Good morning, Uni Watch. A Happy Humpday to all!
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, declaring this year’s throwback theme to be the “Spirit of ’79,” will wear their absolutely gorgeous “Bucco Bruce” creamsicle uniforms this Sunday, when they take on the Atlanta Falcons at 1:00 pm (ET) in Raymond James Stadium.
Since the Bucs’ throwback uniforms were first introduced in 2009, they have actually only been worn in five previous games. It’s funny: for a uniform that was basically the poster child for the NFL eliminating the one-shell rule a couple years ago, the uniform will make only its second appearance since that rule was lifted.
We’ll take a look at those games in a minute, but to refresh your memory, here’s what the Bucco Bruce throwbacks looked like last season, after undergoing a ten-year hiatus:
Sure, the pants are a little shorter, the undershirts a bit more untucked, and the hosiery a little less uniform, but those are still some of the best looking uniforms in football — and easily one of the best, if not THE best of all the throwback uniforms in the game today. You may certainly disagree, but like the Dolphins in their aqua and orange, the uniform is not only great looking, but most definitely apropos for a Florida team that plays outdoors. The pastel orange with the red accents, with big white block numbers and red outlines, combined with red/white/red sleeve stripes…paired with the white helmets with the old-school pirate logo: chef’s kiss.
Even if you don’t agree with me on how good the uni looks, I think we can all agree it wouldn’t hurt to see these uniforms in the Florida sun more often. But since they were first introduced in 2009, the team wore them only once a season until 2012, after which the single-shell rule ostensibly prevented the team from wearing them. But the one-shell rule was lifted after the 2021 season, meaning that in 2022 teams could add a second color helmet to be worn with an alternate (throwback, CR or third jersey). But yet the Bucs, for whatever reason, didn’t revive the Bucco Bruce helmet until last year, a full season after they were permitted to.
It was worth the wait.
This time, the team is celebrating the “Spirit of ’79,” which was only the team’s fourth season in the league. Amazingly, after going winless in 1976, and having won just seven games in the previous three seasons combined, the 1979 Buccaneers won ten games for their first winning season. Not only did they win 10 games, the Bucs finished as NFC Central division champions and won the first playoff game in franchise history. So it’s fitting they’re targeting what was arguably their most successful season ever wearing the orange and white.
Most of the other seasons Tampa Bay wore the creamsicles, they were not particularly successful. And I wonder if, in part, if that’s why the team has been reluctant to wear them more often: they remind the fans of losing.
If you know me, I don’t attribute on-field success to a particular uniform — but players, coaches and fans can be a superstitious lot, which is why some just have a visceral reaction to seeing the orange jerseys. We’ve seen this reaction to the Patriots throwbacks and, at least for a couple decades, to the Cowboys in blue jerseys. For whatever reasons, fans equate uniforms with winning and losing — often attributing praise to otherwise bad-looking uniforms if a team performs well in them, as well as the opposite. I explored this at length a few years ago.
But even if the “losing” associated with the Bucco Bruce uniforms isn’t the reason the team hasn’t worn them more, I do think it’s a little odd the team hasn’t opted to wear them more often — they could wear them up to three times a year if they so choose. Yet, they’ve only worn them once a season. Not every team wears its throwbacks more than once a season (and as we recently saw, the Saints have an odd pattern, wearing them sparingly over many seasons). But that’s their apparent throwback protocol, so we get one wearing a season.
Unfortunately for the Bucs, their winning percentage in the throwbacks rivals that of some seasons during the years (1976-1996) in which they were worn.
Here’s how those games ended up.
November 8, 2009
The team’s first ever game wearing the throwbacks was also their only win. They defeated the Green Bay Packers (their former NFC Central rival — those teams used to play some epic “Battle of the Bays” games) 38-28.
It was a close game, but the Bucs succumbed to the Atlanta Falcons by a score of 28-24, for their first loss in the throwbacks. It would not be their last.
The Carolina Panthers dominated the Bucs in this one, doubling them up, 38-19, to give the Bucs a 1-2 record in orange.
The Bucs didn’t know it at the time, but the NFL would enact the one-shell rule for the 2013 season, making this the last time for 10 years the Bucs would wear the throwback unis. They lost 35-28 to the Saints.
Although they were eligible to wear the white shells at alternate helmets in 2022, the Bucs waited until last October to reintroduce Bucco Bruce to the world. Unfortunately, the results were a continuation of 2010-12, as Tampa Bay dropped their fourth straight game in orange, 20-6, to the Detroit Lions.
So a couple questions for you guys: where do you rank the Buccaneers throwbacks in the NFL throwback pantheon? Are you a fan of them (I know some of you just don’t like them at all, and others prefer their current uniforms)? When the NFL announced the elimination of the single shell rule, was one of your first thoughts, “YES! Now we get to see the creamsicles again!” or were there others (Seahawks, Eagles, Falcons, Patriots, etc.) you were more excited to see?
And about attributing “losing” to a particular uniform — do you tend to equate otherwise good looking uniforms with lack of success to the uniform? Does seeing the Patriots and Bucs in Pat Patriot and Bucco Bruce conjure up images of on-field failure or ineptness?
Love to have your thoughts!
While they are distinctive, I don’t rate the Orange Bucs uniforms that highly. The Eagles Kelly Green, Seahawks 1980s blue, Rams Youngblood blue & gold (bring it back!), Patriots, Dolphins and even the Jaguars are better.
The pewter Bucs rebrand was such an upgrade.
I agree the pewter set was an upgrade, but there’s something about the creamsicles that makes me happy to see them hit the field, but just as happy that it’s only once a year.
GTGFTS: 1956 World Series, Game 4, October 7, 1956, Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY.
Yankees 6, Dodgers 2.
This was the last Yankees-Brooklyn World Series and the last WS for the Dodgers before they moved to L.A. The Yankees won it in seven games.
GTGFTS: 1956 World Series, Game 4, Oct 7, 1956, Yankee Stadium. Yankees would win the series in 7 games in the last Dodgers v. Yankees series while the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn. 2 years later, the Dodgers are in LA.
They’re fine and I think once a season is a good use of them. The new logo and colors are actually really good and as long as they’re not in weird modern digital clock unis I think they’re superior.
For best throwbacks I’d go Dolphins and Falcons but that says more about their current uniforms than their old school ones.
One of my all time NFL uniforms, I just love them. The current Bucs set is also nice with the pewter and red with a dash of orange but this is really good. I wonder how they would look with the current logos instead of Bucco Bruce (who I like but has always reminded me more of Errol Flynn or Jack Sparrow than of a real pirate like the one in Pittsburgh or the UNO Privateer) where the red flag is changed to orange.
As for winning or losing in a certain uniform: dear Mets, never ever wear the black jerseys ever again.
GTGFUU: 9/27/1970 Oakland at San Diego.
You got it Charles; the Raiders wore silver numbers in 1970 but went back to black in 1971.
Creamsicle looks so good in the sunshine!
Though they were associated with losing, I was jazzed to see the Jets’ Kleckos return more than just about anything else.
Taking the field in the SB3s is ok occasionally now that the green is brighter…but a green top would be cool to see someday.
…and by “just about anything else” I mean the Titans reviving their Oilers uniforms.
Easily the best throwback in the game – no varying mileage!
I would like the Bucs to also rock the white creamsicle with the orange pants as a change up.
The 70’s Bucs very clearly took the WFL uniform template (the matching stripes with no gaps throughout the uniform) and perfected it. I think WFL whenever I see them. In fact, Memphis and Birmingham petitioned hard to be the two NFL expansion teams that year (instead of Tampa Bay and Seattle). I like to think of the Bucs in those creamsicles as what the Memphis Southmen/Grizzlies might have evolved into.
YES!
Did you see Jimmy Corcoran’s exploration of this very topic?
link
The Bucs waited to revive their throwbacks due to supply chain issues, which was covered multiple times on Uni Watch……
While I’ll agree that it’s one of the better throwbacks, it’s one of the smaller quality gaps between it and the team’s standard uniforms. I will always like the pewter look better. Can’t say that for almost every other team that currently has a solid throwback in their rotation.
enough teams have a throwback its probably worth ranking them as an article…
Way ahead of you…
I like that Tampa Bay hasn’t overdone this set. They break it out once a year. We gush over it, and then it’s gone for a year.
As a long-time Browns fan, my absolute favorite look is their classic white over white. But alot of younger fans, consider white over white the “surrender whites” and associate them with losing because they were worn so much during the 2015-2019 uniform set.
I like the falcons current set more than most around here, but I do hope they sport the throwbacks for this game. It’s not always necessary to go throwback v throwback, but the modernity of the falcons modern look will be a big mismatch with the creamsicles. The creamsicles v the Seahawks throwbacks would be a gorgeous color-palate-special. Of course it would also be color v color. Maybe creamsicles v chargers?
I’d rate the Bucs probably the highest among the “popular” throwbacks that we got with the lifting of the one-shell rule. Some of that is certainly my anti-Eagles bias as a Giants fan, but I also think that while gorgeous, the Seahawks throwbacks feel a little…disjointed, and the silver helmet doesn’t quite match the jersey to me (not saying it’s an inaccurate throwback, just from a pure aesthetic standpoint). I like the Rams throwback more, but they haven’t worn them in more than 5 years, and were never beholden to the one-shell rule.
Falcons should go throwbacks! That would be a looker and still have plenty of contrast
Bucs/Packers was also called the Bay of Pigs in the 80’s since both teams were often bad during that era. Seeing those creamsicles in the Floriduh sun Nov/Dec while most of the country was cold & dark really made them pop.
I still really struggle with teams changing their main colour. It just doesn’t happen in UK sports (Leeds going white in the 70s, Crystal Palace at some point, Cardiff’s ill fated switch to red… there are so few examples)
So I’m still in a bit of denial that from the NFL I started following in the early 90s, the 3 teams that provably most needed new logos got them, but there was no need to mess with colours: Denver went blue, New England went blue and Tampa went red. Denver introduced orange as an alt and then went back to it, the Pats, by definition are red, white and blue, so can sort of carry it off (but a red alt is needed!), so I’m still really left with this feeling that Tampa needs to be orange!
Not the creamsicles, as the logo is awful, and the look just feels powder puff, but some sort of pewter and orange modern hybrid would put my OCD to bed!
(but keep these throwbacks for throwback Thursdays!)
How a 10-year-old in Kansas became a Buccaneers fan in 1977 was two fold: 1) I first liked some of the college players the budding team was drafting (Lee Roy Selmon, Ricky Bell, Doug Williams); and 2) the color deemed Florida Orange had a certain appeal. My fandom was solidified with the Bucs’ 1979 “From Worst to First” season that resulted in their NFC Central Division championship and divisional playoff win over the beautifully clad Jaworski-led Eagles. The Bucs won a second division title in 1981 and made the expanded 1982 post-strike playoffs, both of which ended with losses at Dallas and wearing the orange jerseys. I finally got an orange Bucs jersey through a McDonald’s promotion in 1986, number 42 for Ricky Bell, who sadly died in 1984 at age 29.
I stuck with the Bucs through their 13-year streak of 10-plus loss seasons that ended in 1996 with the hiring of Tony Dungy and the growth of such players as Lynch, Brooks and Sapp. I had heard in late 1995 that the Glazers were going to overhaul their brand around a pirate flag theme, but I didn’t know the look and colors change until they unveiled it on April 9, 1997. The red and pewter scheme proved all for the good, esthetically and athletically, with the Bucs ending their playoff drought the following season, leading to their first division title in 18 years in 1999 and finally – after a sad but needed change in coaches from Dungy to Jon Gruden – to Super Bowl champions for 2002.
When the creamsicle Bucco Bruce uniforms finally returned last season, I initially thought that they should wear them multiple times a year. But, with the Spirit of ’79 theme on Sunday, maybe doing the throwback theme -and until the Bucs break their losing streak wearing the now called Orange Glaze – on a once-a-year plan keeps the throwbacks special. Breaking their four-game losing streak wearing the Creamsicles would certainly enhance the chances of the Bucs using them more than once a season. After seeing top receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin go down Monday night with bad injuries, just taking care of on-field business against the Falcons on Sunday has been made more difficult.
I lost my Ricky Bell jersey, along with other jerseys and special T-shirts, in an engulfing house fire we suffered in December 2021. I had a new Creamsicle jersey made last year by Royal Retros, and if I knew how to set up a link I would post a photo of it for you all.
Terry’s original post got caught up in the spam filter (likely due to length), but in the meantime he’d alerted me to that and sent photos of his jersey. I’ll post them below:
link
link
link
Thank you, Phil, and hope my story’s length was not overkill.
Had a Philadelphia Bell jersey made by Royal Retros, Dustin does great work.
Terry – really enjoyed reading that: its personal stories like this I love this site for.
I can’t say that I love the uniforms but I do love the color combination.
Nice of Baker to play along with the joke, with the 70s glasses and headband. That phone looks more like the 1940s, though.
Ironic that the Bucs have two of the best uniforms in NFL history — the original Creamsickles and the current Pewters — and the absolute worst — the Alarm Clocks.
A seventh grader when the Hawks and Bucs debuted [in conferences opposite their eventual ones that first year], we new Seahawk fans all took joy in the 0-26 start of the Tampa Bay franchise, which at least led to one of the best coach’s comments of all time:
Reporter: Coach, what do you think of your team’s execution?
John McKay: I’m all for it.
I thought these uniforms were ugly when I was a child and I still think they’re ugly. I was born in 90, so there are throwbacks that I have a special nostalgic feeling towards(like the jags, or the pats soccer inspired uniforms) but I don’t understand the love these get. They’re still ugly as sin to me, different sure, but different don’t mean pretty
The thing that intrigues me most about this Bucs creamsicle throwback is the sleeve stripes in the photo of Mike Evans – the stripes appear to wrap all the way around! I don’t think we’ve ever seen stripes wrapping all the way around the new-er template of tight sleeve / sleeveless jerseys. Even other playes in some of the other photos seems to have a different stripe template than Mike. Am I just being fooled by the angle or is this a unique sleeve stripe template? If so, why isn’t it used all the time!