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Good morning, everyone. What you see in the featured image is my first favorite Miami Dolphin, and a young Jim coloring Easter eggs in my unofficial aqua and orange “Mercury Morris” shirt. Every year when we color eggs I think of Mr. Morris, and next year I will think of him even more, as he passed away last weekend at the age of 77.
Eugene Morris was my favorite Dolphin until Reggie Roby came along, because in the early ’70s I liked kick returners and running backs. I especially liked those who shared my philosophy of playing football:
My kind of guy, although “Mercury” did it with speed while I had to do it with jittery moves and balance to make up for my slowness. He did it with style, too, looking very athletic in that great Dolphins uniform.
And speaking of style, I didn’t realize until this week that arguably the greatest backfield in NFL history all wore different styles of facemasks. Jim Kiick’s was my favorite of the three, but I also liked Larry Csonka’s U-shaped nose guard and Morris’ vertical center bar.
To be honest, though, what first drew my attention to Mercury was his number. For some reason in the early ’70s, I was obsessed with the number 22. My favorite player on many teams shared that same number. I believe the first was Paul Krause from my first favorite team, the Vikings. (By the way, WHY is his number not retired? *81* interceptions!) Then there was Roger Wehrli from the Cardinals. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence that they both held the ball for kickers Fred Cox and Jim Bakken, respectively. In college, my first favorite player was “The Italian Stallion,” Johnny Musso from Alabama…which is weird because back then I liked Auburn.
Back to the pros, my favorite Cowboy was Bob Hayes, my favorite Bears *were* Gale Sayers and Dick Butkus until Cyril Pinder was traded to Chicago, and my first favorite Oiler was Zeke Moore. Even after Skip Butler joined the club, I wanted a Zeke Moore jersey for Christmas and got one. A decade later, my passion for 22 had gone away, but when the New Jersey Generals signed Doug Flutie, it returned.
It wasn’t just football. My first favorite basketball player was Dave DeBusschere of the New York Knicks, and in baseball my favorite Baltimore Oriole was and is Jim Palmer.
Returning to Morris, Life Magazine had a great photo shoot of him during his college days at West Texas State. They really played up the “Mercury” nickname, giving him wings for his helmet and shoes, just like the mythical messenger of the Roman gods.
Morris wore 22 in college as well, but unfortunately for his final year in the NFL he had to wear 23 because his number was taken by cornerback Tom Hayes.
Rest in peace, Mercury. Next Easter I’ll be sure to color an aqua and orange egg for you.
How about you, readers? Do/did any of you have a favorite player partly because of his or her number?
Two "Generation O" Leaks
Yesterday, fans came across some online pics showing what should be the final two jerseys in Oregon and Nike’s “Generation O” series. Phil covered the first three unveilings of the all-black uniform, the all-green uni, and the gold/white/gold combo. The newest photos quickly were taken down from the Nike website and the Duck Store website, but one X-er shared them before they vanished.
According to OregonLive.com, sources have confirmed the jerseys to be legitimate, and that the yellow ones will be worn next week against Michigan State. The white jerseys are projected to be worn in November against Michigan.
Same as the black jersey, the yellow one has the feather pattern on the shoulders and collar, with a thin diamondplate pattern below the front of the collar, and perforated numbers.
There’s also a “Stomp Out Cancer” patch on one sleeve, while the other one has what I believe is a “Flight Or Fight” patch…it’s hard to tell with these being the only photos.
The newer white jersey follows the same template, but has nothing on the sleeves…same as the black jersey.
Usually I have nothing to say about leaks until they’re officially made official. So the floor is all yours in the comments section.
Thriftspotting: Another Basketball Warm Up Top
Ever since I helped clear out Dad’s house earlier this month, I haven’t had time (or room for anything else) to go thrift shopping. Our own Wafflebored has, though, so I’m going to live vicariously through him as he gives us another fun installment of Thriftspotting.
…..
We recently featured an amazing vintage warm up top from the Montana Golden Nuggets. I absolutely loved that piece, but it didn’t fit into my collection of local teams so I sent it to Jim. So I was extremely pleased when I came across this one from my alma mater, Simon Fraser University in the Vancouver area.
When I attended SFU the teams were named the Clansmen, later it was shortened to just the Clan.
These names were an obvious reference to explorer and trader Simon Fraser’s Scottish roots, however they were also somewhat uncomfortable due to other associations of the name, so in 2020 it was changed to the Red Leafs.
The top is made by Sand Knit, so of course the quality and design is great.
The Scottish basketball mascot wearing the tam and kilt is fun. But my favourite part is the lettering on the back.
I love it when teams other than baseball use the fancy style font as we see here. A great addition to the Wafflebored collection of local Vancouver-based teams.
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Thanks again! Looking forward to seeing more of your great finds.
I’ve been wanting to write an article on this for years, but maybe it was a good thing I waited after reading this comment:
Pretty good timing, eh?
The next comment added another element of field design, which also was featured on my high school field.
As far as I’ve been able to tell, the first team was the Chiefs, who added white arrowheads with red shafts next to the numbers when Arrowhead Stadium opened in 1972.
The first Super Bowl to use them was XII, at the Louisiana Superdome. They used the same type of arrows, and both fields had arrows on either side of the 50s.
I didn’t see arrows at the 50s for any of the Rose Bowl Super Bowls, so that must have been a UCLA thing. Curiously, my Cuyahoga Falls High School has arrows at the 50s, but nowhere else!
Speaking of the Rose Bowl, UCLA has Gs on the goal line this year.
A day after the article, another reader had another timely comment:
How awesome is that? I’ve been to nearby Slippery Rock to see a D2 game. Now I need to go to Geneva College as well.
Here’s a look at the field:
Love the end zones as well as the Gs, and I love the little Beaver Falls High School logos. It’s nice to share field graphics!
I also mentioned in the comments that I’d seen the Bills with a G bisected by the goal line. I found a picture of that from the ’60s, and from the early ’70s I found one where the G was in the end zone, but lined up with the other numbers (unlike my school).
Golly G, that’s a lot of goal line talk.
And That Will Be All For Today
I hope everyone made it through Helene and is drying out now. Have a very good Saturday, and until we meet again for Sunday Morning Uni Watch, take care, everyone.
Reggie Roby?? As a Browns fan, Phil Dawson was my favorite player for a while because during most of his tenure rest of the team was usually awful. How did a punter end up as your favorite? Speaking of awful, the Cleveland Indians were terrible in the 70’s. While Buddy Bell and Andre Thornton were my favorites, I became a fan of the late Paul Dade simply because he wore double zero. If I recall correctly, Dade and reliever Brandon Barnes are the only Indians/Guardians players to ever wear double zero.
Spent many days at my junior high field kicking and punting during the 80s. I wasn’t on a team, just doing it for fun.
Roby was the best punter at the time, so I started mimicking his style with the plant foot firmly on the ground. Couldn’t match his flexibility though…
I loved 00 Kenny Burrough with the Oilers, and Jim Otto was one of two Raiders I ever liked… mostly because of his 00.
RIP Mercury.
Can’t say that I have specific players that I like with the reason being their number. However, I will give a salute and handshake to any hockey goalie nowadays who wears no. 1. Used to be a common thing now you rarely see it, and I miss it.
Really great find on stuff again, Wafflebored! That is some classic SFU gear.
Mine was the reverse, my favorite baseball player was Rod Carew. I always felt bad that they played for the sad twins. 29 became my favorite number.
My other favorite number was seven, but there were too many quarterbacks who wore that number in the 70s and 80s.
The Lakers were my favorite team growing up, and I loved Baylor 22, and West 44. On my Gray-Y team the numbers were only 1-15. I picked 11 since I wanted two numbers that were the same like Baylor and West. Did the same thing for my Little League team.
Number 44, for Hank Aaron.
I had an aqua/orange shirt just like yours bearing #39, but I held no particular love for Csonka.
When it came time for me to pick a number for myself, the first one I chose was 25. No player I revered wore it, and I think I chose it only because of the symmetry of the numbers. Weird kid.
I’m biased in favor of 44 and 47 in football, but I’m not sure if I ever rooted for a player primarily because they wore one of those two.
In 1975 we went to Florida for Christmas vacation, I got a white Mercury Morris jersey. It wasn’t Sand Knit quality, but you couldn’t buy a Dolphins jersey in Maryland back then.
About eight years ago I went into a Jersey Mike’s in Boca Raton, I was wearing an NFL Films t shirt, the guy who made my sub told me Mercury Morris just left about ten minutes ago. He told me he ate there all the time, but I never ran into him. I’m sure Merc would have had a laugh if I told him the time before the Bell played the Southmen, my father shook Larry Csonka’s and Jim Kiick’s hands and they looked at him like they had no idea who the hell he was.
Jimmer, I guess your favorite player on the Philadelphia Bell was A Train Thompson. He had a new Corvette that was the same color gold as the Bell helmets.
I never liked a player specifically for a number, but in high school I wore #22 in baseball because of Will Clark.
I remember when Mercury got busted for dealing cocaine. I was nine years old, and I felt really bad for him.
I know a lot of bad people are in that biz, but he was the early reason why I’ve always empathized with the good people that get caught up in it.
RIP, Kool Merc.
Jim it kinda looks like you had your Mercury shirt on backwards in the photo. What do you think?
No, it looked like that frontwards and backwards. link
Wish I could find one like that now…except in a v-neck.
That Paul Krause’s number isn’t retired is a travesty. He was my favorite player back in the day. I loved all those interceptions, amd I got to meet him at a mall event in my Iowa hometown as a kid.
I never liked a player because of their number, but as a kid in the early ’70s, I began to like #21 specifically because no great Yankee ever wore it (and when I grew up to play for the Yanks, I’d be able to take it – LOL). On any baseball team I played on, I would try (usually successfully) to get #21. Unfortunately, I never did get to play for the Yanks and then Paul O’Neill showed up and ruined it for me anyway. :)
Oddly enough I started wearing 22 in PeeWee football because of my hockey hero Mike Bossy. I was in 6th grade and went to a jeweler to have a custom gold plated 22 made that I wore hanging from my chain for years. I wore that number through high school then on to mens league hockey and softball.
Growing up in Florida in the 70’s and 80’s my favorite team was and still is the Dolphins! And like you my favorite player was Mercury Morris. So in turn my favorite number became 22 and still is to this day. Unfortunately I never had the Mercury Morris 22 shirt as a kid but I did have the Bob Griese 12 and my brother had the Csonka 39. We used to run around and play kill the man with the ball and I always pretended I was Merc. RIP 22!
Reggie Roby?? As a Browns fan, Phil Dawson was my favorite player for a while because during most of his tenure rest of the team was usually awful. How did a punter end up as your favorite? Speaking of awful, the Cleveland Indians were terrible in the 70’s. While Buddy Bell and Andre Thornton were my favorites, I became a fan of the late Paul Dade simply because he wore double zero. If I recall correctly, Dade and reliever Brandon Barnes are the only Indians/Guardians players to ever wear double zero.
Spent many days at my junior high field kicking and punting during the 80s. I wasn’t on a team, just doing it for fun.
Roby was the best punter at the time, so I started mimicking his style with the plant foot firmly on the ground. Couldn’t match his flexibility though…
I loved 00 Kenny Burrough with the Oilers, and Jim Otto was one of two Raiders I ever liked… mostly because of his 00.
RIP Mercury.
Can’t say that I have specific players that I like with the reason being their number. However, I will give a salute and handshake to any hockey goalie nowadays who wears no. 1. Used to be a common thing now you rarely see it, and I miss it.
Really great find on stuff again, Wafflebored! That is some classic SFU gear.
Mine was the reverse, my favorite baseball player was Rod Carew. I always felt bad that they played for the sad twins. 29 became my favorite number.
My other favorite number was seven, but there were too many quarterbacks who wore that number in the 70s and 80s.
The Lakers were my favorite team growing up, and I loved Baylor 22, and West 44. On my Gray-Y team the numbers were only 1-15. I picked 11 since I wanted two numbers that were the same like Baylor and West. Did the same thing for my Little League team.
Number 44, for Hank Aaron.
I had an aqua/orange shirt just like yours bearing #39, but I held no particular love for Csonka.
When it came time for me to pick a number for myself, the first one I chose was 25. No player I revered wore it, and I think I chose it only because of the symmetry of the numbers. Weird kid.
I’m biased in favor of 44 and 47 in football, but I’m not sure if I ever rooted for a player primarily because they wore one of those two.
In 1975 we went to Florida for Christmas vacation, I got a white Mercury Morris jersey. It wasn’t Sand Knit quality, but you couldn’t buy a Dolphins jersey in Maryland back then.
About eight years ago I went into a Jersey Mike’s in Boca Raton, I was wearing an NFL Films t shirt, the guy who made my sub told me Mercury Morris just left about ten minutes ago. He told me he ate there all the time, but I never ran into him. I’m sure Merc would have had a laugh if I told him the time before the Bell played the Southmen, my father shook Larry Csonka’s and Jim Kiick’s hands and they looked at him like they had no idea who the hell he was.
link
Jimmer, I guess your favorite player on the Philadelphia Bell was A Train Thompson. He had a new Corvette that was the same color gold as the Bell helmets.
I never liked a player specifically for a number, but in high school I wore #22 in baseball because of Will Clark.
I remember when Mercury got busted for dealing cocaine. I was nine years old, and I felt really bad for him.
I know a lot of bad people are in that biz, but he was the early reason why I’ve always empathized with the good people that get caught up in it.
RIP, Kool Merc.
Jim it kinda looks like you had your Mercury shirt on backwards in the photo. What do you think?
No, it looked like that frontwards and backwards.
link
Wish I could find one like that now…except in a v-neck.
That Paul Krause’s number isn’t retired is a travesty. He was my favorite player back in the day. I loved all those interceptions, amd I got to meet him at a mall event in my Iowa hometown as a kid.
I never liked a player because of their number, but as a kid in the early ’70s, I began to like #21 specifically because no great Yankee ever wore it (and when I grew up to play for the Yanks, I’d be able to take it – LOL). On any baseball team I played on, I would try (usually successfully) to get #21. Unfortunately, I never did get to play for the Yanks and then Paul O’Neill showed up and ruined it for me anyway. :)
Oddly enough I started wearing 22 in PeeWee football because of my hockey hero Mike Bossy. I was in 6th grade and went to a jeweler to have a custom gold plated 22 made that I wore hanging from my chain for years. I wore that number through high school then on to mens league hockey and softball.
Growing up in Florida in the 70’s and 80’s my favorite team was and still is the Dolphins! And like you my favorite player was Mercury Morris. So in turn my favorite number became 22 and still is to this day. Unfortunately I never had the Mercury Morris 22 shirt as a kid but I did have the Bob Griese 12 and my brother had the Csonka 39. We used to run around and play kill the man with the ball and I always pretended I was Merc. RIP 22!