As you are no doubt aware, the NHL’s Winter Classic, to be played at Wrigley Field between the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues, will be taking place on New Year’s Eve. But that’s not the only game to be played outdoors at Wrigley — Notre Dame Men’s Hockey will be taking on Penn State on January 3, 2025 in what is being called “The Frozen Confines: The Big Ten Hockey Series.”
A little over a week ago, Notre Dame unveiled a special sweater they’ll wear for this game, a white jersey that is Chicago-inspired, featuring a special Cubs “C” on the jersey, combined with colors and elements from the Chicago flag.
Penn State has now unveiled their own special uniforms for the Frozen Confines, and the Nittany Lions’ uniforms are also going to be inspired by the game’s venue. But rather than creating a sweater that’s is an homage to the city of Chicago and its famous ballpark, Penn State will be wearing baseball-inspired jerseys. In fact, the sweaters are PSU-baseball clones.
On the left is a player wearing one of PSU’s alternate baseball jerseys, which is navy blue and with “Nittany Lions” written in an angled script, with the wordmark featuring a tail that serves as an underline. Player number is in white, and located on the lower left side of the jersey. On the right is a player wearing the new Frozen Confines jersey, which is quite similar to the baseball jersey. You can see a bit more of both uniforms in the following video:
Breaking out the lumber when we take things outside at the Frozen Confines next week in Chicago!! 🏒⚾️#WeAre #HockeyValley pic.twitter.com/Gn2CMOE8ML
— Penn State Men’s Hockey (@PennStateMHKY) December 26, 2024
In addition to the new sweater, PSU will be pairing that jersey with the retro-looking gloves and breezers from one of their other alternate uniforms.
In a still from the video, you can see the socks the Lions will be wearing with the January 3rd getup. They are blue with two thick white stripes (which mimic the striping on the jersey).
In addition to being navy blue and having a script wordmark to match the baseball jersey, the hockey sweater has a large white yoke. The team has a special event patch on the upper right side of the jersey, which you can see mimics the scoreboard at Wrigley Field.
The right sleeve of the sweater features a Penn State “S” logo, and their lion mascot.
In one of those “it’s kind of cool but no one will see it from more than two feet away” moves, the jersey numbers for Penn State will have very subtle ivy leaves sublimated into the numbers, which of course, is an ode to the famous ivy on the outfield wall at Wrigley Field. As an aside, if you ever wondered about the origins of the ivy covered walls, click here.
The jersey also has somewhat large TV numbers in white on the sleeves. As noted above the sleeves feature two thick white stripes, and there is a single, thick white stripe towards the base of the jersey, above the hem.
The back of the jersey features player NOB and number in white.
Once again, the game will take place at Wrigley Field on January 3rd, at 8:30 pm (ET), and can be seen on the Big Ten Network. There are also three other college hockey games to be played at Wrigley: Ohio State vs. Michigan (5:00 pm ET, January 3) precedes the ND/PSU tilt. The following day, January 4, will feature a Women’s hockey game between Ohio State and Wisconsin (5:30 pm ET, January 4), followed by a Men’s game between Wisconsin and Michigan State (9:30 pm ET). All games can be seen on the BTN.
As with Notre Dame’s uniforms for the event, I’ll need to see Penn State’s on ice and in action before rendering a full opinion. But from what I see so far, I appreciate the effort to create a jersey based upon the school’s alternate baseball jersey. And I appreciate the use of “retro” gloves and breezers. However, I’m not sure the baseball jersey’s white “Nittany Lions” wordmark works as well on a hockey sweater. Not every team needs to wear a crest/logo, but I’m much more partial to hockey jerseys with a crest than wordmarks. The rest of the sweater’s design is fine, and I like the striping pattern on the sleeves and socks. With both teams wearing themed uniforms, it won’t look quite like a normal ND/PSU hockey game, but that’s fine because this is a special event.
Your thoughts on PSU’s special jerseys for this game?
Love that sleeve patch!
One quibble with the lion on the sleeve. The Nittany Lion is an eastern mountain lion, not the African version with the mane. Not sure how this one slipped thru.
Iconic references easy to find:
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Since that logo is historic, I guess blame the original designer?
I don’t think the Eastern mountain lion was settled on until Heinz Warneke’s Nittany Lion Shrine sculpture in the 1940s
First link is wonky, so:
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Big whiff on the chest logo. I’m certain there’s an appropriate “PSU” insignia (not the ’70s one) that would fill the space better.
Super excited to watch these games in person! As a Buckeye fan, I think it’s great to see our men’s and women’s teams both represented!
The OSU men are also wearing specialty jerseys if you’ll haven’t seen them yet—also similar to the baseball team. Black with script and Buckeye leaves on the shoulders.
Penn State really needs a different baseball jersey. Tiny script with a giant space between the words and they still can’t Respect The Placket?
The hockey jersey looks better. I agree with Phil, though. It would look even better with a crest instead of script.
It’s not even the same script as the baseball jersey. I know that Penn State had a script wordmark on the football field this season (not sure if this is a newly-designed thing), so if the hockey jersey’s script matches the new script “Penn State,” fair enough. If they simply don’t match, then Penn State needs to sit down, define their script wordmark, and use it consistently.
This is a better “special occasion at Wrigley Field” jersey than Notre Dame. I get that Penn State is doing something special, but they’re keeping their basic colors, and I could have a chance of correctly guessing their identity. Good!
Meanwhile, let’s look at the Wrigley patch. The clock says 10 o’clock. Why? The game is at 4p. Any other reason that 10:00 is a logical time to show, or did the graphic designers just put “any time” on the clock? I could understand “don’t pick 12 or 6, because that’s just one line and you won’t appreciate that it’s a clock from far away.” 4:00 is gonna look like two lines with a “not 180 degrees” angle in between them, just like 10:00.
There was a time (and there may still be) when almost all analog clocks and watches showed “10:10” which places the hands at the top of the watch/clock, with a pleasant, and in most cases, 90° angle of the hands. Surprised they didn’t do that for this image.
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Kinda weird that the link to the website for purchasing the tickets has a picture of a baseball field that is absolutely not Wrigley Field
The Nittany Lions script is just plain and generic. Echoing other commenters, script logos rarely work on a hockey sweater. Why didn’t they just use the oval lion logo?
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