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Uni Watch

Holy Throwbacks!

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For all photos, click to enlarge

Nice uniforms, right? They’re throwbacks, and they’re being worn by two Syracuse-area parochial school teams — Bishop Ludden (top) and Christian Brothers Academy, who’ll be facing off in their annual “Holy War” game on Jan. 18.

The interesting thing is that those designs weren’t originally worn by those schools. They were worn back in the 1960s by two now-defunct schools that played in Syracuse’s Parochial League (which is also defunct): St. Patrick’s and Sacred Heart. Here’s how the original uniforms looked back in the day:

Bishop Ludden and Christian Brothers decided to wear the defunct schools’ uniforms as a way of honoring Syracuse’s parochial school basketball heritage. They even got the old St. Patrick’s coach involved in the project. (The whole thing reminds me of that 2013 story about a Nashville school that wore the polka dot throwbacks originally worn by another area school decades earlier.)

As you can see, some small concessions to modernity were made. The throwback shorts aren’t very short, for example, and they’re not belted either. Still, they did a nice job. You can get a better feel for the uniforms in this fun little video report, which even shows one of the current players wearing an original (not throwback) pair of shorts that the old coach provided (if you can’t see the video embedded blow, click here):

Given that this is all taking place in Syracuse, you’d think they would’ve chosen a uniform manufacturer from the northeast. But according to this story, the unis were made by a Washington State operation called Intrepid Sportswear, which I’d never heard of before. Good for them for not plastering their logo all over the throwbacks. (Update: Turns out Intrepid Sportswear was once mentioned in the Ticker in 2012. They appear to be a very interesting company.)

Anyway: I like this idea of wearing throwbacks from schools that no longer exist. It’s a good way to get the community involved, because folks who attended the shuttered schools will likely be energized by the sight of the old uniforms.

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T-Shirt Club reminder: In case you missed it yesterday, the Uni Watch T-Shirt Club is now up and running. Full details here.

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Baseball News: The West Michigan Whitecaps are inviting fans to design the team’s jersey for Social Media Day (thanks, Phil). … 100th-anniversary logo for the Asheville Tourists (thanks, Phil). ”¦ Someone on Antiques Roadshow brought in a complete set of 1871 Boston Red Stockings baseball cards. “A pretty amazing collection to say the least,” says Craig Brown. ”¦ A six-year-old Blue Jays fan was inconsolable after the Jays traded her favorite player, Brett Lawrie, to the A’s. So the A’s basically bought her affections by sending her a bunch of free merch (thanks, Brinke). ”¦ Someone who created an “Oakland pride” brand is claiming that the A’s have ripped him off (from Mina Mikhael). ”¦ Check this out: a baseball cap that’s bulletproof. Might be good to protect pitchers from line-drive comebackers (thanks, Phil).

NFL News: In the latest commercial for Papa John’s “pizza,” Peyton Manning’s wearing an authentic Broncos jersey but Joe Montana is wearing a generic red shirt with a white “16” instead of an authentic 49ers jersey. Seems odd to have that kind of mismatch in the same ad, no? (From Jeffrey Sak.) ”¦ Tim Donovan was watching a bunch of 1996 NFL footage and spotted several uni-notable items: (1) Bears defensive lineman John Thierry wore multi-colored face paint. (2) During a 49ers/Panthers game, Niners OL Steve Wallace’s ProCap attachement (aka the “Gazoo” shell) came loose, so QB Steve Young picked it up off the field. (3) Tim spotted six different makers’ marks on NFL unis from that season. Clockwise from top left, that’s Nike, Starter, Champion, Russell, Reebok, and Wilson. ”¦ This isn’t exactly a surprise, but the Panthers will wear white over white this Saturday. ”¦ Banners shaped like Broncos jerseys are now hanging in downtown Denver (from Stephen Scheffel).

College Football News: Some students at Michigan have created a line of Jim Harbaugh-inspired apparel (from Tommy Turner). ”¦ Here’s an early look at the field being prepared for the championship game.

Hockey News: Former Swiss league goalie Marco Streit had a truly bizarre mask. When I posted that photo to Twitter two nights ago, several people said that’s actually a mask for ringette, a sport I hadn’t heard of before. Looks like they often wear Cooperalls (thanks to Marc Hammill for the mask photo). ”¦ Love this: a Cooperalls ad from 1981. Look at this bit at the end: “Cooper also offers the Coupé, a short version of Cooperall which retains the conventional appearance of hockey pants.” That’s new to me — anyone know more? (Thanks, Phil.) ”¦ G.I. Joe jerseys for the College of Charleston. ”¦ Looks like the Ducks’ number-retirement patch for Teemu Salanne won’t be the same as the team’s “FOR8VER” logo that was used last month (from Charles Eldridge). ”¦ The NHL plans to place player-tracking chips in the jerseys for the All-Star Game (thanks, Phil). ”¦ Hmmm, does this jersey look familiar? That’s a player from the 1930s Toronto Maple Leafs lacrosse team, who obviously borrowed their jersey design from their NHL namesakes (from Will Scheibler). ”¦ Tomas Hertl of the Sharks took a puck in the face while sitting on the bench on Monday, so last night he played with a facemask (from Jared Buccola). ”¦ The Stockton Thunder recently let local kids paint whatever they wanted on the ice (from Geoff Poole).

Basketball News: Kevin Durant of the Thunder saluted Stuart Scott on his sneakers two nights ago. … Color-vs.-color game last night in Minnesota, as the Gophers unveiled a new set of BFBS unis while hosting Ohio State.

Grab Bag: Putting the “pro” in prophylactic: vintage condoms with Ted Williams and Jack Dempsey on the package design (from Jason Fetty). ”¦ Wearing a jersey while traveling is a great way to start conversations. ”¦ American skiers competing at the World Cup slalom race in Croatia are adding memorials for the two skiers who died in that avalanche the other day. Key passage: “The seven starters for the United States, including Olympic giant slalom champion Ted Ligety, will wear black armbands during the race. AJ Ginnis, who grew up skiing with the pair, has duct tape on his helmet as a tribute.” ”¦ New logo for the National Credit Union Foundation. ”¦ Netflix is putting its logos on certain TVs. ”¦ Airline flight attendants’ uniforms are getting blander (from Tommy Turner). ”¦ An old-school duckpin bowling alley — with manual pinsetters! — has opened in Pawtucket, Rhode Island (big thanks to Matt Bessette). … Great story about an ultimate Frisbee team that wears tights (big thanks to Didi Kalmanofsky).

 
  
 
Comments (66)

    “[T]his fun little video report” has no link, and the “Sharkes” seem to have eaten an E.

    In the non-errata department, I like the one player in the original Sacred Heart photo wearing the mismatched shirt.

    I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many pairs of eyeglasses in team photos as in the ones in the lede.

    “It’s not actually water-proof” he said. “More like water-resistant. There is a difference, you know.”

    “Yes, I know” I said. “But I think I’ll buy the submarine somewhere else”

    (copyright Charlemagne, 807AD)

    Why is it not “Ultimate Disc”?

    I believe the Frisbee (circle R) Golf leagues are all referred to as “Disc Golf” leagues.

    Wondering the same thing. Shoulda been in the Grab Bag section, no?

    Loved the striped shirts they wore.

    Cooperalls came in two flavours, the long pant, and the short coupe. Basically, you’d wear a protective ‘girdle’ that covered the hips, thighs, kidneys and butt. Next, you’d put on either the pant or the shorts.

    When I played, I started off with the pants (for some reason a number of my teammates and I thought this looked really cool). But after a season or two I switched to the shorts.

    Correct. The Cooperall system was also about the new type of girdle that came along with both the short and long coverall; the advantages (and awareness) of the new girdle were overwhelmed by the reaction to the long pants.

    My iPhone browser is still getting hijacked by that annoying popup ad that takes me to the App Store. Does the site need the advertising revenue such that it endures partnering with such an annoying advertiser?

    Yup, I had the same thing. I started off with the long shell and wore that for a season. After that I went to the short shell. Once I hit high school it was great as I had 2 shells, one in black for my club team and one in blue for high school. I even upgraded my girdle to the mesh version which allowed for better ventilation and movement.

    Had a pair of Cooperalls with the short pant shell that I wore as a goalie when I started playing in goal in my 20s.

    Not sure of the model# but the padding seemed a bit thicker than the typical Cooperall pant – got it at a used sporting goods store (pants and store are long gone); I added some foam padding along the inner thigh of both legs and made do with them for several years until I got an actual pair of goalie pants.

    I’m the goalie wearing the San Jose Sharks patterned jersey:

    link

    Nice shout out to my school (the school that wore the polkadot throwbacks). That throwback tournament was held again this year. I couldn’t find a page or website with accounts, but if you do a photo search of “fans retro classic” on Twitter, you can see some photos from the games.

    Apparently my tweet in reply to you posting that picture went unnoticed.

    That is not a ringette mask by any measure. Ringette masks have had to have the link for some time now for safety reasons (square pegs don’t fit triangular holes) – at least they do in Canada and the US. Because ringette sticks don’t have blades, allowing masks that have holes larger than the sticks would be like playing Russian roulette. Most, if not all, ringette leagues have made the triangle cages mandatory for a long time.

    Secondly, they don’t wear Cooperalls per se, but they do wear “ringette pants”. The pants are designed to allow movement while covering the pads. They are a requirement by most ringette leagues as part of the standard uniform based on traditional ringette standards.

    If you want to know more about the Streit mask (it’s name), link.

    Sometimes I do, but I’m very inconsistent about it.

    It’s not a “I refuse to do this” thing; it’s an “I already get way too much email and often feel overwhelmed by all the communications coming at me from all directions” thing.

    Right – not an attack on Paul. Just a comment that it went unnoticed.

    I’m ok with that. I know Paul is diligent at responding to as much as he can. :o)

    I wish someone had told 8 year old me not to pin my Wayne Gretzky rookie card to the wall.

    I turned on a Gophers game last night and thought I was watching Iowa. Great idea to match the colors of one of your close rivals. EYEROLL

    Our local sports station was making fun of that too. they said we look like Iowa and the host wondered if Iowa would ever have a Maroon out?!

    I flipped right by the game and tuned in to one where I could more easily tell the two teams apart. Color on color is brutal.

    I just have to say I am amazed to see my High School featured on Uni Watch. I graduated from Ludden in ’98 and as soon as I saw those bleachers in the top photo I had a feeling I was looking at my old gym. Thanks for bringing some old memories back Paul.

    When I saw that Papa John’s commercial, I considered Montana’s generic red jersey as a nod to both San Fran and KC, instead of choosing one team over the other.

    I figured it’s just because he’s not an active player, kinda like Brett Favre wearing a number 4 t-shirt instead of a jersey in a Wrangler commercial: link

    I considered Montana’s generic red jersey as a nod to both San Fran and KC, instead of choosing one team over the other.

    No way. He’s wearing No. 16, which he only wore in SF. He wore No. 19 with the Chiefs.

    Either, or. He’s still eating shit pizza. Something a man whose name ends in a vowel has no business doing.

    Oops… Forgot…

    Then I wonder if it is a NFLPA thing. It has to be something to do with licensing.

    Today’s lede plucked the old memory chords. I was a tall doofus for St Augustine’s 7th-8th grade basketball team, and the mind’s eye clearly sees our unis and those of Blessed Sacrament, Holy Name, St Raymond’s, Resurrection… et alia. Even more interesting, maybe, was the Parish League, in which basketball teams representing churches and synagogues competed. Our boys and the lads from the Temple were allays battling for the top stop. Protestants were few and undistinguished.

    The workers at At&T Stadium really lucked out the Cowboys didn’t have a home game this weekend. I have been on a tour of the stadium and the turf is seperated into 5 yard strips that cover the width of the field. It would have been a long Sunday night to convert the field from the Cowboys and NFL configuration into the NCAA style. Because of difference in hashmark placement they would have to redo the entire field and not just the Logos and endzones.

    They’d have to paint on another set of hashmarks, but I think they could leave the NFL marks there and it wouldn’t really be a problem. The NFL plays the Hall of Fame Game (aka the first pre-season game) with High School, College and NFL hashmarks on the field, and it’s fine. It might look a little odd, but it wouldn’t hurt the game.

    Why does the NCAA still use a different set of hashmarks than the NFL anyway? What exactly does that accomplish in terms of gameplay, besides making short field goals more difficult due to the wider angle?

    It also affects quarterback play. When the ball is spotted on wider hashmarks, it makes sideline throws noticeably longer or shorter (depending on which side of the field you’re throwing on, obviously). Usually only gets brought up when talking about QBs translating to the NFL.

    Form my understanding is that they don’t pait the hashmarks on. They have seperate rolls of turf for college configurations they store inside the stadium. They were actually in the middle of prepping the field for the UCLA-Texas game this year when I went on my tour so as we were walking around the tunnels people were zooming around on fork lifts with rolls of turf.

    Intrepid Sportwear was mentioned at UniWatch once before, in May 2012. I also live in Seattle, so I contacted them about making softball jerseys for my rec league team.

    link

    Here’s a weird NFL uniform trend. Last year 12 teams designated white as their official shoe color. Of those 12, 8 used navy blue as a primary color (Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Tennessee, New England, San Diego, Denver, St. Louis).

    This past year 9 NFL used navy blue as a primary color and of those nine only Seattle designated black shoes.

    It seems as though the whole league has gone to wearing black cleats, except for those wearing navy blue.

    With the NFL allowing team colored shoes now, the white or black designation is somewhat meaningless. The Seahawks may list black as their official shoe color, but a large number of players are wearing neon green.

    Yes and no. The official shoe color matters for the color of spats since no one has yet come out with team colored tape. Moreover only two teams have switched their designation since team color cleats became allowed. The Bears switched to white from black in 2013 and Oakland went to black in 2012 and then back to white in 2014.

    I recall watching that 1996 game where Steve Young picked up the “Gazoo” helmet cap. As I remember, he put it back on the O-linemans helmet backwards adding to the awkward look of that setup. If the guy who was watching that old footage recalls that please confirm. So glad I have found this site. -D

    I spent a lot of time around west Ontario and Michigan rinks in my youth and I haven’t even heard the word “ringette” before. I was curious about it having any presence in Michigan. Google surprised me by showing me that the supposed only club in the US plays less than a mile away from me at a small park rink. link
    However the website hasn’t been updated in a year. I’m really curious to watch.

    As much as it resembles hockey, there are specific rules that must be followed, Eric. I can do an overview if you want more info. Some of the rules prevent teams from running up the score while others seem a little archaic.

    By west Ontario do you mean Southwestern Ontario or Northwestern Ontario?

    By best friend in junior high/early high school (1980s) had parents who were very involved in local (Thunder Bay in Northwestern Ontario) ringette; one was the president of the league at that time.

    When I was younger I don’t think there were any girls playing hockey in any of the local hockey leagues that I was aware of. Assume some girls with and interest in a hockey like winter sport signed up for ringette.

    Ringette Canada has this youtube video. Around 4 minutes in it goes over some of the rules.

    link

    If anyone is interested in the stOAKed TM issue, I looked it up. The guy (Ryan Frigo) making the shirts that he claims the MLB is infringing upon was denied a trademark registration in April of this year due to a registration for STOKED. Under US trademark law phonetics are equivalent, even if the spelling is different. Additionally, Mr. Frigo failed on a bunch of procedural issues (which probably could have been overcome if he was interested).

    Interestingly, the STOKED trademark was abandoned in October, however a quick search reveals a lot of of STOKED formative marks, including 7 in apparel alone.

    I imagine the A’s took a look at the register, saw that it was generally crowded and a weak mark, and went for it. Additionally, I doubt Mr. Frigo has wide spread sales, and he only uses the mark a few times (although his use IS very consistent, which helps his argument).

    At best he gets a hold of the A’s (or MLB, depending on the licensing), they stall for two weeks, say they didn’t know about his small use, and sell through their inventory. At worst, they dig in and attempt to register over him and he gets chased off.

    They probably sent them all to the Brett Lawrie fan.

    But seriously, I had a feeling he didn’t have a trademark or follow process as that’s how these stories seem to go. Glad someone researched it.

    In response to the frequent sewage backups at the Oakland Coliseum (I still call it that) I’m trademarking “SOAKED.”

    The Blue Jays should follow the A’s lead and send this fan all of their excess Brett Lawrie merch.

    The Bishop Ludden throwbacks brought back images of Notre Dame in the John Shumate, Adrian Dantley era!

    Been a frequent visitor to this site for about a decade at this point. Never would I had believed that my alma mater, Bishop Ludden, would be mentioned here at all, let alone as the lead story! What’s funny is that both Sacred Heart and St Pat’s were both West side schools, like Ludden. It’s odd that CBA, hailing from the East side, didn’t choose to wear the uniforms of a former eastern area team.

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