By Phil Hecken
Back today with the second set of contest entries for the reimagining of USFL team logos and colors on other sports teams. If you missed the first set of entries for this contest (which also gives a short explainer), click here.
I’m also pleased to announce the winners from the previous contest:
Baseball: Carlos Foglia, Tampa Bay Bandits.
Hockey: Ian Borkowski, Portland Breakers.
Soccer/other: Peter Wajda, Arizona Wranglers.
The second set of entries today are all basketball — with a total of 16 entries from three participants. Take a gander below and there will be voting immediately to follow. You know what to do:
Basketball
John Powers
Oakland Invaders
Andrew Seagraves
Denver Gold
Jon Tillis
Birmingham Stallions
Boston/New Orleans/Portland Breakers
Chicago Blitz
Denver Gold
Houston Gamblers
Los Angeles Express
Memphis Showboats
Michigan Panthers
New Jersey Generals
Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars
Pittsburgh Maulers
San Antonio Gunslingers
Tampa Bay Bandits
Washington Federals
USFL Basketball Poll/Vote
And there you have it — the final vote in the Reimagine the USFL contest. Make sure to cast your vote today!
New Colorado Buffaloes Unis
Yesterday, the (eagerly anticipated?) unveiling of the 2015 Colorado Buffaloes new uniforms took place, and I have to say — they look pretty damn good.
The first thing you’ll probably notice is there are a LOT of possible combinations, since there are four helmets (white, black dark steel gray, gold and silver), three jerseys (white, black, silver) and four pairs of pants (white, black, gold and silver). This will possibly, should the players/coaches/fans (or whoever ends up deciding) choose, lead to a full season of uniforms where not one single combination is repeated. They don’t look too different from their former uniforms, and they actually use school colors(!). If you want a look at some previous CU unis, click here.
As most of you know, even in college where’s it’s more common (and more accepted), I’m not a big fan of monochrome uniforms — but I’ve gotta say that all silver uniform looks my-tee-fine! And of course the classic gold/black/gold will be outstanding as well. I’m imagining some bad combos (that will probably [hopefully] never be worn), but even the worst ones I could dream up (black/silver/gold, for example) probably won’t look that bad. Most of their possible combos will probably look great.
Here’s a group photo, showing all the helmets, jerseys and pants (though, obviously, not all the possible combos):
Here’s a gallery of the new unis.
According to this article,
The program now has a dark steel gray option of jerseys, pants and helmet that became a part of the CU color palate in 2007 and has been in use by the men’s basketball team in recent seasons.
The program also now has an all-white road uniform, including a white helmet, which wasn’t previously available for games in which the players chose to wear all-white uniforms. The gray and the white jerseys feature black numbers and letters.
Each uniform retains the traditional Colorado stamped across the front and each features a new number font with a contrasting layered outline. The away and alternate jerseys have texture within the uniform numbers that is reminiscent of the texture of the Flatiron rocks that overlook Boulder from the mountain above.
Each of the four helmet options features a fine metallic paint and satin finish to produce a gun-metal look. The helmets now have a larger version of the team’s stampeding buffalo logo.
You can read the official press release here.
So — it seems the “silver” isn’t actually being called silver — they’re calling it gray (or is it “dark steel gray”):
The Buffaloes will integrate a third alternate uniform with a dark steel gray jersey and pants. The neutral, modern dark steel gray color was established as part of the CU Athletic Department color palate in 2007 and now offers an additional modern look to incorporate into their existing uniform wardrobe.
But I’m calling it silver. (And apparently the black helmet is being called “dark steel gray”)
Coach Mike MacIntyre was all over the Twitter with some vines showing off the looks:
This is our storm trooper look. https://t.co/Heb4KLgWLl
— Coach Mike MacIntyre (@CoachMikeMac) May 1, 2015
Our traditional but modern look. The helmets are a special mix of matte and shiny. https://t.co/osWTuupWqa
— Coach Mike MacIntyre (@CoachMikeMac) May 1, 2015
We've been using the black helmets more. Here with traditional white jersey and black pants. https://t.co/s8MbbSx4in
— Coach Mike MacIntyre (@CoachMikeMac) May 1, 2015
We are excited about the silver. The Dark Steel Gray looks great. https://t.co/sf4gd3oBcc
— Coach Mike MacIntyre (@CoachMikeMac) May 1, 2015
One of the most exciting things is all the options we have. https://t.co/b7yuKMrhNm
— Coach Mike MacIntyre (@CoachMikeMac) May 1, 2015
Clearly, we’ll need to see how these look on the field and in a stadium, but I’m giving them very high initial marks — the all silver looks outstanding (but how will that look, for example, in bright sunlight? Will it get washed out and just look white?).
As with almost every new uniform unveiling, this one comes complete with a hype video, featuring lots of corporate-speak. But there are some great points in there as well, with some nice up close looks at the uniform features (like double outlined numbers that aren’t especially easy to discern), the slogan on the back of the neck (“Uncommon”) that won’t be seen (since it’s inside the shirt) etc. But it’s well worth your time to give this a quick look-see:
I love ’em. What do you guys think?
Classic Ballpark Scoreboards
I’m pleased to continue with a favorite weekend feature here at Uni Watch, “Classic Ballpark Scoreboards,” which are created by Gary Chanko. You probably know Gary best for his wonderful colorizations, but he has been a solid contributor for many years, and this is his new project. This segment will appear every Saturday on Uni Watch.
Here’s Gary (click on image to enlarge):
Classic Ballpark Scoreboards – Series II
by Gary Chanko
This week Classic Scoreboards turns back the clock at Connie Mack Stadium to the time when The Athletics and Phillies shared the ballpark known as Shibe Park.
Shibe Park
Home of:Philadelphia Athletics (1909-1954) and Philadelphia Phillies (1938-1970)
Last baseball game: October 1, 1970; Demolished: 1976
Throughout a sixty year history Shibe Park (later renamed Connie Mack Stadium in 1954 after the Athletics left town) reportedly featured four different scoreboards. The first installation was in left field and manually adjusted from an external ladder in the field of play. The last, the subject of the previous Classic Scoreboards, was the mammoth “Ballantine Beer” sponsored scoreboard installed in 1956.
Preceding the Fifties scoreboard upgrade, in 1941 the Athletics installed a new manually operated scoreboard in right center field. Here’s a photo showing the inside operation along a very narrow catwalk. For those interested to know more, the complete history of Shibe Park’s scoreboards is detailed in this article.
The scoreboard illustration recreates the Phillies-Dodgers game played on September 30, 1951, the last game of the season. The game lasted fourteen innings, with the last six innings pitched by Hall of Famer Robin Roberts who wound up his 21-win season with the loss.
A Few Things to Know
• The 1930s depression era economy and poor teams resulted in declining attendance at Shibe Park. During the more prosperous prior years, the Athletics ownership had tolerated the non-paying fans that populated the rooftops beyond the 12-feet high right field fence. After the 1934 season, the Athletics constructed a 22-foot wall extension on top of the existing outfield wall. The right field wall reached 34 feet high and conveniently blocked the view of the rooftop bleachers along 20th Street. The addition subsequently became known as the spite fence.
• The art deco style Benrus Watch Time clock was not included in the original 1941 installation, but installed a few years later.
• Photographs show electric light indicators for balls, strikes, outs and the current batter. The scoreboard layout provided the lineups on the far right for the Philadelphia home team and the visitors.
• Here’s a photo of the scoreboards’ bones during its removal. Notice the NATIONAL League entries are now on the left hand side of the scoreboard. While the Athletics were still in town, AMERICAN was on the left and NATIONAL League teams were displayed on the opposite side.
Classic Scoreboards next journey is to the Twin Cities and another ballpark that is no more, Metropolitan Stadium.
If anyone is interested in purchasing a digital copy of these posters, Gary is working on an online purchase option. In the interim you can contact him directly at Classicscoreboards@gmail.com.
Colorize This!
Occasionally, I will be featuring wonderful, high-quality black and white photographs that are just begging to be colorized.
Our old colorizing friend George Chilvers is back with a couple today. You can probably guess the subject matter for one of them, but the other is a different kind of football.
Here’s George (click to enlarge):
Hi Phil,
Climb aboard my Colourising Time Machine once again and set the dial to 19 June 1938 and the place to the Stade Colombes in Paris.
The clouds of war are gathering, and we witness a fascist footballing triumph that has Hitler seething, as Italy under the brilliant coaching of Vittorio Pozzo rather than Germany win the third World Cup, their second in succession.
Hungary were defeated 4-2 in a game that the Italians took control of with a 3-1 lead at half-time that the Magyars never really got back from.
Join in the celebrations!George
Phil
I can’t remember at all if I’ve sent this one to you before, but I suspect not.
Navy 1913. In a nine-game season, the 1913 Midshipmen allowed only one of their first eight opponents to score a point. After starting out the season tying Pittsburgh 0-0, future vice-admiral John H. Brown Jr. and his teammates overwhelmed every other opponent, allowing only Bucknell to reach the end zone (once), while scoring 295 points. Their run came to an end against Army on Nov. 29, when future general Omar Bradley and the other Black Knights dominated the contest, defeating Navy 22-9.
George
Thanks George!
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 Weeks 33 & 34 (click to enlarge):
Uni Watch News Ticker:
Baseball News: Our friend Chris Creamer continues his MLB uniform tracking over on sportslogos, and in so doing, he’s noticed a disturbing trend with the Rays — they’re winless in gray, but undefeated in their navy blue smock. … Here’s what looks like a photo of Twins’ skipper Paul Molitor in a Minnesota Wild sweater (via Minnesota Twins). … Here’s a great shot of the Splinter and the Clipper (from Bruce Menard). … The Brooklyn Cyclones will be giving away Sidd Finch bobbleheads in August. … The Mets finally broke out their blue softball tops (after having worn the full pinstripes every game prior to last night), and predictably, they looked like shit. Also, and no screen grab or photo (apologies), Alex Torres (who wears the protective head gear), wore a custom wrap last night featuring the Mets NY outlined in white (as it is on their orange billed caps). Paul & I had been speculating if he has a custom wrap for each different cap the Mets wear. He will need at least 4: orange NY on blue, white-outlined orange NY on blue, orange-outlined gray/silver (their alternate road cap), and a camo one. That should look good, especially with the camo top and blue pinstriped pants. … Virginia State (yep) has some pretty wretched camo design tops (via HBCU Gameday). … Little orange vs. red action in Frisco last night (via Daniel Evans).
NFL News: As noted in yesterday’s ticker, the draft jerseys held aloft by selected first round players had gold NOBs — with a possible exception (via Blakely Lewis Duke). However, several people tweeted that it was just the angle or lighting, it the NOB was in fact gold. … Speaking of gold, after the 49ers unveiled their horrific black alternate unis on Thursday, the Raiders had some fun by announcing their “new” look for 2015. … The Miami Dolphins will be releasing their new alternate jersey on May 13th (thanks to Alex Cammarata), and they will also have a 50th anniversary aqua patch on aqua jersey, and white patch on white jersey. Here’s how the patch looks on a jersey (via El Big Dooky). … Speculation on the Dolphins’ third jersey is that it will be orange (h/t Dan Waddell). … OOPS! During last night’s draft coverage, the NFL had the wrong logo for Buffalo (via Mike Sullivan). … Check out these NFL toys from Draft Town in Chicago (nice grabs by Anthony Giaccone).
College Football News: The Oregon Ducks have their spring game today, and it looks like they have some interesting new helmet decals (thanks to Leland Privott). Here’s a full look at the uniforms. … Someone’s gotta have mixed emotions about this.
Hockey News: “A growing trend with goalies is to “wrap” their pads when they get traded or play internationally instead of breaking in new pads or mismatching colors,” writes Jan Danbom. (A la Patrick Roy in ’96 with the Avs switched glove and blocker but stuck with his royal, red and white Canadian pads). Tuukka Rask did this last year for the Olympics wearing his regular Bruins pads, just adding strips of blue where his pads were originally yellow and black.” … New hockey mask for Corey Crawford (from Michael Bochum). … Here are a couple more shots of Crawford’s mask from Matt Shepardson.
Soccer News: Here’s an interesting article that looks at the total number of animals on football club badges thanks to Bryan Justman). … Japanese women will wear pink numbers and names during FIFA Women’s World Cup (thanks to Jeremy Brahm).
Grab Bag: You might not think a history of postal uniforms would be interesting, but you’d be wrong (and pleasantly surprised). Nice find by Matthew Moss. … This is cool: here’s what NPR “Planet Money” journalist Robert Smith does with his old notebooks (good spot by Hugh McBride). … Here’s a fun article about boxing championship belts (thanks, Paul). … The Kentucky Derby is today, so here’s a look at vintage hats worn throughout the years. … Microsoft has finally revealed the new logo for its long-awaited IE replacement, Edge (thanks, Brinke). … Here are the official wordmarks for the Milwaukee Bucks new uniforms (from Conrad Burry).
And that’s going to do it for today everyone. Don’t forget to vote for your favorite USFL-inspired basketball uniform, if you haven’t already done so. Everyone have a great day and enjoy the Greatest Two Minutes in Sports later this afternoon. Big thanks to Gary, George and Alex, and everyone who e-mailed or tweeted items for the ticker.
Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken.
Peace.
“Good God, no. Bourbon or GTFO”
— scottyrj (on whether Derby Pie can be made with “decent Scotch”)
If anyone wants to click my name, I’ve done up a concept to “fix” the 49ers terrible black uniforms. It’s still kinda bad though.
Yeah, you’ve got that right. You’ve made the proper tweaks, but that just moves it from awful to bad. If the 49ers have to do it, I prefer the full train wreck.
And if you added stripes to the socks, it would go from “Bad” to “Meh”.
It’s a dark day when such a bad uniform is such a huge improvement.
Good job, The Jeff!
If the Raiders can justifiably make fun of you, then you made a bad choice. Part of me likes to think that they had to scrap the khaki pants once Harbaugh was fired and all black was just a quick fix since production had gone so far.
Show of hands: Who else thought “old Tampa Bay Storm color camos” when they saw the Virginia State pic?
Not a good look, made worse by VSU’s doing this with baseball, instead of Arena Football, which revels in its slight off-kilter non-classicalness.
Colorado will also be able to wear silver on the road now, which is cool I guess.
I really hope they wear gold/silver/gold or silver/gold/silver at some point just to see how it looks.
being a lifelong Husker fan, it is really hard for me to give the Buffs props for anything . . . . . but the Uniforms do look pretty nice.
I realize it’s a bit late to mention this now. I stumbled on it while changing the channels around, but Turner Classic Movies just aired a short film called “Football Headliners” from 1955. It’s an old sports newsreel that consisted of football highlights for that year. Interesting to see, even if it’s in black and white, how teams looked at the time. Some of the games were color vs color, particularly Notre Dame vs Navy, which I’d figure would be one game that would be too much of a clash.
It doesn’t look like it airs regularly, but could be worth searching for if it is shown again, or maybe one from a different year or sport.
Rick. I saw that too. Turned this one on late but seen it before. Very cool. Did you note the fist fight after the Ohio State Michigan game between fans. One guy got sucker punched.
Seems like they show the same year.
Colorados unis are not bad.
George, great job on the colorizations. Navy is nicely done. Your colorizations always look natural.
Sometimes in order to break a losing streak, you have to do the unthinkable and break out a different look. The Mets did, and obviously it worked. I’ll be honest, I like the blue tops, and I think they should be worn more to break the monotony of white and grey.
Alex, I’m not sure they did it because of the *losing* (one game at home) streak. I’m sure they play to wear those blue home tops plenty of times. And while I wasn’t a fan of the blue tops over the snow white pants, this is a much worse look. Just seeing it for the first time and I hate it.
I was glad to see that someone else voted for the San Antonio Gunslingers entry.
Ohhhh… so close…. perfect example of how less could be more. That silver Colorado helmet with the gold accents is beautiful…. now if they’d worry less about tons of mixing and matching, they could just have a set of home and away built on the foundation of that helmet. Basically the Raider look with gold accents…. silver black silver and silver white silver. You just add silver and gold outlines to the black or white numbers on the respective jerseys and you have a beautiful set. As it stands now, if you put the silver helmet with the black jersey, there’s no silver on the jersey to tie it together (or if I’m just not seeing it, there’s just not enough silver)…. soooooo close.
The black jersey appears to have silver outlines on the numbers, at least to my eye. Silver numbers outlined in gold would be better, though.
On Colorado’s new uniforms…
“I love ‘em. What do you guys think?”
I think they’re crap.
No, seriously, we shouldn’t be lowering the bar such that we’re simply giving credit to college football teams for having uniforms that *aren’t nearly as bad* as what so many others are wearing. These would have been bad 25, 35, or 45 years ago, and they’re bad now.
Nikelace collars, no pant stripes, swoosh on the FRONT of the jersey, and in two of the four combinations shown (white-white and white-black), we get a predictable case of Wrong Sock Syndrome.
To be fair, there are some things to like here. Decent numbers font, with good outlines (though I’m not sure what to think about that weird “Flatiron” pattern on the black numerals). The helmets are a pretty solid design, but they raise the question of why one would want matte helmet shells for *silver* or *gold*. Wouldn’t you want the most sparkly, shiniest helmets you could possibly get?
Which reminds me…check out this fun fact from the Buffaloes’ FAQ:
“…in 1921, as football became more popular, there were complaints from the students that silver and gold did not look good on football jerseys. In fact, silver and gold ended up looking like dirty gray and dark yellow.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Of course, the “gold” in these new pants is the typical beige that we’re accustomed to seeing again lately, rather than yellow. But once again, with Matte-for-Matte’s-Sake, the silver becomes a dirty gray. I find it hilarious that a uniform color problem which was identified nearly a century ago is welcomed back with open arms, simply because Nike has convinced everyone that Gray-for-Gray’s-Sake is the height of sports fashion.
It’s not a bug…it’s a feature.
Troll, you bring up some fair points (some very good ones, in fact), but I
1) try to look at all new uniforms realistically now. If Nike makes them, there are certain design *quirks* (Nikelace collar for example) that are going to be on the template. And your point about the matte gold/silver on the helmets is well, taken, but I believe the release (or the video) say it’s a combo matte/gloss — so I will wait and see how it looks on the field in the sun, and
2) never say I like or dislike a uniform purely compared to what else is out there (like, “this one’s good because the others are just bad”). But I do really like these (other than the ridiculous number of combos possible) — good fonts and numbers, (technically) no BFBS or GFGS, school colors, no bumperstickers, etc.
Now, are these the best unis in the NCAA? They’re probably not even the best in the PAC-12 (though it will be close now), but I’d put them top 20, maybe even closer to 15, maybe.
Throwing out all the nonsense descriptors and corporate-speak, I think these are pretty damn solid.
Just going by the photos that we have so far, I think that it’s probably the decals that are glossy. So that’s something, I guess.
Certainly there’s no BFBS here, though I would still argue that silver/gray had been absent from Colorado’s football unis for a rather long time before making a return (2009?), just in time for the GFGS era. Now, does this mean that if you don’t use a color, you lose it? No, but we’d have a tough time accepting the Detroit Lions in red, I’m guessing.
And I get it…if this same basic design were being produced without all the contemporary quirkiness of cuts and material (and Nike shenanigans), most of it really wouldn’t be bad, I suspect. It’s fairly restrained, which I can respect.
But it’s my nature to be harsh. I like to come out with guns blazing and mixed metaphors…then back it off a quarter-turn.
Even though Cliff Branch played for both teams, most Buffs fans wouldn’t be too enthused about Raider knockoffs.
The stripeless pants have a pretty long history in Boulder. Not too disappointed for that.
Most of the best Buffs jerseys had northwestern stripes. Would have been nice to have brought those back.
My Dad went to Colo A&M (now Colo State) and he always derided the “glory of the silver and gold” with “to hell with the nickel and brass”. The matte look does take that old jeer away, though it’s probably long forgotten by most anyway.
Did anyone else see the “ribbons” on the Oregon spring game uniforms again this year (where the tv numbers are usually located)? I don’t complain about the GI Joe stuff much any more, but that just takes it too far.
I’m sure the military members they give the jerseys to after the game don’t think that just takes it too far.
Thumbs up to Buffs for showing a little restraint. I would have liked to see a nice traditional striping on the pants, but It’s good anyway. Even though they went with an all white (just like damn near everyone else)
As the Raiders fans proved once again, Twitter is the internet for dolts.
FWIW all uniwatchers in the know remember that first year of Raiders existence featured gold and black and 49ers sported silver, not gold, and scarlet for their early years.
The Raiders gold was actually the athletic kind (aka yellow), though.
Colorado will look just great finishing last in the PAC 12 again.
Concerning the USFL basketball designs…
Some of these are actually decent, to be honest, but I could give a better evaluation if the templates also employed a side-view angle. If I can’t see what’s on the sides of the uniforms, I have to presume that they’re all blank.
And that’s not very nice.
I like Gary Chanko’s stories about old scoreboards but when I read: “Notice the NATIONAL League entries are now on the left hand side of the scoreboard.” Heh… I’m noticing, but I’m pretty sure that said “National” on the right. Am I missing something?