As the calendar turns to 2025, I wanted to share some sad news and some happy news regarding some changes that will shortly be taking place on Uni Watch.
First the sad news: Weekend Editor Jimmer Vilk has decided to hang up his spikes and enter into uni-retirement. Jim has been a great friend and confidant, and has always conducted himself with the utmost courtesy and professionalism, and he has handled weekend (as well as some weekday) content with aplomb. While he’s only been the Weekend Editor for seven-plus months, he has been a devoted reader and active contributor for more than a decade — and frequently collaborated with me over the years on many uni-related articles. He was the original “5 & 1” guy on Sunday Morning Uni Watch, and of course, has been incredibly generous over the years by raffling off many of his prized sports possessions in the year-end “Vilkmas” Raffle. Words alone cannot express how much I appreciate all of his contributions, and how he’ll be missed when he retires.
Jim will still have two more weekends at the helm, and I’m sure he’ll more fully discuss his tenure and future plans over the next ten or so days.
And now for the happy news. Ticker Assistant Anthony Emerson, who has been a valued member of Uni Watch for several years, will be stepping into the Weekend Editor role once Jim has moved on. Not only does Anthony prepare our Tickers two days a week, but he has also contributed many articles, including envisioning and creating the new year end “Uni Awards.” I’m sure he’ll have some more great new ideas and directions for Uni Watch, and while no one can ever replace Jim Vilk, I’m confident Anthony will bring a new perspective to the site, and forge his own path as our new Weekend Editor.
Here’s a very brief bio for Anthony, plus a head shot.
Anthony Emerson is a native and resident of Portland, ME. A graduate of the University of Southern Maine, he’s been writing Uni Watch tickers since 2017. A fan of Boston sports teams, Anthony also follows soccer closely as a fan of Manchester United, and has also covered rugby for Uni Watch.
I had the great pleasure of meeting Anthony for the first time at Paul’s 25th Anniversary Farewell Tour, and he’s not only a dedicated Uni Watcher, but a fantastic person as well. He was even rocking a sweet Pedro Martinez road jersey from Petey’s time with Les Expos de Montréal — a stellar jersey choice!
Speaking of the Ticker — it’s been a part of Uni Watch since Paul’s ESPN Page 2 days (if you weren’t aware, before the Uni Watch blog existed, Paul prepared Tickers for his weekly columns over on the WWL), and I’d like to keep it running. It seems to be working well three days per week, but I’d be open to making it a daily thing. So while I have you, let me ask you guys a question or two: Do you read the Ticker when it’s published? Did you read it every day while Paul was running the show or was it one of those things you’d read sporadically? All things being equal, would you want the Ticker to return to five days per week, or do you like it the way it is now (thrice weekly), or would twice per week be fine? And on a related note, while we have no current plans to add additional Ticker Assistants, would you have any interest in the position, should additional Ticker Assistant positions become open? (If so, please shoot me an email — Phil.Hecken@gmail.)
Anyway, that’s the “big” site news for today, and I’ll have more information in the coming days on the Ticker, based on your feedback, as well as introducing our new Ticker Assistant.
Your feedback on the Ticker will be greatly appreciated as well.
LOVE THE TICKER….read it everyday when it was 5 days….got used to the new 3 day format…wouldn’t be opposed to 2 days a week as long as the same great content is condensed in those two days!
Jim thanks for all your years of service! Loved your content! Enjoy your free time!
Anthony, congrats on your promotion and great work with the ticker ! Looking forward to your new weekend work!
What Josh said.
+1
Amen. Well said.
Same. Will read it every time irrespective of frequency. Haven’t missed one since UW started.
Same, Love the Ticker. Keep up the great work everyone.
Came here to say this
The Ticker is and has always been my favorite part of the site
Agree with all of this.
Echoing all of the above, the ticker was daily reading for me.
Happy New Year Phil and the rest of the Uni Watch staff. As a uniform enthusiast, Thank you for providing us with a great blog.
The ticker is the most important part of UW. Sure the stories are nice, but sometimes I only have time for a quick look and the ticker hits on most everything.
Amen!
The ticker has always been my favorite part of UniWatch. I always look forward to it.
I am a fan of the ticker. Usually the first thing I’d take a look at, before moving on to more ‘in-depth’ features.
I read the ticker every time it’s published.
Love the ticker. Everyday would be great but would be fine with three times a week.
For the record, I was not aware these changes were happening nor was I asked for my interest.
Glad you got that on the record for future blog historians.
Congratulations to both Anthony and Jim!
I used to read the ticket daily and now catch each post on the three days a week that it is available. I’m satisfied with it as it continues in whatever form it takes. I’ve always seen it as a luxury, an added bonus to the content.
Big fan of the ticker. I feel that it sometimes catching things that are more interesting to me than the lead item or at least mentions something that’s not mentioned on its own.
Yes, we love the Ticker! Allows us to ensure we have complete coverage of all Uni Watch-related changes. Especially those that would not warrant a full article.
Preferred the 5-day format but have adjusted to the 3-day format. Feel it works well.
Congratulations to Jim and Anthony.
I generally read the tickers, but I will admit that I preferred the old one daily post with everything including the ticker in it. I know it seems like a small thing, but the multiple clicks for each article are annoying to me; I prefer the one click and reading one long post.
We will miss you Jim as Weekend Editor. It’s been a fun ride. Congrats to Anthony. Anthony is a great and natural choice to take the position. Look forward to working with you more, Anthony!
I love the Ticker, and read it every single time it’s published.
Two complaints:
1) The Tickers aren’t always easy to find. There seems to be some sort of priority system where all other articles are pushed above the Ticker. I know you can go Posts > Tickers, but I think a more accessible option would be good. What about a button on the top menu such as “Today’s Ticker” or something like that?
2) The Wednesday and Friday Tickers have been poor in terms of content. They often have items that have already been addressed in standalone articles, they are overly personalized/opinionated to the writer, and more often than not there are errors that are never fixed (even after several readers have pointed them out).
Another vote for keeping the ticker. I like the 5-day format but if 3-day is most manageable, so be it.
I always read the ticker, and like it at 3 days a week, but 5 or 2 days a week would be fine too.
I love the ticker, but can we get it promoted to the top of the blog feed? I often forget there.
The ticker is what I am most likely to read on Uni-Watch. I do not read it all of the time, but I suspect if it went down to twice a week it would be long enough that I’d probably skip it completely.
I miss the Ticker being available every day. Three days a week isn’t enough. If get goes to fewer days, I may not check in as often or even ever.
I read the ticker more than the other stories unless it’s a feature on a sport or team I really like. The ticker has all the little details that can get glossed over otherwise.
I always read the baseball, basketball, football, hockey and grab bag sections of the Ticker. Aka I skip soccer.
I swear, soccer haters are the American sports equivalent of Vegans. Always have to needlessly let people know they hate soccer.
Yep. If it was anyone other than Mike, I probably would have had an appropriate response. Now I know why my soccer-based answers to the QotW posts never get any love!
Soccer is excellent, I just don’t know much about it
You could start by reading the Ticker section about it ;)
Ha! You got me there.
He asked a survey question and I answered lol
I love the ticker, and I think that three days a week is about the right frequency for it.
The ticker is one of my favorite features on the site. More is better than less as far as I’m concerned. In the ticker, I’ll check out news on sports I don’t really follow if they sound interesting. This is compared to articles, where I tend to skip ones on sports I don’t care for.
I’ve got a fever and the only prescription is more ticker.
Never miss a ticker. Loved it daily, but 3 per week has been A-OK.
I love the Ticker and am an avid reader of it. Any weekly frequency would be fine, as long as the total amount of content remains roughly the same.
The ticker is my first stop.
I love the ticker and honestly didn’t know it went to three days a week. When it’s “yesterday’s news,” I always assumed it just wasn’t out yet. By the way, I never read it on weekends, even though that’s when so many stories get pushed.
“By the way, I never read it on weekends, even though that’s when so many stories get pushed.”
We haven’t published a weekend Ticker since I was doing weekends. And Jim has basically been doing a single post each weekend day (albeit a big one). So, for at least 7 months, there haven’t been “many stories” on the weekends.
Read the ticker all three days. I miss it being a daily item. I know it’s a lot of work, but was always a great start to every work day.
I like the ticker, but if it does go to fewer days a week, why not add a catch up section with links to the posts between them, since some days can have like 5 posts some stuff just gets buried.
Also I wouldn’t be opposed to going back to the original ticker format, so it’s all jumbled together like an old time ticker rather than broken up into sections. That may make it easier to post it multiple days too lol.
I used to read the Ticker daily and would do so again.
I never miss a ticker. Most of what gets published there is news to me, and I would probably miss it if not for the ticker.
I’m not active on twitter or bluesky – I think people who are active there underestimate how little of those stories make their way to the larger uni-verse.
As for frequency, please do whatever is easiest for you and staff. I don’t want it to get to a point where you resent having to do it daily and the quality takes a hit. If it was 5 days, 3 days, 2 days, I would still read it every post.
I would prefer that it be more visible on mobile though, especially on those days where there are 5+ stories published, it can really get buried.
Thanks for the feedback — in general, the Ticker is published Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and is almost always the “second” article published. I try to put the first article up between 7-8 am (ET), with the Ticker published around 9:00 am. So if you’re reading on mobile, and want to see a ticker, generally if you check between 9-10 am M/W/F that’s when the Ticker publishes.
Will miss your contributions, Mr. Vilk!
Cheers!
Thanks and godspeed to Jim! And welcome aboard new Weekend Editor Anthony!
As far as the Ticker, it’s always been the beating heart of Uni Watch for me. Back when daily posts consisted of a lead article above Ticker text, I most often skipped straight to the Ticker, read that in a hurry, and jumped back up for the lead article, which I might or might not get around to reading in full. Once the Ticker became a discrete daily entry, it would usually be the first link I’d click on. I’m not all that put out by the Ticker being not-every-day, but I regret and an often annoyed by how un-prominent Ticker entries are. Given current site layout, new Ticker entries seem to disappear from view quite quickly. I’m not a fan of that; I’d much prefer if Ticker entries floated a bit so that basic layout was most-recent article of any type, most-recent Ticker entry if it’s not the most-recent article, then next-most-recent non-ticker article and so on.
Additionally with the new lay out and story cadence, I find myself rarely reading a full article on many of the non-lede posts, since the good stuff is typically given away in the header photo (on the main page). For me I’m happy seeing what the new alternate or whatever is, and the Ticker did that for me with many fewer words. “NHL’s Winter Classic Uniforms for the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues” and a photo is all I needed to see for that story, despite the extra text.
I used to read the ticker daily when there was only one post per day. Now that there are multiple posts per day it gets lost in the shuffle. Greatly prefer the old format of posting.
I’ll definitely second that! I definitely prefer a link in the Ticker to the stories that a lot of the mid day posts are about (Lions and Eagles Black unis from 1/1, for example). I know there’s a link in the menu bar to sort only Tickers, but would rather have them more readily available on the front page.
Happy “uni-retirement” Jim Vilk!
…and I would love to see a daily ticker again.
~ Cheers
Just like almost everyone else here it seems, I love the ticker. It’s a great, quick way to catch up a uni news. I for sure reference the ticker more than anything else on the site.
Thanks for keeping us informed & entertained.
Keep kicking those field goals, Jim!
Ticker is what I’m here for, although I do read other articles when posted. Love seeing little tidbits like that and getting inside info.
Jimmer will be missed. However, he’ll now have more time to devote to his real passion: Building the Coliseum II, so that the Cavs can return to Richfield.
On a side note, I know Jimmer has mentioned having a mini Uni Watch get-together in Northeast Ohio. I’d be in for that when the weather is nicer in the spring or summer.
Re: the ticker, I enjoy reading it and it wouldn’t feel like UW without it, but three days per week feels like a fair amount for it. It’s not uncommon for the content in a given ticker to feel a little light — I know it’s 95 percent a matter of how much gets submitted, so I don’t mean to cast any aspersions in saying that. And since Paul started the multiple-posts-per-day format a couple years ago, some things that once would have only gotten a ticker mention (e.g., college program unveiling a new uniform) now get their own post. So I don’t know how much of a need there is to run it more than three days per week. Longtime reader, just my two cents.
Thank you, Jim! You’ve been a great part of the Uni-Watch!
Congratulations, Anthony! And way to rep the Hearts Of Pine! Looking forward to more soccer, especially in Maine!
Jimmer, I will miss your contributions to Uni Watch. You are always a joy to read.
As a recipient of a Vilkmas gift in the past, thank you, Jimmer! I appreciate the tangiable connection to this web-based community and all your other contributions to the minutea of sports.
Anthony: thank you for agreeing to take on a larger role within this network of obsessive folks. I’ll appreciate any content you come up with (even if it is soccor or rugby related.)
Staff: It is to be commended to bring leaders through the ranks in an organic manner instead of hiring some johnny pencilpusher from the outside that might not share our equipment enthusism!
Back in ye olde days when there was one big daily post, I would consume the Ticker daily.
In the new world of multiple daily posts, I rarely seek it out (or click on the Twitter post for it).
Like many others have said, the ticker is one of my favorite parts of Uni Watch. If it lightens the load, I’d prefer one post per day if it means retaining the ticker.
Moreover, I rarely read the weekend articles. This may just be a personal preference, but I would be to remove Weekend Editor (and the weekend posts) and just have Anthony focus on the ticker.
The ticker is the life blood of Uni Watch.
Thanks, Jim, for contributing your time and talent.
Anthony, good luck in your new role. Love the Pedro uni!
Ticker: Whether it’s two, three or five times a week, I love the format because it’s so easy to select what I’m interested in reading. It’s a highlight of my day. The good news is that I find myself reading more of the longer articles, too. The recent content must be striking a chord with me.
BTW: I don’t care much for soccer . . . AND I’m a vegan!
Thank you, Jim. Congratulations, Anthony.
Also, Phil has done an outstanding job maintaining the standards of this site.
Long time reader who likes the Ticker, but I feel like I’m missing out on content. There are many links to twitterx. Some won’t open unless you sign up. I refuse to be a part of that platform.
2-3 times a week is sufficient.
The ticker is my go-to, and with the decrease to 3 days a week, my visits to the site have decreased, to the point where I’ve even missed a few because it’s not part of my daily habit to check the site anymore knowing that there won’t always be a fresh ticker. I was surprised at how quickly the habit broke. I appreciate the other content, but the ticker is usually my jumping off point- to the extent that sometimes there’s an article that I had ignored but saw mention of or reference to in the ticker and became interested.
I would be ok with an hourly ticker if such a thing were possible but get that it takes up a lot of time so I’m ok with whatever timing works best for you.
Thanks for all you do!
I read The Ticker every day it is published. And—selfishly, because I realize what a commitment it is—I would love to see it five days a week.
Thanks, Jimmer! You’ve been a great asset here over the years, and…..
#welcome to the weekend, Anthony! #GloryGloryManUnited
It has been an honor to work on a few Uni Watch articles with The Jimmer, I think he will like the GTGBTU photo I submitted to Phil today.
The ticker is my favorite part of UW personally. I’ll take as much of it as I can, and would love if the most recent one could stay at the top.
Thanks and good luck, Jimmer! I learned a lot about uniforms through your eyes and enjoyed guessing your 5 and 1 each week. We have similar taste.
Congrats, Anthony! Looking forward to more of your contributions!
Ticker, I loved you every day, I love you every other day. I love you as long as you aren’t becoming a burden to your partner.
Thanks for your time and input over the years, Jimmer!!!!! Always looked forward to the 5&1. And, most times I agree with your picks. But, if most people are like me, these new uniform trends are making it harder to make those picks.
Whatever you have in store I hope you really enjoy and wish you the best. Maybe you could do a special 5&1 at the end of bowl season. Maybe at the end of the NFL season too? :)
A (properly sized) thank you to Jimmer.
As for the ticker, I’m surprised at the number of readers who would like it five times a week. Personally, I think two to three is just fine and I’d even encourage a little editing to eliminate some of the fluff. Less is actually more!
Love the ticker! Any chance we can get a round-up of uni concept posts on other/friendly sites in there?
Huge Ticker fan here.
Ticker, please. Always look forward to reading it, especially the baseball unis news.
The Ticker is my favorite part of the site. It’s a quick rundown of what happened, uni-wise. I’d love to see it return on a daily basis.
I like the Ticker, but it gets pretty buried these days, often by stories that to me seem to belong in the Ticker (things like announcements about what uniform a team is going to wear for their next game, etc — that feels fine for the Ticker, but doesn’t really merit a full article).
Anyway, my point is that back when there was one big story per day, or even post-redesign when there were only one or two stories, the Ticker had high visibility. Now, I forget to even look for it. Just my opinion.
Jim, thank you very much for sharing yourself with us all these years. I came to really look forward to your 5&1 every weekend, and this past year I really enjoyed reading your longer write ups as well. Your humility and light-hearted thoughtfulness always shined through. You will be missed!
Thanks for all the nice comments!
I may not be as universally loved as the Ticker, but I was liked by a good number of you. I’ll gladly take that.
The daily ticker was what brought me to this site each morning, a decade or so ago. Became part of my morning routine as soon as I got to my desk in the morning, & sipped on my coffee.
I’ve adapted to the 3 days format, but miss the daily short content.
I place the ticker ahead of the articles, in order of importance to me.
I try to read the ticker every time I get on the site – will adjust with whatever availability the ticker providers can give.
I visit UW on Ticker days. That used to be every weekday, now it’s Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday night (since the ticker comes out after Shabbat starts). If it goes down to twice or once a week, that’s when I’ll visit, and I’ll read whatever else catches my eye when I’m here.
This seems to be echoed by others.
2-3 tickers a week is probably right, but could GTG be added to the ticket, or if not, be indicated in the title of whatever posting it accompanies. It’s one of my favorite features, but seems hard to find since it has migrated from a weekend-only thing
Hi Tom,
I don’t know if this makes things any easier, but GTGFTS & FTU are always run in the first (lede) post every weekday. So if you’re on the homepage (the one that lists most recent posts), look at the date and timestamp. GTGs will be in the earliest post (usually around 7:30 am ET) from each weekday.
Hope that helps!
The ticker has always been my favorite part of the site. I made sure to visit the site daily because of it. Since toy reduced it, I come to the site less. Sometimes I forget which days you even publish it now.