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Sunday Morning Uni Watch

colors 5

By Phil Hecken

With the NCAA College Football season beginning its wind-down, there wasn’t a whole lot of “uni action” during Week 13. But, there was one of the most-anticipated showdowns, especially uni-wise, last evening, as USC and UCLA hooked up in the Rose Bowl for their annual crosstown showdown. For yesterday’s game, UCLA was the home team, but as they have done for the past several years, both teams wore their “home” uniforms.

They’ve actually been wearing the color versus color since 2008 (and did so for all years but one, when in 2011 UCLA wore all white — and lost 50-0). When the teams first returned to color vs. color in 2008, I wrote about it, if you’re interested in the history of the color-vs-color in the two teams’ past (they had both worn the home uniforms for a number of years, but ceased doing so in the 1980s).

Anyway, yesterday the two teams again went color against color. Here’s a bunch of photos from the game (click on any to enlarge):

colors

colors 10

colors 8

colors 9colors 3

colors 4

colors 1

Beautiful, right?

Of course — it’s such a great matchup of colors. But, it wasn’t as great as it could have been, unfortunately — but that’s more due to the deficiencies of the uniform makers (adidas still can’t make jerseys with actual “UCLA stripes”), or fashion choices (USC wore their shiny helmets and wore black socks and leggings). But other than that…

Beautiful.

Sadly, UCLA has this new “thing” for the use of facepaint — last night was no different. What’s worse is the guy on the left, below, is the punter(!):

UCLA war paint 2

UCLA war paint 1

And this is not the first time, as the coaches (that’s from 2012) have gotten into it, as well as players (that’s from this year) as well. Enough guys — you don’t look tough, you just look stupid.

But aside from the stupid, there was also some very cool stuff. Yesterday UCLA retired #42 across all sports to honor Jackie Robinson (which is an awesome honor, don’t get me wrong). But — Jackie wore 18 for basketball, 28 for football, he didn’t have a number for track, and in his “worst sport,” (heh), baseball, he only played one season and he wore “28”. He wore a bunch of different numbers in the negro leagues & minors, none of which was 42. It’s just that 42 has, deservedly so, become so “associated” with Jackie Robinson.

In recognition of this, UCLA placed a “42” on the field:

42

However, either due to oversight, or perhaps because the current “UCLA” logo is too large, the “42s” on the field (there were two of them), were both placed at the 32 yard lines. A number of folks questioned whether or not it might have been more appropriately placed at the 42 yard line.

UCLA 42 logo 1

UCLA 42 logo 2

Nice gesture by UCLA.

OK, that’s about all from me, so now I’ll turn it all over to my trusty side-kick for the SMUW, TJ Duroncelet, who’ll take you take you through the rest of your…

. . . . .

Sunday Morning Uni Watch
by Terry Duroncelet, Jr.

As the season cools down like the weather around this time, teams are buckling down to seal their postseason spots, all while balancing their long-awaited rivalry games, but of course, there’s no shortage of fancy uniforms and the like. What did Week 13 have in store for us? Well…

From Tuesday:

• I normally wouldn’t really give Ohio too much of a mention for their black costumes, but this year’s version has white numerals in place of the green from before, to make them more sensible for the NCAA’s new rules regarding jersey number contrast.

From Wednesday:

• Bowling Green wore all-orange while Toledo wore a grey ‘Glass City’ jersey with navy pants, resulting in a color-vs.-color matchup. I like what BGSU wore, but I’m kind of on the fence about Toledo’s outfit. Leaning towards “I can dig”. Here’s Toledo’s helmet (along with the I-75 trophy) for that game.

From Thursday:

• Remember those light blue chrome helmets that North Carolina wore a couple of years ago against N.C. State? Well, the Tar Heels dusted them off and slapped some new chrome facemasks and new decals for their in-state match against Duke, who were looking like the Black Devils more than the Blue Devils.

From Saturday:

• Florida State wore these ribbon decals against Boston College on Saturday. And something that came up in a later game (Tennessee vs. Vanderbilt) was the ESPN graphics crew used an outdated FSU logo.

• Something that I somehow neglected to mention last week was that Maryland wore a new all-black uniform, which I believe is the 4th version of their Pride Hubris uniforms. As far the Terps showing off their metaphorical chiseled butts in the metaphorical Speedos in the form of one-off uniforms, this one wasn’t bad at all. I tried my damnedest to not laugh at what I just typed. Needless to say, I’ve been laughing at that sentence for 84 years. But wait! There’s more! Maryland — understanding that anything in life needs balance in order to function properly — wore WHITE versions of last week’s togs this week. I’m just sitting here waiting for them to roll out an all-red and all-yellow version. Wait, what the hell am I saying? Forget I even said anything. Speaking of red…

• …Someone spotted this during the Ohio State/Indiana game. Ya know, given the apparent increase in graphics fumbles this year, I’m surprised that I haven’t seen an instance of someone putting up a Wisconsin Huskers/Nebraska Badgers graphic. I’m kinda disappointed, actually.

• Utah wore a tribute helmet for Senior Day against Arizona. I believe this is a tribute to the Ute tribe, but I could be wrong. Can anyone fill me in on the details? Here’s a close-up.

• This seems so very Harvard. Wasn’t there a column on football players who wear their glasses on the field a long while back?

• Wisconsin altered their uniform a tad by switching out the red facemasks for white. Eh, it’s O.K., but I prefer the red.

• Remember a month ago when I said that Pitt spoiled the script ‘Pitt’ mood by using their block ‘PITT’ at midfield? I’m not sure if they just so happened to have read that particular column, but hey, better late than never.

Colorado wore matte black helmets with white logos over the weekend.

• #70 for Boise State apparently lost his ‘7’ from his helmet. Credit goes to Cork Gaines.

• There is no amount of Layrite pomade that can make your hair game anywhere near as strong as this guy’s.

• A bit more FCS action from yesterday included Lehigh going up against Lafayette for the 150th time. The game took place at Yankee stadium, and Lehigh… well, let’s just say that they dressed up for the occasion. Honestly, I’m surprised that I don’t see pinstriped football uniforms more often. Not necessarily saying we NEED more of them, just wondering why they’re not as common.

• No two zebras Cardinals have the same stripes.

• Speaking of stripes, a player for Oklahoma State was losing part of his on his pants.

• Phil did a great job on covering the UCLA/USC game, but one thing that I noticed towards the end was #71 for UCLA (specifically, RS Freshman Poasi Moala), who not only has some wicked hair, but as you can see, he had his usual helmet, but a #49 jersey, due to him working at TE this week (he’s normally a tackle). Also, you can see the #36 memorial decal for Nick Pasquale (they started wearing that last year). So that’s three different uniform numbers on one player at the same time while the primary helmet number did not match the primary jersey number. First time I’ve ever seen that personally, but I’m sure there are other examples.

And that about does it for this week’s games. I’ll be taking next week off since there’s a high chance most of us will be much entirely too food-drunk to function. Everyone enjoy your Thanksgiving week, stay safe, and I’ll catch you in a couple of weeks!

. . . . .

Thanks, TJ — and it’s not just TJ who will be off next Sunday — due to me needing some extra time to try to finish up my Capstone (that’s basically the equivalent of a Masters’ Thesis — and it’s due in like 2 weeks), Paul’s giving me next weekend off — so the usual stuff you’re all accustomed to over the weekends will be taking a one-week hiatus. But like Terry says, hopefully everyone will be too Thanksgiving-and-shopping’ed out to notice! OK, now on to the rest of the day’s content.

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Catherine 5 & 1 (animated)

Catherine Ryan’s 5 & 1

Every Sunday, Catherine will give us the rundown of her best five and one worst uniform matchups from the College Football games played this week. Since it’s practically impossible to watch every game, you guys can help by sending your thoughts on “good” and “bad” matchups (and hopefully with photos from that game) by e-mailing her at UW5and1@gmail.com.

OK, here’s Catherine with this week’s 5 & 1.

. . .

Happy Sunday, UniWatchers! I tried to pick a few teams this week that haven’t yet seen the countdown. This week saw our tip-line receive more emails than ever before and a lot of you had thoughts about the following games!

__________

5. Louisville vs. Notre Dame: I loved Louisville’s white/white/red combo and thought it contrasted nicely with Notre Dame’s classic home look.

__________

4. Yale vs. Harvard: ESPN spent the day in Cambridge covering this beautiful match-up. Harvard looked great in the home crimson/gold combo while Yale went with an all-white combo.

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3. Villanova vs. Delaware: I have been wanting to show my alma mater some love this year but I had to wait for the right match-up. I thought yesterday’s Battle of the Blue was one of ‘Nova’s best uni match-ups of the season.

__________

2. Montana State vs. Montana: I’m on an FCS kick this weekend. I loved this match-up between the Grizzlies in the all-maroon combo and Montana State in these gorgeous gold/white/gold’s.

__________

1. USC vs. UCLA: This is always one of my favorite games of the year. I love the color-on-color match-up between the home uniforms and the contrast was just gorgeous if you caught the game on TV. A clear cut #1 this week!

__________

+1 Lehigh vs. Lafayette: My roommate went to Lehigh and I really wanted to like this game. I felt like neither team looked good and, as a whole, it was a pretty ugly match-up. What are your thoughts on Lehigh’s pinstripes?

__________

Thanks, Catherine! Everyone knew the #1 going in, but that’s OK — it always deserves to be there. And yeah, those Lehigh pins…um. Pretty good call for the “and 1.”

OK readers, how’d she do?

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Duck Tracker

Each week, as we have done on Uni Watch for the past five seasons, we’ll be tracking the uniform combinations of the Oregon Ducks. Back for his third season is Tim E. O’Brien, who’ll show you what the Ducks wore in their last game, and add a few words of wisdom.

Here’s this weeks costume (click to enlarge):

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Ducks_2014_G_11

Here’s Tim:

Back to fatigue. Boo. First time in the green helmet all season though…

. . . . . .

Thanks. Yeah, not the prettiest of unis for the Ducks, but at least it’s in school colors, for a game against Colorado which wasn’t even on the board in Vegas. But the Ducks did get some bright yellow shoes, though, so at least there was some brightness with the dull greens. Thankfully Colorado wore all white unis.

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EPL Tracker

Each Saturday or Sunday, Alex Gerwitz will be tracking the kit combinations (shirt/shorts/socks) of the teams in the English Premier League from the previous weekend and the current weekend.

Here is the EPL tracker for Week 12 — Part I (click to enlarge):

EPL Tracking Week 12

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UWFFL banner

Unfortunately due to an unforeseen labor strike, fire, and theft of uniforms, due to the personal commitments of both Rob Holecko and Andrew Seagraves, the UWFFL will be taking a one-week hiatus this weekend from Uni Watch. There are still games to be played, however.

You can head over to uwfantasyfootballleague.com to vote on this week’s UWFFL matchups.

Apologies to any/all who were expecting the usual UWFFL fare here.

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Uni Watch News Ticker:

Baseball News: Mets in the news? “My brother went to Citi Field to get tickets for the Foo Fighters show in July and spotted Mrs. Met wearing this,” says Diego Bauzá. I like what Mrs. Met has done with her hair. Here’s another look (via Matt Harris). You’ll also note that both Mr. & Mrs. Met are wearing the new white pinstripe uniforms. … The Hagerstown Suns (Class-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals) recently unveiled their 35th anniversary logo for the 2015 season (thanks to Justin McAllister). Here’s the link to the press release.

NFL News: Following up on Paul’s NFL “leaks” article from a couple days ago, Mike Karamas writes, “I read your article and found that there’s a change for the patriots jerseys. It looks like they’ve updated the team name on the front of the jersey above the number. It now shows the new Patriots logo, replacing the old script logo. I posted a few pics but they’re a little blurry.” … Bit of an update on the “Does Brownie the Elf have a tail” from yesterday. tc writes, “I think you’re mistaken with Brownie and the tale. The left side (his right) is a bit more obvious in showing that the white is the underside of the ‘flare’ section of his top. I’ve attached an image which demonstrates this by going over the football and the hand in each arm. I think you’ll agree it makes the most sense.” … Also, from yesterday’s comments (posted by Tony Crespo), “the Brownie Elf costume doesn’t have a tail. I have the second linked item as my background, what I think happened in some cases they didn’t finish coloring in the bottom of the shirt.” … Remember that nice Bengals fan lady who had the ball snatched from her by that Saints fan? Well, she got seven autographed jerseys from Cincinnati to make up for it.

College & High School Football News: There are some brutal digital Camo endzones in a high school playoff game in Colorado. Says submiter Landon Troka, “I’ve attached a screen grab from a video as well as a link to a tweet that has a clear picture. Pretty interesting/cool!” But there’s more: “These are from the Ralston Valley-Cherry Creek semi-final in Colorado. Ralston Valley plays in a shared stadium, but for this game deep in the playoffs they painted it for them, and went with the digi-camo endzones.” … Hmmm. Douglas Ford notes there were generic helmets used on a Home Depot commercial during College Game Day. … Remember the yellow line is not official. … Of course, neither is the black line (h/t Trés Lawless). … Check out these awesome old Iowa helmets, including an old winged, leather helmet (h/t Cork Gaines). … Our own Mike the Intern writes, “I know nothing about high school football helmetry, but this is as odd of a facemask as I’ve seen. Also, the team has just one helmet logo, on the back. That’s Phillips High School in Chicago, they played Coal City in the Illinois state playoffs. … This helmet is that of Attica/Argonia, a combination of two Kansas high schools, notes David Steinle. He adds, “The team’s nickname is the Titans, thus the big T in the middle like Texas A&M. But also notice the ampersand inside the T to join the ‘As’.” … Also from David, Nicholls State (FCS) wore white at home during its game Thursday vs. Southeastern Louisiana.

Hockey News: Last evening, the AHL Syracuse Crunch wore Devon Still Bengals jerseys during warmups (in support of Still’s daughter, Leah, who battling Stage 4 pediatric cancer). Pic via Dan Anderson. Here’s a bit more on that. … OUCH! St. Louis Blues goalie Brian Elliott tweeted a picture of his broken cup after yesterday’s game. Hope that doesn’t leave a mark.

Grab Bag: Eric Roberts’ Malcolm X-themed baseball jersey from the 2008 Entourage episode Tree Trippers, with an X instead of a number on the back (from Matt Larsen). … Sony asked the public to redesign its logo in 1981. It didn’t work out (thanks, Brinke). … Reader Kevin Wallace spotted a couple of malfunctions in the Scotland v Tonga rugby match yesterday afternoon. The numbers for the Tongan players didn’t look like they were properly heat pressed. “There were a number of wrinkled ones and I saw many with the corners peeled off. I’ve attached 2 screencaps where you can see it – no. 7 is obvious and no. 14 has both numbers coming off at the corners.” … I think we’ve seen these amazing photos of Liz Taylor wearing this gorgeous 1948 “All America” sweater before, but once more can’t hurt. Those come from this article (thanks, Brinke). … Black mourning bands are apparently not exclusive to uniforms, as evidence by Ray Sadecki’s page on baseball-reference.com (great spot by Matt Larsen).

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And that’s going to do it for today — as I mentioned after the SMUW section, I’ll be taking next weekend off, so you guys and gals won’t hear from me until December. Everyone have a great Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday etc. Thanks to Terry, Catherine, Tim and Alex, and of course everyone who sends in ticker submissions and tweets at me.

Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken.

Peace.

.. … ..

“I don’t care if Lafayette wore mono slate or anthracite or whatever that was”¦Lehigh looked as good as any team I’ve ever seen. That’s a top five matchup for sure. Pinstripes, big numbers, NNOB, lots of brown”¦what’s not to love?”

–Jakob Wolf

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Comments (39)

    Apostrophe catastrophe in first line of today’s lede: “…beginning it’s wind-down…”

    Should be: “beginning its wind-down…”

    As usual a half ass effort, unc helmet was not the same as two years ago, and you leave out Memphis going full Bengals?….weak

    I mentioned that the UNC helmets were different this year than from before. And I can’t catch every single solitary game, so a game or two will be inadvertently omitted. If I would’ve seen the Memphis game, I would’ve mentioned it. In addition, I don’t see how this was a “half ass” effort.

    Ouch. That Hagerstown Suns anniversary logo is a much better design than their parent club’s 2015 anniversary logo. And it’s not like the Suns patch is a masterpiece or anything.

    What’s worse is the guy on the left, below, is the punter(!)
    What’s that got to do with anything? He’s a football player just like all the others on the team.

    And yeah, those Lehigh pins…um. Pretty good call for the “and 1.”
    WHAT??? Jakob was spot on in today’s quote…Lehigh looked fantastic!

    That’s it, I quit watching college football…wait…I already did that four years ago. I may have to watch the Sun Bowl then quit all over again.

    “Jakob was spot on in today’s quote…Lehigh looked fantastic!”

    ~~~

    If Jakob is such a good judge of football fashion, perhaps he should offer to do the 5 & 1.

    On another note, I don’t make the lists, but I happen to agree with Catherine’s choice (although I would certainly have been fine with this eyesore from the MAC for the “and 1”).

    The pins on Lehigh’s jersey were actually OK — if they didn’t come with giant brown yokes and brown pants without stripes. As a one-off, playing in Yankee stadium? OK, I could live with the pins. But the overall combination of Lehigh’s pins and solid brown pants, combined with an all-anthracite Lafayette? Good choice for a bad-looking game.

    And finally, yes — kickers are players too — but no one should wear facepaint. Especially kickers.

    but no one should wear facepaint. Especially kickers.
    Fixed.

    The brown yokes and pants were the perfect balance to the pinstripes. I was afraid the whole uniform was going to be pinstriped (although I could think of worse things), but what they wore was a nice surprise.

    Trust me, you wouldn’t want me doing the list. Commenters would take back everything they ever said about Catherine and nominate her for Queen of the Internet after a few weeks of me.

    Maybe the urban dictionary should change the #4 quote following their definition to this:

    I felt like a right punter when my teammates on the UCLA football team convinced me to follow along in wearing face paint.

    link

    Not a fan of dark gray uniforms, like Lafayette wore, but I’m joining Jakob – thought the Lehigh unis were great and, using pinstripes to throw a nod to the Yankees, very well thought out.

    I know Leihigh once wore thin stripes on its sleeves, but is there any historical background for wearing dark pinstripes on a light jersey?

    I, too, am one for the pinstripes! Who manufactured their jerseys? I didn’t notice a makers mark anywhere (which isn’t a bad thing)

    Those facemasks are apart of Xenith’s plethora of crazy shields for their helmets. While some of them look good, a lot of them don’t.

    Please note that the chrome helmets that North Carolina wore against NC State in 2012 was chrome with light blue decal, while the chrome helmet North Carolina pulled out for Duke last Thursday was a light blue chrome with chrome decal. Just a reversed combination.

    According to @UNCequipment on Twitter, the Tar Heel logo on the helmets worn vs Duke was NOT a decal but part of the helmet chroming process. He called it “essentially a wrap” link.

    Also, the helmets worn in 2012 were sold to offset their purchase cost and thus could not be dusted off and reused: link.

    These helmets are also being sold: link

    I have no problem with these items being sold. They wouldn’t sell them if people didn’t buy them.

    I had previously pointed that out … twice in fact (well, the second one was @’ed me, confirming earlier reports).

    Not sure if TJ didn’t see those or if there was some mis-communication about whether those helmets were actually new or had decal swaps. I know during the Duke/UNC game a couple people were just reporting it was a decal switch, so maybe that’s what stuck out.

    But yes, they were definitely new helmets.

    Regarding the Rose Bowl field, they obviously weren’t able to put the logos on the 42 yard line because of the UCLA script. However, during the broadcast they did point out and show that the 42 yard line out of bounds markers were highlighted in blue instead of the normal white line.

    Obviously a personal opinion, but to me UCLA/USC was far better in the ’60’s when UCLA wore those baby blue uniforms.

    WVU played Thursday, and Paul already included a link to my tweet in Friday’s ticker. If you want TJ to start repeating those items, I’m sure it can be arranged.

    Oh, my bad. For some reason I thought they played yesterday, probably because I have them and Ohio State listed as “favorite teams” on ESPN NCAA football. (I have Youngstown State as well, but being an FCS school it rarely pops up.) Sorry, just have had some things going on the last couple of days.

    Utah’s helmets were a tribute to the Ute Tribe. Two years ago, the university struck a deal with the tribe for continued use of the name in return for increased recognition of the tribe, more scholarships for tribe members, and other incentives. Every home game, there’s a video that plays to educate fans about the tribe, and during halftime yesterday, all the sects of the Ute Tribe performed a traditional dance. It was a pretty cool thing to watch.

    Those unusual football face masks make me wish the NFL still allowed custom designs. It’s a small thing, but I like the variety and seeing what players and manufacturers come up with.

    It’s similar to the hockey mask cage article from this week – a nice detail I enjoy.

    And in the case of both football and hockey, a lot of the traditional designs are used because they’ve become the standard, not because they are the best design possible (for vision and safety).

    Re: UCLA/USC color-on-color:

    “(they had both worn the home uniforms for a number of years, but ceased doing so in the 1960s)”

    I *think* you meant to say 1980s? I’m pretty sure they were color-on-color right up until ’82. That was the first game I remember seeing in-person, and I was really surprised to see ‘SC come out in white (at the Rose Bowl — UCLA’s first seasons there).

    As for my beloved Bruins, agree they really need to get the stripes done right again. And also get back to real “powder blue”! (link)

    GAH — another mistyping — it’s even in the article I wrote (and linked to above), where I say (second paragraph):

    For a number of years, the schools shared the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as their home stadium until UCLA moved to the Rose Bowl for the 1982 season. Each school alternated as the “home” team for the game and, until 1983, players on both teams wore their home football jerseys for the game. Since the 1984 season, however, the visiting team has been wearing their white jerseys.

    I, too, remember seeing the color vs. color games in my youth. Can’t believe I didn’t catch that 60s/80s in my re-read.

    Good catch, my bad!

    Opinion on a Florida Christian school placing the apostrophe on the front of the jerseys. They refer to the Master owning the team, but I can’t remember when I’ve seen it like this on a jersey. Should some jerseys be chanced to “St. John’s” and such?

    link

    Cool All America sweater worn by Elizabeth Taylor. Interesting to learn that she dated Glen Davis.

Comments are closed.