[Editor’s Note: Paul is on his annual August break from site (although he’s still writing his weekly Substack column). Deputy editor Phil Hecken is in charge from now through the end of the month.]
A good Wednesday morning, Uni Watchers — happy hump day!
In case you missed it, yesterday featured the unveilings of three “one-off” uniforms: the Florida Gators debuted a BFBS uni for their “Saluting Those Who Serve” game; Mississippi State introduced a 1998 throwback uni for their Homecoming game; and, Nebraska tweaked their unis for their “100 Years of Memorial Stadium” game.
(checks notes)
Actually, yesterday contained a fourth one-off uniform unveiling, and that one was from Air Force, who showed off their helmets and uniforms for their annual “Air Power Legacy” Series game. This year, AF will be honoring the “Doolittle Raid” mission for their October 21 contest against Navy in Annapolis, Maryland.
To set the stage, let’s begin with the Air Force video promoting the game:
“You have struck the hardest blow of the war directly at the enemy’s heart. You have made history.”
THE DOOLITTLE RAIDERS pic.twitter.com/Vd4aHhv0jw
— Air Force Football (@AF_Football) August 15, 2023
As you can see from the video, there were plenty of views of the uniform (as well as the quick history of the Doolittle Raid). I confess to watching a fair amount of The History Channel, so I was already familiar with the raid, but if you’re not, you might want to read that linked Wiki article above.
Clearly then, there is a “story” behind these uniforms, so let’s take an in-depth look at them now.
HELMET
The helmet is chrome, with two different decals on either side. Per the Air Force: “The chrome helmet features the B-25 on the front bumper while the back bumper has the nicknames of the planes. Not every helmet will have a nickname, as only nine of the 16 planes had nicknames. Those unnamed aircraft will be represented with the name Doolittle. The right of the helmet features an image of a B-25 while the left has the Raiders patch from the jersey.”
Here’s a look at the front and back:
JERSEY
“The jersey features letters and numbers of steel and rivets like on the B-25 aircraft the Raiders flew in the mission. The right chest lists tail numbers of the aircraft that flew the mission.”
On the left sleeve, we see the squadron patch of the Doolittle Raiders.
The right sleeve contains an American flag patch.
Rear numbers are in the same style as the front. All players will have a “DOOLITTLE RAIDERS” NOB, rendered in steel gray. Numbers and NOB are both outlined in black.
PANTS
According to the Air Force, “The pants feature the roundel logo on the left front, which includes the star that appeared on the B-25 aircraft. The Raiders mantra, Ever into Peril, appears down the right side of the pants, while Toujours au Danger is on the left leg, which is Ever into Peril in French.”
PATCH DETAILS
2016
This uniform celebrated the Tiger Shark teeth nose-art which has been represented on multiple Air Force aircraft dating back to World War II.
2017
The Air Force honored the present, and future, of air power in 2017 with the F-35 theme. Helmets that year had five different designs. You can read more about that here.
2018
The team honored the AC-130 in 2018. The helmet featured the AC-130 on one side, plus squadron patches on the other.
2019
Air Force honored the C-17, a large military transport in 2019.
2020
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the Falcons honored the Tuskegee Airmen with the 2020 edition.
2021
The 2021 edition honored the B-52 Stratofortress.
2022
The 2022 edition honored the Space Force. You can read much more about that edition here.
Much of the Air Force’s Legacy Series uniforms have involved multiple and detailed helmets. For a complete Air Force helmet history, which includes every helmet worn during the above years, click here.
You can see additional photos below:
Scoreboard is the 1992 Gold Medal Men’s Basketball game between the USA (the Dream Team) and Croatia.
Super, DJ!
The anniversary of this matchup was just last week (8/8/92).
This was the smallest margin of victory for the Dream Team in the tourney – a real nail-biter.
Back then I wasn’t sold on the idea that the USA sending pros to compete at the Olympics was a good
one – since then the Games (Summer and Winter) have lost much of their gravitas…I think that decision, plus the obvious geo-political changes, led to making them less relevent.
It’s a shame the Air Force hit a grand slam with the tiger shark head helmets and haven’t used it regularly ever since… or, at least to my knowledge., at all. That said, I think those chrome helmets look sharp and am looking forward to seeing it on the field.
As an aviation and WW2 history buff, I’ve gotta say that these Air Force uniforms are pretty terrible. They clearly just wanted to use a chrome helmet. The B-25 just looks like a picture my 12 year old niece would cut out for a collage, not a helmet logo.
If they wanted to pay tribute to the B-25s and the crews that flew during the Doolittle Raids, they would have used colors that were used on those bombers. They were painted olive drab, with no exposed metal or rivets. Everything was painted. Using silver numbers and rivets has zero ties to the B-25s flown on this mission. There are also PLENTY of airworthy B-25s that use the correct color scheme that they could have used for the photoshoot as well.
The USAAF Roundel on the front hip would have made a terrific helmet logo. The phrases on the pants look terrible.
Olive drab helmet with the patch on one side, roundel on the other. White jersey NOB has the airplane nicknames/Doolittle. Olive drab pants.
Good intentions, extremely lazy effort. They wanted a chrome helmet and all white uniform. That’s it.
Chrome For Chrome’s Sake.
This is so the exact opposite of Nebraska’s subtle and dignified tribute uni. Those aren’t dirty words, Nike.
Even when the service academies actually come out with a good looking one-off, I’d rather just see them in the regular unis. Especially for Army/Navy. It’s one of the biggest games of the year…you don’t need turn the dial on the hype meter to 11.
Yep, as an aviation geek, these give me heartburn as a Doolittle Raiders tribute. The silver/chrome theme would have been better if they wanted to honor Korean War vets, An F-86 Sabre theme with the characteristic yellow stripe trimmed in black on silver/chrome would be more appropriate if they wanted to go this direction.
The Doolittle Raid wouldn’t have happened without the US Navy.
GTGFTU is 9/27/2009, Seahawks against the Bears
That one was a bit of a softball, because that’s the only time the Seahawks ever wore those particular green jerseys.
Loved that look. Way more than what they usually wore in those days.
Still annoys me to no end that they never wore those again because they lost that game.
How many teams, especially in college, brought out a BFBS uni, gotten hammered while wearing them, and the following year bring out another BFBS mess?
That jersey deserved more than one game. It sure looked better than the green over green they wear occasionally.
I will say this, it was better than the “steel” blues of the time.
Nothing beats the tiger shark helmets, however these are pretty sweet!
I probably shouldn’t like the riveted numbers, but I do. A lot.
Would rather the NOB simply read Raiders…put Doolittle on all back bumpers rather than pick/choose.
I do not mind the chrome dome, but hate the use of different decals for each side.
My level of contempt for chrome helmets may even surpass your level of contempt for orange Broncos pants. They shouldn’t be allowed on the field.
I agree with you about the riveted numbers. That’s the only thing I like about this mess.
In the Boston Patriots team photo, the team name is spelled incorrectly (PATROITS) on the jersey for Tom Yewcic #14 (back row, far right).
Nice catch Scott!
One thing about being a proofreader: you don’t really notice a word misspelled as you do a word not “shaped” correctly. My eye went right to that jersey.
Can you imagine a team named the Detroit Patriots? Patriots on the home jerseys and Detroit on roads. The people sewing the lettering on the front would be going crazy.
I love those Boston Patriots uniforms and another great King story. Too bad the NFL teams do not field off season basketball teams anymore. Must be because of insurance policies and possible injuries. When I was a staffer with the Amsterdam Admirals back in the late 90s I once played a little hoops with some linebackers (many had played hoops in High School) and defensive backs on the court in front of the office. In their NFL Europe contracts it was stated as an unallowed activity. If they were seen even dribbling a ball they would be cut from the team. One of the coaches showed up and they scrambled off the court in all directions. Coach saw me with the ball and shook his head: he knew what was going on.
Both of my parents say former Eagles WR Ben Hawkins could have played in the NBA! My mother was a cheerleader for a rival school and saw him play in high school and my father played for the Pottstown Firebirds basketball team and they played against the Eagles, my father said he felt like he was playing against Connie Hawkins, Ben was that good. Ben Hawkins finished his football career playing on the Philadelphia Bell.
Great additional information! Thanks, Jimmy!
Do yourself a favor and look at the Hood logo upside down. A lot New Englanders with an immature sense of humor use it like that as a bumper sticker.
As a one-off uniform, I don’t hate this, but the chrome silver helmet has me a bit puzzled. The Mitchell raid used B-25s painted in the then-common dark olive green of the USAAF, with light gray undersides.
Though the hype video concludes with a B&W image of the famous silver goblets used by Doolittle raid veterans to celebrate their tontine. So maybe that’s the shiny silver reference behind the helmet?
Info about the goblets and the raiders’ tontine: link
I remember seeing the Patriots basketball team playing a team of teachers at my high school, so 1965-1966 is about right. The uniforms were red. Hood is still around. As a kid we toured their milk plant in Charlestown, Mass. Everybody got a small bottle of chocolate milk at the end.
See that is what’s great about Uni Watch, when you don’t know something there is always someone to come along and fill in the blanks. So the bulk of the jersey is red and the darker shoulder stripes are blue, that’s what I thought but I also wondered could the bulk of the jersey be a royal blue with the shoulder stripes a dark red? Thank you.
The Patriots did hoop games for many years. I was familiar with it as a school fundraiser type event where they would play the HS team, varsity boys for 1Q, varsity girls 1Q & teachers/coaches for a half or something. My dad was a HS math teacher & coach, so he played them at his school a few different years in the 70s & 80s. I know he played against Grogan, Tippett, Hannah, Stanley Morgan etc. My dad had been a great HS player & D3 college player, but he said the guys were of course big & great athletes and most were very skilled basketball players (to be expected as many of them were star multi-sport athletes in high school and possibly even college).