In today’s Ticker: MLB logos appearing at a college bowl game, how the Colts tricked the NFL about a player’s preferred uni number, and more.
Uni Watch News Ticker for Dec. 29, 2022
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Baseball
MLB
- Someone found a game-used Duke Snider Dodgers jersey at a Goodwill thrift store! (From @BeautyOfAGame)
- Last night’s college football Holiday Bowl took place at the Padres’ ballpark, and the team’s logo and the MLB Postseason logo were still visible on the outskirts of the field. (From Steve Sher)
- A small business in Richmond, Va., has found itself in a trademark tussle with the Guardians. (From Tom Turner)
- Marc Kickenweitz points out that the Astros’ World Series championship cap design is very similar to the New Jersey Devils’ 2000 Stanley Cup locker room cap.
Football
NFL
- The book The Blood and Guts: How Tight Ends Save Football includes this note about former Colts TE Dallas Clark, who wore No. 44 in college: “After conceding that he probably couldn’t keep 44 [in the NFL] because it’s a fullback number, Clark said he’d double it up and take 88. … [Colts GM Bill] Polian said the Colts already had a No. 88, wide receiver Marvin Harrison. ‘Forget it,’ Polian told him. ‘You’ll be 44. We’ll figure it out.’ Indy got around the rules by listing Clark as a tight end/fullback on the roster, and even as John Madden roasted the rookie for wearing a number in the 40s during an exhibition broadcast, the number stuck.” (From L.J. Sparvero)
- This week’s NFL attire: Throwbacks for the Lions; the Cowboys will debut their new white alternate helmets tonight in Tennessee, while the Titans will go mono-blue; and conventional combos for the Bengals and Jags.
College
- If you read yesterday’s post about all the Mike Leach memorial decals prior to 8pm Eastern, you may have missed this update: Three additional schools that have worn Leach decals are Oregon State, South Alabama, and Western Kentucky. (From Colin Lowther and Patrick Lasseter)
- With Penn State DB Jonathan Sutherland poised to play his final game, here’s a look at who might be the next Nittany Lion to wear No. 0.
- Ohio and Wyoming will be going color vs. color in the Arizona Bowl. (Thanks to all who shared).
- Cross-listed from the Baseball section: Last night’s Holiday Bowl took place at the San Diego Padres’ home ballpark, and the team’s logo and the MLB Postseason logo were still visible on the outskirts of the field. (From Steve Sher)
- Here’s an article about how Ohio State’s grey-striped sleeves became a playoff tradition. (From Paul Wood)
- Speaking of the Holiday Bowl: UNC wore throwbacks for that game. (From James Gilbert)
- We may have had this before, but once more won’t hurt: Kansas added a memorial decal for former QB John Hadl for yesterday’s Liberty Bowl. (I’m very surprised that the NFL’s Chargers haven’t done likewise.)
- With Penn State facing Utah in the Rose Bowl, a ski facility near the Penn State campus has renamed its “Utah” slope. (From William Yurasko)
- Texas Tech and Ole Miss went color vs. color yesterday for the Texas Bowl. (From @PunkRockSW)
Basketball
NBA
- The entire Heat team attended teammate Udonis Haslem’s high school number retirement the other day.
- Cavs F/C Kevin Love thinks the team should retire former teammate Kyrie Irving’s number.
Hockey
NHL
- Really interesting pregame Pride sweaters last night for the Devils. (From Wade Heidt)
- Cross-listed from the Baseball section: Marc Kickenweitz points out that the Houston Astros’ World Series championship cap design is very similar to the Devils’ 2000 Stanley Cup locker room cap.
Minors/Juniors
- WHL teams wore colors at home for the first half of the season but will be switching to white at home for the second half. “I’m thinking this would be a good idea for the NHL to do,” says Wade Heidt.
- The FPHL’s Binghamton Black Bears have a new jersey commemorating 50 years of pro hockey in Binghamton. (From Jeff Williams)
Soccer
International
- Germany: Yesterday’s Ticker had a visual timeline of Bayern Munich’s logo. Johnny Woods notes that one of the changes, in 1996, was changing the umlaut in “München” from two raised dots to a wedge.
- France: When Paris Saint-Germain signs a new player or extends an existing player’s contract, they like to present the player with a jersey showing the “good through” year of the deal. (Thanks, Anthony)
Comments (25)
re: The Holiday Bowl, this happened
North Carolina took a very costly penalty during the Holiday Bowl after a same-jersey situation took place on the field during a punt return. After stopping Oregon on third down deep on their own side of the field, North Carolina returner George Pettaway grabbed a new jersey to avoid sharing the same number on the field as Power Echols.
Unfortunately, Pettaway did not report his jersey change to the officials before the play and the Tar Heels were penalized for the mistake — costing them possession of the ball as it gave Oregon a fresh set of downs.
link
link
That’s pretty crazy. The article notes UNC was short handed on special teams, but the number situation in college always makes me scratch my head. I get there are large rosters such that you may have over 100 players necessitating the need for doubling up numbers. That being said, how often do multiple active players share the same number? How many players on the roster typically are entering a game?
Which is say, couldn’t the schools simply issue duplicate numbers ONLY to players who will most likely never see the field that season, and additionally make sure they would never be on the field with someone with the same number? For example, a starter on offense wears #8, they could issue a second #8 to a defensive player that pretty much never plays. Yes, special teams CAN throw a wrench into this, but it seems easily avoidable.
Seems unlikely to me that there are 100 guys that get regular playing time. This only seems like it is a problem if you intentionally let active players share the same number.
Not sure how much of this works, the announcers said (I’m paraphrasing) with players sitting out the Bowl games, injuries or entering the transfer portal it is making some teams scramble to fill the available spots on special teams.
if you get a chance, watch the video about 1/2 way down in the article I linked.
#23 Pettaway wore #49 NNOB while fielding the punt.
The #49 jersey had all the patches the other jerseys did, just NNOB
He ran to the sideline for help removing the #49 he had on over his #23
And the announcers were laughing trying to figure out who #49 was
The jersey was comically large too, to easily get on and off over the shoulders pads and primary jersey. When I saw this a few years ago being done by Texas A&M it appeared they did NOT do this little life hack.
Amazing that the Padres postseason markings are still that visible. The MLB Little League Classic markings at Bowman Field in Williamsport are usually gone before the end of the Crosscutters MLB Draft League season (first few days of September).
Eye-popping detail on that New Jersey Devils’ Pride sweater. The designer really earned his money!
The Holiday Bowl was such a fun game to watch last night as one of the reasons was because it was being played in a ballpark, so cool! And As the game went on the infield was starting to get exposed, so retro!
This game marks the first time a football game has been played at Petco.
I love all of these kinds of things.
On the other hand, the poor field conditions certainly affected the play and several commentators have wondered how you can’t have a good grass field in San Diego in a venue that hasn’t held a game of any sort in two months?
Also wondering why the game is going to be held at Petco for the next few years. SDSU has their new stadium complete, why not hold it there? The football stadium’s capacity is 35,000, ESPN is reporting attendance at last night’s Holiday Bowl at 36,000 which surely was paid and not actual attendance.
35,000 seems about right for capacity of a bowl game that typically isn’t even featuring two ranked opponents.
I’m trying to figure out why the Holiday Bowl wasn’t played in the new home of SDSU, Snapdragon Stadium, which was built on the site of old Jack Murphy Stadium. Granted, it only has a capacity of 25,000 where Petco is at 41,000 for baseball (per news reports some 4500 tickets were unsold), but one has to believe the sight lines for all seats would have been 100% better.
Which leads to a silly question. If you can play a bowl game in Petco, Yankee Stadium, and Fenway Park, why do we need Snapdragon, Gillette and Meadowlands stadiums?
I would LOVE to see the Giants playing in Yankee Stadium!
Either that, or rebuild the Polo Grounds. But come back to New York already.
Color v Color to me for Ohio v. Wyoming would have been Green for Ohio and Brown for Wyoming. I think this may be the first time the Pokes have worn a jersey other than White or Brown since Craig Bohl took over the program in 2013.
Can someone explain the significance, if there is any, of changing the umlaut to a wedge? Are those marks typographical the same?
Huh, another mention of that inaccurate Bayern Munich crest history that ignores their history. Here’s the proper one again for good measure: link
I have wondered for years why the NHL doesn’t change up their home and away sweaters on January 1st every season.
Would be the best. Gives the fans variety. Pleases both sets of fans that want white or colour at home.
A compromise.
This idea is not unchartered territory for the NHL. If you recall, they did this in 1991-92 75th anniversary season. Wearing darks at home for first half as a nod to the “old days” when teams wore colour at home.
Colour at home for first half. Get the 3rd jerseys that are colour worn at home during that time. Maybe a change at all-star break. White at home second half of season and playoffs.
When Bill Ring was TE for San Francisco, I remember his number was 49, so he probably had the tight end/fullback designation, too. I always keep an eye out for #49 on the Forty-niners; it’s an auspicious number.
Having a copyright on a Varsity Block capital letter seems like it would be difficult to enforce. Maybe the user could save himself some trouble by removing the serif from the top of the “C”.
I am disappointed that Uni-Watch did not review the two bowl games on Dec. 23. I understand (and fully support) taking off Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. But you missed a chance to highlight the Independence and Gasparilla Bowls’ (almost) perfectly contrasting uniforms!
In the former, Houston’s White-Red-White played well against Louisiana-Lafayette’s Red-White-Red. The Ragin’ Cajuns have the perfect two stripe combo on their helmets, jerseys, and pants.
The latter bowl featured Missouri’s outstanding Yellow-Black-Yellow versus Wake Forest’s black-white-black (with some gold trim thrown in).
Here’s hoping for a Complete Bowl Season Five-And-One from Señior Vilk early next month!
All the Bowls played up through Saturday (including the two games on Dec. 23) will be reviewed over the weekend, when SMUW Bowl Watch returns. There will also be TWO 5 & 1’s (one this weekend with the first half of the bowls, and one next weekend with the second half). The calendar dealt us a weekend holiday (Christmas Eve/Christmas Day) so I gave the SMUW crew that weekend off. Don’t worry, we’ll have all the Bowls covered this weekend!
Thanks Phil! I look forward to it.
I found the Independence Bowl hard to watch. The colors were too close. While both uniforms on their own were beautiful, together on the field made differentiation challenging.
It would be interesting to do a ranking of the best football or soccer fields in baseball stadiums. I’m sure there are a billion examples of this. Could be fun.