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Milwaukee Admirals to Honor Bob Uecker With Plaid Jacket Jerseys

For two games in 2006, the Milwaukee Admirals paid homage to Milwaukee Brewers broadcaster, baseball legend, and longtime Admirals hockey fan Bob Uecker with plaid jerseys. The Admirals and Brewers are both owned by Mark Attanasio, and the Brewers have been the Admirals’ uniform advertiser since Attanasio took the reins of the AHL team, but Uecker’s association with the Admirals dates back over a decade before Attanasio took over.

The plaid is a reference to the plaid jackets Uecker was known for wearing, including in a series of TV spots for the team. The jerseys were actually directly inspired by a 1994 ad where Uecker redesigned the team’s uniforms to match his jackets, to the comedic consternation of then-owner Lloyd Pettit and his wife Jane.

With Uecker dying at the age of 90 last week, the Admirals are bringing those jerseys out of retirement, and they’ll return to the ice for the Admirals’ final home game of the season on April 18. The team is also adding a memorial helmet sticker, reading UECK in Brewers colors.

From an aesthetic standpoint, the jerseys leave something to be desired. But that’s what makes them so fun — part of Uecker’s larger-than-life personality was the fact that he wore these…let’s call them unique suits that looked like he got them out of someone’s attic in 1976. He wore these garish things, so the the Admirals are honoring him by doing the same, and I’m sure he wouldn’t want it any other way.

Uecker began dressing more conservatively in the 1990s, though he still put his own spin on his outfits, like the Milwaukee skyline tie he wore to his Hall of Fame induction, and in recent years he was often spotted wearing sharply-patterned dress shirts.

There have been no images yet of the 2025-spec Uecker jerseys, but I imagine they will be nearly identical to the ones Ueck wore in the heading image, and the ones below.

It should be noted that the 2006 jerseys are actually different from the ones from the 1994 commercial — the 1994 unis have a darker brown, and the sleeve and hem stripes were more gold compared to the 2006 unis’ more mustard shade. The plaid pattern extended to the socks in the commercial, but not in the 2006 game-worn unis.

On a personal note, I wish that the Admirals were able to wear these sooner than April 18, though my guess is that there are logistical reasons as to why they’re waiting until then.

After the game on April 18, the jerseys will be auctioned off, with proceeds going to Make-A-Wish Wisconsin. Uecker had been a longtime supporter of the foundation.

 
  
 
Comments (10)

    “According to our new arrival
    Life is more than mere survival
    And we just might
    Live the good life yet

    We’re on our way to realizin’
    We’re headed for a new horizon
    And we just might live the good life yet!”

    RIP Ueck!

    The lead photo from the article doesn’t show up on the main page of the site. If you’re using WordPress, it could be you need to set that as “featured image.” Same thing happened last week.

    Keep up the good work!

    Thought it might be that I’m viewing on an iPad, but same thing -no lede image.

    Fun tribute to Bob Uecker!
    No, wait, super funny tribute… like it should be!

    Yep, fixed. The Rickey Henderson article from last week has the same problem. Have a great weekend!

    For this story, Mark Attanasio is one of the minority investors in the Admirals. The primary owner is Harris Turer, who coincidentally is also a Brewers investor.

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