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Sunday Morning Uni Watch

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By Phil Hecken

Shiny things.

I’m not usually a fan of chrome domes, but you’ll notice on the left side of the helmet there is the phrase, “Battle Born” and on the front bumper the number 1874. That’s not just a number, it’s a date.

According to the Wolf Pack Blog:

In the midst of the Civil War, Nevada became the 36th state in the union, earning the state motto, “Battle Born.” Ten short years later in 1874, the University of Nevada was founded, becoming the state’s Land Grant institution. Shortly thereafter, in 1896, the University’s athletic program was established. While both our university and the Wolf Pack athletics program have grown dramatically, we’ve never lost sight of our roots here in Nevada.

Battle Born is more than a motto ”“ it’s really a mindset here in Northern Nevada that resonates with all of us. There’s an independent and get-it-done type spirit about us that, in turn, leads us to take tremendous pride in our community, University and athletics program. It is that mindset and spirit that inspires people to move here, and stay here after they graduate from the University of Nevada.

So, why did Nevada doff the metallic hats? The game yesterday against UNLV was and intra-state rivalry game, known as the “Battle for the Fremont Cannon.” And yes, they actually play for a cannon, which happens to the be largest traveling trophy in the NCAA. Unfortunately, the shiny helmets didn’t help the Wolf Pack, as they lost the cannon for the first time in something like nine years yesterday. Oh, and it was a color vs. color game. And, according to this article, the helmet was funded by donors.

Hope the potential 17-year old recruits liked it. After all, they are attracted to shiny objects. Speaking of shiny objects (and the end of Pinktober), THE Ohio State University pulled both off yesterday.

Now, here’s Terry “TJ” Duroncelet with your…

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Sunday Morning Uni Watch
By Terry Duroncelet

Yeah, I have no intro. Well, I did get some awesome music in the mail this week. O.K., I still have no intro.

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From Thursday:

• I seriously love these helmets that Mississippi State wore against Kentucky. The whole game looked great from a uni-standpoint. Also, WHOOPS.

• Middle Tennessee State went BFBS against Marshall.

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From Friday:

• Boise State looked bad with all of the black mess. But BYU? They miraculously looked worse. Also of note from Chuck Fitzer: “I was watching the Boise State/BYU game when I noticed [Uani] ‘Unga’s NOB included the accent. No picture though.” No picture here, either. ‘Unga plays for BYU. I saw this on Bronco Mendenhall’s headset. It looks to say “Utah National Guard”.

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From Saturday:

• Oklahoma State had a slightly different helmet design for their game against Iowa State.

• The Minnesota/Nebraska game was a real looker! Some helmet decal notes, both from Minnesota: the Golden Gophers had purple ribbon decals on the back of their helmets. Also, is that stripe thing in the middle a new version of the warning decal? The second note is that some Gophers had decal issues during the game.

• Maryland wore their Pride v3.0 uniforms for the seconds time this season against Clemson (sweet socks!). Hopefully, they come out with a white version next year. The red is way too loud. Also, Andrew McNeel summed up the uniforms quite nicely.

• Virginia Tech wore mono-orange against Duke. Clemson could not be reached for comment.

• The Ohio Bobcats wore these over the weekend. Not bad, but I could do without the phantom V thing on the sides. Pants could be better, too.

• Texas Tech wore grey helmets and pants with white jerseys against Oklahoma. The helmets had the Texas Tech logo on one side and a T.V. number on the other.

• NC State wore a slightly different helmet design on Saturday against Florida State. Their typical white helmet has a red facemask with a thick red stripe accented by two smaller black stripes. The design from this weekend switched all of the aforementioned red accents to white.

• During the Eastern Michigan/Northern Illinois game, both teams wore #2 decals in honor of Demarius Reed, a receiver for the EMU Eagles who was shot and killed.

• There are Bama fans, and then there are BAMA FANS. Also, were some of the Vols wearing captaincy C’s on the back of their helmets? Also-also, there are four small bricks on the helmets, one awarded for each win.

• Colorado did this to “blackout breast cancer“.

• Mizzou went black/anthracite/black for their Homecoming game against South Carolina.

• Auburn (among many more college teams) wore pink ribbon decals on Saturday. Plus, Auburn’s Eagle got into the Pinktober spirit.

• I had no idea that Oregon switched the number base color on their green jerseys from that nice mallard feather effect to grey, probably because of the NCAA’s new rule on number legibility. A shame, as those numbers were probably the only phantom numbers that I actually enjoyed.

Kansas in full-blue and Baylor in full-white.

• TCU wore the Week 1 uniforms from their LSU game against Texas, but with purple pants.

• Can someone tell me why several players for New Mexico State had a Grand Canyon-sized gap in their player names? (Thanks to Frank Mercogliano for those screen grabs.)

• As Phil noted above, UNLV and Nevada went color vs. color on Saturday, plus Nevada wore these cool helmets.

That’s it for Week 9, and also the last Saturday of the month, which means NO MORE PINK! Or at least, it’ll slow down to a drop per 50 games. See you all next week.

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Thanks, TJ! And yes, thankfully we’re done with the pink for another year. Of course, next month we can look forward to a few schools showing us how much they love to play soldier. There’s pretty much only one school who can pull that one off.

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Catherine as Madeline


Catherine Ryan’s
Five And One

Happy Sunday, UniWatchers! Let’s get to the countdown! Thanks again for everyone who sent me tips!

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5. Oklahoma State vs. Iowa State: I love Iowa State in two bright colors going up against a team in black pants. OSU looked clean and neat and I like to reward the proper use of orange.

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4. Tennessee vs. Alabama: This game was snoozer but I’m almost ready to add Tennessee to a small number of schools that I tolerate in all-white.

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3. Boston College vs. North Carolina: UNC has some some terrible experiments that past few years so it’s nice to see them in a simple look. I also love BC in the maroon pants and gold lids.

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2. Texas Tech vs. Oklahoma: I’m a huge fan of the gray Texas Tech sported yesterday. I usually hate when gray is randomly added to a color scheme but I liked the contrast with the white jerseys.

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1. Nebraska vs. Minnesota: This game had great contrast and I love the Gophers in maroon. Nebraska also looked fantastic in their red pants.

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+1 Clemson vs. Maryland: I don’t really have words for this. They always just take everything one step too far…

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Enjoy your Sundays!

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Duck Tracker

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By Tim E. O’Brien

Oh Emm Gee!

The Oregano Ducks broke out new jerseys (or at least, new numbers) yesterday and boy oh boy did they look good. I mean, they looked better than Adam Banks with the puck in the slot (that’s a duck joke).

The downside is that these magnificent mallards have eschewed the duck feather treatment on their numbers to the two road jerseys. Perhaps we’ll see it on some other, yet-to-be-seen colored jersey, but I doubt it.

That would be sad. It was a creative and inspired uniform element on a team that seems to “force it” a bit too much these days.

Anywho…

You can follow my trackers on twitter @DuckTracker, @NUniTracker (dear lord, what is happening to my ‘Cats?!) or @Hoosier_Tracker or feel free to help me track them by shooting me an email at OfficialDuckTracker@gmail.com , OfficialNUniTracker@gmail.com or OfficialHoosierTracker@gmail.com. Happy Tracking.

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Alex Rocklein’s MLB Playoff Uni Tracker

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Well, last night was a game for the ages, and if you didn’t see it, it ended in a way I’d never seen before. Tied 4-4 in the bottom of the ninth, the Cards had runners on the bases, and in one of the most bizarre plays you’ll ever see, the Red Sox threw TWO men out at the plate — but the second runner was allowed to score due to an interference call on the third baseman.

I’m not doing a particularly good job describing it, but you can read about it here. At the time of this writing, there wasn’t any video, but I’m sure you can find some if you want to see that play.

As far as the unis, nothing unexpected, but the Cards did wear their gorgeous creams with “St. Louis” in script across the chest and the Sawks wore gray. If all goes according to plan, the Cards will wear their blue crown/red brim alternate Sunday caps, and I think some of the players still observe “high sock” Sunday, so we should get to see something resembling this tonight. A least I hope.

Thanks again to Alex for doing this tracker — no matter what happens (unless there are like six days of rain), the World Series will end during the week, so next weekend will have the final tracker.

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scott


And A Happy Birthday…
to Scott M.X. Turner!

Uni Watch membership card designer Scott M.X. Turner‘s birthday is today. From Paul, Phil, and everyone in the Uni Watch family, hoping he gets everything he wishes for when he blows out the candles.

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Uni Watch News Ticker: Once again, a very small set of submissions for the Sunday ticker (and several were NCAA football-related, which I forwarded to TJ), so we’ll do this “old school” format. … Nik Streng was watching TV and the Phil Mickelson Enbrel commercial was on. I noticed that the sleeve logo on Mickelson’s left arm is facing the front. I don’t know much about golf polos but I was wondering if the logo was on the front so that Mickelson didn’t have to turn in order for it to show. … Brent Kivell isn’t sure why, but his Arsenal Gunners were wearing plain white socks against Crystal Palace yesterday, which is in stark contrast to the beautiful stripes they have been wearing. … A reader who didn’t give his name but goes by mgham found these Big Ten logo inconsistencies. … Several readers pointed out I put the Rochester Red Wings news under “hockey” when in fact they are a Minor League baseball team. My apologies — David Feigenbaum went to school in the Rochester area in 1971 and the Red Wings won the championship. Here’s a picture of that team, the best in their long International League history. Bobby Grich, Don Baylor and really classic uniforms. … Bryan Justman notes San Jose Earthquakes midfielder Ramiro Corrales retired after yesterday’s game, so prior to the match the Quakes all came out for the introductions wearing a different kit from Corrales’ career (unfortunately no pics of that) Update: Here’s a shot. He’s the last player left in MLS who played in the inaugural season in 1996. … Jason Johnson checking out the New Mexico High School Activities Association – and caught this photo – the two players in Red both have #9 on their football helmets when one has a jersey number in the 80’s. … And Gil Neumann writes, “My friend, Michael took this picture of the Columbus Cottonmouths opening night… ugh: pinktober ice.” … And to close us out, Jeff Shirley thought we’d enjoy a “Utah Jazzkin”. Sweet!

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And that’s a wrap for this last Sunday in Pinktober! Everyone enjoy the NFL today (I think there’s even a game across the pond) and the World Series tonight. Have a great week and I’ll be back with you next Saturday — which also happens to be the Annual Uni Watch Gathering at the Sheep Station in Brooklyn. So, hopefully, I’ll see some of you there!

Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken

Peace.

.. … ..

“Would Westboro Baptist church receive instant credibility if they spoke out against the Washington Redskins’ team name, or would doing so only serve to retain their cult-like status?”
–Chris Hickey

 
  
 
Comments (51)

    Add me to the list of those who don’t like cream uniforms. If a team wants to wear cream instead of white exclusively, I can kinda accept that. But as an alternate jersey? No. It just looks dirty, like a white uniform that got dropped in a mud puddle, and washing it didn’t eliminate the stain.

    Arsenal was most likely wearing plain white socks instead of blue/yellow stripes in order contrast with Palace’s blue socks.

    I do wish the mirrored/chrome helmet trend would end. I don’t mind the shiny metallic look like TheOSU wore, but those Nevada helmets are just bad.

    Surely not as bad as many others; furthermore, silver is actual one of the primary school colors, so it’s fitting.

    Okie State looked great yesterday, which is generally true of late. The other OSU – the one in Corvallis – looked link. The shell was mostly matte, but the orange stripe was chrome, even on the facemask.

    The Fremont Cannon is the biggest trophy in the NCAA? Bigger than the Chief Caddo trophy played for each year by Northwestern State and Stephen F. Austin? link

    Minnesota purple ribbon was for Epilepsy awareness game. Second this year. coaches on both sidelines wore purple ribbons designed by Kill’s wife. Curious to see if they will keep the helmet ribbons until Kill is back on the sideline.

    So, if they really want to be accurate, when are they going to switch to lowercase letters? After all, only the first letter of a name is actually capitalized.

    Capital letters aren’t the same as diacriticals.

    Briere is the same as BRIERE. Brière isn’t the same as Briere.

    I thought Catherine’s 5 & 1 was really good this week, like it is most weeks. I would, however, have bumped North Carolina’s game for UNLV-Nevada’s game. That was a gorgeous game, and that uniform was off the hook. I think North Carolina should never, EVER wear black. OK State-I State was the best looking game of the week in my opinion.

    I agree, Nevada’s helmets were classy and fitting for the big rivalry, not to mention it was blue vs. red color-on-color. Fun fact October 31st is also Nevada Day, that may have something to with that matchup

    I like most of the combos Okla. St. has trotted out this year, but yesterday’s uni should be their default away combo from now on. A great look from head to toe!

    What a shock to see Nevada’s helmet the lede. Northern Nevada is pretty much ignored except for negative reasons, so it was nice for a change. Personally, I thought the lids were very well done.

    Just been watching the Niners thrash the Jags at my parents’ place. My mother came in, saw the Jags’ helmets and said “What’s wrong with their helmets? Are they supposed to be like that? It looks ridiculous…”

    Pretty much sums them up.

    Well the lede just proves it. Kids like shiny things and flock to it like bugs to light. This just proves it even more. Can we stop this and the matte trend now?

    Also tOSU wearing their “let’s play dress up” costume again was a bit comical. The only time I like seeing that is when teams wear them against such traditional looking teams like that OTHER Pa school. It gave me a chuckle. But even though they are stupidly cut it also makes me miss the much better thicker pants striping even more. It proves again that the thinning of the pants stripes was a big mistake. Take em off their diet over the Summer and bring back the thicker ones next season tOSU!!! And also put those “special” helmet stripes on a diet as well. They look just as bad as the thinner pants stripes do.

    This is also the first time since the preseason that the Falcons are wearing their white uniforms. Every game previously this season they’ve worn the red home uniforms including their first 2 road games. Each week I hope more and more that opening our new stadium in a few years will also bring a uniform change to go with the move.

    For all the NFL fastidiousness on the way players dress, it’s somewhat surprising they dont insist on a team like the Detroit Lions doing a better job on matching colours. The Lions uniform looked like two tone blue patched together.

    I might be the only one on here who likes the new shade of “Honolulu” Blue that Nike made for the Lions. That’s a real nice color. If they could only get rid of the black and stick to that color plus the silver/gray, that is a top 10 uni.

    I like black so I don’t mind the addition to the look because it adds a nice bit of definition to the two lighter colors. My bigger issue is the haphazard way the black seems to be added and the way none of the striping/outlining seems to match (and that horrible number font but that’s a different argument). Match it all up and it would look OK but I would be perfectly fine with going back to the 90’s uniforms before the black with this current shading. But if I concede that can I get the blue pants back on the road? Please?

    The silver britches kinda define the Lions, and I don’t think they (the blue) look particularly good with the silver helmet. That being said, unless the Lions are going to blow this uni up and throwback, I could stand to see this shade of blue as pants — provided it’s not a leotard look.

    I think more of the blue than the silver for the Lions so I liked it. I thought this looked pretty good. Although I also wish the Colts would bring back the blue pants as well. And they had silver socks with them back then as well. So I’d love to see it come back:

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    Only change I’d make is reverse the striping to a white-silver-white because my OCD doesn’t like it the other way.

    I’m actually OK with the overall look, the number fonts look like the same font that the Jaguars wore when they actually had a half decent uni. What I’m not crazy about is the darker shade of blue on their tummy’s (see this picture)

    They’re not the only team guilty of this – it’s just more pronounced with the Lions

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    In the words of Dick Enberg

    Oh my

    It’s the ultimate slight to Uni Watch. Almost all Purple with splashes of pink……Oh my.

    I don’t like it but I also like the purple pants much better than the way more unbalanced white pants so it looks better than the regular look to me. Still hate the matte helmet though.

    Mono purple didn’t look good on Holy Cross in 1959.
    It doesn’t look any better on the Vikings in 2013.

    Or on anyone, for that matter.

    Except, y’know, when you can add pink to it and give it some real class.

    Was thinking of you, Rick, when I saw the pre-game shots.

    What’s worse than all-purple (although these look “better” than the previous uniform iteration)? Purple with pink leggings.

    May I also note that the Viking offense under Bill Musgrave is about as excitimg as watching a very resourceful, very dedicated man rake leaves.

    What’s the yellow WV on the home plate umpire’s chest protector?

    Sorry, I see a gold WV and my eyes perk up.

    Purdue seems to be jumping on the alt helmet bandwagon. Black helmets in an ad for black out vs OSU. Oh, and they’re 31 pt underdogs. Maybe they’ll on get beat by 3 TD’s instead of 6.

    May be controversy in that a student had some design ideas that were posted in school paper last year and one has the same black matte/train tracks idea.

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    Did Al Michaels just say this is the last season at the Metrodome, the new stadium won’t be ready until 2016? Are they going to play where the Gophers play in 2014?

    “Clemson could not be reached for comment”

    Can we leave the quips and opinions out of the Sunday morning page and use a bit of journalistic integrity?

    Clemson does not wear a maroon helmet, nor have they worn orange pants in the last two seasons.

    Also, don’t bring down a simple looking team to the &1 just because their opponent is a little flashy. Maryland’s new pride uni is still better than the previous.

    Dude, it was a joke. If I had said “The entire Virginia Tech team needs to be castrated for wearing these lame costumes!”, then you would have reason to say something to me. BTW, I actually don’t hate this look.

    I know Clemson doesn’t wear a maroon helmet, and I know it’s been a while since they’ve gone all-orange. The reason I said this was because they were the first team that popped into my mind when I saw VT wearing mono-orange, and I’m sure quite a few readers will agree with me.

    And the part about “quips and opinions”? This is a site about Athletics Aesthetics, and people are going to have opinions about Athletics Aesthetics, whether others agree with said opinions or not. I don’t agree with Paul about purple being an evil color, or about the edge/seam of the openings of stirrups being halfway up the shin being the “perfect” ‘rup height (I personally prefer 4″-5″ cuts around the ankle, as it shows more ‘rup and less sani). Does that mean I should tell him to stop coming down on the color or change his views on stirrup height? No.

    I really wish Clemson would bring back the orange pants. But then again we all know my hatred for all white on the road.

    And FWIW I don’t know if that game was quite bad enough to rank as y choice for “and 1” since there were lots of others I could go with but it was certainly down there. All white on the road vs anything called a “pride uniform” sounds “and 1” worthy to me.

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