Montréal Alouettes Unveil 1974 Throwback Uniforms

The Montréal Alouettes will celebrate the 50th anniversary of their 1974 Grey Cup victory when they host the Edmonton Elks at Percival Molson Stadium on Sunday, August 25. And in order to properly get in the mood for the anniversary, the team unveiled throwback uniforms yesterday via a video on their Instagram account. Unfortunately, as seems to be the trend these days, the team provided no still images, but I was able to make a few screen grabs.

So…let’s go to the video…

Flashback to ’74! 📸 Découvrez les uniformes rétro qui ont marqué notre histoire et qui seront portés par nos joueurs dimanche lors du match hommage à 1974, présenté par Labatt 50.

Some jerseys are already available at the online auction. Bid now → https://t.co/MKDWvJdWQU… pic.twitter.com/C4EqLu7ElN

— Alouettes de Montréal (@MTLAlouettes) August 21, 2024

As you saw in the video, not only were the throwbacks briefly shown, but there was also archival footage of the 1974 uniforms. Here are a couple photos of those very uniforms:

So those are the originals. Now let’s look at the throwbacks. Aside from the two uniform ads on the front of the jersey (which actually use “vintage” ad logos), the throwback — accounting for modern uniform design — is pretty spot on.

The helmet was interesting. You’ll note that in 1974 the team still used TV numbers on the helmet sides. On the front of the helmet is the Alouette logo, in a delta shape, and which is formed with a blue top (“A”) and a red bottom (which forms both an M and the shape of a bird — an alouette is a general name for several types of singing bird, especially the skylark, which flies high into the air as it sings). Beneath the graphic is the word “ALOUETTES”. The helmet itself is blue with a gray cage. Here’s an image of the classic logo:

Because of the modern cut, the red sleeves with white loops on the jersey (which itself is blue) now feature a red sleeve cap with a white loop.

The uniforms are made by New Era, and it seems they have done an excellent job at recreating the shoulder loop. Perhaps adidas, Nike, and UA could learn a thing or two from them. But I digress.

Numbers are white and in a thick block font, very true to their 1974 compatriot jerseys.

(Looks like our Canadian friends don’t like to tuck in their undershirts either.)

The red sleeve caps feature the Al’s logo as well.

The rear of the jersey has a white NOB and large white numbers, again quite true to the 1974 jersey. We also get an excellent look at how the white loops form an almost complete rotation around the shoulders — which looks great. Again, it would be nice if the big three uni makers could create something like this for American football jerseys.

The pants are white, with a blue/red/blue stripe pattern. Unfortunately we didn’t get a very clear shot of the full uniform, but here we go:

Fortunately, Montreal most recently wore a version of these uniforms in 2010 when they hosted the Saskatchewan Roughriders. The uniforms they wore for that game aren’t exact matches to the new throwbacks introduced yesterday, but they give a pretty good approximation of what the team will trot out onto the field this Sunday. The helmet is different (it’s blue with the Al’s logo on the sides), but the jersey/pants should look pretty close to these:

If you’ve got a couple hours to kill, here is the 1974 Grey Cup game between the Alouettes and (then) Edmonton Eskimos.

__________I asked pal/contibutor/SMUW “Canadian Uni Watcher” Wade Heidt if he wanted to say a few words about the throwbacks. Here’s Wade:

Before the season started, the Alouettes announced we would see a special “one-of-a-kind” uniform for their August 25 home game against Edmonton, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their 1974 Grey Cup win, which occurred against Edmonton. Though there were no uniform leaks, we pretty much knew what we would be getting. The question became whether it would be a true throwback or a modern take on the 1974 uniforms as it would be “one-of-a-kind”.

It seemed certain we would see the club’s vintage “Delta” logo on the front of the helmet with the numbers on the sides. The Alouettes changed uniforms in 1974, introducing this logo and making the colour change from green with red trim to blue with red trim. The significance is the Alouettes only wore the logo on the front of the helmet for that one championship season. The uniforms remained the same in 1975 but the logo was more conventionally placed on the sides of the helmet. Interesting how history has repeated itself with the team’s current primary look when they took the logo off the top of their helmets and put it on the sides a few seasons ago.

I look forward to seeing this 1974-inspired throwback on the field and hope they consider wearing it one more time. This jersey is different from 1974 as it is navy instead of royal and has the logo on the sleeve. The “royal” helmets in 1974 were pretty much navy anyway and the addition of the grey facemask is a nice touch. A good, modern take on a classic Alouettes’ look.

I will enjoy seeing the Als wear a blue over white combo. I have been clamouring for this with their primary uniform but they insist on going mono-navy. There is a lot of love for the “Delta” logo. My opinion? If the team decided to keep this uniform around and put the logo on the sides of the helmet it would serve them well as a primary uniform.

Thanks, Wade! I, too, look forward to seeing these on the field. Perhaps we’ll have a post-game report from Wade next Monday.

Your thoughts?