Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.
I say that because long-time readers are more than likely familiar with the story that follows. I know I’ve written about this before, probably 15 years or so ago.
Back in 1964, teams wearing same color jerseys and pants (non-white) was a distinct rarity, as were teams wearing white at home. But an odd confluence of events led to the first and ONLY white jersey vs. white jersey game in NFL history, and, in the same game, led to the Minnesota Vikings wearing mono-purple.
Here’s what happened. Although the Vikings had purple pants as part of their uniform set since 1962, home fans had never seen them, as they were worn exclusively on the road. For whatever reason, they decided to change that up on October 11, 1964, when the team decided to wear their white jerseys over purple pants in Minnesota.
There was just one problem: their opponents that day, the Detroit Lions, brought their normal road uniforms (silver/white/silver) to the stadium. There was a communications mix-up — either the Vikings didn’t inform the Lions of their intent to wear white at home, or the Lions simply just brought the uniforms they had always worn on the road that day. Either way, both teams came on the field wearing white jerseys.
Obviously, this type of mix-up couldn’t occur today, but back in 1964, the refs decided to play the game with both teams in white jerseys. Predictably, this led to major confusion on the field.
Fred Zamberletti, the Vikings trainer at the time, recalled what happened next:
“(Coach) Van Brocklin solved the problem by ordering one of our drivers to grab our purple jerseys. So he took off — heavy traffic. Did a heck of a job getting all those (purple) jerseys back before the first quarter ended.”
Interesting — apparently the team didn’t keep its home jerseys at the stadium? He unfortunately didn’t mention where exactly they were stored, but it was clearly not within walking distance. They must have kept them in a practice facility nearby.
Even though the jerseys arrived before the end of the first quarter, the teams actually finished the quarter still going white jersey vs. white jersey. It wasn’t until the beginning of the second quarter that the situation was remedied.
With the purple jerseys now on hand, once the first quarter ended, the Vikings changed into their purple tops right on the sidelines! (Another NFL first)
The Vikings would then play the rest of the game in mono purple.
So, in a simple twist of fate, the Vikings ended up wearing the first “Color Rush” uniforms in history, about 50 years ahead of Nike.
And the reason I write about this (again, 15 years later) is because our own Jerry Wolper found video (which appears to have been taken from an NFL Films production — you can hear Steve Sabol’s voiceover at the beginning). I’m pretty sure we haven’t had video of this (only screenshots) before now. So you can actually see the white vs. white jerseys in action, as well as some shots of the team in mono-purple. Enjoy!
1964#Vikings #Lions
Both teams start the game wearing white jerseys.#Vikings switch to purple jerseys in the 2nd quarter, changing their uniform on the sidelines.
Van Brocklin hated the look of solid purple, and that was the end of the purple pants.
24-20 #Lions https://t.co/04CENskjWR pic.twitter.com/2zHMWaBldE— Old Time Football 🏈 (@Ol_TimeFootball) September 15, 2024
[Big thanks to Jerry for bringing this video to my attention!]
I’m always amazed by how muddy pro football was, up until the mid 1970s. It’s like every single pic and video from the 1960s, guys were covered in mud from head to toe, and the fields were super patchy, with maybe like 50% grass coverage at best.
That’s because the game wasn’t the “cash cow” it is now, nor were the players all multi, multi millionaires as they are now. Back then it was just a game.
So many teams sharing fields with baseball teams probably didn’t help the situation any.
Looks like it was raining that day – you can see all the officials wearing clear-ish ponchos over their stripes. And as mentioned before, half the field was still set up with a baseball diamond for the Twins, so you’re going to have a lot of mud.
Not sure it was that rare to wear white at home in 1964, but it probably was very rare to have a one-off home game in white. Besides the Cowboys, I believe the Rams had started wearing their white uniforms that season at home. That was the first season they had blue & white instead of blue & gold (yellow), which they switched back to in 1973. I loved those white uniforms with Roman Gabriel, Merlin Olsen, and Deacon Jones.
That clip was from the show “Lost Treasures of the NFL”, hosted by the late Steve Sabol. I have it on video cassette. Great story!
Great video. “You guys look like a bunch of easter eggs out there. All that purple out there was more than that the dutchman was willing to tolerate, and that was the end of the purple pants”.
Well, until 2007 at any rate.
Sigh.
And it wasn’t the end in 1964 either. They wore them in 1965 as well.
Looks as though they wore them in pre-season, then switched to white for regular season.
So either he got a bit confused around timings, or they ordered new pants and didn’t break them out until the regular season.
In general, there seemed to be a lot of uni changes that were only rolled out in the regular season back then. Be interested to know the reasons for that.
(can spend hours lost in the Gridiron database!)
Even back then with the bigger jerseys, the Vikings needed help putting them on, even though they were much roomier you couldn’t put it on yourself. The Philadelphia Bell would have the game jerseys on a hook to the left side hanging in the locker and the player was responsible for getting it on, you would just get the player next to you to pull it down for you. Today the jerseys fit like a wetsuit, and the equipment men put them over the shoulder pads and leave it in the locker so the player can put it on without help.
It’s also on the NFL Films Inside the Vault DVD series. My kids got it for me at Christmas a couple of decades ago. Great stuff. link
Did anyone notice the person (an assistant coach, perhaps?) smoking on the sidelines? At the :39 second mark of the clip, you can see what appears to be smoke coming out of his nose. And notice his right hand; looks like he’s pinching something between his finger and thumb. At first I thought it was simply seeing his breath on a cold day, but no one else’s breath was visible, so it must not have been one of those frigid Minnesota days.
Vikings then-Head Coach Norm Van Brocklin was an unapologetic chain smoker on the sidelines. In the 1960s players even smoked on the sidelines. The early Saints Charlton Heston movie “Number One” had numerous players smoking on the bus on the way to the game and in the locker room. It wasn’t a big deal back then. Similar to Junior Soprano’s generation eating al of that chargrilled meat, or George Costanza’s grandparents eating all of those huge brisket sandwiches …. We didn’t know ….
The Vikings may have got the “show the fans the other jersey” idea from the Kansas City A’s, who in 1963 only wore gold uniforms both home and away. The A’s then asked visiting teams to bring their home jerseys so the fans could see them. I think the Yankees and Indians played along.
Regarding the Vikings not keeping their purple jerseys at Metropolitan Stadium, it was only their home on game days. They had no permanent presence there, having their offices and practices elsewhere.
The Vikings typically practiced at Midway Stadium in St Paul (a long gone minor league ballpark built in the 1950s in hopes of attracting a major league baseball team, around the same time Met Stadium was built in Bloomington for the same reason). The Vikings did practice at Met Stadium at times too, but not likely during the baseball season. The game was played 10/11/64 so the baseball season was over…but maybe the Vikings had not fully transitioned to practicing at the Met.
Midway Stadium was 12 miles away from Met Stadium and freeways were not built yet, so it was likely a lengthy drive. The Vikings offices at the time were about 6 miles away but it was team offices and ticket office.
Wait, I just heard a podcast saying that in the late ’60s St. Paul and Bloomington built competing arenas trying to get an NHL expansion team. That happened TWICE?
St. Paul’s arena wasn’t completed until January of 1973. The Minnesota Fighting Saints of the WHA played there.
There is a classic photo from (I believe) Super Bowl I (yes, it was called the NFL-AFL Championship game at the time) of Lenny Dawson at halftime, sitting on a chair, smoking a cigarette and drinking a bottle of Fresca. What a healthy halftime picker-upper!
SIDENOTE: It wasn’t until December 17, 2007, on a Monday Night game against Chicago, that the Vikes went all-purple intentionally.
I’ll have to track it down, my dad was there and had home movies of this, since transferred to DVD. When I find it, and can capture it (not great quality, but ok) I’ll try and send it. He also has grainy/dark footage of the Beatles at Bush Stadium.