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“Kiwi Footy,” or The 2011 Rugby World Cup, Part I

Rugby-World-Cup

By Phil Hecken

I know as much about rugby as I do about the uniforms of the Korean Baseball League, which is to say — not a lot. But I do know this — the 2011 Rugby World Cup will be taking place way down under in New Zealand, starting on September 9, and continuing ALL the way until October 23rd. This is the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987.

My alma mater treated our Rugby team as a “club” sport (which is to say, it wasn’t a ‘recognized’ sport and got no funding), and a bunch of the guys from my fraternity played. So, back in the stone ages, I did watch a few games. I mostly enjoyed the post-game celebrations (win or lose) back at our house, where we engaged in stimulating banter while playing games like “shoot the boot.” Or at least I think I enjoyed them. The opposition was always invited back to our house, so I guess one of the tenets or credos of the game is good sportsmanship.

Anyway, I may not know much about rugby, but fortunately Caleb Borchers does — and he’s prepared a fantastic rundown of the uniforms of the participants in this year’s Rugby World Cup. We’ll tackle about half of the teams this weekend, and conclude with the final batch next weekend. So, without further ado, here’s Caleb:

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The 2011 Rugby World Cup, Part I
By Caleb Borchers

First of all, a couple of notes on the tournament in general. The Rugby World Cup (RWC) is very picky, like most international tournaments, about protecting the sponsors of the event. As such, though most teams tend to have commercial sponsors on various places on the jersey, that is not the case at the RWC. As such, the jerseys have a far cleaner design than usual.

Also, you will note that I used jersey and alternate jersey to talk about the teams’ uniforms. The website, which I used extensively due to their clear photographs, tends to refer to home and away jerseys. That is a misnomer. Most teams will only wear the “away” jersey if there is a clash with the opposition jersey. This is why I have referred to them as “alternate” jerseys. A few sides (Wales and England come to mind) have begun to wear alternates in unnecessary situations for purely commercial reasons, but most other teams only wear alternates when absolutely necessary. Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Ireland, for example, have only worn alternates one or twice (at most) since the last RWC.

Rugby has very few outfitters. As such two companies, Kooga and Canterbury, have the bulk of the teams. Adidas and Nike have only two each, but they have some of the more lucrative brands.

This tournament might deserve a new uni acronym: BFNZS, Black For New Zealand’s Sake. Since it is being hosted in the home of the All Blacks, everyone and their dog thinks it is just a splendid idea to wear a black alternate strip. It all looks very stupid.

Finally, this year there is one aesthetic change that effects every team. Unlike the past where the RWC patch was mostly vertical, this year the patch is horizontal. It also features a new logo, changed after years of service from this one. Both changes seem to make the patch fresher and more modern.

Argentina: Historically: Argentina’s rugby side, the Pumas, wears a jersey that more or less mimics what one expects out of the national soccer team, only with white shorts. In 2007, they continued in this traditional look and were similar in their most recent internationals. Adidas has been their outfitter for years and tends towards traditionalism with their international rugby teams.

2011: The jerseys are indeed traditional, though one might notice that through the top of the dominant stripes there is a small white line. Seems like a useless detail.

Australia: Historically: The Wallabies tend to wear some version of an yellow jersey with green shorts. In the past this has had horrible ramifications. Generally, however, they look relatively good. In ’07 the looked fine, albeit with too many bumper sticker features and shorts that were more turquoise than green. Recent outfitter Kooga has gone for a look that is mostly yellow. The Australians have a problem few teams have. They wear both a team logo and a national crest on their jersey. At the World Cup one of those is removed for the sake of the tournament patch. They thus move the team logo to the sleeve. They’ve done this for years, so it isn’t a problem like it is in South Africa.

2011: The new Australian jerseys are not much different than those of recent years. Note the embossed stars on the lower torso, symbolizing the southern cross constellation featured on the Australian (and New Zealand) flag. In addition to the Wallaby on the sleeve, they have a world cup embroidered on the other sleeve with “1991” and “1999” their previous victories. They have an alternate in white, but unless they play the Romanians in the playoffs (the world is more likely to spontaneously combust) they shouldn’t need it.

Canada: Historically: The Canadians have a look that has remained constant over the years. This is the 2007 jersey and here’s another recent jersey. While it is not the most interesting jersey in the world, they have a consistent look that viewers associate with the squad.

2011: No major surprises. Like Australia, Kooga has given them an embossed detail (maple leaves). They have a black change strip which will come in handy given their two pool games against other red-wearing sides (Japan and Tonga).

England: Historically: The Red Rose is known best for their traditional white jersey. In recent times they have had various experiments with other colors and elements. In 2010/11 they added a grey element that is unusual for them, but is not as bad as it could be. England are a team where less is usually more.

2011: England have created the uni story of the tournament. Their traditional white strip is basically expected, though the white socks take the monochrome to a new level. Their change strip, however, is all black. In New Zealand, they are wearing all black. Nike is trying to cash in on the BFBS/BFNZS, but suffice it to say they have probably done themselves little by way of attracting Kiwi fans to cheer for them. Many All Black fans take this as quite the affront to their tradition. The change strip will be worn in the opener against Argentina.

Fiji: Traditionally: The Fijians have a simple white and black jersey, often with a dash of sky blue to represent the national flag. 2007’s RWC jersey very much followed that pattern. Since, they have had an unusual design that many dislike, but I find to be a modern classic. It just works for Fiji in a way it wouldn’t for others. In July they had a test against the All Blacks to raise funds for disaster relief and wore a unique jersey. That seems to be a one off for that special event, with a touch of red in honor of the Christchurch earthquake victims.

2011: Again Kooga has added some nice features of Fijian culture with the details on the waist and sleeves. If they come into a clash situation (likely only against England or Argentina in the playoffs) they have a sky blue clash strip.

France: Traditionally: The French for a long time wore royal blue. In 2007 they went to a much darker blue. Conspiracy theorists (myself included) saw this as an attempt to force the All Blacks into their change strips, which indeed happened in the quarterfinals. They have kept that blue since, but improved the design.

2011: The French, and Nike, have finally admitted their obsession with the All Blacks. Their two tone jersey is meant to honor the 1999 and 2007 French sides, both who famously beat the All Blacks in the playoff rounds. It may be the ugliest of the RWC jerseys. They also have a change strip, also in an odd gradient. That solid jersey was worn in a recent warm up and on TV just appeared white. No word yet on if the regular jersey will be deemed to clash with the All Blacks in their pool match.

Georgia: Traditionally: The Georgians first went to the 2003 RWC in a maroon and black jersey with odd symbols on it. They were significantly tamer in 2007 and had shifted from maroon to red, much like their flag did over that period (old and new). Recent jerseys have not been of much interest.

2011: Sadly, Georgia have little more than a stock Kooga jersey. If you ordered jerseys from Kooga for a local high school team this is what they would look like. The white change strip is even more boring, and they are unlikely to need it.

Ireland: Traditionally: It’s pretty hard to mess this one up. In 2007 the Irish went with a darker hue and had a bad World Cup. They’ve returned to a luckier green in recent times, as well as switching over to Puma. If they were to play South Africa at some point, they would likely go to white alternates.

2011: Their RWC jersey is nothing that exciting, just typical Irish fare. I’m not personally a big fan of the white sliver at the collar. The change strip is white, but has a weird athletic bra looking silhouette over the number on the back.

Italy: Traditionally: Like their soccer counterparts, the Italian rugby team wears light blue. They have seen little change over time.

2011: Again the Italians have stuck to the same script. Like 2007 they again have those weird skeleton shiny strips on the rib cage. The biggest innovation is kappa going with a sideways word mark down the chest. The white alternate is rather plain.

~~~

Thanks Caleb! Great stuff. And apparently some of the games will be on NBC television in the States, so us Yanks can actually watch some of the games. Looking forward to Part II next weekend.

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ncaa football

New NCAA Rundown

So there were a lot of new unis on display in the college game yesterday, and my man Terry Duroncelet was kind enough to provide us with a quick rundown. Let’s see what we have:

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• Florida wore their orange jerseys against Florida Antlantic University to reel in the Will Muschamp era.

• Ole Miss wore their wonderful red jerseys against BYU (head to photo #3), but one of the players was wearing a blue jersey. Quote from reader Pat Sullivan: “He is the guy giving signals…The darker jersey makes him easier to spot on the sideline”.

• New Mexico wore new uniforms last night. It’s hard to tell, but they switched to the ever-so tired Mizzou template. Big downgrade from last year. But the real star of the day was the helmet that the Lobos wore Yesterday. A white shell with a combined “NM” logo, grey mask, and a red stripe that tapers in the back. And details behind the story of it?

• New uniforms for San Jose State. I’d rather not see the golden sweat stains on the jersey. The Oregon-style pants, while not great, aren’t too offensive.

• The experimental pant that Adidas was testing out with Michigan during the offseason is being used by UCLA. They look more beige/piss than UCLA Gold (their official shade of “Old Gold”) now. On the plus side, no mini T.V. numbers this time around!

• East Carolina updated their white jerseys. Big improvement from last year. Given their flip-flop history with helmet decals, they wore a Jolly Roger-style decal against South Carolina.

• The Washington Huskies had a “150”³ painted at the 25 yard-lines (presumably for an anniversary for the school). It’s painted only in their official shade of purple (which is like a dark lavender), making it really difficult to see. White or gold would’ve been much better.

Eastern KY and Hampton both are using Russell’s new sleeve design, like Louisiana-Lafayette (thanks for Jim Vilk for the tip)

• Aside from a new lid (as reported by Paul), Tulsa also got new uniforms.

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Benchies Header

Benchies

by Rick Pearson

~~~

Wasn’t much of a relationship, but some parts were outstanding…

9-4-11 s-Changed

And, of course, the full-size.

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all sport uni tweaks

Uni Tweaks

We have another new set of tweaks today.

If you have a tweak, change or concept for any sport, send them my way.

Remember, if possible, try to keep your descriptions to ~50 words (give or take) per tweak. You guys have been great at keeping to that, and it’s much appreciated!

And so, lets begin:

~~~

We start with Glenn Simpkins, who has a bunch of National League tweaks (sorry for the delay, Glenn, but I didn’t run any tweaks during Paul’s sabbatical):

Hi, Phil

Some more Uni Tweaks, with the hope of a Uni Tweak extravaganza at some point soon. With Paul on Vacation, I’m starved of that usual piece of Weekend content. When I Emailed the last batch on 5/30/2011, they werent posted until 6/25/2011. You must have a severely clogged queue!

The next batch I have rounds out the Senior Circuit. in all of them No NOBs, and numbers only belong on the front if and only if the word-mark is cascade up or a mark on the left breast:

Brewers: Simple, but replacing the Times numerals with block would go miles. Home and Road (with city and not team name!)

Reds: Home Simple replacement, Block for Serifed. Road I liked the tall, verticaly arched lettering of 1999-2006, thought it could use sleeves and the black removed.

Miami/Florida: THE Jeff made a nice Miami word-mark posted 4/30/2011, so I thought conform it to the Marlins current color scheme for the Road. I also invoke that, since the Twins use the TC cap in reference to their metropolitan area of Minneapolis-St. Paul, whilst geographically calling themselves Minnesota, a state, the Marlins have every right to geographically call themselves Miami, per their agreement, and leave their cap alone to refer to Florida.

Mets: The tweak that always pleases: ditching the black: Pinstripes, White, Road. Big Plus!

Devil’s Advocate tweak: They’re using black wrong! One way to use it right, like this: Home & Road

Hope to see these posted, along with what others have to show, very soon.

Glenn

~~~

Up in the two-hole is Mike Ballinger, with some changes for the Bengals:

Phil:

As a lifelong Bengals fan, I’ve had to stare at tiger stripes. Tiger stripes EVERYWHERE! While I do like the tiger-striped helmet, I feel that having stripes all over the uni is a little too much and distracts from the classic striped helmet. The current uni set (used since the ’04 season) is so hideous, that I felt that I too must tweak the Bengals’ uni. I wanted to take the simplicity of the 1st generation uni (1968-1980) and the familiar elements of the 2nd/3rd generation unis (1981-2003) and add a modern touch. I’ve always preferred the ‘varsity block’ style numbers, as opposed to the ‘comic-sans’ looking font on the current jersey. This is what I came up with. I couldn’t decide if I liked the “leaping tiger” on the shoulders or not, so I included them on the road set but excluded them from the home set.

Mike Ballinger

~~~

Closing down the show today is Andrew Seagraves, who has a new look for the NC State Wolfpack:

Phil;

I came out and said that I was bored by the NC State uniforms and looking into the Wolfpack’s history they’ve gone with only numbers on the front of their jersey at times and no stripes on the side (TV numbers on sleeves),

Rivers, Ritcher
1982
mid 80s

one stripe on the sleeve, UCLA stripes on the sleeves (1950s), Northwestern stripes (1960s), Three stripes (mid 60s), and even four stripes.

Also the pants have gone from no stripes, to one stripe to two stripes to three stripes tight together.

Here’s what I did – I took the three stripe (sometimes three stripes are three stripes) and put it on the undershirt with the wolf on the shoulder (not on top of the shoulders like in the 1970s) for the first two Red and White jerseys. I kept the pants white and added three stripes to the helmet and in theory to the pants alongside the NCS symbol.

For the second set I took the stripes from the undershirt and placed it on the shoulders to give them a unique look. I took the state from the new uniforms and put them on the arms.

Thanks so much!

Andrew Seagraves

Phew! Great stuff fellas. Back next weekend with more.

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colorize this

Colorize This!

Occasionally, I will be featuring wonderful, high-quality black and white photographs that are just begging to be colorized.

Only two contributors today, and shockingly, their first names both start with “G”. That’s right, the G&G boys are back and better than ever.

We’ll start with Gary Chanko today:

As promised a couple of submittals to start the Fall season:

San Marcos High School football player
Last week a reader (Scott Rodriguez) wanted to colorize a 60s photo of a San Marcos High School football player. Great image of what appears to be a player suffering through a defeat.

Scott asked how to get started with colorizing. The tutorial I prepared a few months ago would be a good place to begin. All the techniques used in this submittal are covered in the tutorial.

Fightin’ Phils
This 1950 Spring training photo originally appeared in Life magazine and featured in Uniwatch in the 28 March 2008 blog edition. The original B&W was straighten and cropped, so some of the image was on the sides was lost.

I’m unable to ID any the players that appear to be rough housing. One strange item in the photo is what looks like a double stripe along the pant leg of the player sitting down on the far left. These are obviously 1948/49 uniforms and not the pinstripes first used during the upcoming 1950 season.

Great job, as always, Gary. And now on to the second half of the G&G Boys, George Chilvers:

Hi Phil

One for this week with a story.

I was approached by the historian of a club to colourise this picture. In the late 1800s Liverpool was a thriving business centre with sea trade to the States. A lot of top businessmen lived in the City, and many had gone to the Public Schools of Eton and Harrow. Note that due to the vagaries of “English English” public schools are what you would call private schools. I could explain but it’d take too long for this resume.

Anyway these chaps formed a football club, Liverpool Ramblers, that had games between themselves (Eton v Harrow in Liverpool) as well as games against other teams. They were the first team from Liverpool to compete in the FA Cup before Everton and Liverpool. They are believed to be the oldest football club in the world not to have played in a league.

Anyway (again) – this picture dates from 1882 and has a number of top-dogs of the time. None more so than the chap in the playing kit standing third from the right at the back (between the guys in the grey suit and the fawn suit). He is J Bruce Ismay – founder of the White Star Line. He infamously survived the line’s biggest tragedy – the sinking of the Titanic. It is alleged by some that he took a place in the lifeboats when it was “woman and children first”. His supporters say that the lifeboat would have set off half-empty – what was he supposed to do? Just Wikipedia his story – but there he is in the orange and blue of Liverpoool Ramblers.

I believe my colourisation will be printed up and framed in the club room. Original is here. It’s not the best quality picture – but sometimes the story adds value.

George

~~~

Thanks George & Gary. Great stuff again this week.

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vilk 5 & 1 b

5 & 1

And now, the part of the post you’ve all been waiting for: The 5 & 1.

For those of you unfamiliar with the “5 & 1” it’s pretty simple, really, much like Jim Vilk. He takes all of the NCAA games in a given weekend and examines them under the vilkescope to determine his best five, and one worst, matchup, as dictated by uniforms. There are few givens with the 5 & 1, because there is little rhyme or reason found inside the Vilk brain~pan. Large sums of money have been wagered, and lost, trying to figure out who’ll win the coveted “best” and “worst” #1s. And if you really want to know more, then be sure to read Being Jim Mothervilker…guaranteed to make your head explode. Now then, here’s Movi:

~~~

I may loves me some Rebs in red…but I REALLY loves me some Gators in orange!

Honorable Mention to Montana/Tennessee — Looks as if the Griz got an upgrade.

5. Middle Tennessee/Purdue — See, Brutus? I *do* pick B1G Ten teams, after all.

4. Eastern Kentucky/Kansas State — Proving I’m no fuddy-duddy: I love EKU’s new mini-E-pattern sleeves.

3. BYU/Ole Miss — Here comes the SEC…

2. Kentucky/Western Kentucky — Welcome to the 2011 Most Improved Unis Bowl!

1. Florida Atlantic/Florida — Pencil this one in for the year-end Top 5 list.

And my bad one: Elon/Vanderbilt – Diamond-side piping and wraparound strings…these are a few of my least favorite things.

~~~

Well…there’s the first salvo for the 2011 season…and he’s even worse than ever! I’m already down a couple hundy, and it’s only week one! Now taking applications for a new 5 & 1 guy…

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OK, that’s enough for this Sunday of a Laborious Day weekend. Tip of the cap to Comrade Marshall on his favorite holiday and to Lady Pineapple, whose birthday is Monday. Happy B’Day Kate!

No one submitted a “Ducktracker” application, so I guess that means either there won’t be one this year, or I’ll just have to do it. And we don’t want that, do we? No. C’mon peeps, step up the the Nikegon plate here. That ninja duck doesn’t look so good when LSU drops a “L” on you! Good thing they’ll never wear that combination again.

Everyone have a great Sunday, a wonderful Labor Day…and I’ll catch ya next weekend.

~~~

“David Letterman writer, Eric Stangel, sums up the Georgia uniforms nicely: ‘Who designed Georgia’s uniforms? Ocean Spray?’ — Johnny Okray

 
  
 
Comments (130)

    Yep. That game was not even a blip on my preliminary radar. When I saw the picture, though, I had to include them. The only downside for me was that I had to bump Villanova/Temple.
    link

    But Jim, the Fla. Atlantic unis make you a bit dizzy with the exactly alinged stripes from helmet to pants, as Ricko noted earlier this year when we were talking about making Auburn’s uniform stripes match.

    I dunno…I’m not OCD like Phil, but even I get excited when I see all that alignment.

    Maybe the reason it doesn’t bother me is the logo. I’m not crazy about the FAU on the helmet, but if they ever tweaked it, perhaps that uni would be a little *too* perfect.

    It’s still a good uniform, don’t get me wrong. But I kind of like Auburn’s mismatched stripes (or at least the non-truncated version they had for years until this year’s Under Armour screwup).

    Gotta admit, love those Florida orange jerseys. Now just take the Gator logo off the front of it and slap it on the helmet, get rid of the Gators wordmark. Ugh, I hate it when teams use wordmarks on the helmet instead of an awesome logo. Case in point: Eastern Carolina. That Jolly Roger is WAY better than the ECU they used to have on their lids. Also, what font is that used on the new New Mexico jerseys? Love it, looks like the old Blue Bombers font.

    I like “Gators” and “Ole Miss” and “Ucla”, etc., on college helmets. It’s such a collegiate look.

    Love NM’s font, too. Too bad they went with that “ever-so tired Mizzou template,” as Terry so correctly labels it.

    And count me as a fan of the Russell sleeve (and pant) design. See, there *is* a new thing I like.

    UCLA has a great helmet. It’s too bad Adidas has messed up its uniforms. And Nike trashing Georgia’s awesome uniforms. And on and on. . . .

    “That Jolly Roger is WAY better than the ECU they used to have on their lids.”

    I agree, although it’s no guarantee that they’ll be keeping that decal for the rest of the season, especially with their multi-decal-during-the-season history combined with today’s Hydra-helmeted culture.

    “Also, what font is that used on the new New Mexico jerseys? Love it, looks like the old Blue Bombers font.”

    On the Nike Team Uniform Builder, the font is called “Gothic”, and there’s a corresponding “Gothic Shadow” on the Builder as well. And yes, it’s an awesome font. Wish more teams would go with it.

    Someone needs to tell Nike that Gothic means the same as Old English. They do have a school in their stable that uses a Gothic font.

    Tony Barnhart on his weekly radio college football show yesterday referred to Georgia’s uniforms as their “Power Ranger costumes.”. Well said.

    Awesome. Well said. Throwing away one of the best uniforms in football for that? Wear the black alternate jersey and you have a different look that is also one of the best in football.

    I hope England gets the royal piss knocked out of it for wearing all black.

    England and France must hate New Zealand if they’re trying to make the all blacks wear a different color.

    England aren’t trying to make the All Blacks wear a different colour. If/when England play NZ England will wear all white, while New Zealand will wear all black. It’s only if colours clash (eg v Argentina whose pale blue and white are near enough to white to cause some possible confusion) that England may wear the black.

    I really don’t see what the fuss is about. It seems to me that New Zealand think they have sole rights to wear black – and that’s not the case.

    Indeed. That was the point of the French dark blue four years ago – they saw there was a chance of an NZ game, so decided to force them out of the black.

    Course, Scotland never had that trouble with Enzed, we’ve been hammered by them in home and away strips

    That’s a bit the point, I suppose.

    France darkened their jerseys to force a clash. Which is different from what England are doing. England wear white – there is no possibility of a clash with the All Blacks, forcing them to change. The black kit is a change kit for England. Besides possibly the hope (ill-founded it would seem) that they may have got some local support by wearing black, it has nothing to do with New Zealand.

    However – I could just ask what colour would NZ wear if they were forced to change in some game?

    Maybe this is the answer:
    link
    Are England getting uptight over this? Nah!!

    NZ has had a history of the white strip. First time I recall seeing it was in 1987 vs Scotland. link
    I’m sure they wore it before then as well.

    Three observations from this weekend:

    1. UCLA’s jerseys are an embarrasment. “UCLA stripes” are an iconic jersey feature,and yet the team for whom they are named can’t even get them right. But forget about whether UCLA’s “UCLA stripes” are historically correct…they look like sh*t.

    link

    2. Helmets with single stripes are nice with a traditional uniform such as Ole Miss. However it’s time to make the single stripe wider for modern larger shell helmets.

    link

    3.Penn State improves its uni by dropping the wide contrasting neck band.

    link

    yeah yeah yeahs, ucla stripes are messed up now. is that news? at least it isn’t some stupid houston seam stripe. i can live with it.

    make ’em wider? while i will admit making them smaller like the detroit lions is 100% a bad idea, the call to make them universally larger is silly.

    yes, the penn staters looked swell, funny how that one small jersey tweak improved them, but what really made them look amazing? white laces on the all black cleats! i didn’t see any logos either. note to self, rare dog waging tale.

    Actually I suspect that the width of a helmet center stripe became pretty much standardized (1″ ?) with the usual width (with exceptions) of the center ridge of the Riddell suspension helmet. But modern helmet shells today are enormous compared to those older Riddells and look out of proportion to the 1″ stripe. I’m not saying there should be a rule about stripe size, but I think a lot of helmets would look better if they went with a slightly wider stripe. And you can buy the stripes in increasing widths of 1/4″.

    link

    It’s all in the small details of a uniform sometimes…and I believe that’s kinda what this site is devoted to.

    i wasn’t questioning why the stripe is the size it is, or even why it exists pierre. i don’t think there is a person here who doesn’t know it’s relation to the helmet of the day that’s a UW 101 day one covering what you should have learned in high school item. and did you just drop a “it’s in the small details” line on me? duh, the small details is what this site is all about, that is the ONLY thing we talk about here, small details. what i am saying is that it doesn’t look disproportionate, and doesn’t need to be thicker, it doesn’t look bad at all.

    I briefly flirted with the idea of making UCLA/Houston the &1. That should be a Top Fiver, but the “stripes” and the diamond seams ruin it.

    I’m a Houston alum and I hate the ‘seams’ on our jerseys (and ANY football jersey) but yesterday was my first chance to see UCLA and, old news or not, it was really disappointing when they came out looking like a nondescript opening game directional school.

    The classic stripes and terrific colors are why the Bruins were my favorite college team growing up. They now look boring, not bad, but boring.

    i hate to say this, but maybe houston is just neo-classic design based on uniform cut, like the single stripe, like the winged helmet, etc. no, i take it back. and by the way, ucla’s stripes are ridiculous, i don’t want to sound like they are not. i was just saying i would rather their stupid over the houston stupid. i am also mad the the bruins didn’t cover.

    When I was a lad in the early 80s I loved seeing the orange tops in Ben Hill so I’m happy the Gators might switch back to those as their primary home jerseys. Though they had a few different stripe patterns, the ones I remember were large white, small orange, large blue, small orange, large white (link). Now they’re small blue,small orange, large white, small orange, small blue (link). They standardized their stripes in the late Spurier era on the blue and white jerseys to match the helmet and pants. If they end up becoming an orange jersey team I hope they continue with the standardization by making something like this (link).

    When Spurrier took over, I remember he emphasized wearing blue to make the Gators look like the Gators again, because he said “Charley Pell tried to makes us look like Clemson”

    Pell was from Clemson. Now UF hires Will Muschamp, a coach from another orange school (Texas) and game one under him, the Gators are wearing orange again. Hmmm.

    Yep…one of the first things Spurrier did when became head coach at Florida was to change their home jerseys from orange to blue, the color jersey he wore when he played for Florida. But I can still recall seeing a freshman Florida running back by the name of Emmitt Smith in an orange jersey outshining LSU’s two prize freshmen running backs, Gary James and Dalton Hilliard, in Tiger Stadium. So there is some history with the orange jerseys…

    And Kerwin Bell, who has become sort of a joke because he was such a travellin’ man QB in the pros (including wearing the lime of the Orlando Thunder) but did just fine as a Gator, thank you very much.

    And I don’t think Rob H was criticizing the switch to the orange jerseys, more the reason behind it: Coaches who seem a little confused about who’s paying them.

    yes, I don’t mind the orange jerseys, I just don’t want them to become all-orange, I’d like to see both the blue and the orange jerseys regularly. The best years under both Spurrier and Meyer were primarily blue, but the orange is nice as a change-up.

    If they do go primarily orange, I hope a reporter in Columbia asks Spurrier (maybe the week before the UF game) about the Gators’ wearing orange again, maybe he will respond with something like this:

    “That’s fine, we’ll just have to start beating them every year just like we do Clemson.”

    Personally, I prefer the blue jerseys to the orange…but I’d like to see them worn with a white helmet, which is what Florida used to wear back in Spurrier’s day. I think the orange helmet was introduced with the orange jerseys and designed to go with that uniform.

    What you say is true about Charlie Pell making the change to orange and Spurrier to blue. It’s definitely a generational thing but Muschamp is only five years older than I am and for both of us the formative years of Gator fandom came with the switch to the team’s current lids and orange tops. And while the three recognized national championships (96, 06, 08) came in blue jerseys the team’s first SEC and national championship, something everyone outside of Gainesville forgets about, were won with the 1984 and 1985 teams. The SEC decided to retroactively take the conference championship from the team in 1984 and prevent them from winning it in 1985 because of NCAA sanctions and the major polls avoided the Gators for the same reasons but a few brave souls ignored the sanction to record the Gators as the best team on the field those years.

    Yeah, the coach maybe wanting them to resemble Texas is one thing. Looking like a high school team is something else altogether.

    Not for every game, but maybe against Georgia?

    You’re pleased even though the SEC is up 3 to 1 already on the B1G? Although the SEC also made the &1, so I guess that would make it 2 to 1.

    Thanks.

    ha-ha. the sec should get it often, but there are also teams other then penn state in the big ten. fla-fla atl, and byu-ole miss(a great cadiate for #1) are tough to argue against this week, no big ten matchup deserved consideration.

    What about orange pants and blue jerseys? According to Wikipedia Florida wore that combination twice, in 1989 and 1999, against Florida State.

    link

    Yuk. Two home uniforms would be great — alternate blue and orang jerseys with white pants. The old Spurrier look with blue jerseys and white pants looked great, but there’s too much water in the bridge now with the orange helmets to change back, I think, and they still look pretty good anyway.

    That’s what Gators did when Cris Collinsworth was there, didn’t they? Use both the orange and royal jerseys with white pants, that is.

    Did that Playboy pic come out of the Ricko Special files under the mattress? ;)

    If I recall, the first time Florida wore orange was the last game of the 1979 season, against Florida State, the day after Thanksgiving, when it was 0-10 or something like that. They wore orange all throughout the ’80s until the last game of the 1989 season, again against Florida State, when they wore blue jerseys with orange pants. That 1979 game was the first time I ever saw a high-five, by the way.

    Gators wore royal pants at least one while Wes Chandler was there, too. But with the white jerseys.

    Can’t find a photo online and, while I know I have at least one in the Ricko Files, I honestly don’t feel like digging it out and scanning it right now.

    I absolutely LOVE link for East Carolina. It’s about a million times more interesting than their ECU/sword lid. They should switch to that full-time, pronto.

    Also, I’m still not a fan of Georgia’s Pro Combats, but they did look better on the field than they did in their promo photos.

    Also also, that’s three words that start with a “p” and feature two “o”s.

    I only saw quick highlights of East Carolina and did not notice the Pirates helmet. Yes that is cool.

    I do agree about the ECU Jolly Roger! I admit I am a fan of their Pirate word mark fromt he 80s and early 90s, but that Jolly Roger is awesome! Their white unis are far better than their horn jobs and if they did go BFBS with the Jolly Roger helmet – I think I can go with that!!

    (my mock up using the pro combat template
    link)

    Also, I loved Oregon’s Ninja Duck look and if BYU goes Monochrome white, will they go monochrome Blue sometime this season?

    Ninja Ducks.
    Teenage Mutant Ninja Horned Frogs.

    Gotta toughen/superhero things up so recruits will look past those wussy nicknames, right?

    Y’know, since their major’s gonna be “Getting Free Tattoos.”

    Spectacular Banana Slugs
    the Amazing Anteaters

    you might be onto something!

    Not sure how you’d superhero up The Billikens tho…

    BYU went monochrome blue at least once last season, so seeing it again this year is a possibility. Let’s hope not, though.

    Boston College wore their old helmet, sans stained-glass pattern, and, from what I could tell, the numbers didn’t have the pattern, either. But everything else was their new uni— how did this not get mentioned?

    just wondering as i sip my sunday joe, if thatswhatshesaid is funny, shouldn’t you name be hugemistake? that way we can all say…that’s what she said. just kidding TWSS.

    Not to be too picky, but from my experience in Australia, “footy” and “rugby” are two different sports. “Footy” refers to Australian Rules Football which is similar but at the same time has different uniforms, a different ball, different field and different set of rules then “rugby”.

    Footy is a generic slang term for any form of football. Australia’s Nine Network produces two weekly highlights shows, both called “The Footy Show.” One covers Aussie Rules, and is broadcast in the regions where that sport is dominant (Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. The version shown in New South Wales and Queensland covers Rugby League, the dominant sport in those states.

    Want a good look at Prairie View in their mono light gray?
    Vs. Bethune Cookman in mono cheddar, too.

    ESPN.

    Great review today. I’m looking forward to watching a bunch of this on TV, and we’re fortunate in Canada to be getting a ton of live coverage – including all of Canada’s games, and all of the playoffs. The final is October 23rd at 2 a.m.!

    When I last played rugby (1987), the major manufacturer of jerseys was Barbarian and jerseys were made of cotton, with rubber buttons to keep you from gouging your chest when you slid. I guess jerseys are in the 21st century now, its nice to see Barbarian still around even if they aren’t doing any World Cup teams.

    link

    What??? Jim V does not have the PSU Indiana State game on the list? Was it too many white helmets?

    I tease of course. I was thinking how some say they like Penn State because they have not changed much. But the Lions unis were ugly in the 1940’s and stayed ugly.

    Speaking of white I thought Northwestern looked good yesterday.

    Northwestern/BC was on my early list until I saw my #5 and #4 picks. ISU/PSU never had a chance, because of the Sycamores’ BFBS pants and wraparound striping.

    And there was no way I could include your Bucks because the Zips look so bad. Their home uni is worse.

    I’m of the school which admires the Penn State minimalistic approach. Their uniforms distinguish themselves by actually being undistinguished. I wouldn’t want another team to do it, though. Let’s keep it a Penn State thing. On the other hand, I liked Oregon’s outfitting. But I wouldn’t want other schools to follow their pattern. Let that be Oregon’s thing.

    In the Colorado-Hawaii matchup, we had the good, the bad and the ugly. I found Colorado’s rather understated uniform to be quite appealing. Hawaii gets both the bad and the ugly. I actually couldn’t thing of a worse uniform.

    you sound like my ol pal phil. let that be oregon’s thing? no. for one, why do they get to trademark anything? if it’s a good idea, why should they get it and nobody else? just like penn state doesn’t trademark simple(see alabama and others). more second rate teams like oregon and maryland need to do this buffoonery, then it can become passe and go away. i can’t wait until it goes away. my “mother-in-law” saw oregon, and she hates sports, but even she commented on how they looked like something out of a comic book. they look like crap. at least LSU played as LSU, maybe if georgia looked like georgia they might have played more like an SEC team against boise community college, but they didn’t learn their lesson from the blackout game.

    We may be waiting a long time, but I too can’t wait till it goes away. And please take Field Turf and black socks with it.

    Like Phil, I’m pretty much a traditionalist but I was still surprised that Oregon was able to pull off a pretty non-traditional look. I guess we have not totally locked ourselves into the past. Still there are features that I abhor in the uniforms, say, of the past decade: apron strings, horn stripes, contrasting side panels, sports bras and truncated sleeve stripes. The traditional uniforms have avoided these and that’s to their credit.

    I forget if I commented on Bret Bielema the other day. BTN is replaying Badger game.

    97 degree heat index and Brett was up bundled up and zipped up in his usual garb.

    With the trend being increasingly smaller TV numbers on the sleeves, it’s nice to see link going waaaay in the other direction. What’s better than varsity block? Big varsity block!

    Speaking of fonts, yes, I go on about how I dislike a lot of new ones, so I thought I’d showcase some I do like:

    link (unlike Arizona’s Titans ripoff font). Is that the same font as the Cincy Bearcats?

    link Is it just me, or do those look like Pro Bowl unis?

    link Like the Steelers font, only better.

    Yes, even link Too bad that font is usually stuck on a crappy uniform.

    purdue, and their font do look pretty sweet this year, love the changes they made. can’t wait to see them take the oaken bucket.

    LSU, of coures, looked great in white and gold. What color was Oregon wearing — green, coal, black? Anyone? And those yellow shoes — ugh.

    Great job, Caleb. Gotta say, though, that old Aussie shirt is strangely appealing to me.
    link
    My favorite unis for this year’s Cup are Fiji’s, and my least favorite are Italy’s.

    Also some great tweaks and colourizations today!

    Agreed, good review, looking forward to the next instalment.

    You did miss one detail though, something I’m sure will make mothervilker cringe. Thanks to the folks from Beaverton, England’s numbers are in Bellotti Bold!!! link

    A couple of the alternate jerseys have me puzzled. Wouldn’t you think that one requirement of an alternate strip is that it wouldn’t clash with the regular jersey? So when Australia can’t wear their regular yellow jersey, they will show up wearing a white shirt with yellow sleeves and side panels? Could Fiji’s sky blue change outfit be worn against a team wearing white? Which would they wear against Argentina’s sky blue and white stripes?

    That Bengals Concept is the best, most classic design that has been envisioned on the internets. Great Job!!!

    yeah, i know patrick…he really effed this one up…costing me bowkoo bucks already, and we’re only in week one

    at least i rest serene in the knowledge he’s become the chimp for the remainder of the season

    Top Ten for sure, pflava. But that’s a lot of white. Remember one of the guidelines from “Being Jim Mothervilker”: contrast is a good thing, and one of the tiebreakers when I have more than 5 games from which to choose.

    And Phil, three words:
    link

    Well at least we get to be top ten in something this year. That was an inauspicious start for my Owls.

    TxA&M and SMU are both going with small TV numbers. And those unstructured Adidas jerseys are doing SMU’s usually great stripe pattern no favors… Rather a shame given how great this game should look.

    I’m tellin’ you… Adidas is the devil. Although, it does look like more Adidas teams are wearing their pants below the knees (like God intended) than a lot of the UnderArmour and Nike teams.

    maybe that’s because reedidas hasn’t figured out how to make the pads a part of the pants yet

    give them time…and a lot of these look like bicycle shorts regardless

    Watching Browns (in all white) and Bears on NFL Network, pretending it isn’t a delayed broadcast.

    Look, Ma, an NFL game where both teams are wearing striped socks!

    Although Marshall upgraded their home jersey tops by junking the shimmersheen fabric and shitty screenprinted numbers in favor of a better feeling (and looking) fabric and tackle twill numbers, they still have their craptastic away jersey tops. Sad =(

    And how long has WVU used that uniform? I don’t mind the shoulder things, but the bib-like stripes and curvy pant “stripe” are pretty stupid. Isn’t it about time for an upgrade?

    Love the NC State tweaks. The new unis looked great yesterday but I think red socks would have put it over the top.

    Something’s smells fishy, and it’s not dinner…

    It just seems way too out of the realm of possibility for it to be a legit uni. Of course, it could be the uni for their game and this could be a terrible general mock-up of what it looks like overall.

    But fans (and even some of the tOSU players that have a small shred of uni-sense) would probably murder whoever approved these things (assuming that they’re real, which they probably aren’t). That, or they could do the legal thing and just say “no” to the design.

    Don’t buy it. Nike has been doing weird semi-fauxback designs for the “traditional” schools and I can’t see them doing any differently for OSU. Also, no way they’d slap Belotti Bold on anyone except Oregon.

    Barring some secret Nike foul play. Can we all agree Alabama at Penn St. will be the greatest Uni-Matchup in decades? Penn State in their Blue sans white trim/collar and the classic Alabama white road uni….Perfection. Gotta give my eyes some rest this week in preparation of the Joygasm of seeing it this Saturday.

    Mets tweak: YES!! The classic unis 1965-1977!!! They need to get back to these!!!

    I am so happy that there is finally some mainstream coverage of rugby jerseys. So much history in some of these jerseys.
    Argentina has historically had the same jersey over the years, but this years 2011 design hearkens back to the 1997 design where they had the bold and smaller stripe separated by the thin white line. link

    As for Italy, the shiny strips over the ribcage is not the newest technology as it offers grip for the player while the carry the ball into contact/tackles and to help them bind with other teammates in scrummaging and mauls. This grippy rubber texture was featured in the 2007 Canterbury RWC range and is now a mainstay in many different brands.

    also, it’s worth noting that in rugby, traditionally, the home side wears their change kit when there is a clash. so scotland would wear white at home against new zealand, and new zealand would wear white at home against scotland. the same happens for ireland and south africa.

    this was done because teams used to embark on months-long tours, and would only bring the one set of jerseys, whereas the home team had access to their alternates. so the only time you would traditionally see the all blacks wearing white would be when scotland was touring the southern hemisphere.

    although things have changed, that more or less remains the case today. notice, for example, that italy was wearing white when they beat france in rome during this year’s 6nations.

    While that is the traditional arrangement, it has been changing recently and will certainly change at this year’s RWC. One recent example was France wearing their white jerseys for a two test series in New Zealand in ’09.

    At this year’s tournament away teams are those that are forced to change their jersey. Not sure how it was decided, but each game has a designated “home” and “away” team. I’ve noticed New Zealand is always a home team. England is the “away” team against Argentina, and that is why they will be in black this weekend.

    Howard at Eastern Michigan looked great.
    link

    The game was played on Sunday after the Saturday night game was cancelled due to a lightning storm.

    get readyfor next weekend’s RWC uni descriptions- South Africa, USA and Scotland will look the same thanks to CCC and the All Blacks will wear… black

    Jim, many thanks for your kind words about my alma mater, Western Kentucky. We’d been hoping for something special and these “permanent throwbacks” are sartorial perfection. Or close enough. At least no more BFBS rags. I’m trying to get the guys to do a retro helmet a la Miami (the clean one) last year. Pride may be one of the 7 deadly sins (and a six of Leinenkugel’s may be the rest) but I’m proud of how our Hilltoppers look this season.
    Thanks again.

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