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[Editor’s Note: Membership card designer Scott M.X. Turner is back with this latest installment of Remembership, his retrospective series about the Uni Watch membership card program. Enjoy. — PL]
By Scott M.X. Turner
This week’s Remembership takes a completely subjective look at some of the rarest birds in the Membership Program. Maybe “Oddities” is the wrong description. “Unusual,” “singular,” “distinctive,” “one-of-a-kind” — by any name, each of these card designs is a category unto itself.
Other than “Hmmm, that was really different,” l had no criteria or agenda for the designs included in this piece. Many are based on the stories behind the requests (see the captions).
Clockwise from top left: Alpha Phi Omega University of Texas flag team (Devin Curry), Paul’s old ’zine Beer Frame (Daniel Grunfield), Norway national curling team pants (Chris Kite), New York baseball Giants 1916 plaid (RS Rogers), Detroit Tigers never-used TATC (Trevor Williams), member’s late son’s first and only soccer jersey (Jason Shane), interior of Masters champion jacket (Marty Buccafusco), New York football Giants Spider Lockhart memorial patch (Jonathan Galaska), the first memorial patch worn in a Super Bowl, as reported by Paul in 2016.Clockwise from top left: Michigan Wolverines through member’s synesthesiatic vision (Scott Wedemeyer), Roger Federer’s shoe logo, which has changed with each successive Wimbledon title he’s won (Judy Adams), Oakland Coliseum’s Hal The Hot Dog Guy’s vest (including mustard stains) (Hal Gordon), Northern Ontario curling sweater (Will Scheibler), Baltimore Oriole 1960s batboy Jay Mazzone (Jay Mazzone–not the same Jay Mazzone!), We’re All In This TOGETHER, Paul’s pandemic sentiment from March 2020 (Joshua Saltzman), Serena Williams U.S. Open tennis dress (Suvo Sur), Ivan Lendl tennis shirt (Eric D. Behenna).Clockwise from top left: Ric Flair wrestling robe (John Wood Jr.), Emerald City Supporters Club (Steve Cecil), Japanese volleyball libero’s bib (Jeremy Brahm), Skra’s rebellious question-mark (Tom Gronek, who wrote a guest piece on this very jersey).
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There were two oversights in last week’s “Horsepower and Horses” edition. Here they are, with apologies to the members:
Left to right: Herbie the Love Bug (Frank Serpas III), Ryan Newman NASCAR (Blake Pass).
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Finally, to everyone who has a conventional NOB/number card design, I apologize for highlighting the more extravagant designs in the Remembership series. Your basic designs are the meat-and-gravy of the Membership Program.
Thanks for reminding me of Ivan Lendl’s bizarre shirt graphics. As I seem to recall, it was one of the earliest bespoke designs for a particular athlete.
I thought the Lendl/Adidas argyle pattern from the early 80s was really cool. But you couldn’t buy his Mizuno tennis shirt ANYWHERE. It is one of the rarest sporting goods in the history of ever.
Thanks for including my card! March 2020 was tough on all of us, and I greatly appreciated not just Paul’s message but the entire comm-uni-y. At the time that was the “team” I wanted to represent on my card.
Thanks for including my baseball Giants card! While that 1916 uniform is commonly called “plaid,” it would be more precisely correct to refer to it as tattersall or windowpane. Which I say not by way of correction, but as lead in to why I chose it: A uni-thing that has long seemed nigh-inexplicable to me is the acceptance of pinstripes in baseball. Don’t get me wrong: I love a good pinstriped uniform, and desperately miss the excellent pinstripes my Twins used to wear. But it’s just so odd that of all the then-stylish patterned fabrics of the 1910s, only pinstripes survived as commonly accepted baseball uniform attire. Odder still that in men’s formal dress, from whence baseball pinstripes came, pinstripes have all but disappeared, to the point that a pinstriped suit will be read by most as a deliberate and kind of obnoxious statement. Like, I can’t think of a president who’s worn a pinstriped suit at all since Reagan, and the last one to do so regularly might be Harding. So, why do we accept pinstripes as a “normal” element for a baseball uniform, but not other patterns common to men’s formal dress like tattersall, gingham, chalk stripe, polka dot, awning stripe, glenn check, or windowpane? I’d like to think there’s a just-slightly alternate historical path where “Giants plaid” is as accepted a concept of team identity and uniform design as “Yankees pinstripes” is to us.
Thanks for reminding me of Ivan Lendl’s bizarre shirt graphics. As I seem to recall, it was one of the earliest bespoke designs for a particular athlete.
I thought the Lendl/Adidas argyle pattern from the early 80s was really cool. But you couldn’t buy his Mizuno tennis shirt ANYWHERE. It is one of the rarest sporting goods in the history of ever.
Was hoping I might make this installment, as I think my card is a 1/1, but seeing the theme for next week, maybe it’s there.
Love these spotlights, thanks for doing them! A good reminder of how unique our members are.
You made my day by including my Roger Federer shoe logo card. I totally wasn’t expecting it!
I was hoping mine might make this batch, too, as I’m pretty sure mine is the only card based on a design from the sport of orienteering.
That said, I really enjoyed looking at this batch! (As well as all of the other previous batches). Thanks for putting these together, Scott!
As a lifelong pro wrestling fan, I think it’s great someone did one based on one of Ric Flair’s legendary robes. WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
There’s an apostrophe catastrophe in “Paul’s old ‘zine”!
Another great installment in a great series! Thanks, Scott!
Thanks for including my card! March 2020 was tough on all of us, and I greatly appreciated not just Paul’s message but the entire comm-uni-y. At the time that was the “team” I wanted to represent on my card.
Thank you again for this entire project!
I love the card for Hal the hot dog guy! Has he been active here lately? Where are you Hal?!
Also, that Ivan Lendl card looks like a dog’s face except with bacon whiskers. I can’t unsee it!
Thanks for including my baseball Giants card! While that 1916 uniform is commonly called “plaid,” it would be more precisely correct to refer to it as tattersall or windowpane. Which I say not by way of correction, but as lead in to why I chose it: A uni-thing that has long seemed nigh-inexplicable to me is the acceptance of pinstripes in baseball. Don’t get me wrong: I love a good pinstriped uniform, and desperately miss the excellent pinstripes my Twins used to wear. But it’s just so odd that of all the then-stylish patterned fabrics of the 1910s, only pinstripes survived as commonly accepted baseball uniform attire. Odder still that in men’s formal dress, from whence baseball pinstripes came, pinstripes have all but disappeared, to the point that a pinstriped suit will be read by most as a deliberate and kind of obnoxious statement. Like, I can’t think of a president who’s worn a pinstriped suit at all since Reagan, and the last one to do so regularly might be Harding. So, why do we accept pinstripes as a “normal” element for a baseball uniform, but not other patterns common to men’s formal dress like tattersall, gingham, chalk stripe, polka dot, awning stripe, glenn check, or windowpane? I’d like to think there’s a just-slightly alternate historical path where “Giants plaid” is as accepted a concept of team identity and uniform design as “Yankees pinstripes” is to us.
Fantastic
How does the membership card program deal with copyright issues?
Such a good series and these are all worth mentioning.
Since this is the one-off week I just wanted to share my Cleveland Crunch NPSL Otto Orf goalie jersey card (ordered on Purple Amnesty Day!)
link
and inspiration:
link