Women’s College World Series Uniform Observations

[Editor’s Note: The Women’s College World Series is currently underway, and as you’re about to see, they feature many different uniforms and combos, and the hosiery game is unusually strong. Our own Susan Freeman will take you through the myriad looks for the all the teams in this year’s WCWS. Enjoy! — PH]

WCWS Uni Observations
by Susan Freeman

I played softball growing up and also mixed league as an adult – but I do not watch much of it.  And from a uni watching standpoint, the faceguards and masks and visors has kind of killed it for me in the past.  After seeing an article ranking one uni from each of the eight teams in the Women’s College World Series, I was struck by the offerings.  Then I dug a little deeper into the other uni sets from each school and there was so much more.  But I really had no idea…

Here are some general observations – so colorful and so many options.  Some teams even have batting helmets that are different from the visors worn.  It is almost like the visors don’t even count.  Most photos are of a pitcher (no visor) or hitters in helmets.  And none of the non-game photos have hats or helmets.  Some teams are consistent and then some helmets don’t match anything.  And there are a few visors that don’t really match anything.  So my overviews here are a judgement call.  I tried to showcase the more interesting headwear.  Never could buy into the visors (especially the dirty white ones) – they hardly seem part of the uniform.  By no means do I think I have captured all the uni options but hopefully enough of them to get a feel for each team and I will point out strongpoints and weak links in each team’s uni game.  It will be a bit of a different uniform review – just an idea of what each team wears.  However, according to “The Patch Lady” (Tulsa news did a new story on her this year but never posted it on line), each team can only bring four jerseys to the WCWS.  So quite a few of these will need to be left at home.

Before we get into it, can we talk about stirrups for a minute?  Just wow!  First of all, Florida, Tennessee, and Ole Miss have some strong stirrup games.  Half of the eight World Series teams have stirrups or striped socks – and the whole team wears them.  And they are all different stirrups.  Florida’s stirrups are all over the place with different stripe styles.  And some of the stirrup openings have opposite color trim!

__________

TEXAS TECH RED RAIDERS

So obviously, having Texas Tech make it for the very first time piques my interest and motivates me.  And I truly thought our unis would be ranked pretty high.  But not so fast…  Sadly, Texas Tech has no stirrups or striped socks – which is really, really odd since our Adidas uni rebrand is based on traditional stripes.  The Red Raider script is the best but I wish they would wear that red jersey with the black pants.  Two extra batting helmets to go along with the black Double T helmet – a white one with Raider Red and a red one with white Tech script.  As mentioned, no stirrups or striped socks.  My count was nine different combos (mostly just by wearing different colored socks and/or helmets).  Red jerseys are usually paired with red pants and black jerseys are usually paired with black pants.  The white jerseys are paired with mostly white pants but I did see a pairing with black pants.

__________

TEXAS

Texas has an odd assortment of uniforms.  Usually there is no such thing as too much burnt orange.  But man, I do not like the solid color block on these girls.  The white socks really make a difference.   There is also an all white uni that is not at all unexpected for Texas.  Several teams have the truncated contrasting head spoon with contrasting sleeves.  Texas is one of those teams and it looks pretty good with the white pants that have an orange stripe  and orange socks.  Then they have two sets of pinstripes that they typically wear contrasting socks with and they both look pretty good.  I think Texas has only two helmets – burnt orange with longhorn logo on front and a white one with Texas script on one side/number on the other side and a Texas outline in front. I found six combos.

__________

OKLAHOMA

OU’s uniforms are curious and pretty boring.  For a team that has simply dominated, they are not spending much money on softball uniforms.  The main rotation includes a red jersey in that truncated head spoon style (but without the contrasting head spoon) and a white jersey with the contrasting head spoon.  Red pants and white pants with a stripe.  Red sock and white socks.  Stirrups – check (look at the cool intro on this video).  But only red stirrups that they wear sometimes with the red socks. You can tell because these stirrups have that white trim in the openings.  Then there is the dark gray with matching pants, stirrups, and batting helmet.  I counted only six or seven combos (one I did not find a game photo).  I think they only have the one red batting helmet in the regular rotation.  But they do wear red and white visors – which is how they got to the six with an all white combo (no photo).  Maybe they are spending all their money on OU football.  Eh, it’s not working. Lol.

__________

TENNESSEE

I quit counting a THIRTEEN different combos.  Of course the Summitt Blues are a winner.  The all blue uniform is new this year (I think that includes the all blue pinstripes too).  You may ask why Lady Vols wear light blue.  Well, the basketball team has worn light blue accents forever.  But in 1968 when the basketball team started, there were no orange uniforms.  So that coach picked the light blue with orange accents.  Although, the blue is known as Summitt Blue from the legendary basketball coach Pat Summitt era.  All Lady Vol sports teams started wearing the Summit Blue in 2022 to honor Summitt’s legacy.  And the Summitt Blue pinstripes are really nice too with a perfect combination of the blue and orange – they wear those with both blue and orange helmets/visors.  I’ve got five different jerseys with matching pants for each in the regular rotation.  They really mix these up including the two different socks (orange or white striped).  They also have a Smoky Mountain dark mode grey set, complete with helmet.  As for helmets, they have orange, white Summitt Blue, and the gray one with a little mix and matching.

__________

FLORIDA

Holy stirrups, batman!  Florida has SIX different socks and stirrups (five stirrups and one sock) resulting in my count of ELEVEN different combos.  There is an orange jersey with Gators script – usually worn with the blue pants.  There is a blue jersey with Florida script – usually worn with white pants but different socks.    Then there are THREE white jerseys.  One has a blue Florida script that pairs with white or orange pants (possibly they paired those with the blue pants at some point too).  One has an orange Gators script that I found paired with white, blue, or orange pants (all three have different socks).  Then there is a white jersey with no wordmark that I just do not understand.  I saw those paired with two different white pants (orange or blue stripe) and the white striped stirrups.  There is only one batting helmet which is tri-colored and works with all combos, as does the tri-colored visor.

__________

OLE MISS

Their uni set is kind of a hodge podge – pretty much a jersey of each color.  Most look fantastic.  The navy Ole Miss script jersey is a head spoon template but actually has contrasting piping looking the most like a baseball uni.  It is worn with navy pants and nice striped socks.  A white Rebels script jersey paired with white pants and reversed striped socks.  The white Rebels jersey is also worn navy pants and the regular striped socks.  Baby blues have Ole Miss script and pair with baby blue pants and appropriate color striped socks.  There is also a gray set not worn very often that has Ole Miss script and is worn with navy socks and navy visors and batting helmets.  Then there is this strange all red uni with REBELS wordmark worn with the socks with baby blue stripes.  One girl even wears a regular ball cap.  Hats can vary – especially the Savanna Banana girl that almost always wears a red cap (even if the team is wearing a different color of visors). So you could end up with extra combos – this would be hard to count.  There are two helmets they wear most often – the tri-colored helmet they wear with many different colored visors.  The all white helmet looks like a striped football helmet but there is no matching visor – just a white one with Rebels written on it.  They also wore a maybe navy jersey with pink trim one weekend (regular pants as you can see the M is still red).  With all of that, I only logged six official combos.

__________

UCLA

UCLA is pretty traditional and has four jerseys – blue, white, white pinstripes, and gray pinstripes.  All four have UCLA script.  The blue jerseys are paired with blue pants, white or blue visors/helmets, and blue or white socks.  The blue pants have white/yellow/white striping.  The white jersey is paired with white pants, white or blue visors/helmets, and white socks with blue stirrups.  Those stirrups make a huge difference.  The white pants have blue/yellow/blue striping.  Both the white and gray pinstripes are paired with matching pants with blue/yellow/blue striping, and blue socks.  I think they they pair the white pinstripes with both blue and white visors, but the grays with only with the blue visors.  The first of two batting helmets is blue and has an amazing Bruin logo, but only on one side and probably a hair too large.   The white helmet seems kind of generic and is two-toned with UCLA script on front.  They pair both helmets with all uni sets but wear the blue ones most.  That gives them eight combos by my count.

__________

OREGON

Five different jerseys – green, white, black, yellow, and a rarely worn gray.  A lot of mixing and matching and I stopped counting at ELEVEN.  Let’s start with the green.  Candy apple green from head to toe, no pant trim, no sock stripes uniforms is not a great look.  Sigh… There are, of course, ducks inside the DUCKS wordmark – but that 38 Special glove is really cool.  Yellow socks look much better.  The matching green batting helmet is much simpler than the others.  They also have a gray DUCKS set with yellow wordmark that pairs the black helmet and black or yellow socks.  The black jersey is the head spoon template with a matching helmet and is worn with green or black pants and black socks.  Cute duck but super plain even with the nice sleeve trim.  They have an all white set with a winged batting helmet that looks most like the football team brand.  The OREGON wordmark has a weird pattern inside – in fact, that wordmark is very different in general.  The plain white socks are unfortunate and disappointing.  The white jersey is also paired with green pants, socks, and white helmet.  Less commonly, the white jersey is paired with gray pants, white socks, and white visors.  And… we have a yellow set with Oregon wordmark that is also paired with the black helmet and black socks.  The yellow jersey is also worn with white pants, yellow socks, and white helmet.  I found only three batting helmets as discussed above.  They also wear white pink trimmed jerseys with pink socks and the white helmets.

__________I know – that was a lot.  Texas has already won and Oklahoma won in a walk-off down 2 and they played Saturday.  Then Texas beat OU on Saturday for the first time ever in the WCWS.  Texas Tech won their first ever World Series game against Ole Miss.  UCLA beat Oregon in the second walk-off on Thursday in an eventful game ending after midnight (the game didn’t start until 10pm and the lights went off twice).   Texas Tech won their second ever WCWS game against UCLA.  Texas teams are both 2-0 going into today only needing one win of their two potential games to advance.  But goodbye to Florida’s stirrup fest… they lost Friday night in an elimination game.  So did Ole Miss and their mostly beautiful uniform set and stirrups by another walk-off – but this time a walk-off walk.  Tennessee had three innings to walk it off on Sunday and they finally did sending UCLA home.  We have been saved from the third inning UCLA dugout party!   Oklahoma came back on Sunday from their loss against Texas and sent Oregon home.  Today is Texas vs. Tennessee and Texas Tech vs OU.