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Oklahoma State Football Creates Throwback Look For Homecoming

The Oklahoma State Cowboys have unveiled a new uniform that pays homage to its earliest history at Saturday’s Homecoming matchup against Arizona State. Mixing some throwback elements with their current black jerseys and pants, OSU will wear some of the earliest known logos and stripes in school history. It’s all a part of festivities helping the school to celebrate its 125th anniversary.

Before we get into the uniform (which as you can see from the splash photo features lots of stripes), the University produced a high quality video which shows several looks at vintage OSU uniforms, and then a few quick glances of the uniform they have created by delving into the school’s sartorial past.

There is also a second video (which I’ll embed at the end) which details the story behind the uniforms.

The “throwback” helmet was featured prominently in the video. It is black, and the team will wear helmet side decals of the interlocking “OA” that served as the official letter and emblem of the O.A. Association, organized in October of 1909 by the athletes of Oklahoma A&M College (OAMC).

According to the University, and as seen in the video, “The logo can be seen in photos of varsity OAMC athletes across various sports from 1909 through 1913, when the organization dropped the ‘A’ in December of that year to become the ‘O’ Association and subsequently began awarding the traditional ‘O’ letter. The organization later became known as the ‘O’ Club, then O-Club, and still rewards the ‘O’ letter to Oklahoma State’s varsity athletes today.”

It’s believed to be the first time the “OA” emblem has been used at the institution since the dawn of World War I.

There are more details on the back of the helmet as well.

There are two features of importance here. The first is the 125 decal, and the other is the word “Tigers” on the back bumper. OSU provided some helpful storytelling graphics for those:

The front of the helmet features a front bumper decal of “OAMC” block letters that can be seen in some of the earliest available team photos. According to the school, it was prominently featured on head coach Ed Parry’s practice attire in a 1908 football team photo, as well as on the front of the baseball team’s uniform in the mid-1900s.

The helmet may be the star of the show, but it’s got some competition from the sleeve and sock stripes.

The present-day jersey and britches are shown with long black sleeves and horizontal orange stripes. The video above showed OAMC football photos from 1901 through 1921, when the team wore the stripes on the (then) full length jersey and socks. After 1922, the team switched to a look with vertical stripes.

It’s a bit more difficult to see in the next photo, but the sleeves and socks do have stripes.

Per OSU, “The stripes are a nod to OAMC’s first team name of ‘Tigers,’ which was the name of institution’s athletic teams before it fell out of use in the early 1920s to be replaced with ‘Aggies’ and later ‘Cowboys’ as the teams are known today.”

The Homecoming Game against Arizona State will kickoff at 7:00 pm (ET) and will be broadcast on FS1.

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You might think that I love this uniform — and I do — but not without some caveats. First off, I love love love the sleeve and sock stripes. Those are fantastic. The “throwback” helmet, created from elements from the school’s distant past, is pretty sweet too. But I am definitely NOT a fan of the team wearing their modern black jersey and pants with it. It may look good on the field, but the striping pattern on the sleeve — particularly the fat/wide white stripe between the two thinner orange stripes looks a bit out of place. Neither the helmet nor the sleeves have any white, while the jersey has a wordmark and number in white, outlined in orange. And of course there is the conference patch and makers mark, also in white. I’m fine with the solid plack pants, and of course, the socks are tremendous, so I’m ok with that. The prominent white on the jersey when it appears nowhere else on the uniform is a minor annoyance (to me), but it still feels just a bit off.

My other concern is whether all the players will wear the long sleeves and high socks. Since it’s a 6:00 (CT) kickoff, heat shouldn’t be too much of a problem. The current forecast for Saturday evening in Stillwater indicates a strong chance of rain, with temperatures in the 60°s. The humidity will be up there too, at over 90%. Definitely not too hot for long sleeves, but I’m wondering how soaked they’ll get in the rain and humidity. I hope the players will all sport the striped sleeves, but I don’t think I could fault them if they don’t. And of course, high socks (or hosiery) in college football is a relatively new thing, but I do expect they players to all sport the striped hose.

And as mentioned at the top. the team produced a second video giving the story behind the uniforms. I’ll embed the “teaser”:

And if you really want more of the story, the team has posted the full video on “osumax” — it asks you for an e-mail, but you don’t need to give it. Just click play on the video.

You can see a few more shots of the uniform here:

I’m actually very excited to see these on the field, and I’m sure they’ll look great. It’s an interesting concept to take a modern jersey and pants, and create throwback elements to pair with it. I just hope everyone does wear the long sleeves and the weather isn’t too brutal.

Your thoughts?

 
  
 
Comments (12)

    Agree with your caveat! A plain black jersey with an orange (or even a white) number would have made this so much better!!!

    Sleeves are a cool edition, wonder how many will actually wear them though, but this is a cool twist on a throwback look

    Love it! It is worth it to watch the full OSU Max video of how the concept developed.

    I would have preferred a different jersey with OAMC and no shoulder stripes.

    I realize I am being an old man yelling at clouds, but I am so ready for the “sloppy, untucked undershirt” trend to die. It looks like shit on the field and it’s a real shame they can’t even bother to get rid of it for a photoshoot like this.
    At least it’s the same color here, I guess. Chances are you’ll have some players wearing white or possibly orange undershirts during the game, just making it look that much worse.

    I think it was a nice touch. If you squint your eyes and look really close, I think you can see some of the players wearing untucked undershirts in those old pictures LOL

    The untucked undershirts are annoying, but I can mostly give a pass to “same color” undershirts.

    It’s when the undershirt is different color to the jersey/pants it just ends up looking like the player is wearing a cumberbund. Oof.

    I love it but as mentioned above a plain black jersey with orange numbers would have been the ultimate. But this mix of old and current is very interesting, hope other schools will consider it if a full throwback is out of reach. The helmet is very good. All in all the number 3 throwback for me so far this season after Illinois football and the Denver Pioneers hockey team.

    The school was once known as the Princeton of the Prairie, and those unis and nickname show it. Compare to the iconic orange stripes on the sleeves on Princeton football jerseys through the years.

    Had to watch the video on silent since I’m at work, so maybe they explained but, I’m confused as to why the jersey has modern bold stripes instead of matching the thin orange-only stripe pattern of the old unis.

    Whatever the case may be, I do think more teams should consider using an undershirt with a pattern for the sleeves considering how far gone modern sleeves are with tailoring. Short sleeve compression undershirts would allow more room for sleeve accents/patterns/etc.

    I actually don’t mind the white stripe on the shoulder caps. It echoes the white on the NOB and the front & rear numbers. If anything, it may be a tad too wide. I’ll try to watch a few minutes of the game this weekend!

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