Sunday Morning Uni Watch

By Phil Hecken

OK, week six is in the books in the NCAA season, and while there were a boatload of surprises and upsets on the gridiron this week, including both the loss and pinktober costume sported by the Ducks on Thursday, the uni world saw a few surprises yesterday.

Here, then, is my SMUW correspondent, Terry Duroncelet, Jr., to bring you all that happened in the college football world this week.

TJ? Take away our…

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Sunday Morning Uni Watch
By Terry Duroncelet

Oregon. Alabama. Oklahoma. Texas A&M. Long ago, the four schools ruled the college football landscape. Then everything changed when the underdogs attacked. Unbelievable sixth week of the 2014 season, which saw a lot of big-time teams fall, as well as the usual toting of alternate uniforms and the like. And for at least two teams, Pinktober (a.k.a. The Pinkening) is underway in full-fashion.

From Thursday:

• Houston wore flag decals on their helmets.

• Er, uh… okay, I guess this is a better effort than last year.

From Friday:

Louisville wore the black helmets from week 1 against Syracuse.

• BYU wore mono-blue with helmets that had blue-chrome decals and facemasks. As you can see, Utah State went with navy/grey/navy, resulting in a color-vs.color game.

• Fresno State wore their “Night in Navy” uniforms.

From Saturday:

• Maryland wore hand-painted helmets. Also, ESPN used the ‘M’ logo for Miami (OH) for Maryland. Whoops.

• Texas A&M wore “Iced Out” uniforms. Also, Michael Cossey sends this in: “Texas A&M DE Qualen Cunningham was ejected from the TAMU/MIssissippi State game for helmet-to-helmet contact. Cunningham wears #9. However, officials TWICE said that #8 was ejected. That’s because Cunningham’s skin tight jersey was shoved up to make the 9 on his back look like an 8.”

• MTSU wore blue/chrome helmets. By that, I don’t mean it was a chrome, shiny blue, I mean it was a blue-chrome/chrome-chrome hybrid of some sort.

• Tennessee did a successful checkerboard-out.

• Army wore black helmets with a camo stripe, black pants, and camouflage jerseys.

• Northwestern LB Joseph Jones (#42) has an upside-down ‘U’ as an ‘N’ (compare to the two N’s on [I believe] Joe Cannon’s jersey). So, let me get this straight: a player for NU made an ‘N’ out of a ‘U’. Sounds pretty straightforward to me. Credit to Andrew Moeschberger for sending that pic in.

• No pictures I can find, but Bobby Pinkham writes: “In Notre Dame’s thriller against Stanford, Irish holder Hunter Smith was having trouble handling the ball on placekicks in the rain with his bare hands, botching two snaps on field goal attempts. In the 4th quarter, he switched to gloves and the kick was good from 45, earning him the nickname Hunter “Two Gloves” Smith from NBC announcer Dan Hicks. ND won by 3, so it turns out that little equipment shift was the difference (not really, but I like to think so).”

• Miami wore green/orange/green against Georgia Tech, which I was a huge fan of. Meanwhile, Georgia Tech wore all-white, including the revival of the white honeycomb helmets.

• Colorado State wore orange uniforms against Tulsa.

• New Mexico State went with pink jerseys for the second consecutive year.

• So last week, Georgia switched their captain C’s from white-to-black. Yesterday, they switched back to white.

• Kansas wore all-white against West Virginia.

• A player for Nebraska took some damage to his decal against Michigan State.

• Not a game shot, but Kentucky wore mono-BFBS with chrome helmets against South Carolina.

• Rutgers decided to coordinate with Kentucky, as the Ebony Knights wore pretty much the same thing against Michigan. As you can see, they no longer have “F.A.M.I.L.Y” on the back of the jerseys, die to the NCAA’s new rules regarding slogans in place of player names. Just as well, since the ‘Y’ was always without a period at the end.

That about does it for this week. Tune in next week as the top 25 tries to rebuild after a flurry of upsets. See you then.

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Thanks, TJ. Catch ya next Sunday.

Catherine Ryan’s 5 & 1

Every Sunday, Catherine will give us the rundown of her best five and one worst uniform matchups from the College Football games played this week. Since it’s practically impossible to watch every game, you guys can help by sending your thoughts on “good” and “bad” matchups (and hopefully with photos from that game) by e-mailing her at UW5and1@gmail.com.

OK, here’s Catherine with this week’s 5 & 1.

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5. Navy vs. Air Force: I like to give the service academies some love when I can and I thought this match-up was great. Navy went with their more traditional look and the contrast between the teams made this a really enjoyable match-up.

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4. Purdue vs. Illinois: I received a few tips about this match-up as a lot of you were feeling Illinois in the all-orange. I thought Purdue looked sharp and their simple look, paired with the more drastic Illinois look, made the overall match-up great.

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3. Baylor vs. Texas: I surprised myself when I realized I liked these Baylor uniforms. Maybe it was the sunlight, but the embellishments were barely noticeable and the uniforms looked great on TV…and Texas always looks great.

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* Note: The following game was nominated/submitted by longtime reader (and frequent 5 and 1 tipster) Joe Ringham! Take it away, Joe! *

2. North Dakota State vs Western Illinois: “I have to enter the game I was at today into consideration. Loved the Bison going with the yellow/white/green against my Fighting Leathernecks in purple/purple/white, even though I was hoping they’d go mono purple like they always did at home when I went to school there. And. to top it off, I nearly saw an upset of the three-time defending FCS champs (NDSU won 17-10, after trailing 10-3 after 3)”

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1. LSU vs. Auburn: This was a week where I felt the #1 game was an easy decision. Let me know if you disagree!

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+1 Ball State vs. Army: Remember when I mentioned giving love to service academies? Consider this the exception.

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Thanks, Catherine! OK readers, how’d she do?

EPL Tracker

Each Saturday or Sunday, Alex Gerwitz will be tracking the kit combinations (shirt/shorts/socks) of the teams in the English Premier League from the previous weekend and the current weekend.

Here is the EPL tracker for Weeks 6 & 7 (click to enlarge):

U.W.F.F.L. News

Premier League Games
By Rob Holecko

Hello again everybody, we are back for our first Sunday of matches in the UWFFL as the Premier League kicks off its’ season with a full slate of action. The defending champion Minnesota Mustangs open on the road against the San Diego Storm, and owner “The Jeff” Provo has them wearing a special commemorative gold jersey to celebrate the championship. No telling yet whether it will be a regularly worn uni, or if this is just a one-shot deal. (I’m guessing that that may be determined in part by how well this jersey fares today.)

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Minnesota

San Diego

 

pollcode.com free polls

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Last year there were only two teams in Canada, so Montreal and Vancouver played in the inaugural Maple Leaf Bowl. This year there are ten teams north of the border, so now we have the Maple Leaf Cup. Our first games in that “competition within a competition” will be played this weekend, including this feature matchup between the Winnipeg Winterhawks and the Hamilton Dynasty.

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Winnipeg

Hamilton

 

pollcode.com free polls

Head on over to uwfantasyfootballleague.com to vote on the rest of today’s games, good luck to all the teams and we’ll see you next weekend!

Too Good…

for the Ticker

Got a great anecdote from Jimmy Corcoran (who you may recall, is the son of “King” Corcoran of the Philadelphia Bell):

I saw the Bell uniforms today and was really impressed, if any of those jerseys went into production I would buy my fathers version. I think the King would have loved Curtis Peddle’s because he put “The King” on the back. I liked H.H.H because it looks like the uniform I remember as a kid, Gene and Jeff also did a great job with their Bell uniform concepts, great job guys!

I thought I would share a Kings story with you that is jersey related in the King’s crazy world. This photo (see below, and click to enlarge) is from my private collection, it was never published but NFL Films used it once, It perfectly illustrates the story I am telling you. In 1974 after the Chicago Fire game my father was soaking in the bathtub with black hair dye in his hair, my mother was sitting on the bathroom sink and like he always did the King went over every offensive play with her.

He said he was really sore and the Chicago Fire really hit him hard, my mother said “you weren’t dropping back far enough, your steps looked choppy” he gave her a dirty look and said OK Coach Waller!

He then changed the subject and asked how he looked in his uniform? You have to understand, there was a big mirror in the Bell locker room and The King would stand in front of it for 20 minutes fixing his socks and wristbands, I was 10 years old and even my opinion was important, he would look over and say “Jimbo, how is the King looking? Now in 1974 they did not have tapered jerseys, the Bell wore sand knit and the jersey had the basic box cut. My father lifted weights and thought a tight jersey would show off his V spread.

My mother asked him what size jersey he wore? and he said a medium, why? she said he needed a bigger jersey because he had his handle bars hanging over his football pants. She said if you go to an XL you won’t see the fat hanging over.

The King flipped out and said, I’m built, you don’t know what your talking about! he then got out of the tub and took the hair dryer that was on the bathroom sink and smashed it into the long mirror that was behind the bathroom door, glass flew everywhere, he kept screaming “No one calls the King fat!”. He went out to get a burger and chocolate shake and was fine when he got back. When the maids came in to clean up the glass they asked what happened, the King was drinking a yoohoo and reading about himself in the paper and said the kids were playing around and broke the mirror. I wanted to tell her the truth, that he broke the mirror because my mother said he looked fat in his Philadelphia Bell jersey. If you look at this picture I enclosed I think you will see what my mother was talking about.

Great job! Gene, Jeff, Curtis and H. H. H.

Jimmy Corcoran

Awesome, Jimmy — thanks so much for sharing!

OK, now onto the ticker…

Uni Watch News Ticker:

Baseball News: Some of you may remember the 1995 World Series (Cleveland vs. Atlanta) — I remember at the time, many were calling it the most “politically incorrect World Series ever” (see, this ‘skins stuff didn’t just start two years ago). Anyway, Douglas Ford found this 1970(!) Fleer baseball card on e-Bay (full listing here). Says Douglas, “Double your racist logo pleasure.” … Great find by Josh Claywell, who sends in this pretty egregious screw-up by the photo editor(s) of WaPo. Seems they used a photo from 2012 to discuss the Nationals 3-2 loss to the Giants on Friday. “OOPS”. … Seems like some of the Nationals were confused as to which bill color to wear on their caps (h/t Cork Gaines).

NFL News: Pinktober really angers Terence Kearns, who writes, “So, the NFL, and MLB I’m sure, charge extra for pink things and then just probably donate that $ as to make sure they don’t lose any margin instead of, ya know, actual donate out of pocket?! Sickening.” … Here’s a couple observations from Jon Solomonson: “I noticed an ad came up on the Uni Watch home page for Oriental Trading. I see they have NFL napkins. All helmets facing left (which seemed odd to me) — all but the Steelers.” Also from Jon, Mixed (old and new) Jags logos in this party pack! … Several people noticed that the NFL now bans Beats headphones from being shown on camera. “Under terms of its agreement with the league, the NFL confirmed, Bose received a broad set of rights that entitle it to prevent players (or coaches) from wearing any other manufacturer’s headphones during televised interviews.” (thanks to Mike Styczen). Also submitting (different article) was Brinke, and another take from Tony DiRubbo. … Leo Strawn, Jr. writes, “I wonder in the case, ‘What would Paul do?’ October is not only Breast Cancer Awareness month, it’s also Domestic Violence Awareness month, and at least one person thinks the NFL should be more purple (the color for Domestic Violence Awareness, among other awareness issues), rather than pink this month.” He adds, “I can’t say that’s a bad idea, really, given all of the off-field issues and maybe with some forethought the awareness could even be raised to include all victims, including men who have been abused by spouses also, focusing on all of the problem, not just the parts that have given the NFL a black eye thus far this season.”

College & High School Football News: Self-described UW enthusiast Matthew Lohr did some detective work about a questionable famous helmet up for sale (Chris Davis Auburn Helmet from the infamous last second touchdown return against Alabama in last year’s Iron Bowl). He writes, “Th(is ESPN) article talks about the helmet Chris Davis wore last year… (T)he first thing I noticed was the BCS sticker affixed to the back of the helmet. In the pictures posted and as a known uni-watcher, it is well known that these stickers would only be applied during the bowl game and an NCAA logo sticker was in its place during the actual game. This is understandable because football helmets are repainted and reused. This is where the questions begin… 1. Do college athletes always wear the exact same helmet every game? 2.The videos showing ND helmet repainting make it look as though it’s just groups of helmets getting painted at once, how are you to guarantee that it was the exact same helmet? 3. How can you authenticate it if repurposed for another game? 4. Does the value change if it was repurposed for another game, even a BCS bowl game? A game jersey normally can’t be repurposed with rips, tear and patches. It’s not in it’s original form. So many questions to consider. Your thoughts?” … Holy crap — aside from the sheer awfulness of these uniforms from this past Friday — Fargo Shanley High School (ND) wearing white/red, submitter Nick Bowar notes the tight jersey cut. “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that much exposed shoulder pad before.” … Here’s a cool interactive map of who roots for which college football team (thanks, Paul). Check out the article from the NY Times for the fun. … Northwestern played a teaser for new uniform to be worn in the Nebraska game (thanks to Mark Graban).

NBA News: This article from SB Nation for the Nets shows more teasers of the uniform (alternate) the Nets will be wearing this year. Yesterday we saw the leak from E-bay that shows the Nets new alternate shorts ”” which matches up with the uniform Paul showed us back in January of this year. As someone who grew up watching the ABA Nets play in the Nassau Mausoleum, and seeing the red, white and blue version, I’m still torn on whether I like this alt or not. Always loved the design, but not sure it works in black and white.

Hockey News: We don’t cover a lot of college hockey unis on here (and for my money, many of those are better than the NHLs), so here is a look at the Providence College new mens ice hockey uniforms that were unveiled yesterday (thanks to Erik Sundermann). … And if you like stripes, holy shit, check out this pinstriped sweater and socks, on the CR RoughRiders of the USHL (big thanks to Al Gruwell for that!). … John Cristiano writes, “I am an Off-Ice Official for the Plymouth Whalers, who play in the Ontario Hockey League. As the Whalers were playing the London Knights this evening, we noticed that the Knights had twin brothers playing with full name on back executed with their first names about half the size of their last names. Because the brothers names are Kevin and Kelly, the Knights couldn’t simply use a first initial.”

Soccer News: Coachie Ballgames, aka Aram Guyan, has written a “well-reasoned, acerbic, 1,000-word review of the new Major League Soccer Logo”. He’s urging all UWers to give it a read. Help a fellow Uni Watcher out, won’t ya? The review examines the design itself as well as how it compares to other league emblems.

And that’s going to do it for this fine Sunday. Everyone enjoy the pro games today, and whatever else may be on your uni watching radar. Thanks to TJ, Catherine, Alex, Rob, Jimmy, and all you fine readers. You guys have a great day and I’ll catch you next Saturday.

Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken

Peace.

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“(T)he Beats’ statement exudes corporate douchebagginess itself and makes me end up hating everyone: ‘Over the last few years athletes have written Beats into their DNA as part of the pre-game ritual.’ Give me a fucking break.”

–“This Guy”