old sports photos.

    this time there are a few pics of Pirates players from 1951-1968. Dressed to the nines shows them wearing long black sleeves as undershirts during this entire period but a few of the photos look clearly like short black undersleeves.

    also, one pic shows what looks like cincy in the background – another is from spring training and it looks like the guy is wearing a windbreaker under under his vest. I didn’t think they had those in the late 50s.

    Last bullet of the lede, there’s a “there/they’re/their” error there.

    s/b “their jersey appears to be a vest.”

    Given that the rest of the CFL has link with their “signature” uniform designs, the Eskimos seem to have restrained themselves a bit.

    On a side note, the CFL doesn’t seem to have any issue with alternate helmets…

    The Gaelic football teams Donegal GAA and and Kerry will both be able to wear their traditional colors for an upcoming match

    That “upcoming match” is the All-Ireland final, the single most important date on the GAA calendar (got a problem with that hurling fanbois?) so only a slight undersell there.

    Also, this is a short but interesting look at the potential clash issue and the possible alternatives complete with full visuals.

    link

    I’ve heard from someone who’s “in the know” that the 2008 Cubs throwbacks (discussed yesterday) are just going to be the current set minus the Wrigley Field anniversary patches on the hat and sleeve…

    These guys (recommended by a Uni Watch reader):
    link

    They’re nice to work with but took a long time to get the order into their system. Apparently they’re VERY busy, so new customers have to get in line.

    I would recommend Apparel 2000 in Massachusetts. This is run by the family that used to produce Roman Pro ballcaps. They make nice patches for many local police departments and other organizations.

    link

    A new Tulsa Roughnecks, with a throwback to the original?

    Cool.

    Plus finally, all those things I remembered about the NASL are timely again. (After Whitecaps, Sounders, Impact, Timbers, and such.)

    Yeah but, the old NASL Roughnecks had one of the all time coolest (maybe not BEST, but COOL) logos ever… and this new outfit comes up with a boring ol’ oil derrick?

    Bah…

    Lee

    That Roughnecks nod to their original NASL uniforms IS nice. That was an Admiral design, if I recall, popular in the late ’70s. Also worn in the NASL by the Earthquakes for awhile, and internationally by Wales, at least.

    I’m making an educated guess that some twitters comments and an article in a conservative United States magazine are exaggerating the amount of complaints of the guns on the Calgary Stampeders jerseys to “lots of criticism”.

    Only thing that readily turns up for me in a search other than that article is this ctv calgary article (where most of the commments left run counter to the opinion)
    link

    They have had guns on their black jerseys since they came out in the mid 1990’s and I have heard nary a peep about criticism of the guns on those jerseys.

    Have heard more about their winning percentage in the past in the black jerseys than any complaints about guns on jerseys:

    link
    link

    Paul thanks for the Cajun documentary links. I grew up there (Eunice, home of Keith Ortego of the 85 Bears and, currently, Tharold Simon of the Seahawks) and never heard of these two. Here’s another documentary, filmed in the late 80s I think, about the Cajun version of Mardi Gras (shameless plug because the mask-making Manuels who appear in it are my parents).

    link

    Joel Manuel
    Baton Rouge

    The Union Jack article is a great read. If there is a redesign, I hope they recognize Wales as part of the union and come up with something that’s not so Anglo-centric (I associate the three lions with the English FA, not the British Lions but YMMV).

    Technically speaking the Welsh aren’t part of the “Union”. The Union is a term specifically used to describe the historical Acts of Union which officially combined the individual kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland with the English Crown. No such acts were ever necessary for Wales because Wales has never been its own Kingdom (more importantly, nor has it ever rebelled all that vociferously against the English).

    But that’s mostly just arcane semantics. Personally I’d like to see the Welsh get some love.

    As long as no football club names itself “United” without merging with another club, right?

    Preferably the owner of said club will have claimed divine right to rule and instructed parliament on the name change.

    Not a uni specific question, but when did Louisiana-Lafayette get the okay to start calling themselves “Louisiana”? it’s been on their baseball sets for a couple of years now (with ESPN calling them “Louisiana”), and it’s on the football jersey shown in this article. I thought ULL and UL-Monroe had to use the city designation for the state school, not just “Louisiana”. Any help?

    I think it’s one of those things that they did without getting any formal approval from the state or anyone else. I’ve wondered that as well though.

    In the Icethetics link about new Penguins third jerseys, there’s a pic of the Pens in their 83/84 yellow unis, playing Montreal in their white threads… essentially both teams in their home unis (when the light color was the home jersey in the NHL). A pres-season game perhaps??

    -Jet

    It would have to be a pic from the 1984 preseason, considering the picture features Mario Lemieux rather prominently.

    Paul, very odd to see you write “New “signature jerseys,” whatever that means, for the Edmonton Eskimos” after the extensive coverage of the CFL Signature Jerseys on Uni-Watch during August. It’s not like those were buried in the Ticker–Paul made those the subject of a couple of posts.

    Sensitive?

    Phil showed an unusual high regard to the CFL during his period of manning the uni-watch ship. A regard, judging by the way the CFL mistreats itself by plastering advertisment everywhere (field, jerseys etc), is not necessarily disserved.

    “Paul made those the subject of a couple of posts.”

    ~~~

    Think you mean “Phil” right?

    I’m into the CFL, and thankfully my right-hand CFL guy, Mike Styczen is also into them, so we covered those pretty well. There are actually a couple we didn’t get to (and will over the weekend), including the Esks, so fear not — they will get their due.

    But just like I’m into the CFL, trying to get into more footy/soccer/football/futbol and NCAA football (things Paul tends to give less coverage to), I’d never think to give the coverage to today’s lede — which is great. Paul also gives outstanding coverage to wire story photos and the like (which I also love), plus old catalogs and clothing. I don’t generally get into that as much, if at all. It’s not that I don’t enjoy reading about them, they’re just not as in my wheelhouse or anything with which I have the experience PL does. To each his/her own, I guess.

    Paul sees things uni-wise differently than I (sometimes); I compiled the ticker the day the video referenced today was posted, but I never thought to look deeper into it. To me it was just a ticker item. Maybe Paul sees the CFL “signature” (read: third/pure marketing) jersey as solely a ticker item; I don’t do DIYs, but I love when others do and I’ll happily feature them if someone sends in a story and photos.

    As far as a “high regard (for) the CFL” — well, they’ve been around for a while and they have unis, so when they break out new ones, I’ll gladly (have Mike) cover them. I don’t know if the CFL mistreats itself, but I would (like I’m sure most of us) prefer their jerseys not to contain ads. I don’t find their ads (other than on the uniforms themselves) to be any better or worse than other sports. And the CFL is such a cool version of the game we play in the lower 48.

    Sports in Action: Winning Style was preserved by my former employer, the Academy Film Archive, last year. I wanted to submit it then, but didn’t want to do so without including the actual film, and didn’t have permission to share it online. Anyway, if someone wanted to screen it, they could contact the AFA here: link

    And, I’m going to toot my own horn a little and link to my interview with Les Blank from two years ago. I visited him at his house in Berkeley; he was the nicest guy. The interview turned out pretty well, too: link

    Re the “Strike Out Cancer” t-shirts, I have two theories as to why they use the backward (strikeout looking) K.

    1) A backward K is distinctive and instantly screams, “baseball.” A traditional K could be seen as standing for a variety of things.

    2) Three people walking around in backward K shirts looks like they are celebrating someone striking out the side, or at least three baseball fans. Three people walking around in forward K signs looks like a whole lot of trouble.

    The Lazio jersey having the bank of Roma is not that strange. Lazio is actually based in Rome and play at the same stadium as Roma. Similar to Chelsea, Arsenal, Crystal Palace, Tottenham etc. they are based basically in London.

    Also i forgot to mention that “Lazio” is one of the regions of Italy which in fact encompasses Rome

    It’s not inherently strange to have Bank of [Locality] on a jersey, and I wouldn’t have thought twice about it being on an Lazio jersey given that they play in Rome/Roma.

    That said, there is a difference between the SS Lazio/AS Roma situation and that of those clubs in London. If Arsenal were sponsored by Bank of London, no one would think they were actually supporting another club since no club is called London FC or anything like that.

    It could be different in a place like Birmingham if Aston Villa were to be sponsored by Birmingham Bank and it might look like they were somehow supporting Birmingham City.

    I keep seeing articles with headlines about the Eagles planning on bringing the “Kelly Green” back, but then in the article itself it is always ambivalent about whther they are bringing it back as a throwback/alt or switching from midnight green to kelly green full time. They already wore the kelly green as a throwback in 2010, and if all they are considering is doing that again, it’s not really news.

    Actually, bringing back kelly green as a throwback would be very big news indeed, since the NFL’s current helmet regulations don’t allow for an additional helmet shell, which the kelly throwbacks would necessitate.

    well, I was assuming with the current regulations they would just do something lame like wear the throwback jersey with the current helmet which would look crappy, i.e. why Tampa Bay and New England don’t do that.

    Or they’d probably have it just be an “alt” not a 1960 throwback, and it’d be Kelly green but with midnight green trim and still “go” with the current helmet.

    I took up the Boston Shamrocks challenge from the Wire Service photos yesterday & put it up on my blog-o-colorizing:

    link

    You…you *approve* of the atrocity manifesting in Tallahassee?

    I…I don’t know what to think anymore…this cannot stand.

    Good day sir, I cannot possibly continue perusing this site.

Comments are closed.