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Uni Watch

Summo Scores Again With Retro NFL Playoff Graphics

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Mike Summo — the guy who did those great NFL Grinch illustrations that I wrote about last month — has been creating these awesome retro-styled graphics for the NFL postseason. If this doesn’t get you in the mood for this weekend’s playoff games, nothing will! (He also did these for last week’s AFC and NFC Wild Card games.)

I love how the graphics are a bit out of focus. Just put a little tin foil on the antenna and that should take care of it!

You can see more of Mike’s excellent graphics by following him on Twitter.

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Today’s real lede: Last week on Bulletin, I assigned letter grades to teams that changed their names while remaining in the same city. This week I’m looking at the inverse of that situation — teams that kept their names even when moving to a new city, like the ones shown above. Which ones should have changed their names? Much like last week’s piece, this was a really fun exercise, and you can check it out over on Bulletin.

Speaking of Bulletin: In case you missed it yesterday, there’s some important news on that front. Full details here.

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Photo by Gary A. Vasquez, USA Today Sports; click to enlarge

Should’ve gone shirts vs. skins: Very odd uni matchup for last night’s Lakers/Pacers game in L.A., as both teams wore a lot of yellow.

Here’s another view:

Since the Lakers were the home team, the onus was on the Pacers to wear something of sufficient contrast. I’m surprised they were allowed to wear this set.

(My thanks to @mayorofreal and Trevor Williams for this one.)

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ITEM! Pin bundles now available: As I mentioned a few weeks ago, Todd Radom and I have decided to stop doing new pin designs (except for the annual Press Pin, which we’ll keep doing each October). This had nothing to do with the recent Teespring shipping snafu — we had already made the decision months ago.

I’ve retrieved all of the remaining pin inventory from Teespring and am now offering them at a discounted price, with bigger discounts for multi-pin bundles. Here’s the deal:

1. All of the pins shown above are available (except the ones marked “Sold Out,” obviously), and so is our basic winged stirrup pin (shown at right).

2. The pricing is as follows:

    • One pin for $9
    • Any two for $16
    • Any three for $21
    • Any five for $30
    • Any eight for $40
    • Any 12 for $50

If you want more than 12, email me and I’ll give you a price.

3. Shipping in the USA is $5 for up to eight pins, or $7 for any quantity larger than that. If you’re outside the USA, contact me for a shipping quote.

4. Tally up the total for your purchase and then send me the proper amount via Venmo (use @Paul-Lukas-2 as the payee), PayPal (newcollegeuni@gmail.com), or Zelle (plukas64@gmail.com). If you’d rather use Apple Pay or a paper check, contact me and I’ll give you the info you need.

5. After sending payment, email me with your mailing address and a list of the pins you want. Please list them by date — “January 2020,” “May 2021,” and so on.

6. If you want to combine your purchase with an order for a Uni Watch koozie, a trading card, a seam ripper, or a magnet (prices have just been reduced on all of those products), email me and I’ll give you a price that includes a combined shipping fee for the whole shebang. (Sorry, these are the only Uni Watch items I can combine into one shipment, because our other items ship from separate locations.)

One final note: Sorry, but these discounted/bundled pins cannot be used to qualify for the “Collect ’Em All” bonus pins. That promotion is now closed.

That’s it. Thanks!

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Raffle winner: Who’s that in the Uni Watch “gold circle” cap? None other than reader Marc Burgess, who won that cap — the last of its kind — a few weeks ago in the year-end raffle. “My wife said I should be cool and not send this, but whatever — the hat made my week!” he said.

Glad you’re enjoying it, Marc. Looking good!

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The Ticker
By Paul

Indigenous Appropriation News: Last year the school board in Bellefonte, Pa., voted to scrap the district’s “Red Raiders” team name and Native American imagery. Now the board has reversed those decisions (from Doug Keklak).

Baseball News: The latest team in the Pioneer League will be called the Glacier Range Riders (from Eric Taylor). … As mentioned in yesterday’s Ticker, the Triple-A Sugar Land Skeeters are now called the Space Cowboys. Here’s their new logo (thanks to all who shared). … Fun piece about how former Reds 3B Chris Sabo had cool goggles (thanks, Brinke). … New home pinstripes for UCLA softball (from @MistaMaxG). … New sleeve patch this year for Little League (from Devin Clancy)

Football News: The Bills will go mono-white this Sunday in KC (thanks, Phil). … Here’s Jason Von Stein’s uni/mascot-centric illo for this weekend’s playoff games. … Lots of NFL players are wearing Dreamathon T-shirts during pregame warm-ups.

Hockey News: Reader Wayne Jones notes that the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs don’t have any players with a single-digit number. … New late-1990s-style alternate possibly in the works for the Sabres (from @aetk28). … Hispanic Heritage Night pregame jerseys last night for the Devils (from Wade Heidt). … The Canadiens welcomed new GM Kent Hughes with a No. ’22 jersey including the apostrophe (from Moe Khan). … The Coachella Valley Firebirds teased a uni unveiling for next Monday (from Stan Capp). … The Ducks wore white at home against the Avs last night (from @NasLeaf). … Nickelodeon Double Dare Night jerseys — whatever that means — for the Tulsa Oilers this Saturday (from D. Hempel). … Very cool early-1970s video of North Stars goalies Gump Worsley and Cesare Maniago discussing their gear (from our own Jerry Wolper).

NBA News: Good podcast episode on the differences between 1990s NBA uniforms and today’s (thanks to all who shared). … During last night’s Celtics/Hornets game, ESPN had a graphic that mistakenly referred to the Hornets as the Bobcats (from Mario Cuttone).

Soccer News: Here’s a great story about clubs in Mexico’s Liga MX wearing lucha libre-themed kits (from @JonDWilbs). … New kits for Japanese side Ehime FC (from Jeremy Brahm).

Olympics News: New curling uniforms for defending men’s gold medalists Team USA (from Kary Klismet and Phil). … Also from Kary: Kazakhstan’s Olympic uniforms will carry the word “Qazaqstan” to more accurately reflect the preferred Latin alphabet spelling in the country’s native language.

Grab Bag: New logo for Anheuser-Busch. … Following up on Ticker items from the past two days, here’s are all of the AFL Women’s pride jumpers (from Chris Bamford). … “The U.S. field hockey teams are playing at the Pan American Cup in Chile, which is the Americas championship,” says our own Jamie Rathjen. “There are a few things going on with these pictures from the USWNT’s first game: They’re back to wearing sleeveless shirts (they briefly didn’t last time they played), and I have no idea what this shirt crest is. It doesn’t look field hockey-related, yet it must be a USA Field Hockey logo since there’s no reason for it to be anything else. The men’s team has it, too.”

 
  
 
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Comments (87)

    RE: Pin offer
    I wish I had a reason to buy these! I have no place to go that requires a lapel suitable for a lapel pin. *CHECK THAT* I have no place to go.

    Awesome artwork Mike.

    Thank you for sharing the weekly NFL art Paul.

    I hope everyone has an awesome NFL weekend.

    Go Bengals.

    Can’t believe I’ve been drawing the end of our curse. I should have done this many years ago, lol.

    love the inverse of last weeks bulletin piece.

    Looks like there’s a formatting issue in “Raiders: Oakland (1960-81) →Los Angeles (1982-94) → Oakland (1995-2019) → Las Vegas (2020-present)” where the L in Los is bold? Don’t know if that is as easy to adjust or if it’s just my computer.

    Could the Bobcats graphic on last night’s game have been part of 75th anniversary graphics?

    That’s exactly it – the Celtics logo next to it is the pre-1996 version. It’s something I’ve seen during a few games this season.

    Hi Paul, in the Bulletin piece, where you talk about the Hawks in the NBA, the word Atlanta is Missing where you put the dates and cities they played in.

    On the Bulletin piece, why are the Nets included? The Giants and Jets are specifically noted as being left out because they didn’t leave the metro area. The Nets are the same, in fact for most of their time in New Jersey they played in an arena right next to the Giants and Jets in the Meadowlands.

    Giants and Jets didn’t change their overall brands (“New York Giants,” “New York Jets”) — they just moved to a new stadium. Same fan bases, too. Nets changed a lot more than that.

    Judgment call, admittedly. But as someone who lives in Brooklyn and grew up rooting for the Nets when they were on Long Island, that’s how it feels to me.

    Interesting native feedback. As a South Jerseyian, there was always a definite understanding that the Devils were a different animal, not a NY team, even though they pretty much played in the same spot as the Giants/Jets, who were of course NY teams. I don’t know that the Nets ever were viewed the same as the Devils as a NJ, as opposed to a NY team based outside the city in NJ.
    South Jersey is very much Philly-metro, but you’d have the group who moved from North Jersey and were NY team fans, and then these oddballs who for some reason rooted for the Devils (instead of the Flyers or Rangers/Islanders). I can’t say there were ever a real segment of Nets fans down here (probably because they were historically awful).
    That might be part of the equation, the Nets left Long Island. Distance wise it wasn’t even just from the city proper to the burbs, but from the east burbs to the west burbs in NJ. PLUS the were dreadful for so long, they became an afterthought for New Yorkers? That would all make sense.

    The Devils were/are a different animal, as you say, because NYCers already had the Rangers to root for.

    But with the Giants and Jets, they were the only game in town (even if they were actually a bit out of town).

    That’s the difference.

    That’s a good point I didn’t consider with the Giants/Jets vs Nets situation. With both football teams in NJ neither can lay claim to truly being NY’s team like the Knicks vs Nets.
    Given we just discussed the Devils, I assume there will be a third in this series:
    1. Teams that changed their names in the same town.
    2. Teams the kept their names after moving.
    3. Teams that changed their names when moving.

    Maybe I’m missing it, but 3/4 of the retro tv graphics have a network identifier logo in the top left, but the Rams/Bucs game doesn’t. Not that I can see, anyway.

    Looking more closely, the same graphic appears to have an AFC logo visible behind the NFC logo.

    Hi Eric,
    I believe the Rams/Bucs graphic has the NBC logo on the right side of the conference indicator, while the other graphics have the station logos on the left side.

    Calgary hockey team kept the name Flames because some of the team’s new owners were in the oil industry. The feeling was the name worked as it was a good fit for an oil town like Calgary. Focusing on the city being in the energy sector instead of being related to the U.S. Civil War.

    The map in the Bulletin article implies that the Cardinals played in Racine, WI. This is not the case – they played at Normal Park on Racine Avenue in Chicago.

    Those retro graphics immediately made me hear Brett Musberger’s or Pat Summerall’s vpoice in head! “You are looking live at …..”

    Concerning your Bulletin piece, I’ve always thought that the Cardinals should have changed to the Firebirds when moving to Arizona. Then recently I thought that the Arizona Phoenix would have been a really great name. A double meaning, with the city, and the Phoenix bird rising from the ashes.

    Those new pinstripe UCLA jerseys are for the softball team. Again, one of only two schools I believe (Hawaii, in different order) to go from Reebok to Adidas to Under Armour to Nike/Jordan.

    The Calgary Flames no longer use the Atlanta Flames logo for any of their alternate captain patches. (The alternate black-trimmed red jersey is no longer worn.)

    link

    Love the Bulletin piece this week. For the Braves, I noticed you talked about the Bees, but they had a few other nicknames in Boston as well. They were originally the Red Stockings and were later the Beaneaters, the Doves, and (my personal favorite) the Rustlers. When the Braves finally do change their name I will be pulling hard for the Rustlers. Although Doves could fit with the Atlanta theme of birds mascots.

    I’m late to the party ha if a busy work day yesterday and traveling. I’ve gotten to where I look forward to you illustrations more and more reach week. Brilliant work. Hendrix burning the Titans. Bill Murray in Stripes. Brady as Skeletor and the Ram-Man reference are wonderful. Keep up the creative content. It is enjoyed!

    So rad.
    The M.o.t.U. franchise ran out of character ideas long before they stopped creating them. Just saw a retro Mosqui-tor figure at Target last night

    Fantastic work, Jason.

    That’s awesome you saw a Mosquito-tor.

    That’s one of the few figures I still have from my childhood.

    I could never find Trap Jaw. That was a cool design.

    Thank you for looking Martin

    Along the lines of your article today, I’ve been thinking about which sport’s teams mascot best represents the city. I think my vote would be the New Orleans Saints. Between the fleur de lis and aesthetic, it’s just so perfectly representative of New Orleans. The Houston Astros and Milwaukee Brewers are two other teams that come to mind.

    Paul, I’m guessing you considered this and decided it didn’t fit the constraints of your Bulletin article, but maybe an “honorable mention” could have gone to the Minnesota North Stars becoming the Dallas Stars (which works, I guess, tho up here in Minnesota we wish the North Stars never left!).

    It is true that it is not the exact same name, but it is close enough that “North Stars” would not be considered as a name when the NHL came back to Minnesota. Now we’re stuck with “Wild”, the stupidest name in pro sports.

    I’m not sure why you’re griping at me about the Wild’s name. All I did was explain why I didn’t include the North Stars in the article.

    I wasn’t griping to you about the Wild’s name, just venting. My point was that North Stars and Stars are close enough that when the NHL came back to Minnesota they could not reclaim the North Stars name. With the Cowboys star logo already established when hockey came south it seems odd to have two unrelated teams with a star as their respective logos. Many Minnesotans would have preferred a name change.

    That made me look up their history, because I knew prior to leaving for Dallas they had changed their logo to the “Stars” version and got rid of the North Star N logo. Could have sworn they spent the last year or so as the Minnesota Stars but nope, same name, just new logo.

    Chances Paul spends the rest of the day surfing YouTube for old Double Dare episodes so he better understands what it was like growing up in the 90s: 0%

    Chances I’m gonna suggest he do it anyway: 100%

    A couple thoughts on the Bulletin piece:

    1. A uni article that links not one but two bird range maps??? Hell yes! It’s not often I get to see my two passions of uniforms and wildlife biology collide.

    2. While the Northern Cardinal may not be known for its presence in the Southwest, the birds in Arizona are actually a little different than the eastern birds. Their crest feathers are longer, which gives the crest a shaggier and more flamboyant look. (If I can find a photo that shows it well, I’ll post a link.) I think it would be super cool if the Arizona Cardinals somehow worked that aspect of the bird into their logo.

    3. I have to argue with the inclusion of the Nets but exclusion of the 49ers. As defined by the US Census Bureau, the Nets have played their whole existence within the New York City metropolitan area. On the other hand, Santa Clara is considered part of the San Jose (not San Francisco) metro area. So that feels like a more substantive move.

    Anyway, great article! And I haven’t finished reading it, so I might have more to say. Haha.

    Having grown up on Long Island rooting for the Nets and currently residing in Brooklyn a few miles from their current arena, I feel like I can say with some local authority that the Nets’ moves have indeed been moves. Trust me.

    The way another Brooklyn friend of mine put it was that the Jets maintained their fan base moving to the Meadowlands because they only play 8 home games a year, all on Sundays. The Nets with 40 home games, mostly on weeknights, turned their fan base over completely.

    Exactly. Also, the Knicks are a big thing in New York. In NJ, the Nets were an afterthought in the city; now that they’re in Brooklyn, there’s a real rivalry. Completely different dynamic.

    Clarification: My disagreement was with the exclusion of the 49ers, not with the inclusion of the Nets.

    But this does raise an interesting point: Obviously you have local familiarity with the NYC area, so that gives you a certain perspective. I wonder if the 49ers’ move to Santa Clara felt like a “real move” to fans in San Francisco.

    Native San Franciscan here: yes, the Niners’ move felt like a ‘real move’. We were pretty pissed off about it. I dropped following them for a few years, although it proved hard to resist eventually paying attention again after a while.

    It still feels weird and a bit wrong to me that they still call themselves the San Francisco 49ers when they effectively moved to San Jose, a very different city.

    Interesting. But they’re still covered in the SF media, right? And while you and some other fans might’ve been pissed, lots of other fans still follow and root for them, right? (This is basically how things played out with the Jets and Giants playing in NJ — they’re still very much “New York teams” in terms of their fan bases and media treatment.)

    That wasn’t the case with the Nets moving from LI to NJ, or from NJ to Brooklyn. In both instances, the media coverage and fan bases shifted considerably.

    Obviously, there’s room for debate here — these are judgment calls. But to me, the Nets’ moves feel like genuine franchise relocations, while the 49ers’ situation does not.

    Yes, you’re correct about the SF media, and the fandom in general. SF media has always covered Bay Area teams in major leagues pretty well equally, regardless of where in the Bay Area they’re situated or what they call themselves exactly. And the Niners’ fandom already very much extended down the peninsula.

    So it sounds like these are indeed differences with the case of the Nets.

    Yes, you’re correct about the SF media and the fandom in general. SF media has always covered major sports teams around the Bay Area pretty well equally, regardless of where exactly they’re situated or waht they call themselves. And the 49ers fandom already very much did extend down the peninsula.

    It sounds like these are indeed differences with the case of the Nets.

    See the Los Angeles/Anaheim Angels for insight onto this dilemma. Customarily a team is named after its metropolitan era, the issue is when the bedroom community grows enough that it feels it can challenge the alpha dog. The team owners want maximum cachet; do they really want to name their team after a glorified bus stop? Old money beats new money, this time.

    I love this discussion; a lot of room for debate. I’ve argued with a close friend for years regarding whether or not CrossFit is a sport-that’s a no for me. The dynamics play of media coverage do okay a large role but geography does as well. The Angels reference is a great example. I don’t know a single soul that lives in LA county that is an Angels fan. That’s definitely an OC team. But no MLB team in this day and age would call themselves the Orange County Angels, but that’s essentially what they are. San Jose and SF are vastly different communities and as I understand it everyone in the Central Valley has typically backed Bay Area squads in a de facto manner. New York seems almost tribal when it comes to the Burroughs and team support. That’s speculation on my part from talking to New Yorkers over the years. My cross section of New York sports fans is neither comprehensive nor indicative of any real measure.
    Anyway, quite a few metrics can go into this topic and it seems each region would assess different based on local perceptions.

    One of my children inadvertently broke my bobble-head baseball pin, and I didn’t get a bobble-head football pin for some reason.

    Both of those were corrected today. I even bought spares, just in case. :)

    Chargers started in LA so while their move to San Diego could be considered a move without a name change, their move back to LA may not technically qualify.

    ??

    In both cases, they move to another city and didn’t change their name. Same as the Raiders moving from Oakland to LA and then back to Oakland.

    Possibly my all-time favorite Bulletin article!
    The Atlanta Flames’ insignia is one of my favorite logos. Had they opted to name themselves the “Alberta Flames”, it could have been recycled. Now I use it as a design for The Arcade Fire.
    The alliteration in the L.A. Lakers makes it an ideal name.
    Having an NHL team in the state with the same name probably should have warranted a switch to the “Sacramento Royals”.
    Yeah, the “Utah Jazz” is dumb, but it is also the answer to the question, “Which professional team has the shortest name?”
    Oddly, the Memphis Grizzlies are the second team to have that name, after the WFL Grizzlies (another Canadian transplant)
    In retrospect, “Firebirds” would have been a good choice for renaming the Arizona Cardinals, and they might have pulled the trigger had they not been called the Cards during their stay in St. Louis. If the baseball Cardinals didn’t have a problem with it, why should I?

    Atlanta Flames logo managed to get recycled with a Calgary farm club. The one-year existence of the AHL’s Adirondack Flames in 2014-15.

    link

    A good idea for a future articles would be team names changing sports, like the “Colorado Rockies”.

    For those not in the know, Double Dare was a game show on Nickelodeon in the 90s that involved a lot of slime and gunk

    Also, the Nickelodeon Cast is one of the best ways to watch sports! The crew they assembled for the game will surprise you with their knowledge of the sport, and the sheer goofiness of the slime cannons going off for scores is brilliant. Along with the ManningCast on MNF, and I think we have seen the future of sports broadcasting.

    Interesting fact tangential to the Flames story in the Bulletin article: According to the Creamer & Radom book “Fabric of the Game”, the Atlanta (now Calgary) Flames’ red color was originally meant to be a reference to Coca-Cola (headquartered in Atlanta), not anything to do with fire.

    So now I’m wondering if the shade of red the Flames use is, in fact, the same shade used by Coca-Cola.

    The bulletin article and accompanying graphics got me wondering if anyone else sees a wood floor plank pattern in the crown of the Royals/Kings logo? The designer has spoken about the logo and the 5 points representing the 5 players on the court but nothing about it mimicking planks of wood.

    Not odd that a Brooklynite doesn’t like the LA Dodgers keeping the name from the Brooklyn Dodgers.

    They could have done what the San Diego Padres did in assuming a AAA team name, e.g., LA (or Hollywood) Stars. But that ship sailed long ago.

    If the Dodgers decided to do that, we might have seen the introduction of the MLB Los Angeles Angels three years early, but in the NL, instead of the Stars, being that O’Malley actually owned the PCL Angels and Wrigley Field West when he made the move.

    I spent too much time searching for that field hockey logo, even going to the USPTO website and using its coding system to look for design marks with a wing, stars, and a shield. No luck.

    However, I discovered the design mark for the US Tent Pegging Federation.

    The NBA should let Denver and Houston have a Rockets vs Rockets night.

    Maybe have it scheduled for a space launch.

    Great article Paul

    Paul, I seem unable to post a follow-up reply in the thread where we were discussing how the 49ers’ move relates to that of the Nets. So I’ll put what I was trying to say here:

    Yes, you’re correct about the SF media coverage and 49ers fandom in a big picture way being little affected by the move. SF media, in general, has always covered major Bay Area sports teams more or less equally, regardless of which city they play in or claim in their name. And 49ers fandom already extended down the peninsula.

    So it sounds like the case of the Nets’ move was indeed different in these ways.

    In my perfect world, the Sacramento Kings and Memphis Grizzlies would trade names. Kings would be a better fit in Memphis in honor of MLK. And doesn’t Grizzlies sound better in Sacramento?

    My guess with the Bobcats logo is that they were intentionally using an old logo, especially considering they use the Celtics logo from the 70s-90s. Probably some sort of 75th anniversary thing.

    The ESPN graphics show past logos for the franchise, so they did not “mistakenly” refer to them as the Bobcats because they *were* the Bobcats before. They also showed the original Charlotte Hornets logo before that.

    “New curling uniforms for defending men’s gold medalists Team USA”

    Technically, there’s new uniforms for all of the Olympic (and Paralympic) curlers, both men and women.

    The Pacers should NEVER be allowed to wear those again ANYWHERE! I realize they’re throwbacks but they’re the kind of throwbacks that remind you why the team stopped wearing them! FUGLY!

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