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Top Five Most Overused Jerseys at College Parties

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[Editor’s Note: Today we have a guest column from Luke Divasta, who actually worked with previously with me on the “Top 5 most underrated jerseys in college football”. Luke’s still in college, and it’s been a looooonnnng time since I was an undergrad — so long in fact, I don’t know if wearing jerseys at parties was even a thing yet. And none of the ones below even existed when I was in college. *coughImOldcough* … Anyhow… Luke is back today to look at the most overused ones. Enjoy! — PH]

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Top Five Most Overused Jerseys at College Parties
By Luke Divasta

College kids love their themes. It really seems like you have to buy an outfit or some kind of prop every single week before you head out. The most popular themes tend to be the Gatsby parties, the USA parties and of course, jersey parties.

Now being a student at the University of Alabama with nearly 40,000 undergrads there are usually at least two or three jersey parties somewhere on campus, and when wandering around the strip in downtown Tuscaloosa, or attending such parties I see a lot of the same old, same old. Now don’t get me wrong, the jerseys on the list below are amazing and should always be worn, but you can definitely tell the kids going to these things have no more originality. Without further ado, here’s what made the list:

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5. LeBron James St. Vincent ”“ St. Mary

This one got old after a couple of years. I see it once or twice a month, and the guy wearing it is always acting like he broke into LeBron’s high school locker and has the only one on the planet. They’re all over the place dude, sorry it is just overdone. The jersey itself isn’t even that cool looking, just the fact that it’s a LeBron jersey makes it somewhat interesting. You didn’t even know this high school existed until LeBron got into the league and ESPN put a few of his games on TV during his senior year.

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4. Dikembe Mutumbo rainbow Nuggets

Next on the list has got to be the #55 with the Denver skyline on the front and the wrap around rainbow. Gorgeous jersey, everything flows well. I see this thing maybe once a week. The Nuggets jerseys from this time period have usually been popular just because they look so nice, but now the only one I see is this Mutumbo one, and you know why? The Geico commercial. None of these college kids knew who Dikembe Mutumbo was until he was swatting away a woman’s groceries in an ad campaign for car insurance. “No no no, not today!”

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3. LaDanian Tomlinson powder blue Chargers

NBA jerseys tend to be the most popular among college kids when attending frat parties, but the one non-NBA that sticks out everywhere is that LT powder blue. Love the color, love the bolts on the shoulders and I like the font with the numbers, but it’s like this guy was the only player in the NFL for half a decade. You can’t get anything else? Not a Buccaneers cream-sicle, an Oilers jersey or even an old Deion Sanders Falcons jersey? Nope. If you’re doing the NFL, for some reason it is always powder blue.

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2. Michael Jordan Tune Squad

It amazes me that I see more of these around than his actual Bulls or UNC jerseys. At every party there is at least one guy wearing it. Same thing as the LeBron high school jersey, the kid always thinks he’s straight out of the 90’s and is just so much cooler than everyone else for pulling this thing out. The first time I saw it I was in love with the thing, thought it was so cool, but now it is just overdone. I assume a lot of kids felt the same way I did and had to have it. The bigger problem is they can’t even get the road black jersey, it is always the home white. Sure it’s really cool, but when you have to worry about wearing it because there may be four other people wearing it then it’s time to move on.

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1. Vince Carter purple Raptors

By far one of the better retro jerseys ever. But I have never seen a non Vince Carter one. He is the only player anyone knows on that team, and it’s due entirely to his highlights. I have literally seen three kids at the same party wearing it, and getting an embarrassing picture together to try and shake it off. No one could have gotten a Muggsy Bogues? That would have killed you? It’s a great jersey obviously, screams 90’s, and I understand kids from my generation are on a nostalgia tear, but lets get over it.

Those are, in my opinion, the most over done, over used jerseys on college campuses. The NBA is prominent, easy to wear, but I love it when I see someone walking anywhere with an NHL sweater. I have to stop them in the street and thank them for what they are doing to raise awareness for one of the best jerseys sports in the country while attending school in Alabama. Hopefully this can get to some people and I’ll start seeing some more original content.

Follow me @LukeDiV

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Thanks, Luke. Like I said above — none of these jerseys existed when I was an undergrad…because with the exception of MJ, I’m older than each of the athletes who wore them (and Space Jam didn’t come out until I was married). So, I love the perspective Luke brings with the ‘kids today’ for whom these jerseys are relics! Just goes to show you that while uniforms themselves may be timeless…those who wear them are most certainly not.

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classic scoreboards splash

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):

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Classic Ballpark Scoreboards – Series II
by Gary Chanko

The road to the 50th Super Bowl begins this weekend with the AFC and NFC Wild Card games. Could history be repeated with the Chiefs and Packers? In this edition Classic Scoreboards flashes back to that first Super Bowl – AFL Champion Kansas City Chiefs vs. NFL Champion Green Bay Packers.

Super Bowl I Scoreboard_UW

Super Bowl I


Date: January 15, 1967
Location: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Kick Off: 4:15 EST
Weather: Sunny, 72 degrees

Seen them all

I’m old enough to have seen every Super Bowl played – all TV broadcasts; regrettably never attended in person. It was my senior year in college and I made it home to watch Super Bowl I with my dad. I was fortunate my family had a color TV to see the game in ”living color.” Back then only about 10 percent of the US households had a color set.

I recall there was an intense amount of anticipation and debate leading up to the game. NFL fans and players could not accept the upstart AFL teams as close competition. (I was a Baltimore Colts crazy back then, hated the Packers and rooted for the Chiefs.) See this article for an overview of the events preceding the first Super Bowl.

The Coliseum was a third empty

The game was played in the 90,000 plus capacity Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum with some 30,000 empty seats. Surprisingly the venue was selected only six weeks before the game! The Coliseum subsequently hosted Super Bowl VII (1973), but this time with a capacity crowd. (Classic Scoreboards previously featured the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Scoreboard, which you can access here.)

You can’t watch a replay – maybe

Much is written about the game, but you may want to read Sports Illustrated feature article as a start. The cover features Packer receiver Max McGee, one of the game’s unexpected heroes. If you don’t know the whole Max McGee story, check it out here.

Although you can read extensively about Super Bowl I, seeing the entire game replay is a problem. Turns out the original broadcast video tapes were destroyed. However near complete tape recordings of the game reportedly were discovered as covered in this report, which includes an interview with Jack Whitaker, one of the CBS broadcasters for the game.

NFL game film summaries apparently exist but finding content on the Internet is a challenge. Still, the radio broadcast is worth a look at this YouTube link, which has video clips interspersed.

Packers Win!

The scoreboard graphic recreates the Packers 35-10 inaugural game victory. For the last play of the game Packer running back, Donnie Anderson, just ran four yards around left end with twenty-seconds remaining to play.

A Few Things to Know

• The game was never officially publicized by the leagues or broadcast networks as the Super Bowl. The leagues choose a more pedestrian title: The First AFL-NFL World Championship Game. However the sports journalists and broadcasters were quick to adopt the Super Bowl moniker before and during the game. For example, this newspaper clip. And the term Super Bowl can be heard multiple times during the game radio broadcast.

• The game was broadcast simultaneously by two television networks, CBS (NFL rights) and NBC (AFL rights). If you lived in the LA area, the game was blocked out from local TV. No worries, Angelenos were given radio and newspaper instructions for homemade antennas to pirate TV signals from outside their area. The $12 ticket price for the game was over the top!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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.

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UW Friday Flashback

UW’s Friday Flashback

In case you missed it, Paul’s Friday Flashback on ESPN featured a look back at the uniform showdown, as it were, between Auburn and Oregon (old school vs. new school, UnderArmour vs. Nike) for the 2011 National Championship Game. It also traces some of the subplots between UA and Nike in the subsequent years. It would be the first (but not the last) time Oregon would lose a title game wearing a new uniform from Nike that pretty much eschewed school colors.

Great read, so be sure to check it out if you missed it!

Enjoy!

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Uni Watch News Ticker

Baseball News: Reposted from yesterday’s comments: Check out this gorgeous array of vintage baseball sweaters with thick shawl collars (posted by Ronnie Poore). Even if any of those sweaters were available for sale, they are probably out of the price range of most, but damn…are they purdy. … The Miami Hurricanes will have cream uniforms as an option for 2016 (thanks to Jason Gray). Also note the new baseball top for Arizona State (pictured next to the ‘canes). … “It turns out that, in addition to killing the Montreal Expos, the 1994 Major League Baseball strike was also a major factor in Starter’s decline,” notes this article sent in by Anthony Giaccone. “Lice-infested shipments and a reputation for getting wearers robbed weren’t enough to put a dent in Starter’s bottom line, but a missing MLB post-season was too much to bear.” Here’s another on those Starter Jackets (from Rob Ullman). … Josh Sandin says a co-worker was sporting these awesome socks at the office yesterday. … Matthew Brown thinks the MLB HOF jerseys could use a tweak. … According to LA Times baseball scribe Bill Shaikin, “Mariners say they’re retiring Griffey’s #24 throughout the organization. Not even a Tacoma Rainier or High Desert Maverick can wear #24” (thanks to Shane Bua for the tip).

NFL News: According to the WaPo’s Dan Steinberg, “Some dude is gonna pass these t-shirts out at FedEx Field on Sunday,” (thanks to Benjamin Thomas). … There’s a vintage Broncos “Raiders Suck” Orange Crush jersey on ebay. Submitter Jeff Flynn notes it’s “Lyle Alzado’s #77!” … Paul is referenced (for his handwarmer article) in this story about things you need to know about frigid football. … Oops, the local news used a Dallas Baptist University Patriots logo in a Tom Brady story (thanks Paul). … “Notice anything odd about this IHOP NFL placemat from 1972?” asks Leo Strawn, Jr.. He adds, “(Hint: Miami)” … Probably not a huge surprise, but the Seattle Seahawks will wear white jerseys and blue pants for their Wild Card game against Minnesota Sunday afternoon. … “A friend took this pic of Day of the Dead skulls wearing NFL helmets in Cabo. San Lucas,” tweets Francesco Caporusso. … Unless you’ve happened to dine in Primanti’s, you’ve probably never seen Jerome Bettis in swat gear (from Tyler Durden). … “Check out this USFL Pittsburgh Maulers jersey at Mike Rozier’s signing event: had ‘San Diego style’ numbers (purple number/white outline/orange outline) which they never ended up wearing — it was just purple number with orange outline on their real jerseys,” says Gene Sanny. He adds, “Looks like an ’85 Express jersey at first glance. Also — kinda strange they used an away jersey for the press conference — for a new league and team that just signed a Heisman winner, you’d think they’d have wanted to get the primary team color out there.”

College Football News: Some, including the author of this article, aren’t happy with the current Rutgers football unis, and offers five new possibilities (with voting). … THE Ohio State University’s Cardale Jones has posted a photo of all the football uniforms he’s ever worn as a Buckeye. … OK, so just how badly do you want an official Baylor GFGS helmet? It can be yours for the low low donation of $1,500 (that’s $700 for the actual “replacement” cost of the hat and $800 for the…get this…”Baylor Football Excellence Fund” — I thought that’s what student activity fees were for). … Scott Woerner was selected for College Football Hall of Fame yesterday. Here he is with the most epic of jersey malfunctions (great spot by Chris Brueckner).

Hockey News: If you’re into this sort of thing, you’ll probably be interested to know that the Blackhawks have two players whose jerseys top the best seller list. … The NWHL (National Women’s Hockey League) is like two weeks old (I kid, I kid!) and they’ve already unveiled their All Star Game jerseys. Actually, they’re pretty nice — the ASG weekend is January 23 & 24. … Mississippi State Hockey honored the troops with some special unis. … This is Ryan Johansen, just traded to Nashville from Columbus. Mike Engle notes he has a glove modification: “Those gold cuffs are covering up the Columbus red. No other reason why the prime real estate for a Bauer logo is blank, when Johansen wears Bauer everything. He’ll get new gloves soon enough. Must have gone this route because there wasn’t enough time to get or break in new ones yet, and luckily the conversion was easy.” … The Louisiana Ice Gators, a SPHL team, will wear these jerseys today. Here’s a look at the back (from OT Sports).

Basketball News: The Sacramento Kings don’t have enough lockers for visitors, so one Laker just got a folding chair. Says Brinke, who sent that in, “And here’s why the Kings need that new arena.” … Interesting: In NBA 2K13 for the Wii, there’s always a 3 point line, even with teams from 70s (thanks Paul). … Retro jerseys are back, and four teams will break them out in the Zebra Classic (a high school tourney in upstate New York). … The WNBA’s Seattle Storm are making a logo change for next season, recoloring to green, yellow, white & gray from their previous colors (thanks to Conrad Burry). … And here’s the 2016 NBA D-League All Star Game logo (also from Conrad). … More from Conrad: Here’s the 2016 NBA All-Star Saturday Night and Celebrity Game logos. … North Hardin HS boys hoops team from KY uses one of the Heat’s logos on its warmups (thanks to Josh Claywell)

Soccer News: The Milton-Keys Dons have re-signed midfielder Jake Forster-Caskey on loan until the end of the season — check out the interesting NOB on his jersey (good spot by Don Balke). … “Not sure if you’ve seen this yet, but there’s a cat here re-purposing corporate logos, turning them into soccer player names, sayings, etc.,” says Bryan Justman. … Note again the use of ads on socks in Spain’s La Liga (from Tim Cross).

Grab Bag: The USA Men’s National Team and Under-19 teams got new, Cascade R Lacrosse Helmets (from Jared Buccola). … Here’s some ‘colour versus colour’ from the Australian T20 Big Bash cricket league – Brisbane Heat versus Adelaide Strikers (from Graham Clayton). … Here’s more on that new Mello Yello logo (from David Firestone). … This is 2016, right? Not 1916 (or 1816). It’s hard to tell when female reporters in cold Chicago were told they’d ”˜Look a Lot Better Without Hats’. Yep. Actually, according to that article, “Female reporters on WFLD-channel 32’s Good Day Chicago were asked not to wear hats when on assignment outdoors, the Chicago Tribune reports. This request ”” nay, requirement ”” reportedly came from executive producer Dan Salamone”. Thanks Brinke.

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And that’s all for today — big thanks to Luke for the interesting perspective on “classic” jerseys (these kids today, lol), and Gary for the Scoreboards. The NFL playoffs start today, continue tomorrow and we finish up the College Season with the National Championship Game on Monday — so if you’re a fan of football, you’ve got a big three days coming up. I’ll be back tomorrow with a couple special treats (I promise), including some absolute GEMS from Jimmy Corcoran. You won’t want to miss those. So, until then…

Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken.

Peace.

.. … ..

“How about a redesign contest for those horrible HoF jersys?”
–Gordon Blau

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Comments (36)

    *Miami Hurricanes.
    Why do the baseball Hall of Fame inductees have to wear a jersey in the first place? I think they would be better off just wearing a blazer with a HOF crest.

    “The Milton-Keys Dons” Milton Keynes (no hyphen)
    And, of course, they’re the Dons because they used to be Wimbledon FC.

    According to the WaPo’s Dan Steinberg, “Some dude is gonna pass these t-shirts out at FedEx Field on Sunday,”

    Uh… why? What exactly is that image supposed to mean? Is this a protest thing or what?

    Doesn’t look to be, almost the opposite, the logo going Cam Newton – Humor appears to be the intent. I suspect it’s to try and sell, as opposed to hand-out.

    If it is humor, considering this site’s position on the Washington football club , I would remove the reference from the ticker, it’s seems to be the opposite of which this site stands for

    Luke’s piece reminds me of this great quote:

    “I would never wear a goddamn jersey that belongs to a grown man. That’s for children and the woman who is currently fucking that man.”

    In baseball new it reads “Florida” Hurricanes instead of “Miami”.

    This Ohio State Wolverine finds that outrageous.

    Yeah, the Dolphin logo is facing backwards on the helmet on the IHOP placemat, but what I would feel is more disturbing is that as a kid I would have been totally psyched to get a helmet that looks that real and then super disappointed to get the squared off gumball version…. just feels like false advertising. Yeah I know, $.24 should be my clue, but it’s the 1970’s, and I’m just a kid… I’m still innocent and believe what I see :)

    The women’s hockey all star jerseys appear to be completely devoid of any modern Reebok/Nike design bullshit while not going out of their way to be retro. It’s kind of refreshing.

    After first seeing the concepts/mock-ups of the jerseys and before reading the article I had no idea what that jersey crest was. The shape was a bit indistinct to me (especially with zero facial characteristics). First thing that popped in to my head was “What is the heck is that logo? Some sort of royal cockroach with a crown for a head ??? That can’t be right.”

    This coming from a Buffalo Sabres fan and from someone that has the University of Manitoba (Bisons) in my region.

    Let me guess…the city of Miami helped fund some renovations for the University of Miami. In return, the university had to change its name to the Florida Hurricanes.

    I’m not sure why this list exists. You only attend one college. How do you know what are the “most overused at colleges?”

    A very slow news week?

    I had no idea that frat boys in the south threw themselves parties wearing their favorite (sic) sports jerseys. This sort of fetish screams to me “Man I gotta be there!”

    The babes must have hovered there like moths to the flame.

    Having said this… I can honestly say that our attempts at partying in the early 80’s were not as flashy and sports oriented – TOGA parties.

    Well, I know they do, as my brother is a frat boy in the South. But this was just a bad article.

    Regarding Mike Rozier’s Pittsburgh Mauler’s jersey being a bit odd, it’s worth noting that even by the standards of rag tag teams in rival leagues, the Mauler’s were very poorly run. It’s not a big surprise that they’d roll out Rozier with what looks like a very offmarket jersey.

    I love it when frat boys come into the thrift store looking for stuff for their themed parties. It’s loaded with laughter and shouts of, “Dude… I’d totally wear that!” Oblivious to the countless people who have no choice but to shop at thrift stores.

    I got one of those LT powder blues at a thrift shop a few years ago. I wear it non-ironically though, along with the Buccaneers John Lynch, and the several Rams jerseys I’ve found at the same place.

    These HS All-American game uni’s look like shite. The ‘design’ in the numbers and shoulder stripes looks like old, old silk screen that has cracked with time and wear. The numbers and word mark above them on the front are at angle, it’s more than subtle, but less than obvious so it makes it look like the old, old silk screen press was off when they were ran. Triple F minus.

    I don’t follow the WNBA at all, but while I think I knew the Seattle Storm still existed even though the Sonics got hijacked, I’m surprised the 90’s colors lasted that long.

    Cheifs/Texans game would have looked so much better if the Texans wore their white pants and the Chiefs their red. I don’t mind the white pants for KC though. Hate the unitard look though on the Texans. At least wear red socks Houston.

    Wouldn’t that IHoP (Helmets on Parade) placemat be from 1971 since it lists the Cowboys and Colts as “the SuperBowl Stars”?

    Also, looks like the Oilers helmet is silver, not the blue they used in ’72. And the Redskins switched to the current looking helmet in’72.

    Local shop just got in Tmac raptor throwback. I may have to get one to make a new positive movement on that jersey again. All i see is vince ones also. It will be different. Plus side i shared the same number with him. Great read as always.

    Re: Jake Forster Caskey

    He started out with Caskey, moved onto Forster-Caskey for Brighton and England, it seems his relatively large number has meant he had to use F-Caskey for MKD.

Comments are closed.