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Good morning, everyone. I don’t say this often, but I’m glad it didn’t snow during yesterday’s Army/Navy game. The only reason I said that is because one team wore mono-white, and this year it was the Navy Midshipmen.
Okay, there’s a lesser reason: The current Army/Navy field design is one of my favorites, so I’m not upset that it wasn’t obscured by precipitation.
It’s almost as good as the early ’70s design (that’s one of four fields I’d like to make for my paper football playing surface).
Anyway, we’re here to talk about the uniforms, and what better way to see them live for the first time than in this introduction!
Some of you know I don’t get into hype videos. This intro gets me hyped up plenty, thank you very much.
I won’t go into all the details of Army‘s and Navy‘s unis, because Phil more than ably did that already. Today I’ll focus on how they looked together during the game. Although I wasn’t N U T S about yet another chess match on a football field in 2024, this mono-white vs. mono-black matchup looked pretty decent.
Part of me wished the Black Knights would have worn the same olive green that the 101st Airborne wore. Then again, all-green on grass is a pet peeve of mine, so I’ll let it slide. The snowfall effect and the slightly sublimated numbers showed up well on black, even from a distance.
In this video (chosen because my buddy Doug Keklak loves it when a big man gets to carry the ball), I had no problem seeing Army’s numbers.
My favorite uni in this matchup was Navy’s. Despite going mono-white, there’s enough blue striping with gold accents to keep it from looking too “icy.” And I love the design on the helmets.
Both teams had great number fonts as well. My only quibble was with how Under Armour placed the ones so close together on QB Blake Horvath’s number 11.
Other than that, I was surprisingly pleased with this matchup. Does that mean I made room for them in my all-time Army/Navy 5&1? Let’s find out after we let the Midshipmen sing.
People change, even “old” guys like me. This list may have been the same for a few years, but it’s changing a little bit today. Nothing too drastic…one game gets dropped and two others get shifted around. And no, yesterday’s game is nowhere to be found. Let’s see the new and improved list, beginning with…
Phil likes to call Army/Navy “the only game in town.” That wasn’t the case this year, as there were two bowl games played yesterday…one in the FBS and one in the FCS. Since I gave the rest of the SMUW Crew a break, we’re going to save those for “Sunday Morning Bowl Watch, Part One” later this month. On top of those games, there were four FCS quarterfinal games, two Division II semifinals, and four Division III quarterfinals. And I’m going to look at them all, in a rapid-fire review. Let’s get started with Friday night’s matchup, Idaho vs. Montana State.
Nice colors, but I could have used some pants striping. Especially on Montana State’s pants.
Next was Incarnate Word vs. South Dakota State.
I did not like UIW’s home mono-black last week. This combo, with properly sized red numbers on white jerseys, is MUCH better.
Next is UC Davis vs. South Dakota.
Notre Davis needs to enlarge their numbers, and the Coyotes are one of many teams that need a lesson from Terry Duroncelet about how Contrast Matters.
They saved the best FCS matchup, Mercer vs. North Dakota State, for last.
The banner at the top of that photo says it all: GREATNESS.
Next, we move on to the Division II semifinals. The first game featured Minnesota State vs. Valdosta State.
Stand in line behind the Coyotes, Valdosta. Professor Duroncelet will be with you shortly.
The other semi was Slippery Rock vs. Ferris State.
I suppose the yellow outline helps. If it does, I hope they’re the home team against Valdosta State next week.
We wrap it up with the Division III quarterfinals, beginning with Bethel vs. Susquehanna.
Then there’s Mary Hardin-Baylor vs. Johns Hopkins.
Pretty dark for Blue Jays, but it’s a nice contrast with all that yellow-gold from the Crusaders.
Next is Mount Union vs. Salisbury.
The perennial powerhouse Purple Raiders (who play less than an hour away from my house) looked good on the road this week in their purple/white/black combo. And those are some interesting stripes on the Gulls.
Finally, we have Springfield vs. North Central.
Didn’t we just see those pants stripes? This one looks a bit like a high school game. Not saying that’s bad, but that’s the vibe I’m getting here.
Another 5&1 List?
I hadn’t planned on doing a 5&1 list for last week’s FCS playoff games. I finally added one in the comments after reader Marc made a list of his own. So, this week I’m going to choose the five best and one worst of all the games you just saw. We begin with…
5. The “Like The Lions’ Blueberries, Only Cuddlier” Game:
Incarnate Word vs. South Dakota State
Those BlueBunnies unis are slowly growing on me.
4. The “Oh By Golly Have A Holly Jolly Rogers This Year!” Game:
Navy vs. Army
This matchup made me jolly because it looked better than I thought it would.
3. The “Jay/Cru Factory” Game:
Mary Hardin-Baylor vs. Johns Hopkins
A very fashionable color vs. color contest.
2. The “Optimal Contrast” Game:
Mount Union vs. Salisbury
Not quite a Color Palette Special…just two good unis that look good together.
1. Simply The Best:
Mercer vs. North Dakota State
This may have been a quarterfinal, but in my uni-verse it’s a national championship matchup.
&1…
Slippery Rock vs. Ferris State
Now that your season’s over, Rock, please ditch that Louisville font.
And That Will Do It For Another Weekend
Whew…and you thought it was going to be a slow Sunday…
That was fun, and I hope you agree. Take care, everyone, have a great relaxing day, and I’ll see you Saturday.
I think the snow effect on Army’s jerseys and helmets translated better to live action than the photos of the reveal. From a distance, it looked like there was snow (or dandruff if you’re a Navy fan like me) on the unis.
That’s funny because I felt the same way, except all I could think about was that it looked like dandruff, so I’d have preferred the snow effect to have been less visible.
You and Phil beat me to it…Army looked like they needed Head and Shoulders. Go Navy!
Jim, the reason that the Navy numbers are like that is because they look like the numbers that are on the sides of all Navy aircraft. Yeah, Horvath’s looked like a pause button, but there is a reason for that.
Ah.
What’s Baylor’s reason then?
Meh. I can’t say I’m a fan of the closely-spaced numbers (if you’re going to place them that close, then they need serifs), but is that any better (or worse) than really widely-spaced “1”s, like Joe Kapp wore?
I think that looks worse than the pause button numbers of Baylor or Navy.
YVVM
Your guess is as good as mine…
Whoever designed Baylor’s number font. They could have specified a little more room between the “1”s in “11,” but they didn’t.
Horvath’s jersey may have looked like a pause button, but Army sure couldn’t pause him; what a performance, and what a great young man.
Those Western Michigan uniforms were dreadful. My school continues to lack in the aesthetic department.
Hello fellow Bronco!
Fight on, fight on for Western!
Chris Schenkel should be the only one to do play-by-play for an Army-Navy game. I don’t care that he’s dead. He should still do it.
AI-Chris Schenkel with the stadium CGI’d into being JFK Stadium in Philadelphia.
Army/Navy game looked great. But, nothing says “the Commanders can’t fill seats” like building up a “tarp city” in the upper deck even after you have removed permanent seating from both ends of the stadium.
Yeah, I looked into getting tickets Friday night and Standing Room Only was going for $275 per. I didn’t realize they had tarped over sections. Seems to me that they were just trying to drive up the price of tickets, because it’s Army-Navy. The Commanders can’t tear down this stadium soon enough and go back to the RFK site. I live in northern Virginia and have never heard a single nice thing about that stadium.
When I heard that the past management was against tailgating (my guess is greed so patrons would buy more booze/food once they got inside), I knew that place wasn’t going to make it. I hope they do build a new stadium at the former site of RFK. That place was legendary. BTW, my chiropractor here in Mississippi is good friends with Theismann. Been trying to get him to take me golfing with him in Memphis :)
I was at the Mercer-NDSU game yesterday, it looked even better in person.
You mentioned Navy’s all white…”Despite going mono-white, there’s enough blue striping with gold accents to keep it from looking too “icy.””
However, no mention of Mercer’s all white. I for one usually love all white uniforms when the team has white helmets.
Mercer had lots of striping as well. Very nice, like an orange version of the Colts.
I hope they sell replica helmets of the Navy Jolly Roger design. 2017 was my favorite game because of the snow and how fitting Army wore all white in that game.
Army uniforms kind of reminded me of the Miami Sharks in Any Given Sunday minus the snow effect/dandruff on the shoulders
Did anyone notice that the American flag on Army’s uniform was backwards. It was on the right hand sleeve. Now, on these uniforms, the flag should be displayed correctly, but what does one suspect from Nike. On the other hand, Navy did not have a flag in its uniforms.
From Phil’s writeup of Army’s unis:
The right sleeve cap features a 48-star United States flag, which mimics that worn by the 101st paratroopers, and is displayed in the orientation and proportion as that worn on a paratrooper jumpsuit in 1944.
Thanks Jimmer for all the work to create an amazing Sunday post- doing a historic 5&1 for Army-Navy and including the FCS and D-III!
I know you placed Ferris in the &1 but I actually liked the black yellow and red combo. There was enough yellow to make the uni pop in my view. The Commies might learn a thing or two.
Glad you liked!
Yeah, I thought about putting UC Davis/SD in the &1. but other than the Aggies’ small numbers I liked them. The only thing good about Slippery Rock was the helmet.
Thanks for including D-III today. My only regret is that my Linfield Wildcats got eliminated last week by Mary Hardin-Baylor!
I just love that school name: Mary Hardin-Baylor. It reminds me of the 70s comedy show Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman: I would call out the school’s name in exactly the same way as the intro to the show.
Not a fan of fighting and wars in general but I forget any pacifist objection when I see this game. Just wonderful. The atmosphere, the details on the uniforms, the traditions, just wonderful.
Did Dwayne Johnson design the Slippery Rock uniforms?
I think the snow effect on Army’s jerseys and helmets translated better to live action than the photos of the reveal. From a distance, it looked like there was snow (or dandruff if you’re a Navy fan like me) on the unis.
That’s funny because I felt the same way, except all I could think about was that it looked like dandruff, so I’d have preferred the snow effect to have been less visible.
You and Phil beat me to it…Army looked like they needed Head and Shoulders. Go Navy!
Jim, the reason that the Navy numbers are like that is because they look like the numbers that are on the sides of all Navy aircraft. Yeah, Horvath’s looked like a pause button, but there is a reason for that.
Ah.
What’s Baylor’s reason then?
Meh. I can’t say I’m a fan of the closely-spaced numbers (if you’re going to place them that close, then they need serifs), but is that any better (or worse) than really widely-spaced “1”s, like Joe Kapp wore?
link
I think that looks worse than the pause button numbers of Baylor or Navy.
YVVM
Your guess is as good as mine…
Whoever designed Baylor’s number font. They could have specified a little more room between the “1”s in “11,” but they didn’t.
Horvath’s jersey may have looked like a pause button, but Army sure couldn’t pause him; what a performance, and what a great young man.
Those Western Michigan uniforms were dreadful. My school continues to lack in the aesthetic department.
Hello fellow Bronco!
Fight on, fight on for Western!
Chris Schenkel should be the only one to do play-by-play for an Army-Navy game. I don’t care that he’s dead. He should still do it.
AI-Chris Schenkel with the stadium CGI’d into being JFK Stadium in Philadelphia.
Army/Navy game looked great. But, nothing says “the Commanders can’t fill seats” like building up a “tarp city” in the upper deck even after you have removed permanent seating from both ends of the stadium.
Yeah, I looked into getting tickets Friday night and Standing Room Only was going for $275 per. I didn’t realize they had tarped over sections. Seems to me that they were just trying to drive up the price of tickets, because it’s Army-Navy. The Commanders can’t tear down this stadium soon enough and go back to the RFK site. I live in northern Virginia and have never heard a single nice thing about that stadium.
When I heard that the past management was against tailgating (my guess is greed so patrons would buy more booze/food once they got inside), I knew that place wasn’t going to make it. I hope they do build a new stadium at the former site of RFK. That place was legendary. BTW, my chiropractor here in Mississippi is good friends with Theismann. Been trying to get him to take me golfing with him in Memphis :)
I was at the Mercer-NDSU game yesterday, it looked even better in person.
You mentioned Navy’s all white…”Despite going mono-white, there’s enough blue striping with gold accents to keep it from looking too “icy.””
However, no mention of Mercer’s all white. I for one usually love all white uniforms when the team has white helmets.
Mercer had lots of striping as well. Very nice, like an orange version of the Colts.
I hope they sell replica helmets of the Navy Jolly Roger design. 2017 was my favorite game because of the snow and how fitting Army wore all white in that game.
Army uniforms kind of reminded me of the Miami Sharks in Any Given Sunday minus the snow effect/dandruff on the shoulders
Did anyone notice that the American flag on Army’s uniform was backwards. It was on the right hand sleeve. Now, on these uniforms, the flag should be displayed correctly, but what does one suspect from Nike. On the other hand, Navy did not have a flag in its uniforms.
From Phil’s writeup of Army’s unis:
The right sleeve cap features a 48-star United States flag, which mimics that worn by the 101st paratroopers, and is displayed in the orientation and proportion as that worn on a paratrooper jumpsuit in 1944.
Thanks Jimmer for all the work to create an amazing Sunday post- doing a historic 5&1 for Army-Navy and including the FCS and D-III!
I know you placed Ferris in the &1 but I actually liked the black yellow and red combo. There was enough yellow to make the uni pop in my view. The Commies might learn a thing or two.
Glad you liked!
Yeah, I thought about putting UC Davis/SD in the &1. but other than the Aggies’ small numbers I liked them. The only thing good about Slippery Rock was the helmet.
Thanks for including D-III today. My only regret is that my Linfield Wildcats got eliminated last week by Mary Hardin-Baylor!
I just love that school name: Mary Hardin-Baylor. It reminds me of the 70s comedy show Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman: I would call out the school’s name in exactly the same way as the intro to the show.
Not a fan of fighting and wars in general but I forget any pacifist objection when I see this game. Just wonderful. The atmosphere, the details on the uniforms, the traditions, just wonderful.
Did Dwayne Johnson design the Slippery Rock uniforms?