By Phil Hecken
Follow @PhilHecken
To the surprise of absolutely no one many, the Oregon Ducks introduced a (beautiful) brand new uniform yesterday — (technically three of them) — which they’ll be wearing today(!) when they play their annual Spring Game. The uniforms (which you can see below in great detail) will be fauxbacks, celebrating the 100th Anniversary of their 1916 (technically, January 1, 1917) Rose Bowl victory over Penn. Yes, the team is breaking out absolutely beautiful new uniforms for a spring game. It’s good to be a Duck.
Lets get straight to the uniforms, shall we? There will be two full sets, one with blue jerseys (with gold numbers) one with white jerseys (with navy blue numbers), plus a yellow jersey (which is for the quarterbacks and ‘protected’ players). Both sets will be paired with gold helmets and tan pants (click any image to enlarge).
Blue Uniforms
White Uniforms
Pants
Helmet
Beautiful, right?
OK — they’re not quite (even with modern technology taken into account) what the team wore back in 1916-17. They’ve taken a few liberties, of course. In fact — according to this sketch, this is what the team wore back then:
I couldn’t find any documentation, but I’m thinking they probably didn’t have a white “road” uniform back then either. Still, it is a pretty cool homage to the Rose Bowl winning squad.
The two teams will be designated the “Webfoots” (the actual team nickname in 1916-17 — and will be the blue jersey wearing team) and “Mighty Oregon” (derived from the school fight song — wearing the white jeseys) — although both the blue and white squads will have “WEBFOOTS” across the front of the jersey, with “MIGHTY OREGON” serving as NOB. The team wore blue and gold (yellow) until 1925, when they adopted the more familiar colors of green and yellow. The blue and gold/yellow reflect the colors of the Oregon State flag.
According to GoDucks.com, “The idea for 100th anniversary throwbacks began with current UO players.” I’m not exactly shocked Nike would provide the team with new uniforms for the game — after all, they’ve had special uniforms for spring games more than once before. Some of those uniforms have been um, interesting. But the uni’s they’ll wear today could easily be a great addition to an actual fall game (and I hope they form the basis for one).
I mentioned the gold jerseys for quarterbacks and protected players earlier. Here’s a look at those:
How great would either the blue or the gold/yellow unis look as an in-season throwback?
I especially love the Pacific Coast Conference sticker on the back of the helmets. The conference existed from 1915-1959. I’m not a big a fan of the current Mighty Oregon! lyrics on the shoulder stripes (didn’t Under Armour already make that trite on Navy’s specdial unis?). Still, it’s a pretty solid looking set of unis. Well played, Nikegon, well played.
If you want to see the uniforms in action, and you have the Pac-12 Network, the game kicks off at 11:00 am PDT (so, 2:00 in the East, 1:00 in the Central) time zone. For those of you who can’t get enough Ducks (or are jonesing for some College football on the last day of April), well…there you go.
Readers? What’s your verdict?
Colorize This!
Occasionally, I will be featuring wonderful, high-quality black and white photographs that are just begging to be colorized.
Got three colorizations today — all of them from one colorizer — Chris Whitehouse of “ManCave Pictures.” He’s short on the writeup, but long on the color!
Click photos to enlarge.
Beaneaters, 1888
White-Sox, 1911 — Battery
1911-1913
Hi Phil,
Here are some of my recent ones.
Enjoy!
Chris”‹Thank You!
Thanks Chris — tremendous stuff, as always!
UW’s Friday Flashback
In case you missed it, Paul’s Friday Flashback on ESPN looked at how purple and teal became the hot uniform colors of the ’90s. It affected all major sports too — in fact there were 22 teams in the Big Four pro leagues that either came into existence or were reborn with a new team name in the 1990s (including the Sharks, who hit the ice in 1991). Of those 22 teams, half of them — 11 out of 22 — used purple and/or teal in their inaugural color schemes.
Great read, so be sure to check it out if you didn’t catch it on Friday!
Enjoy!
Uni Watch News Ticker
Baseball News: Wowser! You guys all know Bruce Menard has an amazing collection of wire photos and does some terrific colorizations, but this one of Jimmie Foxx Jr. zipping up his dad’s Chicago Cubs uniform vest (in the rare and beautiful 1942 uniform, no less!) is one of his best yet. … Here’s another beautiful zipper front jersey — that’s Luis Aparicio (pic via Super 70s Sports). … Sweet photo of Steve Carlton (from Super 70s Sports). Notice the belted pants with sorta-racing stripes. Those jerseys, however, were neither button front nor pullovers (give a guess what they were). … North Bullitt HS in KY uses a modified Brewers logo (thanks to Josh Claywell). … Here’s a look at the Twins’ lineup card, wristbands, & photos from Monday’s Prince tribute game vs. Indians, and they’re all heading to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (from jon voight’s LeBaron). … That missing Royals statue? Found in the woods. Here’s more on that. And here he is being rescued. … The Brooklyn Cyclones don’t know how to use an apostrophe. … Last evening, the The Salt Lake Bees (AAA Angels) threwback to the Salt Lake Gulls (h/t Benji King). … The Inland Empire 66ers are going to be giving away L.A. Rams-inspired jerseys on August 12th (thanks, Paul). … “I just happened to pull up the EarthCam set up across the street from the entrance of Wrigley Field and thought I noticed something peculiar” writes Benjamin Gordon. In the past the marquee has been oddly asymmetrical as shown by the two yellow circles…from 2014. Even more oddly, the neon laid over the painted sign continues the broken line on the right side straight across just as it is on the left side. As far as I can tell this has been the case for decades. This leads me to my discovery, that as far as I know, has not been noticed by anyone else as of yet. As you can see in this story regarding the reinstallation of the marquee the pictures show that the Cubs changed the marquee to a symmetrical design. This is of some added importance since the marquee is landmark protected and as far as I know the only change approved for the sign was the switch to a new LED style sign as opposed to the old dot matrix display.” … ICYMI — on Thursday night, the Fresno Grizzlies wore Astros-inspired alternates (from Minor League Promos). … The Round Rock Express wore these Star Wars themed jerseys last evening. … Check out this 1982 Spalding High School baseball photo (h/t POB). That’s Yankees manager Joe Girardi in front row. Peoria, IL. 2nd in state. … Johnny Bench stopped by the old Crosley Field and even posed for a photo with his cap backwards (h/t Brice Wallace). … Watch the Arizona Diamondbacks read mean tweets about their uniforms. … Indiana has some really nice throwbacks (h/t Frank Novak). … Flag desecration alert: Louisville baseball patriotic game, St Johns with NYPD/FDNY caps, Louisville with stars/stripes numbers (h/t Paul). Here’s another shot of SJU (h/t DJ). … The Jackson Generals will wear these Star Wars, um, jerseys, tonight (h/t Minor League Promos). … Last night the Orioles wore their cartoon bird logo caps, instead of their “Os” (which they normally wear with their black jerseys — h/t Johnny Hockey. … Austin Meadows, of the Altoona Curve, has a protective face guard attached to his helmet (via Trey Wilson). … Tweeter Ricky Schumaker “Stumbled on Antiques Roadshow & these (Whitey Ford & Yogi Berra Jerseys) used in minors. Insurance value. $100k 4 Yogi MVP yr.” There’s a story behind that too (h/t Hardy Wallbanger). … Hah! Check out the closed captioning on this Cubs clip: “When’s the last time you saw a manager go to the mound wearing a stocking cap?” (h/t Douglas Ford). … Check out these uni combos from high schools of Cactus Shadows and Apollo in Arizona (from Joe Farris). … The Dodgers bat boys were sporting varsity jackets last night (via Beachball Killer). … The Orix Buffaloes had pink plaid Thursday night, and it was blue plaid yesterday (h/t Graveyard Baseball). … Oops! Wrong logo for the Salt Lake Bees. Justin McKenzie explains, “In my Walmart the colors light ad is using a concept from sportslogos.net’s forums.” Here’s the correct logo — and here’s the proposed rebrand, where the logo was posted.
NFL/CFL/College News: The BC “Lions have released a tease video,” writes Wade Heidt. “Are the Lions switching from a white helmet to a black helmet? I really hope not. I like the white helmet/orange jersey/white pants uniform ensemble that they have been wearing.” … Check out these NFL Gatorade bottle lids from 1972 (from Dave Nagle via Paul). Paul adds, “Eat your heart out, Brinke.” … In case you missed it, at Thursday Night’s NFL Draft, Ezekiel Elliott continued wearing off his ‘signature’ crop top style. … Speaking of ‘Zeke, this photoshop of him with a crop top (and in a blue Cowboys uni) still shows him with a B1G bumper on his helmet (good spot by Rev. Will Lombard). … Also on Thursday night, the Eagles selected Carson Wentz with the number 2 overall pick. He’s not going to wear uniform #1 — but he’s also not going to wear “TBD” either (from Tim Dunn). And here’s another “TBD,” this time for the Seahawks (also from Tim). … A now-deleted tweet from Pitt commit @DiddyBop1_ shows the Pitt Panthers’ throwback jersey, and possible new road look (h/t Andrew Lind). … Alabama received some really big rings for winning the National Championship (h/t Griffin Smith). … Newly drafted Ronnie Stanley will wear #79 for the Ravens (via Andrew Cosentino). … A couple people noticed this, but Jason Greening had the most extensive writeup: “So the Broncos just did a live stream of Paxton Lynch arriving at Dove Valley before his press conference, and it included a quick trip into the Broncos equipment room. In it were your basic things, hat sizing, showing him his new jersey for the PC, etc. But they passed a table and on it are a couple of helmet shells in various stages with different striping. Some are plain, obviously nothing to them, a couple have the current stripes, but one in the front left (bottom of this picture) has a white/orange/white that is very similar to the old white/orange/white striping on the old 67-94 helmet, just with a darker orange that matches the current.” Here’s a better view. … NFL Draft shirts now feature team logo on sleeve (h/t MBD Chicago). … The Broncos went with BIG ORANGE in their endzones in 1974 (from Marc Viquez). … “Noticed a fan at the draft wearing this Green Bay hat that resembles the old Southern California logo,” writes John Alexander. “I’ve never seen it before. Is it a new find or am I just late?” … Lee Wilds asks, “Does this LA Rams jersey look more yellow than gold?” It was probably just a filter.
Hockey News: Did you ever wonder what happens to the logo when the ice comes out? Here’s a look at the Milwaukee Admirals logo after the thaw (nice spot by Alex). … This is from 1990. NNOB, and and a helmet number style different from the sweater number style (from Jesse via Paul). Tweeter Art Mah thinks that’s “likely Dave Brown getting a replacement jersey after a fight where the jersey was either torn or blood stained.” … Here’s some rare shots of the Capitals (rarely worn) white breezers (h/t Paul). … Here’s a teaser photo of the new Florida Panthers jersey (h/t Paul).
NBA News: Check out this VERY in-depth look inside the creation and development of Sacramento’s new logo family from four of the central figures in the design process (h/t Paul). … Holy sweetness — check out the warmup pants Kareem is wearing in this old photo (h/t Super 70s Sports). … “PTI had NBA Analyst Doug Collins on to discuss the Eastern Conference Playoffs,” writes Seth Shaw. “However, they put up a graphic of the remaining Western Conference NHL teams for what had to be a screw up.”
Soccer News: Premier League team Sunderland just released its new home shirt for the upcoming 2016-17 season. It is made by Adidas and features Dafabet as main sponsor advertiser. … Umbro Ireland just unveiled the new Ireland away kit for Euro 2016. … Here’s a look at this week’s Premier League kits (good spot by Blake Geschke). … Yesterday “A Whole Rake Of Adidas Jerseys For Next Season Have Been Leaked” (from Mikey Traynor). … “What a Detroit Major League Soccer kit could look like,” as imagined by the city’s Skidmore Studio ad/design agency (via Bill Shea). … Here’s a story on how a former NASL and Canadian Olympic goalie wasn’t allowed to bring his lucky stuffed parrot to the net with him in 1986 World Cup (from Cassian Wykes).
Grab Bag: The Atlantic Sun Conference has a new logo (from JAC Compliance Guy via Paul). … Cities Have Had It With Their Ugly Flags — A graphic designer in Milwaukee takes action after his city’s flag is called “one of the biggest train wrecks.” … “Sole Food Brand” teaches the sole collegiate English course dedicated to the sneaker culture (from Andrew Lind). … “A pair of referees in our local society have been appointed to 2019 Rugby World Cup qualifiers this summer (Barbados vs. Trinidad and Mexico vs. Cayman Island) and just got their official kit in the mail yesterday,” writes Eric Bangeman. … Anniversary vs. Year: “I saw this in my hometown paper this week in Reedsburg, WI (note the years at the bottom),” notes Damion Beth. He adds, “Ugh.”
Whew. That’s going to do it for today. Thanks to Chris from ManCave for the great colorizations and to everyone (especially Paul!) who sent in for the ticker, either by tweet or by e-mail.
Back with more tomorrow…but until that time…
Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken.
Peace.
“There are great whiskeys out there, but Fireball is for those moments when you’re drinking shots in a parking lot and yelling after every shot.”
— Mike Styczen
Looks like The Nikegon Fighting Irish.
Ugh. I hate the gold helmet/pants with the yellow numbers. It just looks bad, like they’re wearing another team’s jerseys.
John Alexander,
That Green Bay interlocking GB has been around for awhile. I think it is rarely seen since most packer fans usually sport the Oval G or block of cheese on their head. Click the link below and you can see old and new versions of it as well as it being worn on the cover of their 1971 yearbook.
link
I’ve seen pictures of Lombardi with that hat style.
John Alexander, that logo has been around forever
“Noticed a fan at the draft wearing this Green Bay hat that resembles the old Southern California logo,” writes John Alexander. “I’ve never seen it before. Is it a new find or am I just late?”
That logo dates back to the Lombardi era. Just another throwback cap now.
Not only did Walmart/Coors Light poach a Salt Lake Bees concept logo from the Creamer boards, the original designer borrowed heavily from the Burlington Bees logo. A poach of a poach.
Also, it says “colors light.” That’s an autocorrect if I ever seen one. Beware of submitting ticker items from smartphones.
“Those jerseys, however, were neither button front nor pullovers (give a guess what they were).”
Zippers they were!
Carson Wentz is going to wear #11 for the Eagles. Fly Eagles Fly.
Man, I loved the solid teal Marlins cap, but they seemed to ditch it in short order. Much like the more recent orange cap, which I loved as well.
Always nice to see the “Angry Stan Fischler” Isles jersey get a shoutout.
Yup! I always thought that was a better/more humorously-derisive term than “fishsticks”, as Stan was the Islanders announcer back then.
That entire warmup outfit Kareem is wearing is DY-NO-MITE!
The whole picture is amazing. Kareem, the gigantic trophy, the emcee’s sideburns, the microphone…
Helmet numbers and jersey numbers do not always match in the NHL. Just off the top of my head currently I can think of New Jersey and Philadelphia mismatch helmet and jersey fonts.
“What a Detroit Major League Soccer kit could look like,” as imagined by the city’s Skidmore Studio ad/design agency
Calling them “Detroit United” might make some sense, as they are trying to “build on” (the cynics and realists will say “horn in on” or “supplant”) the nice tradition that has been built up in recent years by the lower division teams there, especially Detroit City FC. But I think after Arthur Blank insisted on calling his new team Atlanta United — forcing Minnesota to change their MLS team’s name — you won’t see another “United” team in MLS.
Navy and white colors? A Tigers ripoff.
The aesthetic solution is easy (maybe easier said than done). The Gores/Gilbert partnership brings deep pockets and the apparent ability to build a downtown stadium. Detroit City has the brand, and a brilliant, community-focused team culture. I think Gores/Gilbert should add the Detroit City ownership group as their third partners.
The original Detroit Express wore navy and some orange, which looked even more like the Tigers. The old English typeface was not in use, IIRC.
I like the look, but I’d rather a bit of orange and an update of the original uniform and Express name. Then again if they’re not aiming for more fandom among the likes of folks like me (who remember the California Surf and the Atlanta Chiefs) I understand that too.
I disagree with nothing said about the teal/purple 90s trend, but I want to point on geography in the color choice of a few of those teams:
For some teams it seemed trendy (Raptors, Grizzlies, Pistons, Ducks, Rockies, Panthers etc).
For other teams it reflects their geography and makes complete sense:
The aqua/teal used by the Marlins (and Dolphins) reflects the color of the water around Florida – which can take on an even more brilliant shade of teal.
The Mariners teal is darker and reflects the water of the Puget Sound as well as the remarkably teal blue water of the northern Cascade Mountains’ lakes.
The teal of the Diamondbacks reminds me of the turquoise jewelry of the Southwest Native Americans.
With the sensationalized way companies present uniforms today I am sure they would have named the shades of colors along the lines of: Southwest Turquoise, Cascade Blue, Gulf Blue etc.
Early on in the pitch for the Rox – before the team was even named – folks with the original ownership group and various others insisted on the team colors commemorating “purple mountain majesties” since that phrase was coined in southern Colorado.
Vancouver Grizzlies wore Pacific Turquoise.
One could argue that there was geography responsible for this. At the end of the day, just like the other teams, it was a premise to explain using a colour that was trendy at the time.
Too bad Oregon’s not playing Notre Dame or Navy this year, that would be a swell throwback to wear against one of those teams. I guess they’ll just have to settle for wearing it against Washington…
Regarding the Wrigley marquee, it has been mentioned before on the site (in the baseball section of the Ticker):
link
Here’s a pic of the sign back in the 60’s and link The left side doesn’t appear to have the extra line that the red version had (I wonder if the neon was also asymmetrical – probably not. A painter might have simply been following the connection between the neon parts. And maybe a different guy painted the right side!)
Anyway, in the old blue photo, the right side is obscured by a street light pole – complete with a pair of the old yellow Chicago street signs. Those were pretty unique and were replaced in the late 70’s (I think) when federal highway money was jeopardized because they weren’t green.
The Phillies jersey Carlton is wearing is really a classic. I love how the stripe flows into the stirrup, love the vertically arched NOB, custom numbers that match the modern team logo and the zipper. The powder blue roads were great as well.
When this site returns to the “What’s Your Sign(ature}?” pieces, I’ll bet the Carlton-era uniforms are picked as the Phillies’ iconic look. Oddly, I didn’t like them at the time but they came to be one of my favorites around the season they ditched the zippers for buttons:(
So was that rams/66ers pic just meant as a total fuck you to st. louis? Both the rams and cardinals in stl? Fuck stan!
As much as I love state outlines as part of logos, I believe the PCC logo is incorrect without the state of Idaho (1922-1959) and maybe Montana (1924-1950) as well. link
But these are 1916 throwbacks…
Just noticed in the NFL section of the ticker describing the stripe colors of the Broncos helmets, the second descriptor reads “wite/orange/white”.
Love this site, I show it to people who think I’m crazy for caring so much about uniforms. “See, I’m not the only one. Jerk.”
Good catch. Fixed.
“didn’t Under Armour already make that trite on Navy’s specdial unis”
That’s Maryland.
Regarding the “Mighty Oregon” slOB, am I correct in saying this wouldn’t be allowed in a legitimate game?
Racing stripes are making a comeback on jerseys – new home uniforms for Bridgeport Bluefish have eliminated piping and added racing stripes on shoulders and sides.
To elaborate on the Orioles hats, I’ve also never seen the black with black bill combination. Usually have an orange bill on the hats without the white panel. However I was given a black/black hat as part of a giveaway on UMD’s campus earlier this year.
Here’s a story on how a former NASL and Canadian Olympic goalie wasn’t allowed to bring his lucky stuffed parrot to the net with him in 1986 World Cup
Tino Littieri! He was also an MISL goalie, and if you look closely you can see parrots on his Minnesota Strikers goalie uniform.
link