It’s Memorial Day weekend here in the States, and aside from the knowledge that MLB teams will be wearing flag desecration Amateur Pacifist getups on Monday (a day for honoring our war dead, not the military, tyvm), we also know that this weekend brings the quintessential American auto race — the Indianapolis 500. My knowledge of Indy cars and the race itself is very limited — but fortunately we’re joined by a reader (and sometime contributor) who’s worked with me before to bring you racing history and facts — Rob Caplette, probably known more familiarly to you as “Inkracer” or “The Tattoed Enigma.” He’ll be bringing you two posts this weekend: today, a history of the great American race, and tomorrow a rundown of the participants for the 2013 edition.
I’ve actually been to the Indianapolis 500, and taken a lap (in a track bus) — all 2.5 miles of it — waaaaaaaaaay back in 1989, when a couple of buddies and I drove cross-county. The “Brickyard” has changed a lot since the first race, but the object is still the same. Be the first driver to get the checkered flag at the end. There’s a pretty great museum at the track too, which if you’re ever in the area, I’d recommend visiting. But, aside from almost always watching the race over the years, and being fairly fascinated by it, I really don’t know much. But Rob does. So I’ll now turn the remainder of today’s lede over to him, as he brings us…
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The History of the Indy 500 By Rob Caplette
Rob Caplette, aka Inkracer here once again. Phil has graciously given me the keys this weekend to showcase the Indianapolis 500. Today I will dive into the history; the winners, the cars, iconic moments, and controversies, to get you ready for the 97th running of the Indy 500 tomorrow.
Some Indy 500 facts: 67 different drivers have won in the 96 races that have taken place to date. The race has been held annually since the first race in 1911, with the exceptions of 1917, 1918, and 1942-1945 due to World Wars One and Two. 18 drivers have won it multiple times; 3 have won it 4 times (Two drivers, Dario Franchitti and Helio Castroneves hope to get win number 4 this year), 7 drivers have 3 wins, (Dario and Helio are the only active drivers with 3 wins) 8 drivers have 2 wins, no active driver has just 2 wins. In all, 743 drivers (not including rookies this year) have taken part in the 500 mile race.
IndyCar has a long and unique history and the history of the cars looks, both in design and livery, go hand in hand. When we look at the modern single seater rockets that IndyCars have become, it is hard to imagine that in the beginning the cars were 2-seaters, a driver to look forward and a mechanic to look back. The rearview mirror in your car is an invention that was pioneered at Indy. In 1911, the average speed of the winning car was 74.602 miles per hour and the race itself took almost 7 hours. Fast forward to the 2012 event where the average speed was 167.734 and took just under 3 hours to complete. The cars have also transformed quite a lot from the early days. With the cars getting closer to the ground and the engines moving from in front of the driver to behind the driver.
Before we dive into the cars, we will take a look at the track itself. The track was originally paved completely with bricks. The track would stay mostly brick until 1961, when all but the famed Yard of Bricks was repaved. Since then, the track has only been repaved a few times, with the last track surface maintenance coming in 2004. The Pagoda has received several facelifts over the years, one of which was needed after a fire. The Winner’s circle has had a notable facelift as well, coming when the track prepared to host the Formula One United States Grand Prix.
From the start in 1911 through until the late 40s and early 50s there wasn’t much change in the cars. There were the slight changes like we tend to see from year to year in Formula 1.
The 1950s saw the start of a drastic overhaul to the IndyCar formula, which would spell the end of the front engine racers (The car pictured here is from earlier on in the history of Indy). A.J. Foyt would be the last man to win in a front engine car. He is also the only man in the 4-win Club to win in both front and rear engine cars.
The 1960s saw a more successful assault on IndyCar by Lotus, which was capped by a win by Jim Clark in 1965. The 70s saw even more evolution as the cars continued to get closer to the ground, and the addition of wings and downforce saw the speeds at the track continue to climb. From the 70s onward, the overall shape of the cars remained the same, though the visual evolution of the cars continued (and continues) to give us cars that are visually quite different.
My favorite Indy 500 is the 1989 race. It is the race I have seen the most (My parents had it recorded on VHS) It is also the first time the winner (Emerson Fittipaldi) won over 1 million dollars. It also has what it is, to me, one of the most iconic finishes in 500 history. Dan Wheldon’s final win of his career will also go down in history as Iconic Indy. The thrill of victory and agony of defeat so well summed up in the faces of those two drivers. I am glad to say I was in attendance for that race.
Indy has always been a home of racing innovation. No part of the car was ever overlooked in the pursuit of speed. TurbineEngines have even been used at Indy. Indy has also had its fair share of weird looking racecars. Head games between the teams are also a big part of what makes Indy special. Roger Penske has a history of covering up the front and rear wings of his cars, when not on track or in the garage. (I do believe that practice is now against the rules.)
Indy has had numerous iconic moments. Aside from the two I mentioned above, there is also Danny Sullivan’s famous “Spin and Win”, Sam Hornish’s last second pass of Marco Andretti, The closest finish in Indy 500 history where Al Unser Jr edged Scott Goodyear at the line. AJ Foyt becoming the first Four-time Winner of the great race, Ralph DePalma pushing his car to victory in the second Indy 500, and, of course, the barriers of 100 MPH (Rene Thomas, 1919), 150 MPH (Parnelli Jones, 1962) and 200 MPH (Tom Sneva, 1977) falling.
Of course, with the good comes the bad, and Indy has had its controversial moments as well. Most notably in 1981, where Bobby Unser was initially stripped of his win for passing under caution. He was eventually re-awarded the victory, but is said to still be bitter, and that it played a big role in his retiring at the end of that season. The other memorable controversy is the 2002 yellow controversy between Paul Tracy and Helio Castroneves. As with 1981, Penske’s driver was declared the victor when the smoke cleared.
Tomorrow I’ll be back with a rundown of how the cars qualified for the 97th running of the Indianapolis 500.
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Thanks Rob! Great writeup. Readers? Are you into auto racing (either NASCAR or Indy/Formula 1)? Does this writeup make you want to see the race now? Let Rob know how much you appreciated this in the comments, and if you have any questions, fire away.
Uni Tweaks Concepts
We have another new set of tweaks, er…concepts today. After discussion with a number of readers, it’s probably more apropos to call most of the reader submissions “concepts” rather than tweaks. So that’s that.
So if you’ve concept for any sport, or just a tweak or wholesale revision, send them my way.
Please do try to keep your descriptions to ~50 words (give or take) per image — if you have three uniform concepts in one image, then obviously, you can go a little over, but no novels, OK? OK!. You guys have usually been good with keeping the descriptions pretty short, and I thank you for that.
Like the colorizations, I’m going to run these as inline pics — click on each one to enlarge.
And so, lets begin:
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We begin today with Mike Edenzon, who tried his hand at a University-wide rebrand for the Scarlet Knights:
Hey Phil,
Since Nike has been “branding” schools by matching uniforms throughout each sport, I thought I’d give it a try with my favorite school, Rutgers.
I essentially simplified the football, basketball, and baseball uniforms, while matching letter and number fonts. I also tried to emphasize scarlet since they are the SCARLET Knights, and compliment that with white letter and trim instead of the awful black or chrome.
Enjoy!
-Mike Edenzon
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Next up is Joe Mueller, with a new look for the Blues of St. Looey:
Dear Phil,
A while ago I submitted two Saint Louis Blues away uniform concepts here are the home uniform concepts.
Sincerely,
Joe Mueller
(I’ve also included the away jerseys in case some don’t remember them.)
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We close today with Ty Brewer who has concept for the Bengals:
Greetings Phil,
Here is my concept for some a New Bengals Logo and gear. Been a fan for 20 years, and I think it’s time to deviate away from the stripes (except for the helmet, that’s untouchable). I jumped on the bandwagon and added grey to the uniform, and replaced white all together. Thanks for your time and your awesome website!
Sincerely,
Ty Brewer
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And that’s it for today. Back with more next time.
Stirrup Fridays…
Because we love the stirrup here at Uni Watch, this section is devoted to those of us who sport the beautiful hose on Fridays — a trend popularized many years ago by Robert P. Marshall, III. For many of us, it’s become a bit of an obsession, but a harmless one — a reflection of our times. Where we once had Friday ties, which has been replaced by Casual Friday — we now have Stirrup Fridays. It’s an endearingly simple concept — no matter where you work (or even if you don’t) — break out a fresh pair of rups to compliment (or clash with) your Friday attire.
Nice set for this Saturday. Not too big, not too small, and a couple of very nice shots.
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James Poisso:
Phil,
Stirrups to start a long weekend.
James Poisso
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Jake Graham:
Phil,
I’m a veterinarian that is spreading the revolution through my patient’s bandages. This one was seemed appropriate for Memorial Day and the client’s child asked for a Patriotic theme. Had to shrink it all down on this one as it was a 5 lb chihuahua.
Jake
(The patient’s face was hidden to protect the innocent)
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John K.:
Phil,
St. Louis Browns today for no particular reason other than they were on the top of the “stirrup drawer” and they are a good look.
John K
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Jason Bernard:
Robert & Phil,
You know what it is. Bucs & Pucks in the Burgh.
Bernard
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Soukie Outhavong:
Comrades,
Does that look like a knuckle curve or a slider?
Soukie
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Jeffrey Martin:
Hi Phil
This was my look for the Memorial Day Weekend at my school. (I teach 5th and 6th grade Physical Education at the New Jersey shore.)
I broke out the “Amerks” Stirrups from the Robert Marshall Collection.
As we open up for our first summer after Hurricane Sandy, our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Oklahoma as they begin the process of rebuilding.
Jeff Martin
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And that ends today’s look at Stirrup Friday — all of you who participate, send me your pics and a brief (~50 words) description of their relevance, and I’ll run ‘em here on Saturday (and sometimes Sunday too!). Be sure to visit Robert’s House of Hose for news on rups.
And now…here’s …
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Comrade Marshall’s Rupdate:
Comrades~
For Memorial Day weekend I decided to put the 76 Astros on special at the new price. Why? in honour of the rainbow of people that have given their life in service to this country, it seemed to make sense to me. In addition, the Sens stay on special. More importantly, I know what I am doing Monday before I grill, and I wish anyone else who has such a tradition all the best because I know how cathartic that experience is.
It’s only Saturday, so let me lighten up and get to the images. Um, clearly it is Veterinarian, that was pretty fabulous, and i loved the protecting the innocent text, fabulous. let’s just hope he can get us another pixture of an animal of a baseball fan who wants a classic stirrup look for this post. So, (name) wins this week’s buy one/get one that he can redeem whenever he wants. but there are other people who continue to blow me away like Soukie, and again this weeks kickball image is fabulous, and he is wearing a run of stripes that I asked the stripes to be low like the olde school pairs were, which I love on this past run of hawks. anyway, the point is Soukie has earned a the right to get anything and everything he wants for as long as I do this at the “new price”, Soukie you blow me away. Also, Jeff Martin — that. is. balls. or you have balls. — mucho props.
from each according their strype,
to each according their stirrvp.
• At least it isn’t camo… So, it seems the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes are doing the Military Appreciation Thingy today (tonight). And they’ll be going, well, ‘patriotic’:
(h/t Hugh McBride)
• New unis for Penn State?… It’s entirely possible, as there have been a couple stories on the Interwebs reporting this. Nothing major, mind you. According to that article, “At the ‘v’ of the neck you’ll see a new addition, a small Nittany Lion logo.” Wow. JoePa is probably rolling over in his grave.
• New for the Cosmos… Looks like the New York Cosmos (that’s an American soccer club) are getting some pretty nice kits. Not quite what Pele wore way back when, but still nice. (h/t Chance Michaels)
• Unis by Focus Group?… Why not. This is a pretty interesting read. Scroll down to the second section, entitled, “Joe Banner is gonna fix our logo and uniforms with focus groups.”
• The Stars come out in Texas… We know the Dallas Stars are getting new unis on June 4. We just don’t know what they’re getting (although the logo was inadvertently leaked late Thursday). But Tim Cowlishaw, in this interview, said what he’d like to see in the new unis: ” I hope to see some shade of green. I was talking to someone yesterday (not a Stars official, just a fan) who thinks it’s going to be red, white and blue. The Stars have been green since North Stars days. I don’t think they currently have anything approaching the best uniforms in the league so anything is going to be OK really.”
And that will do it for this fine Saturday. Make sure you give props to the Inkracer for his great writeup as we begin the Memorial Day weekend. Race day is tomorrow. Puck & Hoop playoffs are moving along. Summer is just around the corner.
Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken
Peace.
One For The Road
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“For some reason, I had an Expos cap when I was like 6 or 7 years old and when my dad explained to me that it was a ‘stylized M’ I was certain that he was just stupid and that elb was the Canadian spelling of Expos or something.”
–James T. Huening
The basic story is this: At many schools (not just including those in the Big 10), freshman students in the early 1900s — and sometimes earlier — were required to acknowledge their underclass status by wearing beanies, mainly as a way to identify potential hazing prospects. Or as a 1907 article in the Wisconsin student paper put it, the caps were not for “humiliating the first year men but to make it possible to identify them for the purpose of assisting them in every possible way.” Uh, right.
Sometimes the beanies — which were often called “pots” or “pods” — were in school colors. But frequently they were green, regardless of the school, to indicate the freshmen’s “greenness.” Toward the end of the school year, froshes would often mark their impending ascension to the sophomore ranks by gathering and burning their beanies (one unfortunate result of which is that few of the old beanies have survived). The whole thing had mostly died out by the late 1930s, presumably because upperclassmen found more aggressive ways of hazing freshmen.
Clicking through the Big 10 beanie site, I came across some interesting factoids. One example: The burning of the caps was suspended at several schools during World War I, when the caps were instead sent to war refugees in Belgium and elsewhere in Europe. And at Michigan State, freshmen were exempt from wearing the beanies on Sundays or if they were married. There’s plenty of additional good info in there — I encourage you to click around on the site.
This is all pretty new to me, because I attended SUNY-Binghamton, which doesn’t have a deep WASP-y heritage like the Big 10 schools. What about you folks — were you aware of this tradition? Did you see or experience anything like it while you attended college?
These and many other new designs are now available for your perusal in the membership card gallery. The printed and laminated versions of these new cards should mail out either on Saturday or next Tuesday. And if you want to sign up for your own card, you can do so in the usual place. But remember, no more purple until May 17, 2014.
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Candela update: The former World’s Fair pavilions colloquially and erroneously known as the Candela Structures, which I’ve been periodically researching and writing about for the past four and a half years (sometimes on Uni Watch, sometimes elsewhere), are about to get a nice showcase, because Kirsten and I have written an article about them for the Metropolitan section of this Sunday’s New York Times. The article will summarize everything we’ve learned about the structures since we first developed a crush on them in the fall of 2008, and will also tell the full story of the family that acquired the “missing” structure after the Fair.
We’re really happy with the way the article has turned out, and even happier that it will bring the structures’ story to a wider audience. I’ll post the link to the article next week.
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Uni Watch News Ticker: June 4 is shaping up as a big day for NHL uniforms. We already knew the Stars were unveiling their new unis on that date, and now it turns out the Hurricanes will also unveil that day. Carolina’s event will be at noon, with Dallas’s to follow in the evening. Although the new Dallas logo may have already leaked (thanks for that one, Phil). … Meanwhile, the Star’s AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars, just had an unveiling of their own (from eff Czuba). … You know what the word really needs? If you said, “G.I. Joe NFL gloves!,” then you have no idea what the world really needs, but you have a good sense of what the world is getting anyway. … Someone working on the broadcast of last night’s Royals game was either high, fucking with us, or looking to get fired (thanks, Phil). … In my recent ESPN column about the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s baseball card collection, I mentioned that they’d soon be having an exhibit of cards from the dead-ball era. They’ve now created a web page for that exhibit — look here. … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Excellent article about how the NCAA is more concerned with water bottle labels than the big picture. … Uniform designer Todd Radom has written an absolutely superb piece about the Expos’ logo. Highly recommended. … Speaking of Todd, he found an entertaining account of how Kareem wore his shorts backwards for a game in 1972. … Ubaldo Jimenez has always worn very low-cut stirrups, but lately they’re not quite as low-cut as before (from Ed Hahn). … There’s some chatter — only speculation, for now — about a Raptors rebranding. … New uniforms for the Alexandria Blue Anchors. … Purple tequila sunrise — with purple-striped stirrups! That’s Brownsburg High School in Indiana. “I’m hoping those unis are phased out by the time my son gets to high school,” says Jonathan Daniel. … Here’s a page showing the origins of the NFL team names (from Matt Dubroff). … David Firestone spotted a fake Jeff Gordon racing helmet, being presented as real, at the Museum of Science and Industry. … Southern Miss football fans are being invited to vote on the logo for the team’s gold helmets (thanks, Phil). … James Pallotta is President of the Italian soccer club A.S. Roma and a minority owner of the Celtics. So on a recent visit to the Vatican, he gave the Pope jerseys from both teams (from Brady Phelps). … Will Leitch wrote a pretty smart analysis of this week’s ESPN layoffs (although he’s wrong about the part at the end where he says the casualties were all on the sales and tech side — not true). … Who’s that in the Penguins uni? None other than Brandon Inge of the Pirates (from Jerry Wolper). … Ooooh, look at this sensational old NFL foot locker! It’s part of this Craigslist offering (great find by Jeff Wilk). … I like this SF Giants cycling cap (from Elliott Bueler). … Earlier this week I mentioned that the A’s were giving away a jersey with vertically arched NOB lettering. I was wondering if that was just an illustration, but it turns out it’s the real deal. Very odd (from Matt Gagnon). … I’m still calling it the UCF Arena (from Tom Van de Kieft). … A while back I posted this photo of Bills WR Andre Reed in a Dolphins T-shirt. “I finally saw Andre at the golf course today and was able to ask him about it,” says Drew McClintock. “He laughed when I showed it to him and said it was most likely at the Pro Bowl where, players wear other teams’ clothes, but could not remember 100%. He asked me to send it to him and was gonna put it on his Instagram for ‘throwback Thursday.’” … Three uni-notable aspects of this shot from a Fresno State/Air Force baseball game: (1) Color vs. color. (2) Air Force wearing camo. (3) Love those Northwestern-striped stirrups (from Holden Sprague). … The Orioles wore a lot of denim for their latest road trip (from Stephen Murphy). … We’ve documented Alexander Julian’s work as a basketball uni designer in recent days, but I didn’t realize until now that he also designed racesuits for Michael and Mario Andretti (from Tommy Turner). … Also from Tommy: Robert Griffin III, rehabbing from surgery, participated in some throwing drills yesterday in an Adidas shirt. … You know how Nike loves to make big, splashy announcements about its new uniforms? That hasn’t been the case, oddly enough, for the Nike’s new unis for the National Women’s Soccer League. … Washington Huskies softball pitcher Kaitlin Inglesby was hit in the face by a line drive in 2010, shattering 40 facial bones. So now she wears this mask (from Jim Wagner). … Why the hell does Sharks goalie Antti Niemi still have a jersey with the Reebok vector logo? (Screen shot by Mike Engle.) … “AS Roma have ‘updated their brand identity,’ which is to say they’re going to be using a lot of Trajan from now on,” says Bernd Wilms. “Also, the interlocking ASR that had been around, with interruptions, since the 1960s is now gone. Thanks, American owners!” … Oh baby, look at this awesome baseball jersey from a milk deliverymen’s team! Too bad about the divot taken out of the back shirttail, or else I’d be all over this one. … This is odd: a gray jersey with white felt lettering and numbering. Unusual design choice!
Holiday schedule: Phil’s on duty this weekend, as usual. The site will be open on Monday, although content will likely be light. Everyone have a great holiday weekend. If you’re traveling, travel safe; if you’re grilling, use charcoal. See you next week.
Here’s something you don’t see every day: Minnesota pitching coach Todd Oakes wore a surgical mask while visiting the mound during yesterday’s game against Illinois. “He has leukemia,” explains reader Tim Burke. “He just had a bone marrow transplant and is apparently very susceptible to disease right now.”
Wow.
First, let’s get all the snarky comments out of the way. Yes, it’s a shame he didn’t get a mask in Gophers colors. And no, I can’t believe Nike hasn’t provided him with a swooshified mask.
Now that we’ve dealt with that, I’m pretty blown away by Oakes’s determination. Very impressive that he’s working at all!
As long as we’re talking college baseball, here’s something else from yesterday:
Thing of beauty, eh? That’s San Jose State from yesterday’s WAC conference tourney, but it’s understandable if the uni gave you a KC Royals flashback (gold number notwithstanding, natch). “That’s pretty big-time right there,” says reader Frank Mercogliano. “They’re not throwbacks — just one of their road uniforms for this year.” According to San Jose State’s SID, “[Head coach Dave] Nakama replaced the unis when he arrived and this is one of his selections. We also wore them once at home.” Very nice.
The knish is in the oven: Just thought you’d like to know.
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Uni Watch News Ticker: The 1940 Oneonta Indians either had a puzzlingly simple jersey or else something was missing from that guy’s uni. “I have no idea what the scoop is,” says Todd Radom. “I was doing some research on vintage Phillies and came across it.” … Both teams in yesterday’s Braves/Twins game wore their BP caps. Anyone know why? … Menswear designer Alexander Julian, who designed the Hornets’ original uniforms, would like to design the new Hornets’ unis (thanks, Phil). … Speaking of Julian, here are two really good articles about him: one about his work for the Hornets and another about his work for UNC (both from Josh Hansen). … Steelers WR Plaxico Burress is launching a new line of fancy socks. … Check this out: a patent for a backless baseball cap (from James Gordon). … Awesome stirrups for Northern Kentucky University, although this dude is wearing them backwards (from John A. Gray). … I’m quoted in this article about Chicago sports uniforms. … New uniforms for United Airlines. … Rob Delaney doesn’t like long, baggy baseball pants (from Kyle Tarbet). … Two microbreweries are facing off in a court battle over their similar logos (from Patrick Barnett). … Speaking of beer, the Brewers and Leinenkugal are teaming up to create a new brew that will be called Bernie’s Barrelman Ale (from Ben Fortney). … Have I mentioned lately how good Hamilton Nolan is? Probably, but just in case: Hamilton Nolan is really, really good. Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Check out this home plate ump wearing a cast on his arm. … Oooh, I gotta get me one of these (thanks, Kirsten). … Here are some photos of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ new field being painted (from Daren Landers). … Kevin Poss notes that Braves catchers Evan Gattis Brian McCann “appear to have a little bromance going with the hair-beard combo.” … Some very interesting eBay finds by Michael Clary, including a Reds rain slicker and a pair of super-cool NFL tray tables. … Why stop at desecrating the flag when you can also desecrate the Declaration of Independence while you’re at it? In case you can’t read the chest insignia, that’s the Lake Elsinore Storm (from Bryan Spangenberg). … Oooh, this is pretty cool: a gallery of MLB lifetime passes (from Adam Brodsky). … Ben Fortney has discovered a site devoted to really nice photos of stadiums and arenas around the world. … New kit for Man City (Phil again). … A revival of the play Good News! in Connecticut features some 1920s-style football uniforms (from Dave Sikula). … “I was watching the music video for Blink 182′s single ‘Adam’s Song,’ writes Danny Boyle. “In the video is a person wearing a cap that looks like a cheap Rays hat. But the video was made eight years before the Rays changed from green to blue.” Anyone know what cap that might have been? … So this is weird: The Mets’ stadium is surrounded by banners featuring notable past and present Mets. Inexplicably, one of the players featured is Keith Miller, basically a four-A player who had an utterly inconsequential career. So why is he on a banner? Possibly because he went on to become David Wright’s agent. … Also from Joe: This has got to be the best stirrups match-up of the year. That’s St. Louis University High (SLUH) and Hazelwood West, both from Missouri. (That noise you hear in the background is Mark in Shiga pointing out that the “27″ on the black-jerseyed player is positioned too low. And he’s right!) … This is pretty awesome: 1932 footage of a box lacrosse game. Says Bobby Pinkham: “I always knew box lacrosse, particularly in Canada, was the summer version of hockey, but I never knew teams wore the actual sweaters (yes, sweaters during the summer!) of their affiliated pro hockey teams — in this case the Maple Leafs and the Canadiens. Pretty cool stuff, huh?” Indeed.
To everyone who’s been asking: Don’t worry, Uni Watch and I are still part of ESPN.com!
You probably recognize the card shown above — it’s the famous Honus Wagner T206 card, the rarest and most valuable baseball card ever made. Only about three dozen are known to exist.
I recently found myself in the same room with one of those three dozen cards. It was just a few inches away from me; I could have touched it if I’d wanted. And where did this happen? About the last place you’d expect. Enjoy. — Paul
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Question Time: It’s been a few months since our last installment of Question Time (you can see the previous four installments here), so I’m opening up the floor to a new round of questions. You know the drill: You can submit one question — and only one — on any subject, uni-related or not. Personal questions are fine, although I reserve the right to not answer questions that are too personal. (For the record, this has only happened a twice so far.) Send your question — remember, only one — here.
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Radio appearance: I’ll be talking uniforms today, from about 1:30-1:45pm Eastern, on 810 WHB in Kansas City. You can stream the live audio here.
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Uni Watch News Ticker: Following up on yesterday’s entry about MLB going G.I. Joe for Memorial Day: It had already been announced back in March that all of MLB’s proceeds from the camo cap sales would go to Welcome Back Veterans. But when those camo jerseys started showing up at the MLB Online Shop yesterday, there was no indication that the jersey revenue would go to charity, so many people assumed, not unreasonably, that MLB was simply pocketing the jersey cash. An MLB spokesman now tells me that “100% of MLB’s proceeds” from the jersey sales will go to Welcome Back Veterans. I’ve suggested that they might want to make that clearer at the MLB Online Shop, so people don’t get the wrong idea. In any case, they can sell all the camo crap they want and donate all the money they want, but I remain opposed to the use of camo on the diamond, for reasons I’ve already spelled out many times. … Giants and Nats wore red ribbons last night. At first I thought it was for the twister victims in Oklahoma, but it turns out it had nothing to do with that. … The NFL has struck a deal that will lead to laminated play-calling sheets being replaced by Microsoft’s electronic tablets. Teams can also use iPads, but only if they cover the Apple logo. Douchebags. … Two hockey-related notes from Dane Drutis: (1) As Sweden was sealing their victory in the gold medal game on Sunday in the IIHF World Championship, players were given gold helmets for the post-game celebration. (2) During the 2013 Memorial Cup tournament taking place this week in Saskatoon, the captain of the Halifax Mooseheads will be determined based on which color jerseys the team is wearing: Trey Lewis is captain when they wear red, while Stefan Fournier has the C on the white jerseys. … New kit for FC Barcelona (from Danny Garrison). … It’s a little hard to see, but the weighted bat cuff in the Blue Jays’ on deck circle has the Jays logo and the MLB logo (from Mike O’Connor). … Here’s a pretty cool visual guide to all the cars and drivers in this Sunday’s Indy 500 (from Clark Ruhland). … New alternate football jerseys for Penn (from Evan Smith). … Here’s a video of the Rams’ rookies getting their gear (from Marcus Clowers). … Mike Kearney was at a flea market over the weekend and spotted this cool NFL mini-helmet display. … Everyone knows that Super Bowl LI should take place on Long Island (with the pregame party at LI Phil’s house), but nope. … Here’s a fun Stanley Cup infographic (From Anthony Nuccio). … Remember my recent interview with Joe “Big Cock” Johnson? That appears to have started a trend (from Jim Romenesko). … The excellent Frozen Faceoff site now has a new spin-off site devoted to full-rink graphics, including ads on the sideboards. “I plan to continue this next season, and will also add some historic ices,” says site honcho David Crabtree. “This is a much slower process, as it take so much longer to research all of the ads that go into the graphics, but I think the end result is worth it.” … Pakistan, in the midst of a brutal heat wave, has issued a new dress code for civil servants, who can now go without socks (from Tom Mulgrew). … Giants outfielder Gregor Blanco talks about the team’s recent high-cuffed game in the fifth and sixth grafs of this post on his blog (thanks, Brinke). … UNC and FSU baseball went color-on-color on Monday, plus UNC went G.I. Joe. ” It’s better than most of the crap camo unis out there but still pretty bad,” says J. Fletcher. … Nike and Oregon, in their never-ending attempt to redefine stupid, have come out with — wait for it — pregame baseball shoes. I eagerly await the postgame version (from Matt Busch). … Jeremy Brahm notes that the logo for the Indian Volleyball League, which was founded in 2011, is basically a straight rip of the original FIVB World League logo. … The A’s are planning to give away a T-shirt that will apparently have a vertically arched NOB, even though the A’s have never use that style, and nobody in the bigs currently uses it (from Shaun T). … Big thanks to those of you who expressed concern regarding my job status after hearing about yesterday’s unpleasantness. Don’t worry, people — I’m fine, at least for now.
We’ve known for several months now that MLB teams would be wearing G.I. Joe caps on Memorial Day. But reader Brendan Hickey has picked up on something that hasn’t yet been officially announced: If you go to each MLB team’s online shop and go to the listing of men’s authentic jerseys, the first item listed is a jersey with camouflage numbering and lettering, similar to the ones worn this past Saturday by the Angels and White Sox (that was for Armed Forces Day). In each case, the team’s online shop only shows a home camo jersey or a road camo jersey — not both — depending on whether the team is playing at home or on the road next Monday. Tucked away in the fine print is the following line: “As worn on-field Memorial Day May 27th, 2013.”
So every MLB team will be wearing G.I. Joe jerseys next Monday (yes, even the Yankees), in addition to the G.I. Joe caps. How wonderful.
It’s been said many times before, but it bears repeating: Memorial Day is not a day for celebrating the military. It’s a day for honoring the military dead. A more appropriate gesture would be an MLB-wide black armband. An even better gesture would be a pregame moment of silence, without anything on the uniform. But as is so often the case nowadays, merchandising and pandering trump common sense.
Meanwhile, yesterday morning — before I knew about the G.I. Joe jerseys — I received an email from a publicist, reminding me about the caps. I asked the publicist why the caps are called “Stars & Stripes” caps when they have neither stars nor stripes. His response: “They are part of the ‘Stars & Stripes’ program. These caps [for Memorial Day] are the first in a series of three, with the others coming out around July 4th and September 11th. Both of those caps will contain stars and stripes.” And based on what we’re seeing for Memorial Day, it’s reasonable to assume that these flag-desecration caps will be joined by flag-desecration jerseys. Grreeeaaaaaat.
I could go on about the twisting of civic values here, but I believe that sound in the background is reader R. Scott Rogers typing up a stinging indictment that does just that. Go get ’em, Scott.
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French Open Overview
By Brinke Guthrie
The second Slam of the year is here: Paris is once again hosting the French Open. So pack your bags and let’s see who’s wearing what:
• Ana Ivanovic has a blue Adidas dress, notable for the French Open logo on the chest, intead of the Adidas logo. I think they did this last year too, as Adidas is a prime French Open sponsor.
• Rafael Nadal is the greatest clay court player in men’s tennis history. Unless the world stops spinning, he’ll be wearing this Nike stuff when he holds up his latest French Open trophy.
• More French Nike gear, including the Serena and Sharapova lines, here, with shoe close-ups here.
• Novak Djokovic’s clothing sponsor is Japan-based Uniqlo, but it seems they can’t be bothered to have anything new on their site, which showcases Djokovic’s Australian Open gear from January. Memo to marketing: Update the site before one of the Grand Slams.
• Fila’s various women’s player lines — for Jelena Jankovic, Julia Goerges and Nadia Petrova — are shown here.
• Also of note, Andre Agassi is “back home” with the Swoosh, after several years in the Adidas wilderness.
Finally, if you miss the 1980′s tennis look as much as I do (I played and wasn’t too bad unless I had to hit a backhand), you’ll love this site. You can see one of my favorite looks from that era here.
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Collector’s Corner
By Brinke Guthrie
Remember when you got that Sunoco NFL ’72 sticker book, like the one shown above, for Christmas? That scene on Christmas morning might have looked something like this. (If you’re not familiar with these great Sunoco sticker books, look here.)
Okay, so a photo of a cool item is one thing, but how about the actual items? Here’s this week’s haul:
• Michael Clary rides again. After a lengthy hiatus, he’s back with more eBay finds. Maybe you’re in the mood for an inflatable Boston Bruin mascot? Check. Or an NHL skate bottle opener? Double-check. And we have a nice photo of a 1960s 49ers helmet buggy.
• Never seen this LA Rams sweater design before. Almost looks like a DIY job, except that you can see there was once a label sewn into the inner collar.
• Nothing says retro NFL quite like this Cowboys Starter jacket I had this very model, in fact: My boss at Q102 at the time was Jim Fox, a diehard Cowboys fan, and he gave me one of these for Christmas.
Seen something on eBay or Etsy that you think would make good Collector’s Corner fodder? Send your submissions here.
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OMFG: My latest One-Man Focus Group column is about the new logo for Little Debbie snack cakes, shown at right. (If you view the column in Safari, the photo at the bottom may look weird. If so, try a different browser. Thanks.)
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Uni Watch News Ticker: The Battle of the Uniforms is over, and the O’s stand victorious. Who’da thunk? … More than 200 Mavs uni designs have been submitted in response to Mark Cuban’s invitation last week. You can see some of them in this ESPN piece I wrote yesterday afternoon. … In other NBA news, Bobcats owner Michael Jordan will discuss the team’s upcoming name change, to the Hornets, at a news conference today. … New basketball court design for George Washington (from Peter Kirschenbaum). … Meanwhile, James Madison wants a new court but is inviting fan submissions for the design (from Andrew Rader). … Yikes! That’s a throwback worn by South Adams High in Indiana (from Craig McKean). … Arouna Koné, who plays for Wigan Athletic (EPL), has an unusual NOB (from Max Weintraub). … Jimmy Griggs notes that Ole Miss baseball’s road uniforms appear to have mismatched shades of gray. … Speaking of mismatched grays, look at Bobby Gritch and Brooks Robinson in this shot from the 1972 All-Star Game. Looks like two different uniforms! (Good spot by Adam Garrettson.) … The new basketball arena down the road from me has its own distinctive aroma. Gross (thanks, Kirsten). … The Mets are conducting “Celebrate Israel Night” tonight, which means Mets-themed yarmulkes. … Brian Fitterman was looking in a 1962 prep school yearbook and came across this photo of a very unusual facemask. … New home kit for England — their first done by Nike, instead of Umbro (from Danny Garrison). … Check out No. 55 in the front row. Any idea who that is? Give yourself a pat on the back if you knew it was none other than Pete Rose, circa 1958. And speaking of Rose, did you know he has a Mr. Redlegs tattoo? (Both of these from Michael Clary.) … Oooh, coupla really nice old racecar photos here. When I see cars like those, the word “roadster” immediately comes to mind. … Yesterday’s uni-numerical note regarding Rick Barry (who wasn’t allowed to wear No. 24 with the Rockets, so he who wore No. 2 at home and No. 4 on the road) prompted this note from Terence Kearns: “Lewis Holtby was signed by Tottenham Hotspur in January, after trading away GK Carlos Cudicini, who wore No. 23. Holtby took 23 for all matches but UEFA Europa League, where he wore No. 14, because of some rule with registered numbers on a team.” … That same item about Barry also prompted this from Eric Holm: “When Rick Rickert played for the University of Minnesota, he wanted to wear 14, but he couldn’t, because the Gophers had retired number 14 for Lou Hudson. Rickert instead wore 1 at home and 4 on the road. Somewhere in my sports card collection there’s a collection of Gophers basketball cards that includes the Rick Rickert as No. 1 and No. 4.” … New football helmet for DePauw (from Joe Mueller). … New logo and uniforms for the Peoria Rivermen (from Josh Petty). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: New kits for Queens Park Rangers (from Jason Halpin). … Mikhail Herrera notes that Brett Gardner of the Yankees has been wearing one of those thingies on his sliding hand. … New football turf for Ohio University (from Leo Strawn Jr.). … Is Phil Jackson opposed to advertising on jerseys? Sounds like it, at least judging by “>this article, in which Jackson says the NBA should be more soccer and then adds, “Although their jerseys are a mess” (from Mike Cooperman). … Speaking of Jackson, check out him and Clyde Frazier wearing belted shorts in 1967 (nice find by Tom Farley. … The Philadelphia Soul — that’s an arena football team — wore orange socks on Saturday to raise awareness of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (from Lee David Wilds). … ’Skins GM Bruce Allen says the controversy over the team’s name is “a non-issue” (from Tommy the CPA). … Phil tipped me off to a photo of a new EMU helmet that was circulating, but the original source appears to have been an Instagram link that’s now dead, so draw your own conclusions. … In college baseball, Prairie View (purple) and Jackson State (navy) went color on color last night. “Might be the one of the worst-looking games I’ve ever seen,” says William Thomas. … Here’s a Cuban soccer player wearing an Adidas kit and Nike shoes. “Don’t know if this has to do with the peculiarities of Cuba’s economy or if the player’s just doing it on his own,” says Norm Johnson. … Here’s an amusing debate over whether the basketball rim should be raised.
Slump-buster move yesterday by the Giants, as everyone went high-cuffed — even skipper Bruce Bochy, as you can see in the top photo. They also opted to wear their primary cap instead of their orange-brimmed Sunday cap. Didn’t work, alas, as they got blanked by the Rockies, 5-0, but that’s what they get for wearing the solid black socks instead of the ones with the orange stripes, which surely would have resulted in a victory.
According to this piece, Bochy was asked if the high-cuffery was his idea. He said it wasn’t, “and I’m done with it.”
One other note: If you look at screen shot near the top of the page, it looks like the player on the left may have a the mark of the beast on his left sock. Or maybe not — it’s tough to say for sure. Might just be a stray piece of a napkin that got stuck on his calf or some such. Can anyone who watched the game fill us in?
Another question: Throwback games notwithstanding, when’s the last time an entire team went high-cuffed? It’s pretty rare — maybe even unheard of — to get the entire team to play along. Usually there’s one player, often a pitcher, who insists on going pajama-pantsed, no?
Meanwhile, speaking of socks, yesterday was “High Sock Sunday” in St. Louis — and it extended beyond the players. Additional photos here.
(My thanks to Sean Robbins, Richard Paloma, and Brinke Guthrie for their contributions to this section.)
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Uni Watch News Ticker: Good roundtable discussion about the Redskins’ team name (from Matt Busch). … Look at these awesome old soccer stickers (thanks, Kirsten). … As mentioned in Friday’s Ticker, the Rays dressed up in camouflage for their latest road trip. Here’s how they looked (from Kevin Kleinhans). … “Pepperdine’s Firestone Fieldhouse is getting a new floor,” writes Tim Stoops. “Last Thursday they showed off an older floor that was underneath the most recent floor. A fun peek at the school’s basketball history.” … New football helmet for St. Lawrence, a D3 school in upstate New York (from James Ferentz). … Nice Northwestern-striped stirrups for Hofstra (from Nate Collins). … I’ve seen lots of shots of the Hollywood Stars’ shorts over the years, but not this one. That’s one of many wonderful photos from this sensational online exhibit about baseball in L.A. Highly recommended (from Ben Traxel). … Whoa, look at the ref in this 1941 UVA football photo. Horizontal sleeve striping! Another shot from the same game reveals that the refs’ jerseys were actually cardigans. No hats, either (Nate Collins again). … Buck Showalter apparently wants the Orioles to adopt a road cap with a “B” logo (from Nick Kelly). … Nice piece on NASCAR paint schemes (from Russ Havens). … The Seibu Lions will be wearing late-1930s Tokyo Senators throwbacks in July (from Jeremy Brahm). … Also from Jeremy: The Tokyo Yakult Swallows will wear green uniforms for eight games in July through September. … In Aussie football news, the Gold Coast Suns and Western Bulldogs went color-vs.-color — or is it colour-vs.-colour? — last Friday. “Beautiful to watch,” says Leo Strawn Jr. … Special commemorative kit for the Peruvian team Universitario de Deportes. Omar A. says it’s to commemorate “some old guy.” … There’s a new book out about Japanese baseball uniforms. Maybe Mark in Shiga or some other Japanese reader can get a copy and give us the scoop? (From Seiji, who didn’t give his last name.) … Someone is conducting a Big 10 football helmet bracket (from Chris Flinn). … New Mexico and San Diego State played a red-on-red ballgame on Saturday. “Good God,” says a nonplussed Frank Mercogliano. … In a related item, the Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps played white-on-white the other day (from Steve Bommarito). … New kit for Paris St. Germain (Jeremy Brahm again). … Michael Jordan wore No. 45 with the Birmingham Barons, but here’s a painting that mistakenly shows him wearing No. 23 (from Mike Latona). … Someone is trying to collect every baseball card showing a memorial patch or armband. Details here and here (from Matt Wilson). … Very impressive job by Andrew Pick, who designed and fabricated his bowling team’s shirts. “I did just about everything from designing the logo, ordering custom corresponding patches, and hand-embroidering my teammates’ names,” he says. Check out the very nice results here. … Exciting news from Bill Jones, who, along with three partners, has created a set of WFL football cards. That page also has a link to a podcast in which Bill and his cohorts are interviewed by the folks from Gridiron Greats magazine. … Oooh, look at this gorgeous old pair of stirrups. … Luke Frishman recently got bar mitzvahed, and the event had a U. of Wisconsin theme. Mazel tov! … According to an item in The Sporting News, Rick Barry wanted to wear No. 24 with the Rockets in 1978 but it wasn’t available, so he wore 2 at home and 4 on the road. And look — sure enough! “Has anyone else ever done something similar to this?” asks Jarrad Tauzin. Not that I can think of. Then again, I wasn’t aware of Barry having done it until now. … Retro-ish alternates for Wichita State baseball on Sunday (from Jesse Nienke). … Check this out: The Brewers’ Barrel Man character apparently dates back to 1901! And back in the ’40s they had a live mascot with a rather awkward Barrel Man costume (both of these from Eric Schultz). … “For some reason in Saturday’s San Jose Earthquakes match against the Colorado Rapids, Chris Wondolowski was wearing two flags on his sleeve in the first half,” reports Bryan Justman. “He was down to one flag in the second half.” … Charlie Charnigo was at an antiques store and spotted an Oilers bobblehead with a “gusher” logo. I like that better than their official logo. … Rangers head coach John Tortorella knew how to blouse his baseball pants quite nicely (from Alan Kreit). … New logo for the Sun Belt Conference (from Jay Winkler). … If you’ve always wanted to see a hockey jersey design that featured two deers humping, today’s your lucky day. “No story behind it, just thought it was awesome,” says Blake Pass. … The A’s wore three different jerseys for their three-game sweep of the Royals: gold on Friday, green on Saturday, and white on Sunday. “It’s reminiscent on the ’70s, when they’d wear the white tops only for Sunday home games,” says Richard Paloma. … The Nevada State high school baseball championship came down to a G.I. Joe team vs. a tequila sunrise team — yikes. Check it out, if you dare, in the slideshow on this page (from Demetrius Anagnostis).
The announcement earlier this week that Mark Cuban was going to attempt to crowd source new uniforms for the Mavericks (and which Paul covered very nicely on Tuesday) not only brought reaction from the various professional (and amateur) designers on the board, it also brought back memories of the White Sox design-a-uniform contest back in 1981, which begat these uniforms (which the ChiSox are fauxbacking to this year). But, was that the first ever “design a uniform” contest for a Major League Baseball team?
In the comments that day, my buddy Chance Michaels wrote,
I just realized – there was a fan logo contest before the White Sox. The Brewers held one in 1977 to replace the beer barrel man.
The winner was a student named Tom Meindel, who received $2,000 from the team (almost $7,700 in 2013 dollars). His design, FWIW, was then given to a professional design firm which tweaked it and refined it.
But that can’t be the first one, can it?
As soon as I saw that, I contacted Chance and asked if he’d like to expand upon that comment and do a writeup for Uni Watch. He happily obliged. So, with that setup, I’ll now turn the remainder of this lede over to Mr. Michaels, who will give us all the details on …
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The Brewers Fan-Designed Logo Contest of 1977 By Chance Michaels
In the fall of 1977, the Brewers were in a funk.
The team was limping to a 67-95 season, 33 games out of first place. In eight seasons since moving from Seattle, they had never finished above .500. Fan support in Milwaukee was strong, topping a million fans four of the past five seasons (a good record in those days), but patience was wearing thin. Club president Bud Selig needed to shake things up, and nobody was safe. At the end of the season, Selig fired manager Alex Grammas, general manager Jim Baumer, and the team’s logo, the Beer Barrel Man.
The club had been using the Beer Barrel Man as its logo since 1967, years before Milwaukee had a team of its own. The character himself dates back at least as far as 1942, when he was called Owgust and welcomed patrons to old Borchert Field, although the version used by the Brewers made its debut in 1947.
But times change, and late in that 1977 season, the Brewers announced an open contest to let their fans submit designs for the Brewers’ new logo, which would accompany new (team-designed) uniforms.
One of the entrants was a graphic design and art major at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire named Tom Meindel. He heard about the contest from a local television station, and decided to give it a try.
Meindel reportedly came up with the idea for the Ball-in-Glove while bored in a psychology class, sketching in the margins of his notebook. “I remember working with the M and B and I was stuck,” he later recounted. “I wasn’t going anywhere. Then I decided to start using lower case letters. The obvious thinking was to put them side-by-side, but I thought ‘let’s stack it, one on top of the other.’ It was a very crude drawing, but all of a sudden, boom, the light bulb came on. It reminded me of a baseball glove.”
His original design was rougher, more elongated. The baseball had stitching rather than the smooth seam we have today.
He mailed his design to the Brewers’ marketing department, and a couple weeks later was informed that his had been chosen as one of two finalists, chosen from nearly 2,000 entries. The Brewers flew him to Milwaukee to discuss the design with Dick Hearn the team’s vice president in charge of marketing. Meindel’s entry was refined (possibly in-house, possibly by an outside firm), and shortly after Meindel returned to Eau Claire, he received a telephone call from the Brewers informing him that his design had won.
For his creation, Meindel received $2,000, which in 2013 dollars comes to just under $7,700. He put the cash towards the down payment for a house.
Selig’s new-look Brewers experienced an instant turn-around. The 1978 Brewers, with Meindel’s logo on their caps, went 93-69, only 6½ games back of the Yankees in the AL East. Selig himself was named “Major League Executive of the Year” by United Press International, beating out his own GM, Harry Dalton. Times were looking up for the Brewers, and the new logo helped shake off the cobwebs of mediocrity that had hung off the club since 1970.
Everyone knows the rest of the story. The Brewers would win a share of the AL East in 1981 and the American League pennant in 1982, taking the Cardinals to seven games in the World Series and securing a place in Milwaukee’s hearts forever.
But times change, and Meindel’s logo fell out of favor. In 1994, to celebrate the club’s 25th anniversary, the Brewers set it aside in favor of a more serious logo, with darker colors and sharper lines. Still, the BnG remained popular. In 2005, the Brewers were considering reviving Meindel’s logo in some form (we now know that they settled on an alternate uniform). The club held a “fan vote” at Miller Park, where patrons were given the choice between one of two free t-shirts at the turnstyles; the current barley-M or Meindel’s classic. The BnG won convincingly, as 63% of fans chose the classic t-shirt.
Interviewed by the Register-Guard in his new home of Eugene, Oregon, Meindel was intrigued by the persistence of his design. “For me, the way this thing keeps coming back is almost surreal,” he told the paper. “I wouldn’t compare it with any of the classics, but it has certainly withstood the test of time.”
It sure has. If anything, looking around Miller Park on any given home game makes me think he’s being modest.
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Thanks, Chance! Great writeup (as always). Well, folks — two things — how great is that and was this the first ever ‘crowdsourced’ uniform or logo design contest ever held (for any sport)? Even if it wasn’t (or was), it would be great to have a list of them so put on your thinking caps and lets find out!
Uni Tweaks Concepts
We have another new set of tweaks, er…concepts today. After discussion with a number of readers, it’s probably more apropos to call most of the reader submissions “concepts” rather than tweaks. So that’s that.
So if you’ve concept for any sport, or just a tweak or wholesale revision, send them my way.
Please do try to keep your descriptions to ~50 words (give or take) per image — if you have three uniform concepts in one image, then obviously, you can go a little over, but no novels, OK? OK!. You guys have usually been good with keeping the descriptions pretty short, and I thank you for that.
Like the colorizations, I’m going to run these as inline pics — click on each one to enlarge.
And so, lets begin:
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We begin today with Andy Cusack, who did up a whole batch of ChiSox unis, with a nice throwbacky feel:
Hi.
I’ve been a White Sox fan my entire life. I think I’m in the same boat as most other Sox fans in that I don’t dislike their current uniforms. But at the same time, they just don’t feel exactly right. There seems to be some disconnect with our glorious mess of a uniform history. The silver and black is just a little too stark for my taste.
Long story short: I created a series of uniforms that both give a nod to different eras of the team’s history (It’s be pretty obvious that each is rooted in a uniform of the past). But they also attempt to tie everything together into something that is at least a little cohesive.
I believe if the White Sox employed a uniform system like this, they wouldn’t have to bring back a past uniform to wear as an alternate as they’ve been doing the past few seasons with the ’59, ’72 and ’83 varieties. And I think they look pretty sharp.
Hope you enjoy these.
-Andy
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Next up is Zachary Schwartzer, who retweaked the new U of Arizona Wildcat football unis:
Phil,
The U of A football team will be releasing new football uniforms very soon. It’s been confirmed by Greg Byrne on Twitter that there will be 4 different helmets, the 4th being the copper helmet they used last year. Rumors have it there will also be an alternate uniform to match with the copper helmet. Here is my concept for the new U of A uniforms.
Sincerely,
Zachary
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We close today with Chris Powers who has added an alternate to the classic Tigers uniforms:
Hi Phil,
I know the Tigers’ unis are sacred, but I was inspired by all of the orange uniforms that were on display last week. I think this concept turned out quite well even if they’d never be used in a million years. It features a two-color script based on their primary wordmark and other lettering to match. I also included the headspoon that both current jerseys have. Stripes are a callback to the stripes on the 1980s away unis. Also if they’re not careful, they could inadvertently end up as the Tiggers considering where the “G” lands on the placket.
I am especially proud of the sleeve patch I created using the ‘80s design style and the cat from the ‘90s that is used as an alternate logo and by some of their farm teams. It could be used on the away uniforms, but I’d leave the home as-is. Hopefully the patch would bring the blessings of 1984 and not the quagmire of 2003.
~Chris Powers
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And that’s it for today. Back with more next time.
ASG Smocks
Looks like the 2013 National and American League Batting Practice jerseys have been released for both teams. As in the past, the colors borrow from the colorscheme of the host team, which this year is the Mets, so we have a royal and orange set. Not too bad, as far as softball tops go:
…And on that note, that’s it for today. I prepped this post early Saturday, so apologies if there was any other breaking uniform news on Saturday that I missed. Feel free to break stuff in the comments below. Thanks (as always) to Chance for a fantastic historical lesson. You guys have a great Sunday and a better week, and I’ll catch you next weekend.
Follow me on twitter @PhilHecken.
Peace.
One For The Road
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“Obviously the NBA will just retroactively declare that the New Orleans Hornets were always called the Pelicans and were an expansion team, while the Charlotte Hornets simply suspended operations much like the Cleveland Browns, then changed their name to the Bobcats, only to change back. Obviously.”
–(THE) Jeff Provo
Well, Uni Watch readers — we’ve made it (almost). We’re now to reveal the final sets of contestants for the UWFFL — today’s final two teams are coastal teams, one from the east and one from the left — the Tampa Terror and the San Francisco Reign Fire. I know I’m really excited to reveal the final team (the Reign Fire) because of the possibilities of the helmet art — we also have a very special treat from Rob. More on that below.
Once again, I want to thank Rob Holecko for all his work on this, and all the great submitters for taking such an interest in this contest. And now, I will turn this over to Rob, who’ll take you through the final two groups of entries, complete with polls (so be sure to view all of the entries for each team and then be prepared to vote — write down your favorite if you have to, so you can easily vote on it after each of the sections). Click on each graphic to enlarge.
Ready? OK — here’s Rob:
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Hello again from the UWFFL. We are back with the results from last week’s voting and the submissions for the final two teams. Next week we’ll have (barring any further run-off votes being necessary) the results for these final two teams as well as laying out what the future holds for the UWFFL when we pick it back up in July or so.
First off, here are last week’s winners. In the second run-off for the New York Sharks voting, Robert Kramer defeated Adam Cain and claimed his first victory.
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In the competition for the Seattle Superbeasts, it was a runaway and Wes Peters notched his fifth victory.
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And for the San Diego Storm, Brett Callero defeated Wes for his third win.
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That brings us to the last batch of teams to vote on: Tampa and San Francisco.
First the Tampa Terror. Here are the ten entries, with voting below:
And finally the twelfth team, the San Francisco Reign Fire.
For the Reign Fire, we had a little help from 970 KDSF in San Francisco, the official broadcast partner of the Reign Fire. They co-sponsored with us this portion of the contest and their afternoon drive program, The Dick Schaefer Show (no relation to the GUD’s Bill Schaefer) interviewed some of the entrants and gave them a chance to talk about their submissions. We gave all of the entrants the opportunity to be on their program, but it was totally optional, and when making your voting selections you shouldn’t hold it against those that chose not to take part. But for those that did, we have included the audio of their interview with their submissions and you can listen to it below and let it give you just a little more insight into the designers’ processes.
We thank 970 KDSF for their interest in the contest and look forward to their continuing coverage of the San Francisco Reign Fire as they compete in the UWFFL this fall.
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Andrew Seagraves
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Brady Ivie
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Brendan Jang
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Brett Callero
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Curtis Peddle
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Dan Hutcheson
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Elizabeth Eicher
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Robert Kramer
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Trent Daniel
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Wes Peters
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Unfortunately, not every contestant was available for interview purposes. But, just to wrap things up, give one last listen here:
~ ~ ~ ~
Well, there you have it, good luck to the Tampa and San Francisco entries, congrats to Robert, Wes, and Brett for their wins, and to the rest of you be sure to vote and discuss in the comments your favorite designs. We’ll see you next week!
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Thanks, Rob (and nice interviews!). OK readers — unless there is a run-off, this is the last you’ll be voting on the UWFFL (at least for a while, I promise), so lets send them out in a blaze of glory OK? And make sure you thank all the contestants and also Rob for helping to organize this. And of course, let the submitters know how they did. Back with the results next weekend.
Uni Tweaks Concepts
We have another new set of tweaks, er…concepts today. After discussion with a number of readers, it’s probably more apropos to call most of the reader submissions “concepts” rather than tweaks. So that’s that.
So if you’ve concept for any sport, or just a tweak or wholesale revision, send them my way.
Please do try to keep your descriptions to ~50 words (give or take) per image — if you have three uniform concepts in one image, then obviously, you can go a little over, but no novels, OK? OK!. You guys have usually been good with keeping the descriptions pretty short, and I thank you for that.
Like the colorizations, I’m going to run these as inline pics — click on each one to enlarge.
And so, lets begin:
~~~
We begin today with Bryan Ross, with a Penn State University redo:
Hey Phil,
I was looking at Penn State’s uniforms and felt they needed an update. With the home uniform, the major change I made wwas adding the logo to the side of the helmet and a blue back plate with PennState font added. Another change was keeping the simple helmet stripe and tying it into the side of the pant leg giving the socks the same look to bring it all together.
Basically the thought throughout was to give some subtile updates while keeping with the classic look. See what you think.
Bryan Ross,
Graphic Designer
. . .
Next up is Brian F (from NOLA), who has retrofitted the Rays:
Phil-
I hope this is the right place to send these to. I want to like the Rays, I lived in Tampa for a while and generally like the area, but everything about the team just seems generic. Everyone uses the navy blue now-a-days and I think there needs more green in baseball. The Rays were close a few years ago with their road grey’s, but the green and blue were too dark. I don’t love the wordmark they used, but it’s better that the current one. The other is using the wordmark from the throwback the clock, which is very Floride like.
Brian from NOLA
. . .
We close today with Brett Knowles some logos for the St. Louis Metro football club:
Phil,
Love reading your stuff. Been following logos/uni’s most of my life and always thought I was odd for that. It turns out, there is quite the following.
With the upcoming Chelsea/ Man. City game being played here at Busch Stadium next month, talk has resurfaced about the possibility of MLS in St. Louis.
I came up with a logo about two years ago and have attached it. In case it wasn’t obvious, no photoshop was used, just good old MS Paint!
Let me know what you think if you get a chance. I know it’s not perfect, but I would love to see it incorporated in some way by someone who actually knows graphic design.
Thanks!
Brett Knowles
. . .
And that’s it for today. Back with more next time.
Stirrup Fridays…
Because we love the stirrup here at Uni Watch, this section is devoted to those of us who sport the beautiful hose on Fridays — a trend popularized many years ago by Robert P. Marshall, III. For many of us, it’s become a bit of an obsession, but a harmless one — a reflection of our times. Where we once had Friday ties, which has been replaced by Casual Friday — we now have Stirrup Fridays. It’s an endearingly simple concept — no matter where you work (or even if you don’t) — break out a fresh pair of rups to compliment (or clash with) your Friday attire.
Smaller set than normal today.
. . . . .
James Poisso:
Phil,
I’ve never been able to identify these stirrups, but they look nice.
James Poisso
. . .
Joaquin Jang:
Hi Phil,
I graduated from grad school on Thursday so I figured I would celebrate Stirrup Friday a day early. I’m clicking my heels, not just because I graduated, because I got to wear some sweet stirrups too!
Joaquin
. . .
John K.:
Phil,
Broke out the classic Orioles look to celebrate their great run in the ESPN uni bracket. Going back to “Baltimore” on the away jerseys a few years ago was a great (and seriously overdue) move. They just need to add the classic socks/stirrups, and get rid of the white panel on the hat.
I was in meetings all day yesterday and did not get a chance to vote. Not sure if I will be able to vote today, either. A difficult decision: Vote partisan for the very good looking Os, or the truly iconic and beautiful Cards. The Cards could almost win on stirrups/socks alone.
John
. . .
Robert Brashear:
Comrades,
I have joined the revolution
Bucco stirrups in the big apple
Robert Brashear
. . .
And that ends today’s look at Stirrup Friday — all of you who participate, send me your pics and a brief (~50 words) description of their relevance, and I’ll run ‘em here on Saturday (and sometimes Sunday too!). Be sure to visit Robert’s House of Hose for news on rups.
And now…here’s …
~~~~~~~~~~
Comrade Marshall’s Rupdate:
Comrades!
First off, my apologies for not being part of the post last week, I dropped the ball in coordinating with Phil. That being said I was also busy all week defending the stirrup revolution. Apparently there is a snake in the revolutionary grasses phishng the stirrup movement. Clearly this thief has intimate knowledge of what we do here, and to be honest, I was really hurt that someone would try to rip-off an operation that is set up to benefit rather the gouge Uni Watch readers. I was close to saying fine, I’ll raise prices blah blah blah, but I came to my senses and realized that just because there is one weasel out there, the rest of us shouldn’t suffer. Besides, there is 92 bucks in the revolutionary accounts, let him do his worst. The bottom line is after reflection, everything is all systems normal except one thing, the Stirrup Friday Image winner now gets a buy one/ get one prize. I hope that prize is okay with everyone.
Let’s get on with the Stirrup Friday shots, and begin with last week since the pixtures were so great. On top of Phil’s killer Met’s game shot, there was great stuff all around, and I will talk to Soukie about what I will do for him and his usual Gem, but let’s award Nathan Stewart with the shot of the week for those killer chops that go so well with the 70′s orioles look. As for this week, clearly Joaquin Jang’s graduation shot might be the shot of the year, that was super sweet Joaquin, you were a hands down choice.
As for actual hosiery, The Cardinals and Braves are back in stock, and I expect the 1959 “beer shower” World Series Go-Go Sox sometime this week, but since they are not here yet I will run the 69 Padres and 48 Senators as “new” this week even though they are in stock and there will be no waiting. If the beer showers get here as expected, I will have another new stirrup for everyone based on the feedback I have gotten next weekend.
From each according his stirrvp, to each according his strype
• And finally, the Preakness Stakes is today. There was some discussion in yesterday’s comments of a horse called Titletown Five, whose name is a reference to Green Bay. Check out the silks! And here’s a photo of the silks (not the same jockey who’ll be riding today, but same silks).
That will do it for today. Quick programming note for tomorrow: I’m scheduled to open the summer place today, which, among other things, means meeting the cable guy to hook up the Interwebs. As with all things, this is not a given. Also, the computer out there was built before some of you were born, so…
I’ve already prepared tomorrow’s post so there will be stuff tomorrow (and a great lede from none other than Chance with another wonderful historical uni/logo look back). But there might not be anything NEW from today (may need to upload the post from my phone), including a QOTD. Just warning you.
Everyone have a great Saturday, and I will catch you tomorrow one way or the other.
Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken.
Peace
One For The Road
.. … ..
“Sweet Mother of Jesus. This is getting scary. Not too long ago – a couple of years? – I asked you in this space about your hometown, and you sent me the same wiki link you just sent this morning. I (now) remember the picture 2nd Street! I need to buy a walker. And maybe a bib.”
–Conn Nugent
Rob Caplette, aka Inkracer here once again. Phil has graciously given me the keys this weekend to showcase the Indianapolis 500. Today I will dive into the history; the winners, the cars, iconic moments, and controversies, to get you ready for the 97th running of the Indy 500 tomorrow.
Before we dive into the cars, we will take a look at the track itself. The track was originally paved completely with bricks. The track would stay mostly brick until 1961, when all but the famed Yard of Bricks was repaved. Since then, the track has only been repaved a few times, with the last track surface maintenance coming in 2004. The Pagoda has received several facelifts over the years, one of which was needed after a fire. The Winner’s circle has had a notable facelift as well, coming when the track prepared to host the Formula One United States Grand Prix. 
From the start in 1911 through until the late 40s and early 50s there wasn’t much change in the cars. There were the slight changes like we tend to see from year to year in Formula 1.
The look of the current cars (named the DW12 after the late Dan Wheldon) will continue to evolve in 2014 with the introduction of Aerokits. This year the biggest change to the cars is the car number is now displayed within the rear tire guard. White denotes as veteran driver, red denotes a rookie. 
Indy has had numerous iconic moments. Aside from the two I mentioned above, there is also Danny Sullivan’s famous “Spin and Win”, Sam Hornish’s last second pass of Marco Andretti, The closest finish in Indy 500 history where Al Unser Jr edged Scott Goodyear at the line. AJ Foyt becoming the first Four-time Winner of the great race, Ralph DePalma pushing his car to victory in the second Indy 500, and, of course, the barriers of 100 MPH (Rene Thomas, 1919), 150 MPH (Parnelli Jones, 1962) and 200 MPH (Tom Sneva, 1977) falling.
Uni 
Stirrup Fridays…
Comrade Marshall’s Rupdate:
Meindel reportedly came up with the idea for the Ball-in-Glove while bored in a psychology class, sketching in the margins of his notebook. “I remember working with the M and B and I was stuck,” he later recounted. “I wasn’t going anywhere. Then I decided to start using lower case letters. The obvious thinking was to put them side-by-side, but I thought ‘let’s stack it, one on top of the other.’ It was a very crude drawing, but all of a sudden, boom, the 
He mailed his design to the Brewers’ marketing department, and a couple weeks later was informed that his had been chosen as one of two finalists, chosen from nearly 2,000 entries. The Brewers flew him to Milwaukee to discuss the design with Dick Hearn the team’s vice president in charge of marketing. Meindel’s entry was refined (possibly in-house, possibly by an outside firm), and shortly after Meindel returned to Eau Claire, he received a telephone call from the Brewers informing him that 
But times change, and Meindel’s logo fell out of favor. In 1994, to celebrate the club’s 25th anniversary, the Brewers set it aside in favor of 
And finally…
