Leo Gets (Another) Lede: Odds & Ends

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By Phil Hecken, with Leo Strawn, Jr.

Those of you who are familiar with the Weekends (and if you remember over the Summer), I’m fortunate to have some great guest pieces from Leo Strawn, Jr. — usually these are sub-ledes that have their own section we call “Leo’s World” but sometimes his bits are more than just bits that really deserve to get the full lede treatment.

Today is one of those days.

Unlike his quizzes or helmet projects, today’s piece is more of a conglomeration of several smaller, but very interesting, uni observations from Leo’s mind. You can click on the photos below to enlarge. So sit back and enjoy today’s edition of…

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Odds & Ends Edition
By Leo Strawn, Jr.

I stumble across some oddities from time-to-time in searches for other photos. I’ve had a few of them piling up that don’t warrant their own article but I thought UWers would enjoy. Borrowing Mike Chamernik’s idea from not long ago, I thought I’d present them this way. Enjoy!

This photo of John McGraw and Christy Mathewson shows McGraw in a classic sweater, pinstriped uniform and what would appear to be the Giants 1911, 1915 or ’16 cap.

The New York National Leaguers wore pinstripes from 1911-16 while McGraw (who came on board in 1902) and Mathewson (who went to play for and manage the Reds during the 1916 season) were both with the Giants.

Questions arise with Christy’s jersey. I can’t find any reference to the NY Giants ever having a flag on their left sleeve. Additionally, the Giants spelled “NEW YORK” only in simple lettering during the seasons the city name appeared on their jerseys from the beginning of Mathewson’s career with NY in 1900 to the end of McGraw’s tenure in 1932; the following season would be the first time the front of the Giants jerseys spelled out “NEW YORK” in anything other than sans serif letters.

Was this a prototype, perhaps?

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Time for a World Series photo.

Calvin Coolidge is throwing out the first ball for the third game (first home game for the Senators) in the 1925 Fall Classic. Not only is this a pretty decent shot of the 1925 National League Golden Jubilee patch on Bill McKechnie’s jersey but Bucky Harris is sporting a great baseball sweater.

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The 1939 New York World’s Fair patch was worn prominently on the uniforms of the three MLB teams in 1938: Brooklyn Dodgers…

…the New York Giants and New York Yankees. What I didn’t know was at least one of the New York area NFL teams also wore a similar patch. Not on their jerseys, but in this photo of the 1938 NFL Brooklyn Dodgers it appears on the front of their team jackets. Makes me wonder if the football Giants did something similar?

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Speaking of the football Giants, check out this photo of Tuffy Leemans from his playing days at George Washington University. Love that jersey!

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Here’s another unusual NCAA jersey: This is late 1950s New Mexico with some unique striping on front. This photo showing the side of the jersey is golden.

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In the 1967 AFL Championship, Andy Rice (#80) of the Oilers is wearing a FIOB while his fellow lineman George Rice (#72) is not. Seniority, I guess. Makes you wonder if Andy wasn’t thinking the whole time that the reason they didn’t give George a “G.” was because the team wasn’t planning on keeping Andy on the roster for long. George had been drafted by Houston in 1966, but Andy only played for the Oilers for a few games in 1967; he had been traded to Houston during the season and, as it turned out, he went on to play with the Bengals in Cincinnati’s inaugural season, 1968.

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It’s obvious why this photo caught my attention and piqued my curiosity about #50. I found out the big guy is Earl Putman. He only played one season for the Chicago Cards, 1957. I then located a 1958 Topps card with another shot of him in Chicago’s red pants, but wearing a different number for the Cardinals, undoubtedly in training camp. I also found a short bio of Earl with this odd, uni-notable part:

The Earl Putman football trading card lists him as a center for the Chicago Cardinals and “the biggest man in pro ball.” His 6 foot, 6 inch frame at 308 pounds, size 16 EEEE shoes, size 52 jersey, 44 pants, and size 8 headgear (created by splitting 2 normal helmets and splicing them together) made him the biggest man in the NFL in 1957.

Interesting bit of helmet lore!

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Did you know”¦Lyle Alzado and Gale Sayers played against one another in the NFL?

1971 was Alzado’s rookie year. What turned out to be the last two regular season games for Sayers were during the same season. Those final two games were October 10 v New Orleans and October 17 at Candlestick where he rushed for only 8 yards on 5 carries against the Niners. Gale would sit out the remainder of the Bears games, including the December 5 game against Alzado and the Broncos at Mile High. That would suggest such a meeting never occurred. But…

This photo is from the Bears/Broncos 1971 preseason game…

…Alzado’s fifth preseason game in a Denver uniform, September 12 at Soldier Field (which was debuting artificial turf that season, certainly exacerbating the situation for Sayers). Incredible shot of two NFL greats squaring off for the only time, with Sayers wearing that classic white wishbone “C” and Alzado wearing my favorite Broncos uniform set from the snorting bronco logo era.

Priceless.

Bears won that game, 33-17, by the way.

Till next time…

Cheers!

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Thanks, Leo! Great stuff as always. We look forward to your next segment (which should be in two weeks).

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Colorize This!

Occasionally, I will be featuring wonderful, high-quality black and white photographs that are just begging to be colorized.

Got a few colorizations today — all from George Chilvers, who we haven’t heard from in a long time, but is one of our original (and best) colorizers! Great to hear from him again, and he’s got a motherlode of colorizations from him today (click any photo to enlarge)!

Here’s George…

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Hi Phil

I’ve been quiet for a while, but thought I’d share these with you. Deal with them (or ignore them completely if people have got fed up of colourisations) as you wish. I have five for you here. You don’t have to ask what sport though :)

The first is an unidentified ladies’ game dated to around World War 1 (1914-1918 for most of us – lol), played at Upton Park, the home of West Ham United until this season. I’m sorry I really don’t have much more information, except to highlight the absolute classic adberts – Bovril (a beef drink), Oxo (beef stock cubes) and Fry Chocolate. All iconic at English football grounds at the time.

George

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Keeping with the theme we have more ladies’ football/soccer. And this is one of the most famous teams around – Dick, Kerrs Ladies. The comma by the way is not a mistake – the team was the works team of a company called Dick, Kerrs and Co. The ladies involved were pioneers in the sport, and as you can see by the legend on the picture they were highly successful.

The Football Association (the soccer equivalent of the NFL) tried to stamp out this upstart abhorrence (in their eyes) by banning womens’ football from League grounds in 1921 – a ban that was only lifted in 1971. Dick, Kerrs Ladies however continued to play at other venues, and in 1922 completed a successful tour of the United States.

You can read more about them in the ubiquitous Wikipedia site.

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This one is a heart stopper, that hasn’t really ever been publicised as it should.

I will quote from here:

“31 May, 1942. At 2 o’clock in the afternoon, the artillery and gunfire stopped for a moment to hear a blow of a referee’s whistle in Dinamo Stadium. Despite the brutal devastation wrought upon the populace by German forces, a football match between Dinamo Leningrad and Nevsky Zavod took place. It was not just merely a leisure activity for the besieged citizens to enjoy but a defiant signal of resistance, that Leningrad would not surrender.”

The story is fascinating and a signal of determination that life will go on as usual.

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More mundane – post-War Holland and in 1947 we watch NAC Breda (in white) play NOAD Tilburg (in the stripes). There isn’t anything special about the picture – to me it’s just a nice picture. Holland had of course been occupied during the War, and football as everywhere across the continent was a way of normalising things. Although a top-level game at the time the stadium, if we can call it that, bears a great resemblance to many non-league grounds in England now. But that wasn’t important. Life was getting back to normal.

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And finally my favourite of the batch. Firstly (let’s get this out of the way) I’m really pleased how this has turned out. Some work – some don’t. This one has worked – and I do know people who have said it looks like a colour photo. I will accept that :) But enough self-praise LOL

The year is 1971, the place Berne in Switzerland, specifically the home of Young Boys – the Wankdorf Stadium. Stop tittering! It is not funny. Well, maybe a bit.

Anyway, the teams marching proudly out in their absolutely magnificent colours are FC Basel (red and blue) and Grasshoppers Zurich (blue and white). Oh how I love halved shirts!

The occasion was the play-off game for the Swiss Championship, as the teams had finished level on points over the season, and suffice it to be recorded that on 8 June 1971 Grasshopper won the tie 4-3 after extra time.

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WOW! Thanks, so much, George. Great to hear from you (and see your wonderful work again!)…and thanks, as always, for the writeups. Hopefully we’ll have more from you in the not-too-distant future!

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UW’s Friday Flashback

With all the fuss over Color Rash, Paul’s latest Friday Flashback column on ESPN looks at the history of NFL teams wearing mono-colored uniforms (including the many teams that went mono in 2002, some of which are shown here).

Check out the Friday Flashback here.

Enjoy!

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Too Good…

for the Ticker

Got an e-mail from Harvey Lee who recently took a trip to “Skydome” (it’s now referred to as Rogers Centre, but in the spirit of the “I’m Calling It…” shirts…we’ll call it Skydome). He took a bunch of photos and did a writeup — it’s simply too long and too good…for the ticker.

Here’s Harvey (and you can click on the photos below to enlarge)…

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In Toronto for the World Cup of Hockey. Interesting look at Brian Leetch’s old skates at the Hockey Hall Of Fame.

He had some mesh reinforcements sewn into the outsides of his boots. I assume to make them stiffer? Anyone ever seen this?

While touring Rogers Centre (nee Skydome), we got a chance to walk onto the field

a) I was surprised at the fluffiness of the turf, unlike the matted down stuff at our local HS stadium

b) I was disappointed that the warning track is just a brown version of the green; I thought the whole intent was that outfielders could feel the difference while keeping their eye on the ball

c) They have a turf Zamboni to lay out the giant rolls of turf. Fortunately, they are hoping to convert to grass by 2018.

d) Just as we were leaving, they started opening the roof.

Harvey Lee

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Thanks, Harvey. Great trip — looks like fun. There are many ballparks on my bucket list, and I must admit Skydome’s not really up at the top — but after seeing that, it does look like a cool place to visit. I’ve always wanted to stay in that hotel in Center Centre Field.

OK. Now, on to the ticker…

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Uni Watch News Ticker
By Phil

Baseball News: Yesterday, in 1947, it was Jackie Robinson Day at Ebbets field, and among other gifts, the Dodgers gave him a Cadillac (from Bruce Menard). … Anyone who’s a Mets (or Reds) fan knows that Jay Bruce just hasn’t exactly been tearing it up with the Mets since being traded at the end of July. Maybe it’s because he’s still wearing his Reds batting gloves? (from Gary Nusbaum). I have no idea if he’s actually been wearing those same gloves (or similar ones) since the trade — but he was wearing them Thursday night. We all know the uni (and baseball) gods are not pleased when you wear batting gloves from a former team. … The Rockies had some Vin Scully-themed notes last evening (from Bobby GINdal). … After Trey Mancini’s first 2 home runs in his first two games, O’s fans have started to improvise (from Ray Malley). … “The Shilter (careful!) Family Farm in Olympia, WA, has made a Ken Griffey, Jr., corn maze for Hallowe’en,” writes Markus Kamp. “They did something similar for retired Sounders keeper and Olympia-area native Kasey Keller in 2010.” … The Reds have a player named Jumbo Diaz, who, um, had some um, buttoning issues last night (from Peter Smith).

NFL News: Tweeter fillyfandan notes the Carson Wentz bootleg jerseys are always hilarious. … What did Bill Belichick think of the Patriots’ color rush uniforms? Because inquiring minds want to know. The sarcasm is palpable: “I can’t even tell you how excited I was about the uniforms last night. It was really incredible.” … As bad as the Tampa Bay Bucs unis are, this week’s combo is about the best one they have. … Not sure if this is a goof or not, but the Cowboys have tweeted out their uni combo. Well, yeah. … Speaking of the Cowboys, yesterday’s ticker included this: “Dak Prescott’s helmet stripe doesn’t separate at the gap in his SpeedFlex helmet. Here’s how other teams handle the stripe (from reader D Hempel).” Reader Earl L Darne notes, “I noticed this too but it is not just Dak. This appears to be a Cowboy’s thing.” And provided the following as examples. … Texans returner Tyler Ervin grabbed his teammates towel during a kick return Thursday night. He fumbled on the play (thanks to Mike Chamernik). … If you really enjoyed (or hell, even if you didn’t) the Pats/Texans color rash game, here are the 13 best photos from that game. … The Jaguars will be going gold-matte black/white/white Sunday (from Mike Chamernik).

College Football News: The USC (That’s South Carolina) football squad will wear it’s fourth different uni combo today. … There is some uni-related news in this “Mac attack, LSU’s throwup jerseys: SEC Sizzle/Fizzle Week 4” article. … Our pal, Clint Richardson, runs the Auburn Uniform database. He’s been working on some 1980s Auburn football uniforms. Pictured are 1988-89 back to 1985-86. … Looks like Tulane will be going with powder blue jerseys today (at least according to this). H/T to Larry Vangilder. … Mizzou will be wearing all black today for their game vs. Delaware State. … Louisville will be going all white with their shiny red hat vs. Marshall. … The Baylor Bears will be wearing all black with their shiny gold hat vs. Oklahoma State, and some of their fans are pissed. … “I work for the Omaha World-Herald and we are an official sponsor of Nebraska Football,” says Jordan Johnson. “Every year we do ‘Build-a-Husker’ the week leading up to the game that the alternate unis will be worn. Every day in the paper we have a full page ad that features a section of the player. I’ve attached the finished product as well as what it looks like when the piece is inside the paper each day.” … Pretty sure we had this before, but just in case: Baylor helmets will have Extra Yard for Teachers stickers on the back of their helmets this weekend. … The Virginia Tech “orange effect” endzones & midfield are now complete (from Pat Rouleau). … Here’s the hat that SMU will wore last night (via Jim Collier). Here’s another look (h/t Ginger Cyborg). … ICYMI: Midfield at Spartan Stadium has been repainted in honor of Mike Sadler. … Pitt will be going blue/white/blue today (from Interst8forty4). … Idaho State (yes, Idaho State) will be going orange/black/black today (from Brad Iverson-Long). … New helmet for Utah (via Nicole Pena). Turns out they’re “handcrafted”, like a fine beer, amirite? … Here’s a look at the Razorbacks uni for today. … Ole Miss will be going blue/red/gray vs. Georgia today. … RN’s Funhouse points out that SMU has a rather large mid-field logo. … Of course, that has nothing on Texas A&M Commerce, and East Carolina is rather yuge, too.

Hockey News: Here’s a good behind the scenes look at NHL team pictures day with the San Jose Sharks — and how players dress when they know they won’t be photographed from the knees down (from J. Walker). … As most of you know (or should), Uni Watch readers participated in a design contest to create an alternate jersey for the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins. But that’s not the only new jersey the team will wear this season: The Griffins have updated their regular sweaters too. … Someone’s name is wrong in every Sabres camp. Yesterday’s first lucky winner is new goalie Anders Nilsson (good spot by John Vogl). … Looks like Marc-André Fleury has a new mask. … Speaking of new masks, Jared Coreau is rocking an old school mask (from Mike Chamernik). … Oooohhh — check out the Tucson Roadrunners center ice (from Adam Vitcavage). … Awesome Grooms Cake for Islanders fan Jimmy Cameron.

NBA News: Here’s a screen shot (from I guess a video game — not sure which one) showing the Houston Rockets’ 50th anniversary patch placement (from Hit The Glass). … Washington Wizards star John Wall took a lot of flack from the D.C. fan base when he wore an Emmitt Smith jersey on the Dallas Cowboys sideline before last Sunday’s game against the Washington football team. This week, Wall defended his Cowboys fandom. … Here are some screenshots confirming leaks of the two new Warriors alt unis + the new Heat Pride alt uni (from Conrad Burry). Here’s more 2K17 screenshots of these 3 new unis for the Heat and Warriors. And here’s a more more high quality render of those. … Is this a first look at the New Orleans All Star Game patch? (from Chris Winkler via Paul). … From Rovell: Warriors confirm they will be wearing a “Run TMC” retro for six games this season, jersey will go on sale on Monday (h/t Robert Hayes).

College Hoops News: Here’s a look at LA Tech’s new home hoops unis (h/t Paul), who r/t’ed LA Tech’s tweet. … The University of Michigan Wolverines will be unveiling their new jumpman hoops uniforms at a “ceremony” next week. OK then. The release will be on September 30th (so you can count on next Saturday’s UW to be a review of those).

Soccer News: FFS. Sounders FC to wear Gears of War 4-themed jerseys for this Sunday’s match at LA Galaxy. Yes, I know that the Sounders are basically the X-Boxes, but still. Soccer shouldn’t become MiLB with their theme jerseys, should they?

Grab Bag: As you (likely) know, Nike is getting out of the golf equipment business next year, but they’re still big in the golf clothing market. Here’s a pretty good New York Times piece on how swooshie never really established a signature piece of golf equipment despite having signed some of the biggest names in the golf world (from Tommy Turner). … “My favorite Australian Football League club, Collingwood Magpies, just revealed their 125th Anniversary logo for 2017,” says the one and only Leo Strawn, Jr.. “(Info on the meaning of the elements here.) Carn the Pies!” … It. Has. Begun. The HinghamPolice are going pink in October by wearing these patches for Breast Cancer Awareness Month (thanks, I think, to Jordan Mayblum). … New logos for the Susquehanna River Hawks. … Check out the Cubs-inspired golf shirts from William Murray Golf (from D Hempel). … Check out these crazy hidden messages in sports logos you might not have known about. The last one, about the Warriors logo, is great. … Here’s a look at Stony Brook’s lax gear for spring 2017 (h/t Patrick Muffley).

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And that will do it for today, the final Saturday in September…and you know what that means for unis next weekend. *Shudders*

Big thanks to Leo for his World, and also to George (welcome back!) for the beautiful colorizations. And a great TFGTT too!

I’ll be back tomorrow with the SMUW crew, so make sure to check back in then. In the meantime…

Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken.

Peace.

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“Warriors, to me, is as objectionable as having a team called the Pilots or Sailors, if less original.”

— Walter Helfer

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