Good Tuesday morning, Uni Watchers. I hope you guys had a good Monday.
ICYMI, late yesterday afternoon, the NFL made a big change to its policy on alternate uniforms, so if you missed that, you’ll want to check it out now.
With today being Tuesday, that means it’s time for Leo’s World, and with the NCAA Tourney now down to the Final Four teams, that’s what Leo will explore today. For the past six weeks, Leo has turned his attention to old-time Ice Hockey (Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4, Volume 5, and Volume 6). There have been some amazing old photos on those posts, some of which I’m sure you’ve probably never seen, and definitely worth a read!
But now it’s time to slide from the frozen water back to the hardwood for Leo’s latest.
And now, here’s Mr. Strawn with…
I’m Leo…welcome to my world!
Deep into March April Madness, this edition will feature hardwood uniforms worn in the NCAA, some from tourneys past. No April Fools’ jokes this year, just some cool (and some odd) basketball uniforms!
Did you know…
The NCAA basketball tournament was the brainchild of former coach from THE Ohio State University, Harold Olson? The first tourney was played in March of 1939. Ironically, the Buckeyes were in the title game against the Oregon Webfoots. Oregon won, 46-33 but would not make the Final Four again for 78 years. The Bucks have fared better with 3 consecutive Final Fours in the 1940s, 4 Final Four appearances in the 1960s (including 3 in a row), and have made three more Final Fours since. They lost the title game 3 more times after losing that first one to the Webfoots and won it all in 1960. In the photo below, the 1939 Oregon jerseys had numbers above “Oregon” on front. After running across this photo, this is now the earliest instance of number over name on front I have ever seen. Oddly, the Buckeyes jersey makes them look like they could be the Bobcats in this black and white pic.
Here’s an old photo of the Marquette Blue & Gold and the Creighton Blue Jays prior to a tip off in 1925. (More on Marquette later.)
The Texas A&M Aggies had some nice stripey socks for the 1935-36 season. I suppose the coach’s shirt is supposed to represent ‘T(exas) Aggies’. I don’t know what else “AGGTIES” could mean…
In 1943-44, the Aggies looked like the X-Men.
Who would win, the X-Men or Superman? The 1964 Dayton Flyers were looking like supermen ready to take flight.
More striped hose, this time worn by Gonzaga in 1951.
Kent State wore Golden Flashes of lightning on their jerseys in the 1960s.
Big Ten fans in 1967-68 saw Purdue wear gold jerseys over black shorts with gold belts. Nice. This photo is also notable because it is from the pre-Assembly Hall days. I think the supports for the backboard at the Fieldhouse are interesting, not only the bright Hoosier red stand for the back of the backboard but also the guy wires that stabilized the backboard from above…waaaay above.
Artis Gilmore’s Jacksonville Dolphins jersey is smiling thanks to numbers over the University’s name on front. The stripes on the shorts are interesting and the yellow belt is a nice touch, too.
This is the 1972-73 North Dakota Bison team photo. Nice shorts and vertical striped socks! Sadly, this isn’t in color, so I’m going to guess these are green with yellow pinstripes.
I’ll wrap this up with the coach who not only won an NCAA tournament over Dean Smith’s Tar Heels in 1977 but also dressed his Marquette Warriors to the nines for a number of seasons, as well as a bit oddly at times, Al McGuire.
McGuire’s first season at the helm was 1964-65. Marquette went 8-18. Three seasons later, he had the Warriors in the NCAA tournament where they bowed out in the Sweet 16 to Kentucky. I’m not sure what their uniforms looked like prior to that season, but one of the five 1967-68 regular season losses came at the hands of Xavier, with Marquette wearing this sweet uniform. Not sure about the back, but it doesn’t appear to have any indication of Marquette University anywhere on the front aside from the rounded “MU” logo on the shorts.
The following season was George Thompson’s senior season. Thompson, who played 5 seasons in the ABA, one season with Milwaukee and had his #24 retired by Marquette, is shown in these pics wearing white Chucks with dark laces! The Warriors looked dapper all the way to the Elite 8, losing to Purdue in the Mideast Regional Final by 2 points, with some bold horizontal striping and shorts that were one color at top and another at the bottom. This time around, they got revenge on Kentucky by beating them in the Sweet 16, shown in the first photo.
After that season, things got a bit…weird. The next photos are circa 1969-72. Marquette’s home uniforms looked like stock cars. No indication of what team they were or who the players were, aside from the number. I guess the home fans would have known, but still, that’s an odd look.
The road uniforms from that same era are equally odd. McGuire opted out of the NCAA tourney, not liking which region the committee had placed the Warriors, and they went on to win the 1970 NIT final in these uniforms. That revolt resulted in a rule that prohibits teams from declining an NCAA bid. If you look closely at the black & white photo from the 1970-71 NCAA tournament game vs. Miami of Ohio on the bottom left, you can see the Marquette cheerleaders also looked like, I don’t know, maybe wasps, including their socks.
Like the uniforms from McGuire’s first three coaching seasons, I’m not certain about what they wore in 1973-76.
I have to say, in addition to the 1967-68 uniforms, and to a lesser degree, the following season’s look, I have always really, really liked the 1976-77 non-mono uniforms with the untucked jerseys that had arrowheads up the sides and numbers above “MARQUETTE” on front, hanging over the wide, football-inspired striped shorts. Immediately after the Warriors defeated North Carolina wearing these beauties in the 1977 title game, Al announced his retirement and the McGuire era of Marquette uniforms abruptly ended.
Until then…
Cheers!
Thanks, Leo — this was another fun one. It’s always cool to take a look back at the college hoops uniforms of yore (especially Marquette), who may have had more different designs (some of which were easily Top 10 looks of all time) than any other college five.
Readers? What say you?
Once again, wonderful pictures and stories from Leo! Marquette easily wins the NCAA title of strange yet great basketball uniforms. I also liked the arched Jacksonville wordmark of Artis, which looks like a smile.
Great stuff, Leo!
I’m surprised you didn’t catch Tulane’s Vertical striped socks from the 60’s, seen here on this Pete Maravich SI Cover link
Also the Jacksonville U Dolphins (attempted to) throw back to those 1970 unis right in Feb 2020 before the Pandemic. They did a terrible job :( link
Don’t recall those Tulane socks, nice! That one’s going into my folder, thanks for sharing.
Cheers!
Leo, Here’s a clearer view of Tulane’s socks link
Thanks for everything! Always greatly enjoy your work!
Sweet, thanks for that!
Also love Pete’s socks. I still wear non-binding socks so mine look like that sometimes, lol.
Those White Sox unis… bing those back full time!
Marquette got a lot of oddball uniforms from Medalist- Al McGuire was involved with the company for years, eventually being on their board of directors in the early 70s, and becoming their vice-chairman when he retired from coaching after winning the 1977 Championship.
The untucked uniforms were designed by player Bo Ellis, a graphic arts major; they had a design that I think started in 1975-76 that were 2-color- yellow at home with power blue numbers, lettering and trim; the shorts had horizontal trim around the leg openings; the road uniform was the reverse (powder blue with yellow trim).
That SI cover with Artis Gilmore on it brings back so many memories, I was working for the Houston athletic department when his Jacksonville team came through to play the Cougars. I was courtside and even among basketball players he (and their other 7-footer Pembrook Burrows) seemed larger than life. And that uniform was the coolest of any visiting teams.
Sidenote… Loyola-New Orleans played in Houston during the ’71-’72 season and showed up with the school name removed from their uniform tops. We learned the school had announced it was dropping the program and removing the name was the players’ way of expressing their anger. I’ve tried tracking down a photo from time to time without any luck. One of their players ended up transferring to Houston and we became great friends. RIP Eddie
Thanks for sharing!
If you ever run across any of those Loyola-N.O. photos, send it to Phil along with that story, please.
Cheers!
GTGFTS: Brewers 0 – 3 Cubs, 12 Aug 2014. Great start from Kyle Hendricks, and Anthony Rizzo (currently at bat in the 1st) would hit a home run in the 6th.
GTGFTU: Padres 2 – 1 White Sox in 11 innings, 1 Oct 2023. Last game of the season for two teams who both very much wanted it to end. Pictured here is Rich Hill throwing to Zach Remillard in the 10th inning. Remillard will hit that ball past the first baseman to drive in the ghost runner and tie the game, but the Padres will retake the lead and win in the next inning.
thank you for the ndsu bison picture, it’s really cool. The coach’s attire was awesome back then
For the guess the game by the scoreboard, I got August 12th
For the guess the game by the uniform, I got October 1st
2014 for the first
2023 for the second
“I suppose the coach’s shirt is supposed to represent ‘T(exas) Aggies’. I don’t know what else “AGGTIES” could mean…”
The precursor of MLB’s overlap caps…
link
I think I like those X-Men unis. I know I like striped sock and shorts, and Marquette’s striped jerseys. Their untucked look, not so much.
I love it when Purdue looks like…the Washington Wizards!
link
Love the golden flashes on the Golden Flashes jerseys too. And the smiling Jacksonville jerseys. Thanks for sharing these, Leo!
No worries, Jimmer! Glad you’re enjoying these, brother.
Cheers!
That Artis Gilmore/Sidney Wicks SI cover really brought back memories. I was in the 6th grade that Spring, and I remember how impressed my best friend, Craig, and I were by those Jacksonville uniforms, to the point that these two kids from the Pacific Northwest became fans of the team (at least temporarily!)
The star player on that 1939 Ohio State team, and the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, Jimmy Hull, later became an orthodontist. He did the braces on my teeth! Not sure if he’s in the photo.
Interesting! If the Wiki page is correct, he wore #8, which is the player on the far right of the photo!
link
Those 1943-44 Aggies uniforms make them look like school crossing guards!
I’d love to see Leo’s World for every sport. Please keep them coming, Leo.
Thanks, Neil. Glad you’re enjoying them.
Since I started sharing the pics I’ve collected online over the years, I did some baseball and football articles last year and will be revisiting those sports this year since those are the sports I had the most pics of and I still have some good photos to share.
As for the other sports, I pretty much went through all of the best photos I have of those last year. That included soccer, basketball (pretty sure this edition will be the last of the hoops pics), hockey (one more next week to finish) and I threw some cricket & misc together for an article. I doubt I have enough to revisit any of those, but the ones from last year are available on Uni Watch if you haven’t seen them, just search Leo’s World articles.
Cheers!
How is it that Purdue doesn’t use an outline of the State of Indiana on the sides of it’s shorts?
My high school basketball uniforms were based on the Marquette men’s uniforms except ours had no school or team name on the bottom, but they were untucked
Our school colors were brown and gold (yellow) so very unique- talking early 1980’s