One last batch of wire service pics before the calendar runs out, including some instant classics. All of these were submitted by Mako Mameli, except for the last four, which came from Mike Hersh and Paul Wiederecht. Dig:
• Coolest baseball jacket ever? I vote for yes.
• This jacket isn’t bad either, although I have no idea what the “thing” is referring to. Anyone..?
• What’s going on here? According to the caption, this is “a 1963 photo of Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Jack Baldschun being taught how to use the shoulder wheel, a new training tool, by trainer Joe Liscio.”
• Double facemask — and the lower one is upside-down! When I showed it to Helmet Hut guru Curtis Worrell, he immediately shot back, “That’s great — a DG140 mask with a DG110 chaser! Love it.”
• Look at the size of the cuff on that undersleeve. Massive! Also, note the World’s Fair sleeve patch with the circle-R trademark symbol. This was, I believe, the first such symbol ever to appear on a major-level sports uniform.
• Now that there’s some odd letter spacing. That’s Hobe Ferris, who was playing in an old-timers’ game on June 11, 1933.
• Hey, Don Drysdale, how many consecutive scoreless innings did you toss? Oh, right — that many. According to the caption, he’s holding “a specially made fleece warm-up from Russell Athletic.”
• This gizmo was supposed to take the place of live BP pitchers — thereby eliminating sore arms and saving time — way back in 1942. Nearly 70 years later, humans still pitch BP.
• Here’s Tug McGraw posing with some buttons from his fan club in 1969. They say, “Lefties are better than righties.”
• Here’s one of the less memorable jerseys worn by the Great One over the years.
• In To Kill a Mockingbird, there’s a passage where Scout tries to cheer up Jem by telling him he looks like Dixie Howell. But who was Dixie Howell anyway? This guy. That shot was taken on a movie set, as explained in this caption. (For more on Howell, look here.)
• Two years ago I did an entry on the Phillips 66ers (which is no longer particularly useful, because Google changed all the URLs on the Life archive photos I had linked to). Here’s a really good look at one of their jerseys.
• I remember this photo: After Bud Harrelson’s fight with Pete Rose in the 1973 playoffs, Buddy wore this T-shirt.
• And now a few color shots, beginning with Bum Phillips wearing a plastic rain guard on his cowboy hat.
• Yeah, nothing says football — or at least Canadian football — like neckties. Something tells me that illo was repurposed from a department store Father’s Day ad.
• Who’s the short guy, third from the right with the mismatched socks? I’m not gonna give you the answer until later in this entry, but see if you can guess.
• Check out this oddly vented hockey helmet. The photo’s from 1968, and the caption reads as follows: “Few hockey players wear helmets, giving excess weight as one of the reasons. But this helmet, similar to one worn by Red Berenson of the St. Louis Blues, tips the scales at only 10 ounces.”
• Making goalie masks is apparently a lot more fun than plumbing.
• Pretty cool jersey insignia for the 1966 Lodi Crushers.
As for the mystery hockey player, give yourself a pat on the back if you recognized him as Yogi Berra. There’s no caption, unfortunately, so I don’t know the circumstances of the shot.
Membership updates: Several developments on the membership front. One at a time:
• After endless back-and-forths with Amazon’s customer-service team, I think we’ve finally solved the problems with my Amazon Payments account. But the only way to know for sure is for some intrepid souls to sign up. If you’ve been meaning to enroll, I’d take it as a personal favor if you’d do so today — I really want to see if the new payment mechanism works. And if you try and it doesn’t work, send me an e-mail pronto (and then remove all sharp objects from my immediate vicinity). … Update: I’ve now received a successful payment, so we’re apparently back in business. Whoo-hoo!
• The membership card gallery is completely up to date and now features all our recent enrollees. That includes Michael J. Volkovitsch’s card (shown above), whose design is based on the Cubs’ old protocol of inscribing a player’s uni number on the front of his helmet — a brilliant request that Scott Turner and I were happy to accommodate.
• Scott and I spent a lot of time exploring various design options for the 1000th member’s card. After kicking the idea around for about two weeks, we’ve finally arrived at something we’re happy with — take a look. If that doesn’t say “special one-time-only,” nothing does.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Back on 9/11, Air Force wore flag-themed lightning bolt helmet decals. A month later, against Navy, they wore those awesome Thunderbird uniforms. That set the stage for the mix-and-match maneuver they pulled for the Independence Bowl last night, as they went with Thunderbird jerseys and pants and the 9/11 helmet, plus they added Thunderbird stripes to the helmet. I’m not usually a fan of the Garanimals approach, but they looked pretty damn sharp last night. ”¦ Lots of weather worries for the Winter Classic. ”¦ Sunday’s Ticker included a note about Donovan McNabb wearing baseball cleats repurposed into football cleats. That prompted the following note from Lou DeGeorge: “Six years ago I worked as a detailer at a car dealership in South Jersey and McNabb brought his Hummer there for service, after which we cleaned it inside and out as a courtesy. When I was vacuuming the back seat, I saw a box of Reebok basketball shoes with a note stapled to it from a Reebok executive. It said that if McNabb tried the shoes out and liked them, Reebok would specially make them into football cleats for him to wear in the playoffs. A little photo research has shown that the shoes he wore in those playoffs were the same ones he wore during the regular season, so he must not have taken Reebok up on the offer.” ”¦ Ed Reed’s sideline jacket caught fire on Sunday. ”¦ Interesting piece about the Big 10 logo controversy. ”¦ Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: When the Falcons and Seahawks played each other two Sundays ago, Barbara Babineaux — mother of Falcons player Jonathan Babineaux and Seahawks player Jordan Babineaux — wore a Franken-jersey. ”¦ Also from yesterday: Good team-by-team rundown of NBA court designs. ”¦ Can’t decide if this ad is kinda cute or kinda creepy. It comes from this catalog, which Mike Hersh and I both neglected to bid on during the holiday rush. ”¦ An article I’m not supposed to link to indicates that the Broncos will be going back to orange as their primary home color for 2012. ”¦ Interesting bit about Santonio Holmes’s long undersleeves in paragraph “1(b)” (with thanks to Jim Maino). ”¦ Jason Higgins bought his young nephew a replica Mariners jersey for Christmas. “It was $12.99, marked down from $49.99, and that’s the kind of deal you embrace when the kid is going to grow out of it anyway, right?” he says. “I’ll admit to not paying full attention, because I was keeping an eye on my daughter, so it wasn’t until my nephew pulled out the jersey that I noticed it had an upside-down logo. Aaaaargh — it was all I could do not to point and grown. Luckily he is 11 and he didn’t notice, but I’ll always remember this as the Christmas we gave him the jersey with the upside-down logo.” ”¦ Dan Wunderlich reports that Florida freshman QB Trey Burton got a customized Gators jersey hoodie from his family for Christmas. ”¦ Scroll down to see the unusual clover-leaf uni number on this St. Paddy’s Day jersey (good find by Mike Hersh). ”¦ Here’s a quote I never thought I’d be reading: “It’s my Under Armour yarmulke.” It’s from a really good article about the growing popularity of football in Israel. ”¦ Michael Orr has provided his latest weekly rundown of EPL kits. ”¦ Life imitates
Glad I missed the AF game. They look too much like ‘Zona what with the asymmetrical tricolor striping on helmets and pants and navy instead of AF blue. Also GT, as has become the fashion these recent years, looked craptastic.
Then again, I watched MNF. Not sure any football team has ever had as ugly a uni as the current Falcons. Hip-hop for the eyes.
On the bright side, Saints looked good both sartorially and in their play.
Hadn’t thought of the Arizona comparison, but you’re right — good point.
To me, Falcons’ jerseys look like something that’d be worn by the court jester for this nasty broad…
link
—Ricko
They really aren’t that bad. I think what they have is an OK approach for dealing with what’s left of sleeves. It’s surely no worse than the new UCLA dashes or the cut off stripes that the 49ers have.
No argument there. Just saying they do have a “Tudor” look to them…
link
Also the Colts’ silliness, especially the version Colle, Clark and others wear. They’re just…ridiculous.
—Ricko
Y’know what look great? A photo someone posted here a while back of Roddy White wearing the red throwback helmet with the current red jersey. The bit of gold bricabrac on that helmet matches up nicely with the “When Knighthood Was in Flower” feel of the jerseys.
—Ricko
Yes, I suppose that Roddy combo was overkill, but overkill into a particular and interesting design scheme/theme.
Unlike the Bills’ uni, which is overkill in a Valvoline Oil Change Guy “one more bumper sticker” kinda design (esp. the mono navy).
—Ricko
Thanks Ricko, now I’m half-tempted to photoshop a red Falcons jersey with a bunch of gold stripes on the sleeves to match that picture of yours.
Wouldn’t take much. Just a bit of narrow gold piping added to the sleeves, maybe? Y’know, as subtle and downplayed as the striping on the helmet?
That what you’re thinking?
Ricko –
Something like this: link
/didn’t feel like scrolling up to reply again
Now that’s a tweak that’s a tweak.
Looks good, I think. For lack of a better word, the Falcons design already is “ornate”. Might as well patch into that.
—Ricko
Usually not a fan of uniforms that don’t have school colors in them but I like the Air Force uniforms last night.
Not uni-related but the Air Force mascot flew out of the stadium last night and was found in downtown Shreveport.
The third bullet point, the one with the 1963 photo of Jack Baldschun, has no link.
Thanks — now fixed.
purple on the 1000th membership card?
Who is this Fake Paul who posted today?
I know! I couldn’t believe it!
I thought that definitely made it unique, but also had me shaking my fist, as lack of purple is all that has stopped me from getting a membership. Both my HS and college had purple as the primary school color
Me too. I was thinking of a Lakers card, from the Kareem/Worthy/Magic era.
I believe Paul had a “Purple Amnesty Day” earlier this year. I’m hoping it happens again in my lifetime so I can get a card too.
Also waiting for them to stop hating on Purple. Sadly, I won’t be a member til they shape up. :/
That’s the first thing I thought too, “Purple? Really?”
Is that Yogi on ice?
And the player to Yogi’s left looks like Scooter. Hey, they both lived in Jersey in the off-season.
The players in the photo (left to right) are George Milligan, Donald MacDonald, Joe Lund, Yogi Berra, Don Grosso and Hec Pozzo.
The photo was by Buzz Taylor in St. Louis
The photo doesn’t have any dates or notes other than the players and photographers name.
I’m not positive, but I’d say it’s the St. Louis Flyers in the late 40s early 50s. All these guys played for the Flyers.
Terry-
I just found this online
link
I remember a piece Joe Garagiola did sitting on the front step of his boyhood home St. Louis.
“Y’know how most players were the best player in their college or their high school? Well, this is my house and that house right across the street (cut to shot of another house) was Yogi Berra’s house. I wasn’t even the best player on my BLOCK.”
—Ricko
The short guy with the mismatched socks looks like Yogi Berra, and the hockey helmet, based on the jersey hanging behind it, must belong to Pierre Pilote.
Did anyone actually read all the way to the end of the main entry?
Only after I posted–mea culpa.
I was just so excited to be the first with the correct answer. Attention span of a gnat and a desperate need to be first: yep, I’m an American…
Cort, stop that Commie-babble, before Sarah Palin starts demanding to see yr birth certificate.
Hunting certain Caribou, however, is permitted because they represented a dangerous fringe element…
link
@Ricko: Say what you want about that jersey, those twill graphics are awesome. Why can’t ALL soccer teams figure this out?
The plumber-turned-mask designer looks just like Martin Balsam.
And the uniform ad is very, very, creepy. It’s clearly trading on the old Coppertone ads, but it doesn’t work. Cute little girl having a dog tug on her swimsuit? Questionable, but mildly endearing. Cute little boy, naked but for a crooked ballcap and seriously sagging pants, looking up toward his mostly unseen baseball coach? Disturbing in so many ways.
It’s amazing how cynical and mistrusting we have become in the past 30-40 years. What at one time was innocent and fun, now can get you at minimum visits to a shrink or at the most, time in the slammer. The old Coppertone ad today would be something from “To Catch A Predator” on CNBC.
Even with the hindsight of years, I’m not so sure on the “innocent and fun” aspect of that ad. Even if the kid had been issued oversized pants, wouldn’t he still be wearing underwear that fit?
Exactly.
and yet…50 years later, that style is fresh yo
Is this where we call that “timeless”?
“Lookin’ like a fool…”
—Ricko
I hear ya, but even those guys’ boxers are staying around their waists. Just sayin’.
You think THAT’S bad? It’s even worse when guys sag with skinny jeans
link
I realize today’s entry is up but I had to add that the idea of going commando in wool flannel baseball pants hurts just thinking about it.
What’s so disturbing about baseball scoreboards?
Well, they don’t keep score anymore, do they? Just play the game and everyone gets ice cream afterwards, right?
Grrrr. I ignored that crap when I coached little kids. Don’t have to get snaky about winning, but one of the lessons of team sports (which will stand most of us well later in the workplace) is learning to work together toward a defined goal.
“What’d you have my kid bunt, goddamit?”
“Because we needed to move that runner to third, and sometimes we need to learn to take one for the team.”
That’s what I hear. Though score is still kept in my local little league, you wouldn’t know it by looking at the scoreboard.
In a little different direction, I do wonder about people keeping the book for baseball (possibly other sports, too, but other sports don’t seem to revere the score book as much as baseball). I know I was one of the few who knew how to score the game in high school, which led to me usually being the statistician/second basemen on the team.
I’ve been hearing the same “nobody keeps score in little league anymore to protect kids’ precious egos” complaint since, well, actually since my first season of coach-pitch in 1981 when a grumpy uncle asked if it was true that we weren’t keeping score anymore. (We were. But we got sodas after the game either way, on account of being sponsored by the local convenience store.) And yet I’ve never actually encountered this phenomenon happening in the real world. Every team I’ve coached for, every league whose games I’ve watched for an inning or two at a local park, has kept score. Rarely with scoreboards – that’s a disappearing artifact on public ballfields generally – but even so, in my experience the whole “nobody keeps score anymore” thing is just another lame myth grumpy adults like me perpetuate so that we can look down on the wussy youth of today. The equivalent of how everyone’s grandpa walked eight miles to school in a blizzard every day, uphill both ways.
I’ve seen press accounts of don’t-keep-score leagues, sure, but the one thing more certain than death or taxes is that any given media “trend” story is BS. A country this big, you can find someone dumb enough to try anything somewhere if you look hard enough.
Besides, even in the t-ball league I coached in once where coaches on most teams never made a big deal about the score at any given moment, the kids always knew exactly where the game stood. We’re talking five year olds here, and they had better awareness of the score than Joe Morgan. It doesn’t matter if the coaches keep score or not; the kids will know who won or lost the game.
For the record, I was just being a smartass.
The scoreboard is getting to be a disappearing artifact even at some high schools. That has always been a pretty big shock to me. You would think you could find some business to pony up most of the money for a simple baseball score board (you don’t need a clock or anything!) or make a manual one like somebody here did a while back.
Actually, I did run into that philsophy when my son first started playing ball almost 25 years ago in a small local program that wasn’t affiliated with Little League or any such larger organization.
Otherwise, I agree with Scott. Largely it’s one of those suburban myths that makes a convenient target, but every once in a while…
—Ricko
Hey, The Jef, I know, and I was just being a curmudgeon in response. I can remember being surprised to learn, toward the end of my first season in organized ball, that we were the only team that got soda after every game, and it was because of our sponsor. I had assumed that everyone got soda after every game.
The disappearing scoreboard is something worth looking into. It wasn’t until I started typing my curmudgeonly thoughts earlier that I sort of realized that whereas every ballfield I remember playing at circa 1981-1983 had some kind of scoreboard, now it’s the mark of a really elite, usually private ballfield to have even a rudimentary chalkboard-style scoreboard. (Though to be fair, what I remember about scoreboards from my early days of youth ball was how we rarely used them, and when we did, what a pain in the patootie it was even to get the numbers out of whatever storage box they were in. Nobody ever knew who had the key, or where they were, and anyway there were never enough numbers since it wasn’t anybody’s job to keep the scoreboard in repair. Just one more thing to be vandalized and the parts lost, I suppose.)
I should add that every field I personally ever played on had a scoreboard, and an electronic one at that. I’m 24, so most of my ball-playing was from about 1990 to 2004 when I graduated high school. It was only in my high school and those after when I started umpiring that I noticed scoreboards either not being there, or present but not being used. And the fields I was playing on were nothing special, believe you me (other than when we got to play in “historic” Danville Stadium, which was cool).
Scott Rogers said:
We’re talking five year olds here, and they had better awareness of the score than Joe Morgan.
~~~
in other news, the pope is catholic
about the scoreboard..this summeer, in a little league game involving my children (ages 10 & 8), the other team asked that we turn off the scoreboard because it was upsetting their team ~ we were leading by 15 in the 3rd inning.
Most leagues have a 10-run rule in the fourth inning. Could they just not bear it for three or six more outs? I think that’s even worse than not keeping score at all.
the age group they were playing on had the following rules..all games must be atleast 4 innings (but no longer then 2 hours)..also an inning can end with either 3 outs, 10 batters to the plate or 6 runs scored.
I thought Air Force looked outstanding last night.
Except that it’s RFRS. Red is not now, nor has it ever been, part of the U.S. Air Force color scheme.
—Ricko
That’s why I always wondered why the Thunderbirds used it. I think Air Force blue and white could make a stunning airplane livery. Maybe not as stunning as the red, white and dark blue they actually do use, but still great-looking.
The link is a simple and elegant update of the link Surely it could be incorporated into a USAFA uni design element? I could easily see it placed on the front of a helmet, large enough that the wings wrap around Eagles stytle.
Might look good centered on the front of a white helmet above the bumper guard. Could be relatively small, could be extremely large.
Would be different, that’s for sure. Depends on if different is perceived as good and inventive or as odd and stupid.
Considering Air Force was after the Blue Bombers but before the Chargers with lightning bolt helmets, they have some history of trying something uncommon.
—Ricko
I’ve always thought those angular wings would look great on a helmet, Philadelphia Eagles-style.
Despite the RFRS, they were visually appealing.
That’s true, yes. Sometimes there are great looking unis, but aren’t quite right for the team wearing them.
—Ricko
Any time I feel sorry for Pete Rose, I think of Bud Harrelson & Ray Fosse. Rose was a great ball player. But a huge prick…
Any time I feel sorry for Pete Rose…
~~~
seriously?
100 bucks says that isn’t often.
Still my favorite story re: Pete Rose.
After he signed his huge contract to leave Cincinnati and join the Phillies, his wife asked, “Do they have K-Mart’s in Philadelphia?”
I leave you all to interpret what that says about the Rose household.
—Ricko
can’t say where I was in 70 for the ASG collision with Fosse, but I remember the exact spot I was when Pete & Bud went at it. Walking back home from the Terrace Park Market, had just bought baseball cards, and was thumbing thru them while listening to the game on a pocket radio.
I always remember the IMPORTANT things in life.
I’m with you.. I was watching the game at a friends house..we were both big METS fans..then we went outside and had our own version… (each taking turns being Buddy)
That “oddly vented” hockey helmet is still being worn by at least one old timer here in Atlanta. Dan Bouchard, who was the goalie for the old Atlanta Flames and since then one of the top coaches in Atlanta, wears one when he leads practices. Dan, by the way, is a great coach and a terrific person.
I still remember Dan Bouchard jumping Denis Polonich of the Red Wings and beating him with his waffle blocker.
Dan’s slowed down a bit but he’s just as nimble and lethal. I’ve seen him in stick times just play possum until you get too close, and then boom, he’s taken the puck right off your stick and sent it out of the offensive zone.
The hockey helmet isn’t odd at all, just adjusted oddly. The front piece was adjustable to fit different sized heads. Someone with a large head pushed that helmet to its max size.
Those CCM SK100 helmets were just about worthless, from a safety perspective. Look at this one link and you’ll see how little padding there is. They were handy if your league required you to wear a helmet & you really didn’t want to. They were cheaply made and priced. I have no idea why anyone would pay those eBay prices. You can still find them a garage sales for a buck.
They were also popular in Ireland for hurling. Even today you can buy new hurling helmets that mimic the old CCM style: link
Those things look about as flimsy as the Jofa 235.
That article you mentioned about the broncos switching to orange… was it from the post (Woody Paige)?
Why can’t you post it?
Apparetnly The Denver Post doesn’t allow hotlinking to its site. Someone mentioned it yesterday.
That sure is a great way to get hits for a site… not allowing people to link to it. Great idea, Denver Post, great idea.
Denver Post is one of many papers that believes it is more important than the internet and is using an outfit called “righthaven” to sue a variety of websites over bogus alleged copyright violations. Details of the Post’s idiocy are link. As a result, there’s a boycott of link. May they die soon and very painfully.
are you serious? you can’t post a URL from their site? In the year 2010, er, 2011?
You can. You just might get sued.
Here is the pertinent quote from the The Denver Post’s copyright policy along with a link to the full policy:
“But fair use of our content restricts those who want to reference it to reproduce no more than a headline and up to a couple of paragraphs or a summary of the story. (We also request users provide a link to the entire work on our website).”
Read more: Notice to readers about Denver Post copyright protections – The Denver Post link
Read The Denver Post’s Terms of Use of its content: link
well, still cool that the broncos will be in orange. I like that look better. I was shocked when they came out with the blue in ’97
Funny story re: the Mariners jersey. Pretty sure Jason wanted to do point and “groan”.
I was mortified. My excuse is we were shopping for basketball shoes for my daughter at the time so was only listening to her tell me the price.
This Mariner’s jersey talk makes me want to take pictures to show here of one of my favorite Christmas presents … a blue “Mitchell and Ness” Andre Dawson Cubs jersey with the 1984 Division Champion patch – where the letters on the patch were orange.
I think I love it MORE for the oddities, and feel I should keep it to honor the 7 year old Chinese children who ran the sewing machines just for me.
Compared to modern pitching machines, that thing looks like a beast! What’d they do, convert a howitzer?
I’m obsessed with that pitching machine. 1942? The war effort was in full force at that point, so curious if there’s a military component to it, any backstory, etc. Anybody?
Take an inch (and two sizes) off the shorts and I’d wear that Parkview HS uni:
link
Not saying everyone should do that, but I’d like to see more teams try that look.
Also, that 1942 pitching machine looks like a cannon.
link
Hmm, wonder if Nike will do a Toy Combat line for baseball next?
The one we had in high school was only slightly smaller than this one…
link
I think they brought it to the field on a trailer.
—Ricko
Totally agree re: the Parkview hoops uni. I like.
The necktie football program was a standard cookie-cutter offering! link
Probably drawn for a Dad’s Day football game.
The Columbus Blue Jackets finally got a win in their third jerseys last night. It was only their sixth try, with one previous scheduled appearance missed… so, yeah.
Does anyone know why Hobe Ferris is in a Detroit jersey? He never played baseball in Detroit from what I have seen. He did retire to (and die in) Detroit, but I find it odd that he is wearing this jersey for an old-timer’s game.
Not positive, but I believe the game was held in Detroit.
i want his specs! why’s it so hard to find interesting frames like that these days?
Air Force’s colors are silver and blue. I understand the Thunderbird uni’s–they looked great but why doesn’t AF have silver in their normal uni scheme? Silver helmets with the bolt would look good. At least it would be using school colors more
While I also thought Air Force looked good last night, I called my brother and said sheesh Air Force has another look.
I have said before the older white helmets with the silver and blue middle stripes was a sharp helmet.
Above Clark made a good point. Why not use silver helmets as a different helmet? Silver and the blue bolt would look good.
Any Gimpers or photoshop guys able to make a silver Air Force helmet?
link
I just did the helmet… I guess it’s probably more gray than silver, but close enough
The Jeff, Thanks, I was going to give it a quick try with Gimp. But I too figured it would look more gray than silver. Still cool job.
And I think a silver or metallic silver Air Force helmet with blue bolts would be sweet. And add the middle stripes back would be even better.
Air Force has a cool helmet and from what I recall one of the first colleges to use a logo or decal.
Air Force helmets used to have silver between the pro-style royal stripes a few years back, right?
—Ricko
…with a silver edge on the royal lightning bolt.
Some silver on the jersey and pants back then, too.
Still had it as late as 2006…
link
—Ricko
Yes it looked very sharp. My brother and i got some decals from different college teams a while ago. Air Force was one to send us the middle stripe and bolts.
I think the helmet looked better with the middle stripe than without.
“Why not use silver helmets as a different helmet?”
Yah, who wouldn’t want to look like the Lions.
They should use blue helmets. They could have a silver lightning bolt flashing in the wild blue yonder.
Anyone want to photoshop the old Iowa Barnstormers unis and give them Air Force colors?
link
link
Also, days of barnstormers, prop jobs and bi-planes predate the U.S Air Force and the Academy.
Then it the U.S. Army Air Corps.
Different animal, not its own branch of the service.
Yeah, yeah, seems like a technicality now, but at the time of the founding of the Air Force Academy would have been a big deal, HUGE deal. Probably still is to them.
—Ricko
OK, how about turning the goggles into a visor, like so:
link
and modifying this logo
link
to go above the numbers and putting a lightning bolt down the pant legs?
Way back when, Randolph Field (now Randolph Air Force Base) in San Antonio, Texas, proclaimed itself as the “West Point of the Air” because it carried out a great deal of pilot and air crew training before, during, and after World War II — and it still does. After West Point, the late Doc Blanchard did his pilot training there and played football for the Randolph Field “Ramblers.” Prior to the founding of the Air Force Academy, in many ways Randolph Field was a kind of academy for the US Air Force.
Should have clarified in the first place…was looking for the spirit of Iowa’s unis without being a direct copy.
I apologize. Shoulda known you meant updating the concept behind the Barnstormers unis.
Sorry.
I guess the bottom line for me is that I’d prefer that the Service academies stay above all this Cirque du Soliel shit that Nike and others are pushing, and show some dignity and, yes, elegance. But, I suppse when you’re trying to attract people fresh out of high school to your branch of the service (NOT meaning the academies)…
—Ricko
No problem, Ricko. I didn’t exactly make that clear.
I’d tend to agree with you, but AF’s regular unis aren’t that great, what with the diamond piping, and Navy’s regulars look like ND’s, but with NAVY written on them. A little restrained upgrade, therefore, is OK with me.
Like the unis Navy wore in the bowl game. Or they could go back to the Staubach era.
link
If the AF idea seems over the top, they can always go back to that look from the Street & Smith’s magazine.
Just saw this look for the first time,
link
sleeve stripes and lightning bolt shoulder stripes.
And against Oregon, back before the Ducks changed their colors to carbon and black.
—Ricko
Or is it carbon and gray?
Or carbonated white and neon yellow-green?
Better check the shoes.
—Ricko
since when are green and yellow oregon school colors?
…before the Ducks changed their colors to whatever the heck they want.
/fixed
I don’t think silver on blue would show up as well as the other way ’round.
Blue helmet and white lightning with silver outline?
1961 Blue Bombers…
link
—Ricko
Yes sir, that’ll do quite nicely…especially with the numbers on there.
“Muh “Wild Blue Yonder’? Bought it over in Elko.”
—Gus in THE ELECTRIC HORSEMAN
I’m mildly surprised nobody is mentioning how completely awesome that Dock Ellis jacket is.
So I’ll do it: That Dock Ellis jacket is completely awesome, no?!
I guess I’m just not all that jazzed about those jackets, though I am curious about the Santo one.
how effin’ sweet is that dock lsd jacket?
Air Force’s ’59 unis on a ’60 cover…
link
—Ricko
re: early use of helmet decals, that is.
That S&S is sweet!
Paul Hornung and Paul Zimmerman writing about the Rose Bowl hopefuls. I guess they hadn’t decided on the PAC-8 yet as successor to (most of) the old PCAA.
Always good to see reference to the Skyline and Border conferences.
The three pro leagues almost seem like an afterthought.
Don’t think S&S did a separate Pro Football mag until maybe ’63 or so. Wasn’t until after it became apparent the AFL wasnt a fluke.
There was a deal between the conferences in ’60. Likely that story was about the teams in those conferences.
Times were different. Even had #1 been playing #2 in, say, the Sugar Bowl, the Rose Bowl still was almost certain to do better TV numbers. It was college football’s showcase game, regardless.
—Ricko
“Jake also sent a photo of this button with his surname. ‘It’s a little larger than a dime and was made by Bastian Brothers Co. in Rochester, New York. I would love to know more about it – was it for a politician? A brand? A school?'”
Maybe it was the same as the Re Elect Doyle to Congress pin, also made by Bastian Brothers, halfway down on this page:
link
… and this old New Yorker article might have more background information:
link
Thank you very much. I received that pin as a gift from my cousin who won it on ebay and have been curious to its’ origins. Those links were very intriguing. I have a feeling this little curiosity is going to be a fun/geeky little investigation. By the way, I love the phrase “Re Elect Doyle to Congress”. It just sounds lovely.
Happy New Year and once again, thank you.
“Ron Santo’s Thing” was a bar he had a stake in, if I remember correctly. Santo had a number of side businesses when he was playing; for example, “Ron Santo’s Pro’s Pizza,” which I *think* was a frozen pizza you bought at the grocery store. I never bought one at the grocery store but there were vendors in Wrigley Field toting metal heater boxes full of personal-size Ron Santo’s Pro’s Pizzas, and I ate my share.
I was interested to read the design perspective to the Big Ten logo rather than a fan’s perspective. It seems that many fans hate first and then get used to it later.
I have to say HATED the Big Ten logo when I saw it, as I saw the complete BIG TEN version of it, but seeing just the one line version of it with the seemingly one word mark in the context of its uses, I can see where it could be a very easy mark to use.
I could never picture the other one with its spelled out Big Ten in clunky font on a field or uniform making any sense, but this one seems to after seeing it done.
Working in Pac-10 territory, I was not sure of the new Pac-10 logo until I saw the beauty of the mountain and sea aspect of it. And it was east to see that the number was going to be easy to change… so they were obviously looking forward.
So upon further review, if they get rid of the TEN and the Vertical version… I might give this one a second chance.
Amazing Kreskin’s predictions on one website’s home page today.
Among other things, he predicts the Pirates will be lousy for at least two more years.
More importantly, did you know that he long ago had his name legally changed to “Amazing Kreskin.”
Therefore, I predict that he is the only person with the same first name as a Veg-O-Matic.
—The Occasionally Interesting Ricko
“Among other things, he predicts the Pirates will be lousy for at least two more years.”
Apparently Kreskin’s predictions are not as bold as they once were.
Did he go on to predict he’ll hear Katy Perry on the radio within the next week?
Bengals WR Jerome Simpson had some interesting leg attire on Sunday
link
Kinda funny that Russell Wilson is the QB for North Carlina State and he wears Addidas.
OK, I know how to spell ‘Carolina’ I got a finger taped because of a cut. Woops.
what’s all that black shit on the WVA unis?
shit
Oy.
link
Yuck.
Joe Webb was a much better show (and story).
—Ricko
I noticed on offense for West Virginia that the backs, tight end and receivers had yellow shoes on but the linemen had regular shoes on.
Good idea. If the officials pick up that it will help in spotting any ineligible receivers downfield.
—Ricko
Champs Sports Bowl Breakdown:
Mascot Edge: Mountaineers vs Wolfpack. A pack of wolves would probably take out a Mountaineer even though he’d put up a valiant fight.
Uni Edge: Not a fan of the mono red look but NC State’s unis are nicer than the West Virginia total combats.
But how many of them wolves could the mountaineers pick off with their rifles?
All of them except for the one that snuck up behind and bit the mountaineer in the jugular.
At least Nebraska should still look good in the Holiday Bowl…
link
Anyone watching the game? Mike Vick has a built-in handwarmer into his jersey.
Lotta gold in what used to be the Copper Bowl:
link
On the sidelines, too:
link
Love the helmet flying off in the background.
too bad his head wasn’t attached…
Easy there Sheriff Buford T. Justice
this happens every time one of these floozies starts poontangin’ around with those show folk fags…
An addition to what’s already been dug up on the Yogi Berra photo.. link and an additional photo: link
Insight Bowl Breakdown
mascot edge: Tiger easily crushes a hawkeye.
Uni Edge: Pittsburgh Steelers…er, I mean Iowa takes the uni contest here. At least we know what the Nike version of the Steelers jersey will be when they take over.