Sunday Morning Uni Watch

By Phil Hecken

OK, Nike. You can just stop now.

Last evening, against the Washington Huskies, the Oregon Ducks wore the greatest throwbacks in the history of ever. No, seriously — these unis were damn near perfect.

The Ducks were actually throwing back to 1994 (they would go to the Rose Bowl that season), and more specifically, to the uniforms they wore when “The Pick” by Kenny Wheaton occurred against last night’s rival, Washington. The Ducks would go on to lose the Rose Bowl to Penn State, but that season (and that play) are often pointed to as what turned Oregon from perennial has-been into the powerhouse they have become (and not just in the uniform department).

The Ducks really nailed these throwbacks (and even wore black cleats). Yup — these uniforms were just divine. Right down to the sleeve patch. Even Mark Helfrich’s throwback shirt was grand.

OK Nike. You’ve finally achieved perfection for the Ducks. You can stop making new unis for them now.

Oh, yeah. I almost forgot — there was more than just Quack yesterday.

Here’s my able assistant Terry Duroncelet, Jr. with the rest of your …

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Sunday Morning Uni Watch
By Terry Duroncelet

Hope you are all having a fantastic autumn, because the weather in my area DOESN’T WANT TO COOL DOWN THE WAY IT’S SUPPOSED TO AND IT’S INFURIATING.

From Friday:

• Can someone tell me why Boise State still has the old file-tab orange uniforms from like, 4 or 5 years ago? They don’t use it for their blue or white tops anymore.

From Saturday:

• Before we get into yesterday’s games, take a look at the drum kit that TBDBITL formed. The whole show was awesome, but I can’t figure why people keep “drawing” drum kits like that. The snare drum is all the way out to the figure’s left (our right), which seems uncomfortable unless that’s a side snare (the drum on the far-left), and then there’s what I’m assuming is the Ride cymbal on the figure’s right (our left). It looks too far out. The “drummer” can’t even hit the bell (that’s the bulbous part in the middle of the cymbal)! And then there’s the fact that the drummer themself is sitting directly in the middle behind the bass drum, which unless you have these pedals, is pretty much impossible. Just some things that I spotted that made me scratch my head. This isn’t the first oddball depiction of a kit, and it certainly won’t be the last. Funny how kits are almost always depicted in a fairly-uncomfortable configuration, but stirrups are almost always drawn to specs. Alright, enough drum talk, let’s get into Saturday’s games.

• During the Oklahoma/Kansas St. game, a referee had some logo creep on his belt buckle. Have we seen this from other refs yet?

• Remember those sweet throwbacks that Central Michigan wore last year? They made a return yesterday.

• Cincinnati wore mono-white with red helmets yesterday.

• Louisiana Tech has some NOB inconsistencies. Also note the S&S decals. Also-also, in the past, I’ve talked about how much I HATE the Athletic Block font, which I find to be the most generic, oddly-proportioned, off-putting block font in existence. I’ve also talked about how proud I was that Louisiana Tech got rid of that font and switched to real block numerals a couple of years ago. Turns out that they still have some old stock left (#27 and #44 have the old number font). That, or they enjoy making me fume.

• Okay, what the hell?! Did SMU and Louisiana Tech get together and coordinated jerseys or something?? These are what the numbers are supposed to look like, BTW.

• West Virginia backup QB Paul Millard wore a camo cap on the sideline, which was later corrected to a camo visor. Apparently, it was ineffective, because we could all see it, which wasn’t a good thing.

• Joe J. sends this in: “#43 Anthony Zappone with an upside down “wing” graphic on Saturday. Also in the shot, a halo starting to form on the player’s helmet in the top right.”

• From someone who didn’t leave a name: “Byu’s mitch Matthews is tall (6’6), and wears pants fit for a guy 5’6.”

• Speaking of camo, one of the only teams that should be allowed to wear camo in any athletic competition… wore camo in an athletic competition.

• I’m sure some of you know what a shiner is. Does it count as a shiner if it’s on a helmet that’s, well, a shiner?

• Bowling Green wore these helmets with the retro logo for their “Legacy Weekend” game.

• Air Force wore pink decals.

• Well, at least the Tar Heels lived up to their name. That was against Georgia Tech.

• We interrupt this program to bring you FCS news: Montana wore their usual helmet shells with pink decals and pink facemasks for BCA. They would win their game against UC Davis.

• Eastern Washington wore these togs over the weekend. Closer look. We now return you to our regularly-scheduled program. JK, FCS football is cool as well.

• Kentucky wore blue/grey/blue against white-clad LSU. Normally, this would be a horrible idea, but blue/grey/blue contrasts decently enough with gold/white/gold. Also, startin’ ’em young, huh?

• Mizzou has been wearing wither gold or grey tiger head decals on their helmets since their move to the SEC in 2012. But those have always been on a matte black shell. This is the first time that I’ve seen a glossy helmet used.

• USC seems to me to be about the glitz and glamour. So why not wear helmets for the occasion? These actually didn’t look too bad! Slightly closer look. In that same game, Colorado wore new helmets with an enlarged logo.

• Northwestern wore their Gothic uniforms against Nebraska (who wore the seldom-seen all-white look in that same game). Looks just like your normal Washington affair: all-black, purple numbers with gold trim. The difference is that I love Northwestern’s uniforms. Why? Here’s the thing: it’s October, the spooptacular month of skeletons, the skeleton war, overdosing on candy without an ounce of shame, and did I mention the skeleton war? So to me, it makes sense for NU to wear this now. There are a few things I could’ve done without, like the weird scribbly stuff on the back of the legs, and the arch on the back of the helmets seems like an afterthought to me. But overall, I love this uniform, and I’m pleased to announce that Halloween lands on a Saturday next year, so here’s hoping that these return for 2015.

That does it for this week. Next Saturday will be the last Pinktober October of 2014, so if you’ve made it this far, then I’m proud of ya, because nobody really likes taking Pepto Bismol, right? I know I don’t. See you all next week!

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Nice wrap, TJ. Thanks! OK, on to the rest of today’s SMUW…

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. Kansas State vs. Oklahoma: On a weekend where a lot of teams tried something new, I can appreciate this classic match-up. K-State went with the silver/white/silver combo and got the upset over Oklahoma in their classic home unis.

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4. Oklahoma State vs. TCU: I loved TCU’s white helmets this week. I was also surprised to notice how much purple I put on this countdown!

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3. Iowa vs. Maryland: I thought this was a great example of game that looks better as a whole than either uniform could look on their own. Maryland went with their red jersey/black pant combo which had a great contrast against Iowa’s road unis.

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2. Louisville vs. NC State: A few of you emailed me to tell me how much you loved the red and white contrast in this game. I had to agree!

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1. Washington vs. Oregon: Oregon’s fantastic throwbacks this week earned them the #1 spot on the countdown.

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+1 Montana’s Helmets (and Nick Montana): We have a dual Montana +1 this week. First of all, these helmets are absolutely hideous. Second of all, it took forever to find pictures of those helmets because this Montana was clogging up the search results.

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Thanks, Catherine! I never thought I’d live to see the day Oregon was the Number 1 GOOD in a 5 and 1 list. I can die now.

OK readers, how’d she do?

Duck Tracker

Each week, as we have done on Uni Watch for the past five seasons, we’ll be tracking the uniform combinations of the Oregon Ducks. Back for his third season is Tim E. O’Brien, who’ll show you what the Ducks wore in their last game, and add a few words of wisdom.

Here’s this weeks beautiful throwback look (and scroll down for last week’s stormtrooper all white costume (click to enlarge):

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Here’s Tim:

This is how the Ducks should look. What a great throwback: The green so Kelly, the yellow so canary. B-E-A-utiful. I love these colors. Give me these colors and white and you could make 12 spectacular uniform combos a year.

Again, you can follow the Duck Tracker the Duck Tracker and on twitter (@DuckTracker) and while I’ve been a bit slacking at my other two trackers, they should be up to date by next weekend.

Thanks gang.

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Thanks, Tim. And here’s last week’s all white outfit:

U.W.F.F.L. News

Premier League Games
By Andrew Seagraves

This week’s featured matchup of UWFFL Premier League teams has a pair of Western Division pods trying to position themselves atop of their ladder. The Anchorage Orcas (2-0) are swimming into Saltwater City to square off against the Vancouver Sea Wolves (2-0). Both of these squads have migrated from the minor leagues into the big league swimmingly with tough wins over top tiered opponents. The Pod from the City of Flowers and Lights will go with their 2014 adjusted White over Black combo while the Pack from Terminal City will go with their Dense Fog over Parchment pairing. Warning for all heading to Vancouver this weekend: Rough Seas Ahead!

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Anchorage

Vancouver

 

pollcode.com free polls

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Other key matchups from across the Premier: The Golden Ponies from Minnesota gallop on into South Beach to take on the Miami Cougars. The Cobb County Corsairs and the Heartland Buccaneers will face off in St. Louis as Atlanta and the Slaughter will both try and get off the snide. In La Lega we’ll see Mexico City and Los Angeles face off against each other, the New York Sharks will try and take a bite out of the Barca Dragons, and the Sydney Spiders will try to spill Crown Royal Black in Manitoba this weekend.

Head on over to www.uwfantasyfootballleague.com to vote on which squads you think should bring home the bacon during Week Five of the UWFFL Season. If you’d like to try your hand at designing a team to compete in the UWFFL, head on over to our Google+ page for prospective teams and submit a concept today. Thanks for voting and we’ll see you next week.

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 8 – Part 1 (click to enlarge):

Uni Watch News Ticker:

Baseball News: Here’s a slideshow on the evolution of Jayson Werth’s beard (from Andrew Hoenig), who adds, “Odd to see him now not only beardless, but in Orioles and Blue Jays unis.” … Oooohhh, check out Babe Ruth at bat “For Children Of Disabled War Veterans – October 18, 1931 Wrigley Field, Los Angeles,” (pic, of course, from Bruce Menard). … Nice find from @uniformcritic who has found evidence that the Angels wore logoed stirrups in 1990.

NFL News: Back in 1969 NFL referee Art Holst released a spoken word LP called “The Challenge of A Pro.” The front cover showed Art wearing his NFL referees uniform (from Graham Clayton). … Last night, a statue of Broncos owner Pat Bowlen was unveiled at Ring of Fame Plaza on the south side of the stadium. Here’s another look.

College/High School Football News: “High school football in Arizona is interesting,” writes Raymie Humbert. “Quarterback Dalton Sneed (UNLV commit) of Horizon High School had “#12” spelled out with award decals on his helmet (Friday) night against Boulder Creek. Not shown in that photo: he had to change his jersey number to 84 after the #12 jersey ripped in a sack.” … The Utah Utes will be wearing a black helmet next weekend (supposed to be a blackout game). Here’s another look. … “The HS I attend played our rival, Herriman HS,” says Justin McKenzie. “I noticed that number 0 had a different font and jersey than the rest of the team. Also, I saw some awesome stirrups at the pep rally.”

Basketball News: “With all the excitement surrounding the Bobcats’ name change to the Hornets, something that has received little attention is the fact that Bismack Biyombo has changed his number from 0 with the Bobcats to 8 with the Hornets,” notes Geoffrey Thomas. “I personally find the 8 in the Hornets’ new font to be highly distracting.” … BYU will be sporting new uniforms for the 2014-15 season.

Hockey News: Reader Mark Richter came across a couple of interesting uni-related videos from the St. Louis Blues. One about the logistics of getting the team’s equipment from one city to another, and the other is just raw video of a jersey being stitched up. … Why are these guys holding up sweaters that say “2016”? Because the Nashville Predators are hosting the 2016 All Star Game, that’s why. … Merrimack College’s hockey unis feature a lot of stripes and each player’s native flag above their name (nice spots by Trés Lawless).

Soccer News: “Just when I was pleased that we were more dignified with poppies,” writes George Chilvers, Millwall will wear an army strip on Remembrance weekend in aid of injured soldiers.

Grab Bag: “I was at the Maryland women’s volleyball match tonight and thought it was a bit cool that the knee pads are based on the Maryland frame,” says David Raglin. “However, I really missed seeing the Under Armor logo on them” (followed by a smiley-face).

And that’s going to do it for this fine Sunday. As a reminder to all, Paul’s on vacation this week, but we’ll have all new content (and I’ll be handling the Monday Morning Uni Watch duties tomorrow — so be sure to send in any quirks, rips, tears, unusual stuff, etc., that happens in the NFL today). OK? OK.

Thanks to TJ, Catherine, Tim, Andrew, Alex and all who read and send in ticker items — you’re all aces. Catch everyone tomorrow, when we review the league where they play…for pay.

Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken.

Peace.

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“Here’s my rule of thumb: if you can take it off before showering, it’s an accessory.”

— Mike Engle