Last week, we had another of Mike Chamernik’s “Question of the Week” series, the response was great, and Mike is back again with his next question.
Question of the Week
by Mike Chamernik
Monday was the 90th anniversary of the 1934 NFL Championship, better remembered as “The Sneakers Game.” Hosting the Bears at the Polo Grounds, the Giants trailed by a touchdown as both teams slid around the frozen turf. To gain some traction, a few members of the Giants got the idea to borrow some basketball sneakers from a nearby college. New York changed out of their cleats at halftime and scored 27 points in the fourth quarter for the title.
What are some other instances where a team or player gained an edge from equipment or uniforms? Either as a spectator or in games you’ve participated in. And, can you recall any equipment or uniform decisions that seemed counterintuitive but actually ended up being smart?
Thanks, Mike — great question again.
Can’t wait to hear the readers’ responses! OK guys…fire away!
1977 Grey Cup. The “Ice Bowl”. That staple gun lying around at Olympic Stadium proved to be helpful in the championship win for the Montreal Alouettes.
link
When it comes to the frozen tundra on a football field, broomball shoes are always a good option.
That was the first game that came to my mind, too. Thanks for the link to the article.
Redskins against Broncos, the Doug Williams SB. I remember reading an article stating that initially, the ‘Skins were wearing shorter cleats, and were slipping all over the field. They changed into longer ones, and presto, several TDs later…
Not really “sports” per se, but the first thing that came to my mind was the Australian “Winged Keel” from the 1983 America’s Cup yacht race. While initially mocked, it completely revolutionized boat racing design.
Going old school on a few things:
Linemen who had a cast, but wrapped up in tape an padding (I think that’s illegal in HS now). I don’t care how much padding you had on that thing, guys used that as a weapon to bust the other linemen in the jaw.
Who can forget Lester Haynes and Stickum?
D-linemen slathering their jerseys in Vaseline to prevent holding.
On the note of linemen and other such advantages: who can forget the custom cut piece of metal that Deacon Jones would put in his palm to get extra bang out of his signature head slap?
Those club casts are insane
I was a tennis player in high school, and around 1974 or 75 I switched from a wood racket, the Wilson Jack Kramer, to the Head Professional aluminum racket. This was the “Red Head” teardrop shaped racket. Most players were still using wood, and I felt this gave me an advantage with my power. I actually switched to the PDP racket that was similar when the PDP rep gave me free rackets. Then in college I was one of the first to switch to a composite racket, the Pro Kennex, which was another advantage over the players slow to change. I couldn’t understand how Bjorn Borg thought he could come out of retirement and be competitive still using the same wood racket he played with before.
brings back my HS tennis. I started using a Prince racket when everyone was using Donnay (because that is what Bjorn Borg used). I took a lot of ribbing about that racket.
A year later, everyone on the team had an oversized racket (I remember the Head racket that was “watermelon shaped” was super popular (and missed the point of the Prince–the width helped with twisting on off-center hits).
I get it. My ego wouldn’t let me play with the Prince oversized ratchet. I was a serve & volley player, and I always thought that the oversized rackets were for baseline players. I’m sure I was wrong about that. However, I had no issue switching to a teardrop Head Pro, and then a midsize Pro Kennex. Again, ego.
I started curling in 2015, and for the next couple of seasons there was a big difference in performance among various brands and models of broom.
When I was a kid in the late 1980s, my dad was a radio journalist in Minnesota, and he interviewed several retired Vikings players who were convinced that a secret to the team’s success in the Bud Grant era was that the practiced and played outdoors and so were at an advantage over teams that practiced and played indoors. Of course the Vikings haven’t been to a Super Bowl since they moved their practices and games indoors.
Here you go Scott. A 6-part exclusive podcast on Broomgate.
link
I don’t know how much of a difference it made at the club level, other than wrecking the ice.
Loved that podcast when it came out! Highly recommended for all uni watchers. And you don’t have to know anything about curling to appreciate it; it’s well told from a participant’s point of view in a way that assumes no deep familiarity with the sport.
In my experience, at the club level it mostly served to stoke low-information arguments and broke up a couple of teams. But I saw a couple of instances of sweepers using the Hardline pads to steer rocks quite effectively. The biggest impact I saw was at 5&U tournaments, where a few teams were able to use brooms to make up for their relative lack of experience and talent and achieve shots they absolutely should not have had. I new a couple of guys who were really into that, and by the time the club and the national association that accredits 5&U qualifying events standardized the broom cover material, they went from national-championship contenders one season to perennial three-and-done bonspielers the next.
Supposedly Arsenal’s legendary 1930s manager Herbert Chapman had them wear hooped rather than solid colored socks so they could more easily pick each other out on the pitch. He also introduced the iconic white sleeves on their formerly all-red jerseys, possibly for a similar reason, although that’s unclear, he may have just liked the look.
There’s a story told by someone in The Glory of Their Times about a Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher, I think it was Dazzy Vance. He used to slit the sleeves of his long-sleeved white undershirt so that the strips flapped in the wind when his arm came through the delivery. (It’s now illegal to pitch with cut sleeves.)
This tactic was particularly effective on Mondays at Ebbets Field, the story goes, because Monday was wash day, and he’d be throwing out of a background of white undies hanging on clotheslines in back of the tenements behind the CF wall. Between the laundry and the shredded sleeves, “you couldn’t hit him on a Monday.”
2010 San Francisco Giants: Aubrey Huff started wearing his wife’s red bedazzled thong and the team went on a tear and ended up winning the World Series. I know news did get around nationally, but it was a sports culture phenomenon in the bay. He brought it to show off during the championship parade and everything.
I think Mark Teixeira would do something similar to break out of slumps
Are you referring to the Yankees golden thong? Because that was more than Tex, it was a staple slump-buster for the Yankees organization from the 90’s through the 00’s
I can imagine how cleats might collect the slush and thus become less effective, but I can’t see how basketball shoes realistically work better. The results of the game would indicate otherwise, but causation does not equal correlation. I’ll tell you I’d much rather be wearing spikes or crampons than plain sneakers when I’m walking or jogging in winter conditions. Maybe someone here can explain how sneakers would be better on the football field in snow?
I think it wasn’t snow, but frozen turf. The cleats weren’t penetrating at all. The basketball shoes gave more shoe surface-to-ground contact than the cleats.
I see. The best I could fathom, the physical properties were sort of reversed. The frozen turf acted like cleats coming up from the ground, while the soft relatively smooth (or often the traction is created in relief INTO the sole) sneakers would grip the hard textured surface of the ground.
I had the same thought
Those banned swimming outfits from the 2008 Olympics definitely provided an advantage for those who had them. Although I think almost everyone had them if I remember right.
Semi related: Marathon records are being smashed by runners who wear “super shoes,” with carbon plates in them
patrick roy baggy uniform and oversized pads.
Garth Snow too…all those claims were unfounded, right?
As a kid, I thought all goalies were fat — it was just the pads and big jerseys
Well, how about going in to opposite direction, and using a piece of sport equipment in an unusual way. Especially if it is not in the sport it was designed for.
When I would go and play paintball, I would wear under my pants a set of Mylec shin guards so I could baseball slide out in the forest without getting hurt from all of the rocks on the ground.
They really did work, and my legs thanked me for it.
As someone who’s gashed their leg open a few times playing paintball, this is a really good idea. I’ll keep that in mind for the next time I go.
IIRC, distance runners (like marathoner Joan Benoit) on the US’s Olympic track team in ‘84 had silvery-grayish uniforms constructed of some sun-deflecting/moisture absorbing ‘space age’ material to keep them cooler while running in the LA heat.
Vaseline on screw-in cleats for muddy football games. Fantastic hack.
Dick Allen would probably not be a Hall of Famer (a long over due honor!) if not for that 40+ ounce bat.
The Giants did the same thing to the Bears during the 1956 championship game at Yankee Stadium. As they wore sneakers at the start of the game, the story just doesn’t have the same drama as the 1934 game. The white sneakers are very evident in the pictures from the game giving the game a 1970’s vibe.
Nov 13 2016, Broncos vits Saints. Broncos blocked an extra point and ran a back for 2 points to win the game. During review they couldn’t tell if Will Parks stepped out of bounds or not due to him wearing white shoes. White shoes gave the Broncos the win.
Earl Campbell and the tear away jerseys at Texas
Greg Pruitt in the NFL, too.
So glad they outlawed those. Now they need to outlaw the untucked undershirts that unravel when grabbed.
Missed this yesterday
The stickier broomball shoes that came out about 5 years ago really changed the game. I even submitted a ticker item about it, there was controversy in early tournaments when some teams had them and others didn’t.
They made a huge difference for me, I scores more goals in the first two season in them than all my other season combined
Missed this yesterday
The stickier broomball shoes that came out about 5 years ago really changed the game. I even submitted a ticker item about it, there was controversy in early tournaments when some teams had them and others didn’t.
They made a huge difference for me, I scores more goals in the first two season in them than all my other seasons combined. Then the rest of the league got them.
Tom Dempsey’s square-toed boot that he wore on his kicking foot when he kicked his then-record 63 yard field goal in 1970. The NFL subsequently changed its rules to ban the shoe.