Sunday Morning Uni Watch

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By Phil Hecken, and the entire Sunday Morning Uni Watch Crew

Ah, yes. The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.

It’s now becoming one of those games, like UCLA v. USC, that we can almost guarantee will be a color versus color affair, as this is now the third straight year in which Georgia (in red) and Florida (in blue), have done so.

It’s probably not the greatest color vs. color matchup (that honor still goes to the Bruins and the Trojans), but it’s a good one. The red and the blue don’t clash and there’s no problem telling the teams apart. The only problem, if there is one, is the orange hats of Florida and the red helmets of Georgia don’t go particularly well together. They are too close on the spectrum, and in up close shots, they’re sometimes tough to tell apart. But that’s a minor complaint.

Back before most of us were born, there were lots of color vs. color games in college — eventually those gave way to the road team (usually) wearing white, although there are a few exceptions. Today, one team must wear white, unless the teams reach an agreement ahead of time (as Florida & Georgia did in 2014) to agree to the color on color matchup. We will get a few of these throughout the college season, but they’re still too rare. Hell, I’m even up for a return of the Alabama/Tennessee orange vs. crimson bouts of years ago. Or (if they ever play each other), an Oklahoma/Tennessee jaunt. But, it would be great if the rivalry games could return to color vs color (or start one up). I mean — how great would a Michigan (in blue) vs. OSU (in scarlet) look?

Obviously, not all games should be color vs. color (as color rash in the NFL has shown us), but a few games a year would be great, no? Of course it would. I’m happy the color vs. color WLOCP has become one of them.

OK, now onto TJ and his…

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Sunday Morning Uni Watch
By Terry Duroncelet, Jr.

From Thursday:

• T H I C C thighs save lives… but seriously, this should be made illegal as soon as possible. And this tweet shows that we can’t even blame the sheer size of Ejuan Price’s legs for the glorified compression shorts (I honestly thought it was a pant size constraint of some sort, but as it turns out, that’s not the case). Side-note: don’t look up what “thicc” means. Trust me.

From Friday:

• South Florida wore these uniforms against Navy. From John M.: “You’ll note the common pattern on the helmet horns, the jersey sleeves and the stripe on the pants. According to the broadcast, this was inspired by Hillsborough Army Airfield, later known in a civilian capacity as Henderson Airport. Part of USF’s campus now covers some of the area of the former airfield.”

From Saturday:

• Oklahoma State wore new helmets (also dig those sock on [I think] James Washington) circled around the 1980-1983 squads (credit to Sarah Phipps for the pic). I hesitate to call them “real throwback”, helmets, only because the shell isn’t glossy like the original, but a good look nonetheless. Click here for the story behind the helmets.

• Kent State wore Chargers-esque helmets against Central Michigan (although I’m not sure which came first). This isn’t the first time in recent years that they’ve done this.

• Michigan State wore all-green against in-State rival Michigan.

• It’s been a long time since a carbon fiber (or is it fibre?) patterned helmet made an appearance here, until yesterday, when East Carolina wore what might be the most subtle carbon fiber helmet that I’ve ever seen against UConn (close up so you can actually see what it looks like. It’s the same helmet, just a different facemask. Another with the yellow facemask). I suppose that’s a good thing, because some of those helmets in the past were ROUGH to look at.

• JESUS CHRIST, Purdue’s decision to go mono-grey against an all-white Penn State team was a DRRRRRREADFUL one.

• Well, at least Illinois/Minnesota looks to be promis– OH C’MON. Aren’t there rules for things like this? Funny how both instances occurred in Big Ten play (side-note: the navy helmet with the Grey Ghost uni is new this year. In the past, they’ve worn said look with a white helmet).

• Continuing with the Autumn greys, Central Florida wore it top-to-bottom against Houston, who wore all-red. You see, Boilermakers and Illini? THIS is how you do it: a matching helmet to make things look a little more cohesive, as well as wearing it against a uniform that is in CLEAR CONTRAST with one another. Granted, I’m not sure if grey is an actual UCF school color, but the first two spectacles could’ve easily been avoided with some prior notice for Penn State to wear blue, and Minnesota to wear any particular combination of maroon and gold. It’s not that difficult.

• Not sure if they’ve already worn this a few weeks back, but South Carolina wore all-black against Tennessee. I’m honestly very disappointed that the Vols didn’t come out in all-orange against the Gamecocks. It’s Halloween weekend, live a little! At least the coaches played along.

• UTSA wore a “blackbird” (eyeroll) uniform for Halloween weekend (I couldn’t find any game pics as of the writing of this). Well, at least they’re getting into the spirit of things.

• This is a LOOK. All I can think of when I see Arizona State’s helmets are the polished Ludwig Copper Phonic snare drums.

• Dylan Bercu spotted Northwestern defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz with an Outback Bowl logo on his pullover when they played Ohio State (they also wore white/white/black).

• SMU wore Texas State decals. Against Tulane.

• Memphis wore BCA decals against Tulsa, the latter of whom wore “BYRD 48” decals (black helmets) in honor of Dennis Byrd, who died in a car accident on October 15th. Here’s the uniform they wore.

• Hawai’i wore a commemorative date decal (yes, an actual date) against New Mexico. They wore “12-7-41” in remembrance of Pearl Harbor on one side, and this decal (I don’t know what that is, sorry) on the other [It’s a shoulder insignia for the 100th Infantry/442nd Regimental Combat Team — more here — PH].

• Oregon State wore their Men of Roses helmets and jersey patches against Washington State. If you need the backstory behind these hats, click here for Phil’s excellent breakdown of them.

That’ll do it for Week 9! Everyone have a safe Halloween, and I’ll see you next week.

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Thanks, TJ — and a Happy Hallowe’en to you. OK, now on to the rest of today’s SMUW…

Joe Ringham’s 5 & 1

Following in the footsteps of the original “5 & 1,” Jim Vilk, and Catherine Ryan after him, Joe Ringham is back for 2016 to make his “5 & 1” (five good looking and one stinker) uni-vs-uni matchups. Sometimes he’ll have some “honorable mentions” and sometimes there will be more than one “bad” game. You may agree and you may disagree — these are, after all, just opinions and everyone has one. Feel free to let him know what you think in the comments section.

Here’s Joe:

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Hey again, everybody! This was such a great looking college football weekend. So many good looking games to end the month of October. This was probably one of the toughest weekends for me to put this list together. So, let’s see who made the cut…

5) Connecticut at East Carolina — If you remember last week, I had ECU as part of the +1, even though they themselves didn’t look all that bad. This week, they looked very sharp in purple/purple/yellow at home. It matched up quite well with UConn’s white/white/navy road look.

4) Kentucky at Missouri — For some reason, this season, Mizzou always seems to play some fantastic looking games against teams who wear blue and white. Case in point: this week’s game against UK, who looked great in their blue/white/blue road set. It definitely made the black/black/yellow of the Tigers look even better.

3) West Virginia at Oklahoma State — Probably one of the most, if not the most, brightly colored match-up of the day. The black/orange/white of OSU just seemed to pop even brighter against the navy/white/yellow of WVU, and vice versa. It really made for a nice looking game visually.

2) Florida vs Georgia — Color vs. color for the Worlds Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. How could you possibly go wrong? I don’t even need to explain this even more.

1) Miami at Notre Dame — Absolutely LOVED the look of this game. The Irish always have a classic home look. But, when you throw in the ’80’s-era road look of the U, it almost makes you feel like you’re transported back to the classic games these two had in the late ’80’s.

Just off the board – Washington at Utah, Navy at South Florida, SMU at Tulane

And, finally…

+1) Arizona State at Oregon — I have no idea just what that was on the Ducks uni’s, but combine it with the shiny copper lids that ASU went with and you have one very unappealing looking game.

Have a good week, and remember to move your clocks back an hour next weekend!

Welcome to the 2016 Oregon Ducks Uni Tracker. This little project was originally begun way back in 2008-09 by Michael Princip, who retired after several seasons, whereupon the project was continued by Tim E. O’Brien. He, too, retired from the tracking, but the project has been ably kept up by the man who also tracks the Pac12, Dennis Bolt.

Here’s this week’s Uniform Combo for the Ducks (you can click to enlarge):

You can read about this uniform, and MUCH MORE, by checking out the Duck Tracker here!

NCAA Uni Tracking

Uni Watch will again track the uniform combinations worn by the “Power 5” conferences. Most of the 2015 trackers are back, with one new tracker added:

We’ve got Rex Henry (tracking the ACC), Dennis Bolt (tracking the PAC-12), Kyle Acker (tracking the Big XII), Davis Vinckier (tracking the B1G), and Ethan Dimitroff, (tracking the SEC). Rex, Dennis, Kyle and Davis are all returning from 2015, and Ethan is new to the NCAA Uni Tracking this season

Here are the Uni Trackers for WEEK NINE of the NCAA Season.

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Rex is up first today (ACC):

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ACC

More Here.
Follow Rex on Twitter here.

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And now, here’s Dennis with the PAC-12:

PAC-12

More here.

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And here is Ethan, with the SEC:

SEC

And be sure to check out Ethan’s WVU Mountaineer Tracker.

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And here is Kyle with the Big XII:

Big XII

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And here’s Davis the B1G:

B1G

*Unfortunately, Davis’ car broke down yesterday and in dealing with that, he wasn’t able to get me the B1G tracking by “press” time last evening. If he is able to provide me with a graphic today, I’ll add it in here*

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MLB Playoff Uni Tracking

A few years back, reader Alex Rocklein tracked the MLB Playoffs by uniform — you guys may recall this. Here’s what his 2010 Uni Tracking looked like.

Well, after a couple year hiatus, Alex returned the past two weekend, and he’s back today with the current tracking (through Friday night’s game — I didn’t get an updated one for today, but the Cubs wore their pins again, and the Tribe wore … wait for it … their midnight navy tops again). So you can just picture those same jerseys in the game 4 spot.

This weekend features THREE trackers: World Series, the NL and AL Championship Series Trackers, and the full set of playoffs so far. You can click each graphic to enlarge.

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World Series (through game 3)

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NL & AL Championship Series

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Full Playoffs (through Game 3 of the World Series)

Thanks, Alex. I’ll have the full and final tracker next weekend!

T-Shirt Club Update

Paul here. In case you missed it on Friday, the fifth of our six 2016 designs is finally ready to go. It’s our football shirt — check it out (click to enlarge):

Not bad, right? I can already hear a bunch of you complaining that the various stripe patterns don’t match, but that doesn’t bother me. Big thanks to my creative partner, Bryan Molloy, for his hard work on this one.

This shirt comes in three color options — grey, black, and green — and is available here until Nov. 10. My thanks, as always, for your consideration.

Uni Watch News Ticker
By Phil

Baseball News: Immediately following Cleveland’s game three win on Friday night, MLB already had an authentication sticker on Jason Kipnis’ cap (from Andrew Jenkins). … Check out this awesome and irony-laden interview (TFPIC) with a Cleveland fan in Wrigleyville (great find by Coleman Mullins). … Fine work here by Griffin Smith who got his Cubs World Series cap and proceeded to perform a New Era logo surgery. … We’ve discussed Francisco Lindor’s “Believeland” cleats recently, and now the Gray Lady has an article on custom cleats (good spot by Drew Stiling). … Gotta love this Tony Gwynn-themed beer bottle from Ale Smith (via Matt Gathmann). … Our former Duck Tracker Tim E. O’Brien lives near Wrigley, and notes you see some strange things when you live there. …MetsPlus by Niko G. asks why the New Era BP caps don’t have the NE logo on them. … Good spot by LRC who asks how long has Pete Rose had “Hit King” on his shirt. … This bit of TMI is courtesy of Mike Chamernik: “Andrew Miller says he hasn’t washed his jock strap since his last bad outing on Sept. 7. That’s 18 appearances and 51 days.” … Andrew Cosentino writes, “Here are some Chief Wahoo protestors at the World Series.” … More post season “superstitiousness” — John Lackey of the Cubs clearly has ‘recycled’ his Cubs cap, as you can see the glue from the previous patch clearly visible beneath the new World Series cap (h/t LRC). … Maybe this is Davis’ lucky jersey too? (h/t Jeremy Edom).

NFL News: Here’s a pretty good overhead look at Wembley Stadium, which is hosting the early NFL game between Washington and the Bengals today (h/t Mark Johnson. … The only game in town on Hallowe’en is da Bears vs. the Vikings, so Chicago will wear their Monsters of the Midway throwbacks. … Speaking of throwbacks, the Bills will be wearing theirs today.

College/High School Football News: Here’s a look at all 14 SEC Graduate Patches, honoring young people who have earned their undergraduate degrees (from chitty2bang2). … “Lynnville-Sully Hawks with the interesting helmet stripe,” says Jeff Jensen. “Lost to Gladbrook-Reinbeck, Friday night. Lots of consolidation of small school Iowa high school districts.” … Talk about terrible contrast: “This is Mentor vs Elyria in northeast Ohio,” says Aaron Putka. “Mentor is home going GFGS and Elyria is in their road white jersey (with gray pants to add to the confusion.” … Speaking of confusing — check out this navy vs. navy matchup (from Patrick Currin).

Hockey News: “Not sure if anyone has mentioned this before, but the Arizona State hockey team has covered the CCM logo on last year’s jersey with a patch showing the Adidas logo,” says Casey Hart. “On TV, by the end of tonight’s game against Harvard, you could see the CCM mark showing through the sweaty jerseys.” … The Orlando Solar Bears have taken the scary Hallowe’en jersey to another level (h/t Dave Doop). … A bit of sad news to report here: Bauer will file for Bankruptcy (from Jerry Nitzh).

NBA News: Hmmm. Is Matthew Delledova taping over the swoosh on his sneakers in this photo (sent by KevinYateeshRamchand). … The Denver Nuggets broke out their rainbow mountain/city uniforms last evening (a one-time only deal, as they retired Dikembe Mutombo’s number). Thanks to Matt LePenske. Here’s another look (thanks to Perry Sailor). … The Hornets wore teal at home last night (from Mike Chamernik).

Grab Bag: In a cool move that will no doubt make Jimmer Vilk proud, Indian cricketers will wear their mothers’ names on jerseys. … Not exactly uni-related, but check out the paint job on this plane (from this tweet by Shawn Hairston). … According to Tulsa Football, the police escort in Memphis has some pretty sweet helmets.

Happy Hallowe’en…

…from Uni Watch

Ok, Ok, so it’s not tomorrow, but that doesn’t mean some UWers didn’t celebrate a bit early. Here’s the one and only (and believe me…there is only one) Jimmer Vilk…

Trick or treat night in my old neighborhood, so I went as a ghost from the past…a Coliseum vendor. 22 years later & my uniform still fits! pic.twitter.com/k9oEkq3TKG

— Jim Vilk (@JimVilk) October 30, 2016

And finally, the wonderful Jason & Jennifer Bernard, accompanied by their beautiful daughter, Alice.

I love this one:

Hope everyone who celebrated a bit early had a great one and for those of you enjoying the holiday tomorrow — have fun and be safe out there!

And that’s it for today. Thanks to my entire SMUW crew for all their efforts, plus Alex for the MLB uni tracking. Everyone have a great Sunday and a Happy Hallowe’en tomorrow. If I don’t drop dead from exhaustion, I’ll be back again next weekend, and all of this election madness will almost be over. And curling season starts. So, I got that going for me, which is nice. Until then…

Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken.

Peace.

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“Wahoo is a little much, but I also respect the sincere affection and tradition behind him at this point. I’d recommend taking him off the cap and reserving him for the jersey sleeve, as opposed to cold turkey. Retire him in stages, if retire him they must.”

— Le Cracquere