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Uni Watch

Uni Design of the Year Consists of Seven Red Dots

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Paul here, making a rare August appearance. I had planned to run something else at the top of today’s post, but the real world had other ideas. As you probably know by now, the photo above shows the WNBA’s Washington Mystics, who last night knelt during the national anthem while wearing T-shirts spelling out the name of Jacob Blake, the recent police brutality victim in Wisconsin. The back of each shirt had seven red bullet hole marks, representing the seven times Blake, who is Black, was shot in the back by a Kenosha, Wis., police officer.

We’ve seen lots of teams, leagues, and players wearing various sorts of protest-related apparel in recent years. But none of it has been as powerful as those simple red bullet holes. It was a devastatingly effective visual statement — all the more so because the hole patterns were different on each shirt, suggesting that the marks were probably applied by hand with Sharpies or something like that, rather than being a mass-printed design. It captured all the chaos, misery, and dysfunction of 2020 in one exceedingly potent gesture.

After the anthem played, the Mystics and their scheduled opponents, the Atlanta Dream, walked off the court. The rest of yesterday’s WNBA games were also scrapped. The WNBA clubs were among many pro sports teams and athletes that engaged in wildcat strikes yesterday as an extraordinary act of protest over the Blake shooting. Other strike participants included the following:

• In the NBA, the Bucks — whose home base of Milwaukee is about 40 miles from where Blake was shot, opted not to play their playoff game against the Magic. The other two NBA playoff games scheduled for yesterday — Thunder/Rockets and Blazers/Lakers — were soon postponed as well.

• In MLB, three scheduled games were not played. It began when the Brewers expressed solidarity with the Bucks by deciding not to play their home game against the Reds. Then the Mariners/Padres game was called off (the Mariners have more Black players than any other MLB club), followed by the Dodgers/Giants game (Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts had already decided, with his teammates’ support, not to play).

• In the NFL, Washington announced that today’s practice has been cancelled. (The Lions had already cancelled a practice of their own on Tuesday.) Update: The Colts and Jets have also cancelled today’s practice sessions.

• In MLS, five of yesterday’s six scheduled matches were called off.

• In pro tennis, Naomi Osaka announced that she would not play today’s scheduled semifinal match in the Western & Southern Open. Tournament organizers then announced that all of today’s matches will be postponed.

• The work stoppages even extended to the TNT broadcast studio, where Inside the NBA commentator and former NBA player Kenny Smith tried to describe his feelings and then walked off the set on live TV:

For now, only the Mystics have turned their protest into something uni-related, but I’m sure other teams will soon find ways to express their feelings on this issue via their apparel. In particular, I suspect we may be seeing a lot more athletes wearing shirts with simulated bullet holes on the back. At some point, maybe those shirts will seem rote, but I’ll never forget the moment I saw them last night, and how it felt like a gut punch to my entire being.

(As an aside: You may have noticed that I referred to this as a strike, while many media reports — and, in some cases, the athletes and teams themselves — have referred to it as a boycott. “Strike” is the accurate term here, because the players aren’t withholding their commerce; they’re withholding their labor. There’s a good analysis of the distinction between the two terms, and how they apply to the current situation, here.)

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Time for the College Football Season Preview: Pandemic or no pandemic, and protests or no protests, it’s almost time for college football, which means it’s also time for the annual Uni Watch College Football Season Preview, where you can get all the uniform news for the five FBS conferences that are still planning to play this season (including the new Texas A&M uniforms, shown above). You can check it out here.

Meanwhile: I have a new project that I want to tell you about. But given everything that’s happening right now — the protests, the hurricane, etc. — today doesn’t feel like the right day for that. Maybe tomorrow.

Now here’s Phil with the rest of today’s content. — Paul

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BC Throws a Hail Flutie

Phil here.

Yesterday afternoon, Boston College unveiled a “new” throwback uniform — more of a fauxback, actually — to the “Hail Flutie” 1984 look.

You guys remember the “Hail Flutie” right?

The unis aren’t quite the same ones worn by that special 1984 club, but they evoke the “feel” of the look. And there is even more good news: these won’t be one-off specials; according to the team, they’ll become a part of the regular rotation (the team will still wear its white jersey look, but the squad will mix in the fauxback on occasion).

Let’s look at some more pics:

You’ll note the “BC” logo on the shoulders — that was not a feature of the “Hail Flutie” set. (Interestingly, the Eagles did wear real 1984 throwbacks against Notre Dame in 2015).

These unis also have no sleeve stripes, as the 1984 unis did.

You’ll also note the team has removed the maroon stripe down the center of the helmet. The 1984 squad played without one as well.

The numbers are a maroon block font, outlined in “old” gold (the school says this uniform is returning to the “old gold” they once wore).

The interlocking “BC” is a retro logo, and as previously mentioned, it will be worn on the shoulders of the jersey. Here’s a closer look:

The old gold pants will have a white/maroon/white stripe.

I love the new uniforms — but I’m surprised the school is calling them “1984 throwbacks” because there are IMO too many differences between this and what that Miracle in Miami squad wore. Still, this is a welcome addition.

You can see more photos here.

If you’re of a certain vintage (as I am), you remember that Hail Flutie like it happened yesterday. I wasn’t a yuge college football fan back then, but I remember that game. BC led early but it was tied (I think at 31) after three, and then there were multiple lead changes in the 4th, obviously culminating in Flutie’s desperation heave, referred to as the “Hail Flutie” (a combination of “Hail Mary” and “Doug Flutie” — perhaps obviously). I was home from college my freshman fall and I watched the game completely hungover. Anyway…

What do you guys think of the throw fauxbacks?

• • • • •

• • • • •

Guess The Game…

from the scoreboard

Today’s scoreboard comes from Robert Andrews.

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).

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!):

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

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• • • • •

St. Peter’s Peacocks Rebrand

If you aren’t familiar with the St. Peter’s Peacocks, don’t feel bad — I wasn’t either, until Cullen Lasso of Varsity Partners reached out to me to note the school’s athletics teams had undergone what he called a “full rebrand.” You can see some of the new unis below:

They even produced a hype video:

Their “new visual identity includes a fresh take on our peacock mascot, a brand-new monogram, an updated wordmark, a unique typeface and a variety of new spirit marks.”

In addition, “The project mission was to create a simplified identity system that evokes the hard-working spirit of our community while harnessing the energy of the fanbase to build on an established legacy and tradition… one that goes back nearly a century!”

There’s lots more information about the rebrand of the logo and typefaces and such in this thread.

What do you guys think?

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• • • • •

The Ticker
By Alex Hider

Baseball News: ESPN and Bleacher Report both used old Brewers logos in connection with stories about the team’s decision not to play last night (from Geoff Poole and Jakob Fox). … White Sox C James McCann says he won’t wear the catching gear he wore during Lucas Giolito’s no-hitter on Tuesday night ever again. He also said the team would dig up home plate for him as a keepsake, and Giolito will be given the pitching rubber (from Ryan Andrew). … Josh Segal wants to know if this New Hampshire Fisher Cats cap was ever worn by the team on the field. Anyone have any info for him? … Here’s another report regarding the use of cardboard cutout fans at MLB games (from John Cerone).

Football News: Raiders coach John Gruden had players wear the numbers of some of the franchise’s best players during Monday’s practice (from Kary Klismet). … Bucs DT Vita Vea has already worn out the number on his practice jersey (from Wayne Koehler). … Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguist and frequent guest on NPR’s “Fresh Air,” died earlier this month. Since the late ’90s, he had called on Washington to change its team name, and even testified on behalf of a group of Native Americans to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (from Adam Herbst). … Man, check out the giant rear helmet bumper on Dan Marino’s helmet (from @NFL_Journal). … The jersey worn by Bills K Scott Norwood during his infamous ‘Wide Right’ kick from Super Bowl XXV up for auction (from @HelmetAddict). … Ricky Auferheide spotted a Smart car in New Orleans that was modeled after Ohio State’s helmet. … With one of yesterday’s sub-lede’s on the RoughRiders, reader Jeff Moulden says, “Did you notice #4 is wearing a helmet without the front ‘nose bumper’ that usually has a team name or manufactures name. This is the first time I have seen this on a player since the early 80’s. You can see the ends of the stripes that are generally tucked under.”

Hockey News: Canucks C Elias Pettersson accidentally pulled off Vegas D Alec Martinez’s glove during Tuesday night’s game. Pettersson promptly tossed the glove back to Martinez (from Mike Chamernik). … We’ve already got some concepts for potential Seattle Kraken goalie mask designs (from Kary Klismet). … New uniforms for the ECHL’s South Carolina Sting Rays — which mirror those of their parent company, the Capitals (from Jamie Rathjen).

Basketball News: The Hornets will be getting new uniforms next season (from Phil). … Speaking of the Hornets, At The Hive has determined the team’s BFBS “Buzz City” uniforms to be the best in team history (from Kary Klismet). … Also from Kary: This blog tracks the uniform history of the Nets, from New York to New Jersey to Brooklyn. … Graphic designer Mike Joseph mocked up a Suns concept that includes social justice messaging.

Soccer News: Juventus’ new third jerseys for 2020-2021 have been officially unveiled (from Phil). … New uniforms for FC St. Gallen of the Swiss Super League (from @MrBudziszewski). … Jamie Rathjen has a couple kit unveilings from England: Coventry City of The Championship and Hull City of League One.

Grab Bag: Couple of anniversary logo-related notes from John Cerone: Twin Peaks, a chain of lodge-themed sports bars, has a 15th anniversary logo, and the Local 825 Chapter of the International Union of Working Engineers has a 100th-anniversary logo. Also, he sends along this New York Times story (soft paywall) about new Girl Scout uniforms. … We’ve got several submissions from Kary Klismet: New logos for the National Junior College Athletic Association; new athletics logo for Cape Girardeau (Missouri) school district; and hatmaker Stetson has a new logo. … Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, a legendary BBQ spot in Syracuse, New York, has a new logo (from Timmy Donahue). … Also from Timmy: Mid-State Technical College in Wisconsin is seeking the public’s input on what to name its new Cougar mascot. … New logo for Crespi High School in California (from Damon Hirschensohn). … The Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (an NCAA DIII conference in Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky) has new logos. One of the schools in that conference, Hanover College, also has a new logo (from Derek Linn).

.

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And finally… looking forward to Paul’s NCAAFB preview! It’s always my second favorite column he writes (the first being the annual Baseball preview).

Before I get to yesterday’s photo — once again I want to pass along thoughts and prayers to everyone in Laura’s path. I had a hunch this one might develop into something awful as soon as I looked at the Gulf’s temps. It could end up being worse than Rita (which hit roughly the same area back in 2005, our worst hurricane season to date — and this year could being even more active!).

I had to head to my condo Tuesday, but came back out to the summer place yesterday afternoon, in time for an hour of kayaking and a four mile walk — when I take my usual route, one of the nice breakups of street walking is a small park located between two roads, which is a small nature trail, with tons of fowl about the ample waters. Thre are a shit ton of ducks, some geese and a pair of swans among other birds I don’t recognize. Like the four birds seen here (that’s a swan in the pond — it’s the four birds in the foreground). Anyone know what those are? I think they’re a type of goose, and they look like a cross between a duck and a goose.

And as is often the case, even on a totally sunny day (which yesterday was), often a layer of clouds builds up on the horizon at sunset, so we don’t really get a sunset, but often the color of the sky in the gloaming is even more incredible. It was pretty good yesterday:

There was an absolutely incredible post-sunset sky last year after a lighting storm. I’ll share that one either tomorrow or Monday.

That’s all for today — I’ll catch you tomorrow.

Peace,

PH

 
  
 
Comments (59)

    1. The bullet hold design is disturbingly effective as a sign of protest. Bravo, Mystics.
    2. Those BC uniforms aren’t throwbacks. They’re barely fauxbacks. They’re just new uniforms designed to look vintage. Real throwbacks to 1984 would require huge sleeve stripes (and sleeves), porthole mesh, screen-printed numbers, Champion font numbers, and removing the BC monogram from the shoulders. I mean, other than that, they’re spot-on…

    I find the highlighting of that WNBA idea incredibly disappointing here. Once again we are allowing the narrative to run wild in the court of public opinion with only partial and incomplete facts being told. And this narrative has resulted in riots, property destruction, and now the death of two additional people. The politics of the day encourage everyone to jump to whatever conclusion fits their personal ideology, and that is having disastrous results for the health and unity of our country.
    That we continue to take incomplete accounts of individual instances and attempt to claim they represent the actuality of reality, in spite of statistical evidence that indicates otherwise is incredibly dangerous.
    When actual change and improvement is needed, yet in pushing for that we continue to present half truths or narratives not backed up by comprehensive statistical evidence we will never actually progress towards real solutions. And I think we continue to see we may end up moving in the wrong direction.
    This is incredibly disappointing and disheartening as citizen who actively strives to make his community better for everyone in it, and especially for those who are on the lowest rung of it. I sincerely hope and pray that we can rise above this and actually work to resolve the long term problems that have been placed upon the black community for generations.

    Incomplete though it may be, the WNBA symbolism is accurate. A man was shot in the back seven times. As best I can tell, that symbolism draws no conclusions.

    At the end of the day there is one fact that we all agree on – that a man is dead, shot seven times. How we each choose to respond to that is a personal decision. For some, the death is enough. For others, additional context is needed before responding.
    For these players, one black man’s death was enough.

    To Ian DP: Your response is exactly what Greg is highlighting. The man didn’t die. Regardless if what happened is terrible, you don’t even know the most basic simple fact of the event before forming an opinion on the subject and then trying to discuss it or debate it. The world would all be a better place if everyone could digest all information first and form their opinion based on facts, in all things, not specifically this event. Not from seeing a biased snippet of an event on MSM or twitter. That, and looking at the man in the mirror to make the world a better place.

    Sorry you feel that way, Greg. As always, I appreciate your thoughtful feedback here on the site, even if we’ll have to agree to disagree on today’s post. Stay well!

    Greg–not sure I would characterize a peaceful protest with shirts as “disappointing”–here are some numbers:

    1. Blacks have had unequal treatment for hundreds of years, resulting in a distinct lack of generational wealth and opportunities. The average white family has 10 times the wealth of the average black family. (A)

    2. About 26% of blacks are in poverty, more than double the number of whites (about 12%). (B)

    3. Poverty drives crime. Poor and low income households suffer from violent victimization at drastically higher levels than mid and high income. (C)

    4. When police initiate contact, they do so at about equal rates between whites and blacks (11% each), yet blacks experience the threat or use of physical force at twice the rates of whites (5.2% vs 2.4%). (D)

    Thus when you say “not backed up by comprehensive statistical evidence” I’m not sure what you are talking about.

    In conclusion, I support the concept of “Black Lives Matter” because it is offered as a defiant paean to our culture that has actively upheld the opposite for many centuries.

    Protest on! (But not riots. Not cool.)

    SOURCES:

    (A) link

    (B) link

    (C) link

    (D) link

    Mike. Thank you for posting this. It will come in handy for me after I read the source material.

    P.S. – I live in Kenosha, WI

    What a tremendously eloquent way of expressing something I firmly believe as well, but could never find the words to say it.

    Ah, you beat me to it. I don’t think I was at that game but attended many during the mid-2000s.

    A gut punch to your entire being? Interesting. I care little about domestic abusers who fight police, disregard police orders in an effort to reach a weapon. But the left’s game is to martyr any black person shot by the police no matter how scummy they are. Gaslighting of the highest order. This country is so fvcked.

    I’m always disappointed whenever someone is critical of another person for expressing how they feel about something. You all love freedom of speech when you get to say whatever you want but when someone expresses some other opinion then suddenly the country is “fvcked.”

    Also, police shouldn’t shoot anyone regardless of how “scummy” they are.

    Replying to myself to ask if one of the admins has the ability to delete this entire thread–the original poster has demonstrated himself as a troll in one of the replies.

    “Gaslighting of the highest order”

    He was shot by police in the back seven times. Who deserves that?

    Your glossing over of the fact that a man was shot in the back by police seven times makes me wonder if you know what gaslighting means. You seem intent on creating your own reality.

    Emma Meesseman confirmed that the shirts were hand-made via Twitter.

    Emma Meesseman
    @EmmaMeesseman
    Never thought I would paint bullet holes on the back of a T-shirt. 7 gunshots in the back. This happened to a human being in real life. A Black Man. How many more?
    #BlackLivesMatter

    link

    All Paul did here was report what transpired. He didn’t politize nor even give an opinion, except expressing the way it made him feel.
    Furthermore, this isn’t a news site, its Pauls site. I disagree with many of his views, (both political and uni color preferences, lol)but appreciate both his passion and intellect when he chooses to express them.
    In this case, when the uni world and real world collided, Paul did exactly what he should have.

    Thanks for this comment, Bob. I’m mostly aligned with Paul politically–though not quite as much on uniform opinions.

    That said, Paul simply shared a notable on court incident where players expressed an opinion through uniforms. If that’s not something this site should cover than I don’t know what is.

    Paul puts in the research, due diligence, sweat and toil that I would never have the patience to do on even my favorite topics. That’s why I find it so thrilling when I disagree with him, which is often. I know I’m going to get a very intelligent argument.

    Yes exactly–I don’t always agree with his uni opinions (I’m more in favor of purple and I enjoy alternate uniforms within reason), but I always appreciate his take (as well as Phil’s take!) because it’s very well considered, researched, and thought out.

    This is generally one of my favorite places on the internet because the community is so reasonable with one another, and I’m willing to be patient with the technical hangups in order to enjoy the well reasoned conversation about minutia. (Honestly, what’s not to love!)

    Looking forward to the day when football players stop turning their pants into bike shorts.

    Until then, thanks a lot, Larry Fitzgerald.

    Paul–it looks like the lede also appears in the ticker. Was that intentional?

    Also, just wanted to share a picture of me in my new favorite hat:

    link

    Good-looking hat!

    Didn’t realize the lede topic was also Tickered. (That’s what happens when one person writes the lede after midnight when another person had already edited the Ticker.) Now fixed.

    When I saw BC along with Flutie my mind goes here first:
    link

    Similarly whenever I heard UConn, I’m always thinking …
    link
    (if Huskies is added it doesn’t help deter from that thought at all)

    It appears to me that the BC jerseys are the same as they wore in 2015. They both have the BC logo on the shoulders, and the ’15 iteration had the stripes on the compression sleeves. Without the extra sleeves, they appear to be the same.

    Regarding the Dan Marino helmet – he was wearing a Rawlings helmet at that time (circa 1986-87) and their design did have a huge back bumper. If you find a shot of the front of the helmet these had an extra-wide front bumper as well.

    Absolutely love those BC unis. For some reason, I have always been a fan of the BC color scheme and history of uniforms they have had.

    Good stuff, Paul, although reading about the death of the paper ticket bummed me out and really ticks me off. Can’t anything be permanent anymore? -C.

    on the lighter side re Peacocks, aka male peafowl. I’m a big fan of less flashy female birds. Female cardinals are my favorite (and I wish St. Louis would acknowledge them!!). It’d be awesome if the women’s teams were The Peahens.

    I live in a relatively urban neighborhood that has a resident peafowl population. It was once as high as 24 a few years ago, but is now just 4. 1 peacock and 3 peahens.

    …which is a small nature trail, with tons of foul about the ample waters.

    Funny that domesticated birds (fowl) were brought up, but then I find this misspelling in Phil’s recounting of the day’s sunset.

    Oh sweet shit. Sorry — I wrote that really late last night (after a lot of backing and forthing with PL about whether his NCAA bit would run today — we went from yes it would, to no, it won’t, can you turn your BC sub-lede into a lede, then wait, turns out IH WILL run it, let’s return to the original piece, to Paul deciding to lede with the strikes…that and the whole back end of the blog has been acting up). NONE of that is an excuse to misspell fowl…but let’s just say the past day wasn’t anything approaching normal.

    Cheers.

    Female cardinals are gray-ish (usually more of a butternut yellow, but close enough to gray in certain light) that they’d be perfect for St. Louis to wear on their road uniforms.

    Thanks Paul for this lede. On a day where so much happened all at once in sports and in labor (and thank you for that distinction of boycott vs. strike — as it was certainly the latter, and one of the biggest wildcat strikes we’ve seen in decades), that image of the seven bullet holes says it all.

    Regarding the New Hampshire Fisher Cats cap: a quick check of Sportslogos site shows that cap has the club’s primary logo since 2011 and wasn’t worn on-field, just fashion cap/fan merch.
    link

    This page displays the 9 different cap logos worn since 2004 when team relocated to Manchester.

    Don’t know if this falls under the purview of the Uni-Watch angle concerning the player strikes, but it was an interesting opinion offered by an analyst on ESPN: The professional athletes refusing to play are roughly standing in as America’s parents, taking away a toy because the country cannot behave. “If you keep shooting and killing black citizens,” WNBA, NBA, and MLB players are saying, “we will take away your professional sports.”

    I think Bat Manuel may have alluded to it earlier, but the Hornets decided to postpone the new uni launch in response to what’s been going on in the country.
    link

    That piece on the history of the Nets is a hot mess. It leaves out Long Island, the Rick Barry era, and the uniform they wore then.

    That Local 825 logo… I almost fell down into the hole reading! It’s sucking me into the pit!

    Wasn’t the Saint Peter’s logo update in yesterday’s ticker? Regardless, I found it interesting that they use a SP wordmark instead of StP. Looking over their update, it seems they use Saint instead of St. Seemingly rare in athletics, no?

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