Skip to content
 
Uni Watch

NCAA Costume Ball (And It’s Not Even Hallowe’en!)

By

By Phil Hecken

It’s that time of year — around the third weekend in October — when NCAA teams, now smack dab in the midst of the celebration of the college football’s 150th Anniversary, begin to really start breaking out the costumes. Some of these are good — some are well, not so good — but the one I’ve been really waiting to see since it was introduced is being worn today: Rutgers “throwback” sleeved uniform. That’s right, to really give the uniforms the Scarlet Knights will be wearing today a special throwback feel, Rutgers will be wearing FULL sleeves on their jerseys.

The Scarlet Knights will be debuting a new uniform combo of long-sleeve scarlet jerseys, off-white pants with an old school Rutgers “R” on off-white helmets to honor the first ever football game between Rutgers and Princeton back in 1869. Of course, this uniform will look nothing like that first uniform (or at least, the artist’s rendition of that uniform), but why quibble over facts? I’m just excited to see a full sleeved uniform for the first time in probably my entire lifetime. In fact, if anything, this uniform will probably more closely resemble one worn just pre-World War II (more like 77 years ago):

You can look at a bunch of photos of the uniform from when it was first released here. Back then, the uniform definitely had a scarlet and cream look to it, but that was no doubt due to the filter on the camera. The unis to be worn today should have a more pronounced white look to the cream-looking elements:

The team did a pretty decent hype video for these, also showing off the look:

I’m very pumped to see this game, or at least a part of it, if only for the novelty of the full sleeve. In a sport where sleeves have basically disappeared (in favor of compression shirts), and where the sleeve has been viewed as a competitive disadvantage, it will be interesting to see how these fare. Granted, the sleeves on this jersey aren’t like the sleeves of 60-plus years ago — they’re form fitting and pretty compression-like in their own right — but they are still sleeves. I hope it goes well, as I for one would LOVE to see the return to sleeves for a football jersey, especially for cold-weather games. I wouldn’t bet on it — I’m sure this will be a one-off novelty — but for one game it will be fun to see.

• • • • • •

Rutgers is not alone in having a special costume today. There are plenty (and I’m sure I’m missing a few) but let’s see what else it new on the gridiron today:

Texas Tech

The Red Riders will be throwing it back to 1976 today.

Boston College

The Eagles are once again throwing it back to the Flutie Hail Mary days:

You can read more about both of these unis here

• • •

UAB

The Blazers will be breaking out the worst uniforms in football:

• • •

Illinois

The Illini are again wearing their Red Grange “Galloping Ghost” alternates:

• • •

Air Force

The Falcons, who always seem to get one great alternate uniform a season, will honor the C-17 aircraft with their kits. Read more here

• • •

Duke & Virginia

In what may qualify as the stupidest celebration of 150, the Hoos & Devs will be wearing giant honking “150” decals on their hats:

• • •

NDSU

The Bison are going full mono green (you never go full mono green):

• • •

Texas

The Longhorns, who won the NCAA Champeenship in 1969, will be throwing back to that year:

• • •

Oklahoma

The Sooners will be bringing the wood versus the Mountaineers:

• • •

And that’s just a sampling of today’s costumes. I’m sure there will be plenty more (including Stanford going BFBS once again). It’s that time of year. And we still have another weekend before Hallowe’en!


Kreindler’s Korner

I had the distinct pleasure of featuring the wonderful artwork of artist Graig Kriendler on two occasions over the summer and fall of 2017, and more recently, in August of 2018.

For those who don’t wish to click the links, Graig paints baseball heroes (and regular guys) from the past, and is an immense talent.

Occasionally, I will be featuring his work on Uni Watch.

Here’s today’s offering (click to enlarge):

• • •

Title: “Chet Brewer, 1946” (color study)
Subject: Chet Brewer, 1946
Medium: Oil on linen mounted to board
Size: 5” x 7”

Perhaps one of the busiest ballplayers of the era, Chet Brewer saw himself on teams that traveled the United States, as well as places like China, Japan, the Philippines, Panama, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Haiti and Santo Domingo.

Starting his career in professional ball during the mid-1920s, Brewer is best known as a Kansas City Monarch. With that club he found himself pitching alongside the likes of Bullet Rogan, who was one of his boyhood idols, and later, Satchel Paige. Though he sat out the 1924 Negro World Series, at the age of 19, Brewer became a regular in the starting rotation in ‘26, going 14-1 in the regular season – good for tying Rogan for third most wins in the Negro National League. He also led in winning percentage and was second to Bill Foster in strikeouts.

By the mid to late 1930s, when he was in his prime, Brewer left the NNL to play semipro ball for Bismarck and the Jamestown Red Sox. It was also then that he ventured to Latin America, notably to the Dominican Republic (to do battle on the diamond against the famous Dragones de Ciudad Trujillo) and the Mexican League.

The early 1940s saw Chet with various war-time industrial leagues in Los Angeles, as well as a stint in the California Winter League.

Chet is pictured here in his road Cleveland Buckeyes uniform from the 1946 season – a year after the ballclub won its first Negro World Series. Interestingly enough, that same year prior, an Indians farm team had considered signing Brewer as a player manager, only to have General Manager Roger Peckinpaugh balk at the chance.

By 1952, he had become one of the first black managers in the minors with Porterville of the Southwest International League. He even found himself on the mound occasionally, going 6-5 (for a sub-.400 team) and posting a 3.38 ERA.

The man just never stopped.

This is one of 200+ paintings of mine that will be on display at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in the spring of 2020.

• • •

Thanks, Graig! You can (and should!) follow Graig on Twitter.


Uni Concepts & Tweaks

After being dormant for a while, the Uni Tweaks/Concepts have returned!

I hope you guys like this feature and will want to continue to submit your concepts and tweaks to me. If you do, Shoot me an E-mail (Phil (dot) Hecken (at) gmail (dot) com).

• • •

I received the following e-mail from reader “cmayor71”, who has a couple concepts for the soon-to-be-redesigned Cleveland Browns:

I came up with this while imagining what the last Browns redesign might look like. Hopefully they’ll get it right this time around.

• • •

Thanks cmayor. OK readers (and concepters). If you have some tweaks or concepts, shoot ’em my way with a brief description of your creation and I’ll run ’em here.


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. Alex also tracked the playoffs for Uni Watch last season as well. Here’s how the 2016 World Series looked, here’s how the 2017 Playoffs shook out, and here’s the 2018 Playoffs.

Alex is back once again for the 2019 MLB Playoffs. Last night’s Astros/Yankees game ended too late for the tracking, but the pins v. gray matchup held for all three games at Yankee Stadium. In case you haven’t already noticed, the Nationals — your NL Champs — have worn their blue “Nationals” alternate tops in EVERY game they’ve won, so we can expect them to break those out for the first game of the World Series. My guess is they’ll ride these until they lose; I’d expect to see a similar situation to that of the 2007 Colorado Rockies, who wore those god-awful black vests throughout their LDS & LCS games all the way to the World Series, where they were stymied in 4 games by the Red Sox. The team did ditch the black vest look once they lost in them. I can see the Nats possibly doing the same, should they lose any games.

• • •

Wild Card & LDS Games

• • •

LCS Games

• • •

Full Tracking

• • •

Thanks, Alex.

And now a few words from Paul: Hi there. In case you missed it on Friday, we’re once again offering the Uni Watch Cycling Jersey for a new batch of orders from now through Nov. 1. Just like before, you can choose your number and NOB for a custom look. The finished product should be ready to ship in early December — just in time for the holidays. If you want in, you can place your order here.

Also:

• I’ll have my annual Uni Watch NBA Season Preview on Monday. It will appear on the men’s lifestyle site InsideHook — my first piece for them (although they wrote a profile of me back in May).

• I’m about to start working on my annual Uni Watch Holiday Gift Guide. If you know of a good uni- or logo-themed product or company — or if you produce such a product or run such a company yourself, for that matter — please let me know. Thanks.

• If you purchased a Uni Watch Press Pin, please feel free to enter your numbered pin on this pin registry. The idea is that it’s fun to see who got which number, and some people may want to trade for specific numbers.

• I’m grateful to the many readers who chipped in on Friday to help send me to San Diego, where I’ll cover the Padres’ uni unveiling. I’ll have more to say about that on Monday.

That’s it! We now return you to your regularly scheduled Phil-fest.

A New Griffons Contest

Welp. I was thisclose to announcing a new contest for readers to design a logo for another team named the Griffons (unlike the Grand Rapids Griffins, this is for the Nevada [Missouri] Griffons summer collegiate baseball team). To be brief, the team has decided to update their logo (seen above), and are offering a $200 grand prize for a winning design.

Why “Griffons”? It’s a pretty cool back story.

After some back and forth, the team ultimately decided they wouldn’t be able to partner with Uni Watch (for reasons too complicated to explain), but I told them I’d still bring attention to their contest on this site.

If you’re a graphic designer (or, really, ANY kind of designer) and you would like to take a shot at redesigning their logo, the rules & deets are here. The contest is open from October 1 through December 1, so you have some time to participate.

I think it would have been cool to host two different Griffin/Griffon design contests for two different teams in two different sports in two different states in one year, but alas, ’twasn’t to be.

Good luck to those who participate!

Guess The Game…

from the scoreboard

The game has returned! At least for a trial basis, but I got a lot of positive response to its return, so we’ll see how long we keep this one going.

Today’s scoreboard comes from reader ojai67.

The premise of the game (GTGFTS) is simple: I’ll post a scoreboard and you guys simply identify the game depicted. In the past, I don’t know if I’ve ever completely stumped you (some are easier than others).

Sorry about the giant watermark on today’s entry — but it shouldn’t in any way affect your ability to solve the game…

Here’s the Scoreboard. In the comments below, try to identify the game (date & location, as well as final score). If anything noteworthy occurred during the game, please add that in (and if you were AT the game, well bonus points for you!):

If you guys like this, please continue sending these in! You’re welcome to send me any scoreboard photos (with answers please), and I’ll keep running them.

The Ticker
By Anthony Emerson

Baseball News: A guy wore a “Joe Buck Sucks” T-shirt behind home plate during last night’s ALCS game at Yankee Stadium. Buck was, of course, broadcasting the game on Fox at the time.
.

NFL News: New uni numbers for the Ravens: CB Marcus Peters is now wearing no. 24 after being assigned no. 30 yesterday and CB Brandon Carr is now wearing no. 39 after after wearing 24 for his first two-and-a-half seasons in Baltimore. He wore 39 with the Cowboys and Kansas City (from Andrew Cosentino). … Also posted in the hockey section: the 49ers all wore Sharks sweaters while travelling to Landover (from Paul Simpson). … NASCAR driver Michael Annett has a new Browns-themed helmet for this weekend’s race in Kansas (from David G. Firestone).

College/High School Football News: GFGS has gone too far! McGuffey (Pa.) High is installing a two-toned grey artificial turf. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself (blame goes to Joe Werner). … Virginia Tech is going mono-maroon tomorrow (from Andrew Cosentino). … Mizzou is going mono-white when they take on Vanderbilt (from Jacob Bogage). … Storm Lake (Ia.) High coaches are wearing pink pants for breast cancer awareness (from Jay Wright). … Omaha (Ne.) Central wore mono-silver when they played Omaha South last night, and it was just as bad-looking as it sounds (from @CWSSuperFan). … Arlington (Tx.) Bowie High has added No. 46 patches to their uniforms in memory of senior Anthony Strather, who was shot and killed last weekend (from Chris Mycoskie).

Hockey News: Cross-posted from the NFL section: the 49ers all wore Sharks sweaters while travelling to Landover (from Paul Simpson). … The KHL’s Salavat Yulaev will wear special sweaters to face their rivals Ak Bars Kazan (from Conan Smeeth). … The WHL’s Calgary Hitmen have unveiled a special jersey for Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart night, one of the team’s original owners. The uni is to be worn on Nov. 2 (from Wade Heidt and Colin Fraser).

Pro Basketball News: The WNBA’s Atlanta Dream have undergone a complete redesign (from @TheSkyShowCHI and @Starkman55). … Grizzlies fans — that is, Vancouver Grizzlies fans — rallied outside of Rogers Centre ahead of the Clippers/Mavs pre-season game there to call for another franchise in the city. Chinese-Canadians also showed up to protest the NBA’s coziness with the Xi regime following Daryl Morey’s pro-Hong Kong protests tweet (from Wade Heidt).

Soccer News: Next season’s Barcelona training kits have been leaked to Footy Headlines, and they offer us a look at Nike’s newest template (from Josh Hinton). … Also from Josh: the Premier League and EA Sports have released “No Room For Racism” kits for download in FIFA 20, along with a stadium theme with the same message. … A whole bunch of alternate kit colors, competition logos and balls were released yesterday, which you can check out on Josh’s Twitter feed.

Grab Bag: New kits for Trentino Volley, an Italian men’s volleyball team (from Jeremy Brahm). … Warrior has become the official equipment supplier of the National Lacrosse League (from Wade Heidt). … Not uni related, but William F. Yurasko sends along these beautiful color-coded maps of the DC area.

 
  
 
Comments (30)

    Texas’ 1969 national championship in football was not an NCAA championship.

    NCAA only has football titles in FCS (DI-AA), D-II, and D-III.

    I know it would be a mismatch, but it would have been cool to have Rutgers play Princeton in their throwback game.

    Rutgers and Princeton actually played something closer to “association football.” What we might call “soccer.”

    Maybe we can lay off UAB with the whole “worst uni in college football” thing:
    link
    GFGS sucks and all, but these are for a good reason. If I remember correctly, I believe one of the Children’s Harbor kids originally came up with the design.

    Agreed. Although I personally find all the “GFGS” (and “BFBS” and “Rash” and “costumes” and blah blah) whining to be annoying and played out. Just bc your grandaddy didn’t wear a uniform doesn’t make it a joke. Move on. Or, at a minimum, if you want to keep complaining, come up with a clever new insult.

    When you begin by describing a well-articulated point of view as “whining,” you’re not arguing in good faith.

    When you make assertions that are both ageist and erroneous (we have plenty of young readers who don’t like these uniforms either), you’re not arguing in good faith.

    “BFBS” is a legitimate critique of a cynical marketing ploy; “Color Rash” is a legitimate form of mockery of a cynical marketing ploy, and a way to push back against cringe-worthy corporatespeak.

    If you disagree with these critiques, feel free to make your case on the merits, in good faith.

    And if you’re tired of the term “Color Rash,” I assure you that’s nothing compared to how tired I am of “Color Rush.” Trust me on that.

    I don’t agree it’s a “well-articulated point of view,” and just because someone doesn’t agree with you doesn’t make it “bad faith.”
    i don’t think the names are clever. I think they are silly and tired and played out. I cringe when I read them – I didn’t years ago, but now I do bc they are tired. My comments are directed at “the merits” of those phrases.

    I don’t agree it’s a “well-articulated point of view,”

    I have spelled out these points of view in significant detail over the years, Cole.

    just because someone doesn’t agree with you doesn’t make it “bad faith.”

    I didn’t say it was bad faith because you disagree with me (in fact, mischaracterizing my position in that way is itself yet another example of arguing in bad faith). You’re arguing in bad faith because you dismiss an entire point of view as “whining” and then make an ageist and erroneous assertion. Instead, if you disagree with the point of view, try to put forth a counter-view of your own. That is arguing in good faith.

    i don’t think the names are clever. I think they are silly and tired and played out. I cringe when I read them – I didn’t years ago, but now I do bc they are tired. My comments are directed at “the merits” of those phrases.

    Excellent! That is the beginning of a good faith argument — no blanket dismissal, no ageist or erroneous assertions. See, it’s not that hard.

    Now then: I’m surprised you take issue with BFBS/GFGS, which are fairly simple, straightforward shorthand descriptors. Accurate descriptors, too. We will continue to use them.

    I will concede that Color Rash may be a bit played out. But there’s no way that corporatespeak like Color Rush is going to start appearing on this site — that would help normalize it, and that’s not going to happen. For a while I was happy to simply refer to these as the “Thursday-night uniforms,” because that was the only time they were worn, but that no longer fits.

    So: Would you like to help the situation by suggesting a substitute term? Color Rash, after all, was not my idea — it was suggested by a reader, as have many of the terms we use here. You could join that proud tradition.

    Re “ageist” – Where are you getting that? My comment had nothing to do with age. We are the same age – I may be older, actually. Why are you assuming I’m “young” just bc I don’t yearn for yesteryear?

    Re name – just describe the uniform. Is it red? Then “red uniforms” would work. Or red alternates. Or, if you must, Thursday night alternates. Personally, I don’t think they need a special nickname to make fun of them any more than they need a corporatespeak name to prop them up. It’s just a red uniform, no matter how you or Nike or whoever want to brand them. It’s a red uniform.

    Also, you know what are simple, straightforward, accurate descriptors?
    Grey.
    Black.

    Re “ageist” – Where are you getting that? My comment had nothing to do with age. We are the same age – I may be older, actually. Why are you assuming I’m “young” just bc I don’t yearn for yesteryear?

    You are yet again not arguing in good faith (or at least not with any semblance of logic or critical thinking). I never once said or even implied that you are young; I simply said you made an ageist assertion, which you did — the bit about grandaddies. Please don’t do that again. Thanks.

    Maybe we can lay off UAB with the whole “worst uni in college football” thing:
    link
    GFGS sucks and all, but these are for a good reason. If I remember correctly, I believe one of the Children’s Harbor kids originally came up with the design.

    Yep, I am in the CTV news footage in the Ticker at the Vancouver Grizzlies rally outside Rogers Arena. I am rocking the black #3 Shareef Abdur-Rahim Grizzlies jersey at about the 0:18 second mark.

    Global News made an appearance with the cameras as well.

    link

    $200 for a logo? Sheesh, just go to cheaplogodesigns.com and call it a day. Or, ask the local high school kid.
    Absurd.

    Today’s scoreboard is the beautiful one in Sportsmans Park, St. Louis. There was a clock at the top center of the board that was removed in the 50’s when the Budweiser ad took over. The scaffolding we see behind the upper part of the board held a top tier of ads, and there were ads where the “Cardinal” and message sections are on either side of the games.

    Obviously post-Browns move from St. Louis in 54, it’s also post 62-expansion as there’s an additional game added below the original four on each side. That bottom area was mostly blank or used for upcoming game announcements. They moved the home game up from the old bottom (now the 4th) to the middle of the NL side and outlined the Cardinals game in red.

    Milwaukee is listed, so it’s between 62 and 65. And… it’s a hit!

    What’s the deal with the white panel on left with the cardinal and a bunch of black markings?

    Ha! It does look strange! They had the Cardinal animated with I guess, neon. After home runs he’d swing at a ball. The Anheuser-Busch ad would light up along with the swinging Cardinal. You can see it at 13:25 (and also at 6:35) in link So I guess those black marks are the neon tubing. I just looked it up after seeing your comment and I must say: pretty cool for the 50’s-60’s.

    I initially agreed with you, Phil, about the Duke and Virginia 150 helmets, but after seeing there was precedent (from the 100th anniversary celebration in 1969), I got on board with the idea.

    link

    “The Longhorns, who won the NCAA Champeenship in 1969, will be throwing back to that year:

    Championship, not champeenship

    The Oklahoma Sooners are wearing their crimson Rough Riders uniforms today but have chosen to pair them with the crimson helmets as opposed to the cream colored helmets shown in today’s photo.

    Also, proofreading: Texas Tech Red Raiders, not Red Riders.

    Anything has to be better than that Griffons logo. The ball is right there and he hasn’t even begun his swing! Looks so awkward. Clip art would be better.

    Early contenders for tomorrow’s top five: Pitt at Syracuse. Looked absolutely gorgeous despite playing in a dome. If Paul gave out awards for best uni redesign, Pitt should win. The number font is beautifully unique. Also in the running: Houston at Connecticut. Red & white vs blue & white. Simple and classic contrast.

    The Nats wore their blue jerseys in every win in the LDS and LCS. They wore white in the wildcard game.

    So, I’m guessing now that Houston has made the World Series, there is going to be a poop-load of speculation as to whether the Tequila Sunrises may make a cameo.

    I seriously doubt it.

    A Nightmare for Paul in Abilene. Purple-clad Abilene Christian against Stephen F Austin, who soft-pedals its purple school color white jerseys and black pants. But Abilene’s jerseys are a light purple with black? sleeves and purple helmets. Definitely a worst of the week candidate.

    I’ve contributed a couple dozen ticker items over the years, but I think this is the first time I’ve ever been “blamed” in the credits!

    Just so happens that the CEO of the company that serves as Michael Annett’s car advertis…err, sponsor is also the owner of the Cleveland Browns.

Comments are closed.