As you’ve probably gathered from the ad in the left sidebar, our friends at Grey Flannel Auctions have another catalog auction taking place. This one’s a bit smaller than many of their previous auctions, but there’s still plenty of good stuff. Let’s take a look:
• Ah, the old Buffalo Braves uni. You’re probably familiar with the front design, but look at that back design with the off-center number! Imagine if they’d had NOBs — would the name have been centered over the number, or just centered on the jersey as usual?
• Speaking of rings: We all know the ABA’s tri-colored ball was featured in just about every ABA team logo, but did you know it was also incorporated into championship ring designs? (Here’s the full auction listing for that one.)
• Remember how Eric Dickerson used to wear that big neck roll? In order to make room for it, he cut a slit at the front of his collar, the edges of which were then re-finished (full listing).
• This is pretty groovy: a big lot of MLB All-Star Game ticket stubs and programs. I definitely recommend clicking through the photos in both listings — great stuff.
• Did you know that the World Series MVP award is officially called the Babe Ruth Award? I didn’t. At first I couldn’t figure out why the award plaque features a fountain pen, but then I realized it’s because the award is given by the BBWA.
• Let’s say you were assigned to come up with a logo for the Fresh Meadow Golf Club. What would you come up with? Whatever your solution might be, I’m fairly certain it wouldn’t be this. That’s Babe Ruth’s scorecard, incidentally (full listing).
Uni Watch News Ticker: The President isn’t the only one in Washington who gets presented with commemorative jerseys. Here’s Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, being presented with an Army hockey jersey by U.S. Military Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. David Huntoon (from Ryan Yanoshak). … The Corporate States of America, Chapter 673: Virginia’s governor, making an early run at Douchebag of the Year honors, wants to raise revenue by selling naming rights to the state’s highways and bridges. … Tuesday’s post about Ryan Connelly painting a Penguins logo on a friend’s wall prompted the following note from Seth Scheving: ” I grew up in Grand Forks, N.D., and was surrounded by North Dakota Fighting Sioux fans. As a painting major, I was often asked to do Sioux-related projects for friends, including painting a Sioux logo on a friend’s wall in 2009. It ended up being about five feet high, top to bottom.” … In a related item, John Korinek’s brother used digital projector to paint various Detroit team logos directly onto his basement walls, as you can see in this video clip. … Hey, in light of all those Nike schools essentially wearing the same uniform template, remember Converse’s old “roadkill tread” template? I didn’t, until Cody Kennedy brought it to my attention, because I watched almost no college basketball in the 1990s. “I was on a Converse AAU team (we weren’t very good),” says Cody, “and after Converse signed Dennis Rodman to a sponsorship deal, our AAU team promoted his line by wearing velvet shorts with that pattern.” … Tim Donovan was watching a 1986 commercial for Slice soda and noticed lots of MLB players wearing reasonably close replicas of their uniforms at the time. You can watch the full commercial here. … New soccer kits for Real Salt Lake and Orlando City of USL Pro (both from Kenn Tomasch). … This space for sale — literally. That’s Canadian luger Alex Gough, in a shot from 2009. She now has a sponsor for that spot (from Jon Reynolds). … Designer Saul Bass did a makeover of the Bell Telephone System’s identity in the late 1960s. Instead of pitching his design proposal in printed form, he made a 27-minute film, about five minutes of which extols the virtues of stripes. If you stick with it for a few minutes, you’ll get to the part where he talks about new uniforms for the company’s staff (great stuff from Sam Pearlstein). … Ah yes, ’tis the season for giant NFL-themed soda displays (photo by Tony Orndoff). … New cleats for UNC baseball (from James Gilbert). … New “think pink” jersey for Creighton hoops, to be worn against Bradley tomorrow (from David Westfall). … Here’s an illustrated timeline of Topps baseball card wrappers, from 1951-2011 (from Dan Cichalski).
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As most of you probably know by now, Nike unveiled new basketball uniforms yesterday for Arizona, Baylor (women’s), Connecticut (men’s and women’s), Duke, Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Syracuse, all of which we’ll get to in a sec.
What you might not know is that the presentation of the uniforms was preceded by a multi-media performance thingie that was sort of like Tron meets modern dance meets basketball meets that scene from the The Simpsons where Homer has a bad trip after eating a super-hot chili pepper. Fortunately, I was watching the live webcast (from which I made all the screen shots you see above) instead of attending in person, so nobody heard me hooting and chortling and generally losing my shit. All they needed was some chick in the corner pouring white wine into cheap plastic cups and it would’ve been a perfect parody of a pretentious Chelsea performance art opening. But they didn’t have that, so instead it was just a self-parody of corporate self-importance.
And what was this production in the service of? A series of uniforms that will be worn in nine games — one for each participating school. In other words, after all the hype is over, each team will wear this super-advanced uniform once. Once!! For this they hired a choreographer?
As you probably also know by now, the uniforms are all gray (although Swooshie is saying with a straight face that they’re actually “platinum”) and all have the same features — reflective trim, sweatback sublimations, super-bright footwear, etc. A few thoughts about this:
• As usual, taking a certain group of schools and putting them all in the same design template creates a Team Nike effect. In other words, the schools look like they’re playing for Nike instead of for themselves. Bogus.
• Nike’s press release states that the new design will be worn “for some of oldest and strongest rivalries in college basketball.” Here, take a look at the nine games. Notice anything unusual? Every one of those games features a Nike school against a non-Nike opponent. The real “rivalries” here are Nike vs. Adidas and Under Armour. In other words, the only team Nike is interested in is Team Swoosh.
• As usual, there were the endless claims about lighter fabrics, new engineering, etc. Some of this was interesting — the shorts, for example, have fused hems instead of sewn hems, which means there’s one less seam that could rub against the skin and cause irritation. I like that. But here’s a question I’ve always wondered about when Nike unveils one of these “elite” uniform sets: If this is really the acme, the pinnacle of uniform design, how come only a handful of schools (in this case schools that have won a national championship) are invited to wear it? Unless you’ve won a national championship, you’re not even allowed to wear this latest advance in uniform technology. If Nike is really about making things better for the athlete, as they always claim, why can’t every school wear the Hyper Elite Super Duper Lightweight Razzle Dazzle design? For that matter, why can’t every football team wear Toy Solider Foxhole Flywire, or whatever it’s called this week?
The answer, it seems to me, is that Nike likes to create hierarchies of envy, stratifications of desire — or, more plainly, a caste system. It’s a stacked deck of haves and have-nots: If you’re in the 1%, you qualify for the good stuff; everyone else is treated like they’re in steerage. Screw that — occupy Nike!
• For the life of me, I don’t get the gray thing. This isn’t just Nike, of course — it’s all across college hoops. Is there anyone who likes it? It looks soooo drab. Can someone please explain it to me? New Uni Watch slogan: Pray the gray away!
• Reader Brandi Bennett sees another problem: “I spent seven years behind the scorer’s table at every conceivable level of basketball, from high school to pro. Just looking at these pictures, I can tell it’s going to be impossible to stat a game with these jerseys. How are you supposed to call something when you can’t even see the numbers? These numbers are barely distinguishable from the rest of the jersey. Wait until a tournament when the stat crew is unfamiliar with the players because they haven’t statted a season of home games for every team on the court.”
• Did you notice they managed to sneak a little apostrophe catastrophe into the Syracuse jersey? I guess it’s nice that they bothered to include an apostrophe at all, even if it’s backwards; they didn’t even bother with one for Arizona.
• Naturally, I like the striped socks, although I wish they were higher and weren’t swoosh-emblazoned.
You can see all of the designs here. Really, though, I think you’d be better off finding video of the performance thingie from the beginning of the event — way more entertaining than the uniforms.
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Will they get Wilbur Wood to toss out a ceremonial first knuckleball? Remember that weird period in the early ’70s when the White Sox wore a lot of red? I never understood that. Like, if there’s another team out there called the Red Sox, why would any other Sox wear red? As a kid growing up around that time, I found it very confusing.
Anyway, we’ll all get to re-live those days this summer, as the Sox have announced that they’ll be wearing these 1972 throwbacks for Sunday home games (click to enlarge):
The above-stated chromatic issues notwithstanding, it’s a perfectly nice uniform. A little disappointing to see that they’re going with a button front and raglan sleeves, since the original version had a zipper front and set-in sleeves. The big question, of course, is whether they’ll bring back the sox on the sox
Interestingly, this uniform isn’t shown in the MLB Style Guide, and the Sox didn’t give any advance warning about it, so it caught everyone by surprise. In a world where everyone has already read, responded, and counter-responded to the State of the Union message three hours before it’s even been delivered, I for one love it when something happens spontaneously. Wish more unveilings were handled this way. Good.
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Membership update: As you can see at right, Jeff Adelsberger came up with a creative way to thumb his nose at the Uni Watch Membership Program’s rigid “no purple” policy. Major clevertude points to him.
Jeff’s card is part of a new batch of designs that have just been added to the membership card gallery. The printed/laminated versions of these cards should go out in the mail by Saturday.
If you’ve been meaning to follow through on that New Year’s resolution to finally sign up for a membership card already, you know what to do.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Cavs wore their CavFanatic uniform last night. … I’d never be able to tell this by myself, but Joey Potts says Cincy coach Butch Jones is wearing Adidas golf shoes in this photo. “I’ve noticed a few other coaches from Adidas-supplied schools wearing golf shoes too, but this is the first picture I’ve came across,” he says. … Yet another college hoops team to going gray: Purdue (from Jimbo Huening). … Yesterday I linked to the new Pro Bowl visors. Here are the full caps (from Jason Snurr). … Interesting note about Bruins goalie Tim Thomas in this article. Key passage: “Thomas made a pretty symbolic change at the beginning of last season when he drained the black and gold colors from his goaltending pads and goalie mask after a summer of trade rumors. Thomas removed the Bruins logo from his mask and instead replaced it with an image of the lucky coin he wears around his neck. The message was simple: From then on, Thomas was playing for himself first and the team second” (from Jeff Downe). … New lacrosse cleats for Hofstra. … Speaking of lacrosse, Jeff Brunelle says, “The first ever ‘helmet wrap’ (full helmet sticker) for professional box lacrosse was revealed last weekend by the Colorado Mammoth,” plus there are some new gloves for Penn State. … More G.I. Joe nonsense, this time for Milwaukee and Butler. They’ll face off wearing those designs tonight. … Remember that talk about the Rockets possibly bringing back their pinstriped uni as a throwback? Forget it (from Robert Silverman). … Octavio Dotel is about to set the record for the most MLB jerseys worn. … Did it ever occur to you that the Cardinals’ birds on the bat aren’t very proportional? (From Kurt Esposito.) … Love this old 1964 football-themed Pez ad sheet. … Here are the Rugby Six Nations 2012 kits. “For those who don’t know, the teams are, from left, France, Wales, England, Ireland, Italy, and Scotland,” says George Chilvers. … Okay, this is really weird: When the KOVO Volleyball League in South Korea had their All-Star Game recently, the players wore bows when they were introduced and the liberos dressed as comic book superheroes. As for the regular uniforms, they were pretty nice (from Jeremy Brahm). … Also from Jeremy: new away uniforms for the Japanese national soccer teams. From left, that’s futsal, men’s, and women’s. … Here’s a site devoted to soccer infographics, including one that shows 100 different depictions of a soccer ball as found on assorted team and association crests (nice find by Chris Cruz). … The Marlins haven’t been able to pimp out the name of their new stadium, so they’re calling it Marlins Park, at least for now. What a pity. … Penn State hockey has added a Joe Paterno memorial decal. “The same stickers will go on the women’s hockey helmets and the lacrosse helmets,” says equipment manager Dustin Allgeier. … Oh great, now there’s specially designed “performance” footwear for the annual coaches-wearing-sneakers cancer thingie (from Adam Jackson). … Doug Keklak was watching last night’s Minnesota/MichState game and noticed that the Gophers currently have three rather unusual NOBs. … The Clippers and Grizzlies will be dressing up as the Stars and Tams tonight. … Matt Hendricks of the Caps suffered an ear laceration in practice over the weekend and had to have his helmet fitted with an external ear guard. “I’ve never seen that before,” says Mike Engle. “Most ear guards are either completely removed (as seen on most NHL player heads), or left intact and installed from the interior (see Crosby and Malkin, or any hockey helmet at retail). Obviously, this was a last-minute modification.” … The Heat made a headband switcheroo at halftime last night, changing from NBA Fit blue to their regular black (from Keenan Bailey).
This Sunday is a good chance to regrout the bathroom all-star day, beginning with the NHL All-Star Game at 4pm Eastern. Nothing new uni-wise, as they’ll be wearing the exact same uniforms as last year. In the past, the NHL has used the ASG as a laboratory for experimenting with new officiating uniforms, but not this year.
Then, at 6:30pm Eastern, it’s the Pro Bowl. Not much new here either, as the word from the NFL is that this year’s uniforms are essentially the same as last year’s, only without the long pants (forgot about those, didn’thca?). Also: As I reported a few days ago, there will be no maker’s marks. Also-also: New Nike cleats and gloves, as a test-drive for next season, and New Era sideline headwear.
I expect to have news regarding the NBA’s all-star uniforms (which are not the same as last year’s) by this time next week. But one thing has already begun circulating: these sock designs.
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As I’ve been saying all along…: Back in October of 2010, Nike exec Charlie Denson was quoted saying, “We plan on changing the NFL jersey dramatically, just like we’ve done with the college programs.” That quote led to all the Photoshopped “NFL Pro Combat” concepts that everyone mistakenly thought were real (or as I like to call that chapter in uni history, “Gullible’s Travels”).
Anyway: I suspected at the time — and have been saying ever since — that Nike “changing the NFL jersey dramatically” would mostly be about tailoring and fabrication, not about graphics. And now the NFL has confirmed that. Here’s the key passage from that article, in a quote from NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy:
Logos are controlled by teams and the NFL. That will not change. Teams have to apply to league to make changes to logos and colors. We anticipate new uniform technology (i.e., performance-driven, lighter materials). That’s what Nike’s [Charlie] Denson was referring to in his interview in 2010 regarding changes.
Hmmm, where have I heard that before? Oh, yes: Right here on this web site for the past year-plus.
Incidentally, that article also says players who want to change uni numbers during the Reebok/Nike changeover won’t have to buy out all the excess inventory, so we may see a flurry of number changes (or maybe even name changes) this off-season. One player who’s apparently thinking in that direction is Adrian Peterson.
Meanwhile, as long as we’re talking about the NFL, reader Clint Richardson says, “I follow Jaguars equipment manager Drew Hampton [on Twitter], and he has been dropping some good hints about a black uni coming in ’12, with a whole new set in ’13.” So that’s something to keep an eye on.
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Uni Watch News Ticker: Here’s how the Super Bowl logo will look on the Pats’ jersey and the Giants’ helmet. … Nice People Bearing Nice Gifts, Part 1: The increasingly indispensable Mike Hersh stopped by Uni Watch HQ for dinner a few nights ago and brought me a pair of belated Hanukkah gifts: a vintage Lady Met rainout decal (never seen that particular illo before) and a 1953 Felco uniform catalog (I’ll post some scans from the interior pages soon). … Nice People Bearing Nice Gifts, Part 2: Gene Biros, who I met at the Cleveland Uni Watch party, sent me a pair of game-used — and, more importantly, striped — Browns socks. Wearing ’em right now as I type this! … Here’s our real photo of the Rockies’ new road jersey. … In a related item, remember that Giants alternate road jersey that leaked a while back? According to the last bulleted item on this page, the plan is for it to be worn on Sundays, although I have a feeling it’ll show up more often than that (from Shane Barclay). … When Viktor Jakovljevic played for the Milwaukee Wave in the early ’90s, he only had his first name on his jersey. “Fewer letters and easier to spell than Jakovljevic,” says Kenn Tomasch. … “Air Paternos”? Details here (thanks, Kek). … Coupla nice pics in this Astros uni-history slideshow (from Ben Melson). … SMU has switched outfitters, from Adidas to Nike. … I have a feeling we may have seen this before, but just in case: Lots of readers are enjoying the retro-style NFL logos that can be found here. … That stolen Old Dominion basketball gear has been found (from Jonathan Leib). … New mascot for Stetson University (from Paul Gloersen). … Charles Sollars has uploaded all of his pro and college football uniform concepts to Flickr and is welcoming feedback. … Soooo much to like — and so many uni-related details! — in this photo of a young Prince Fielder (big thanks to John Okray). … Special Gary Williams shoes for Maryland hoops. … Neglected to mention that the Heat wore their Floridians throwbacks on Saturday night.
[Today we have an excellent DIY project by Ryan Connelly. Enjoy! — PL]
By Ryan Connelly
I had a fun project to work on over the holidays, as a friend commissioned me to paint a Penguins wall logo for him. Here’s how I did it.
First, I traced/drew the Penguins logo in AutoCAD. I scaled the logo up to four feet tall. Then I set a grid over the logo, with each rectangle measuring 11″ x 17″
Then I printed out each piece of the grid on 11″ x 17″ paper and set out the pages on the floor to get an idea of the scale:
Next, I started taping, cutting, and tracing:
I did the gloves mostly freehand. I used “holes” and the overall outline of the glove for reference and just sketched in the rest.
Here’s how the project looked after four hours of work, spaced out over two days:
At this point I started filling in the black areas (as you can see, there’s still a little work left on the glove and skates):
Here’s how it looked after six hours spread out over three days, plus a long shot for scale:
Next I added the gold (photo take after seven hours over four days) and the white (8.5 hours over five days):
The next step: adding white outline. I toyed with the idea of outlining the whole logo with a navy blue stripe, then a light blue stripe, or vice-versa per the 3rd/alt jerseys colors, but decided not to do that.
Finished! Six trips, 10 hours of work — not bad!
It was a fun job, because (a) I love to paint, and (b) there was a big screen in the room that I had tuned to various hockey action throughout the whole process (would explain the 10 hours, eh?). But it turned out amazing! You just can’t beat a hand-painted piece of work as opposed to a sticker or “fat head” wall hanging. Also, it was great to step away from DIY jersey making and get back into painting.
Hope everyone enjoys this as much as the “client” did after finally seeing the finished product.”
Personally, I think the team’s jersey design should include a little inflatable bump in the stomach area, to mimic that berm in center field. At the very least, you’d get a lot more HBPs, am I right?
If you have a better idea — and you probably do — start thinking of new names and/or designs for the Astros, because I’ll be running a contest on that topic over on ESPN shortly.
Seen something on eBay or Etsy (or anywhere else) that you think would make good Collector’s Corner fodder? Send your submissions here.
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Culinary Corner: Throughout the food world, I tend to like the little browned, crunchy debris and edges that are formed by the cooking process. When I roast a chicken, I love all the caramelized drippings that end up in the pan. When I cook a fresh ham, I love making cracklins out of the skin. When I fry anything, I love the little pieces that flake off and get carbonized in the oil. The browned crust on a steak, the darkest shard of the shell on a crème brûlée, the one potato chip in the bag that’s almost burnt — I treat all of these as treasured nuggets of gold.
Another entry on that list would be the little half-popped kernels of popcorn that end up at the bottom of the bowl. To some people they’re garbage to be discarded, but not for me. Crunchy, salty yet slightly bitter, and roasty-toasty — they’re like little gifts from heaven, even though I wouldn’t want to eat an entire bowl of them.
Or would I?
That’s the question raised by a new snack product called Halfpops, which is exactly what it sounds like: partially popped corn kernels. For now they’re available primarily in the Pacific northwest, although the company offers mail-order service (with free shiping anywhere in the lower 48). After hearing about them a few weeks ago, I got my hands on a few bags last week and have been nibbling away ever since.
Visually, Halfpops look a bit like a smaller version of Corn Pops cereal (click to enlarge):
As an eating experience, they’re a little like cancha, the toasted corn snack frequently found in Peruvian restaurants, and also seem like a cousin to Corn Nuts. But cancha and Corn Nuts are both fried, while Halfpops are air-popped. The good part about this is that Halfpops aren’t greasy and don’t give you that logy feeling that fried foods can sometimes impart. Their crunch is very clean — turns out I can eat a whole bowl of them. The bad part is that Halfpops don’t have that undercurrent of roasty-toastiness that partially oil-popped kernels provide. In short: It’s a really good product, but not quite a perfect one. Not that that’s kept me from devouring them, mind you.
How do they make Halfpops, anyway? Like, do they just make the rounds of big, commercial-scale popcorn makers and say, “Hi, we’ll take those partially popped orphans off your hands,” or maybe they scour the mostly eaten bags of popcorn left behind after movie screenings?
Nope. “We pop them in such a way that there aren’t any fully popped kernels — only Halfpops and a few duds, so we try to sift those out,” says Halfpops CEO Mike Fitzgerald, who’s a former professional auto racer. “We have a utility patent on the manufacturing process. It involves manipulating the moisture content prior to popping, and then a bunch of other things during the popping process that we keep secret. It’s actually pretty difficult to do.”
Interesting! Like I said, Halfpops aren’t perfect, but they’re still really good. If you want to try them, use their store locator page or just order some for yourself. Fitzgerald says any orders placed by the end of this week should arrive in time for your Super Bowl party.
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Uni Watch News Ticker: Not exactly a surprise, but the Pats will wear blue and Giants will wear white in the Super Bowl. … Nike will unveil new men’s and women’s basketball uniforms — all of them sweatbacks, I think — for Arizona, Baylor, Connecticut, Duke, Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Syracuse tomorrow morning. … Hmmm, new helmet for Illinois? (From Joel Hackler.) … Always good to see another view of Clarence Weathers’s double-decker FNOB (big thanks to Kevin Bresnahan). … Why was Derrick Martin of the Giants using a Packers-branded Flip cam during the team’s postgame celebration? (As noted by Josh Neisler.) … Movie note from Andrew Levitt, who writes: “In a sequence from the 1984 crapfest Supergirl, our eponymous protagonist is seen flying with a bumper car featuring the Patriots and Rams, circa 1983. After a bit of searching I couldn’t find any other reference to such bumper cars, which look awesome and frankly are the single best aspect of this movie.” … New 20th-season logo for the St. Paul Saints (from R. Scott Rogers). … Old Dominion’s basketball uniforms were stolen from their locker room over the weekend. … Here’s more about Olympian Nick Symmonds’s efforts to have athletes be able to wear sponsorship tattoos (from Vince Bosco). … Don’t think I’ve ever seen Jerry Dior’s MLB logo concept appropriated by a roofing company (Josh Billman). … The Spurs will retire Bruce Bowen’s number in March. … Ladies and gents, your very underwhelming 2012 CavFanatic jersey, which will make its on-court debut tomorrow night (from Jerry Wolper). … Lots of old newspaper clipping about the Leafs winning the 1967 Stanley Cup here. … Speaking of the Leafs, they wore white at home last night against the Islanders, who are expected to return the favor when the two teams meet again tonight on Long Island. … As Billy Cundiff scurried onto the field with play clock winding down on Sunday, I immediately thought (and posted in the comments), “He’s rushing, he didn’t get onto the field soon enough.” We all know how that turned out, but why was Cundiff late getting into position? Now, thanks to some excellent work by Slate’s Stefan Fatsis, we know the answer to that question. … Buried toward the bottom of this article is an interesting note: When the Giants went to the airport to fly home from San Francisco, the team “was greeted by flight attendants dressed in Giants apparel.”
Hey, if you’re gonna look like a slob, you may as well have a slob-ish logo on your sleeve while you’re at it. Readers Geoff Hansen and G. Girard both noticed that glitch during yesterday’s AFC title game. As longtime readers may recall, this isn’t the first time Bill Belichick has had a glitch on his sweatshirt.
Only two other uni-notable notes from yesterday’s NFL action:
• 49ers offensive lineman Joe Staley was apparently wearing one of those girdles with padding on his hamstring area. Some photo research reveals that he’s been doing this for a while, so it’s nothing new for him, but I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen an NFL player with padding in that area.
• Was Justin Tuck of the Giants wearing a pink-logo jersey from October? Sure looks that way. (Screen shot by Ben Harmon.)
On a personal note, today would have been my father’s 88th birthday. My Mom’s feeling a bit blue about that, so I’m heading out to Long Island to spend the day with her. See you tomorrow. — Paul
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Super Bowl history mystery: I’ve missed only two Super Bowls since 1971, and one of them was SB XII. (I won’t tell you what I was doing instead that day, but let’s say it’s more than a little embarrassing.) So I didn’t see Pat Sumerall and Tom Brookshier having this discussion in the moments leading up to the kickoff.
If I had seen it, I’m sure it would have become a formative uni-watching moment from my youth. I’m also sure I would’ve spent the entire game watching to see if any Broncos were wearing the vertically striped socks. Did any of them actually do so? I’ve never seen any visual evidence of this or heard any mention of it until now. But like I said, I didn’t watch that game myself.
In any case, it adds a new chapter to the already robust legend of Denver’s vertically striped hose. Big thanks to Jim Vilk for the video find.
(And in case you’re wondering, the other Supe that I missed was SB XX in 1986 — Pats vs. Bears. The game fell on the date of my “relationship anniversary” with my college galpal, who made it clear that we would not be spending the day watching football. No huge loss, given what a snooze of a game it turned out to be.)
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Human billboards, continued: Remember my note last Friday about Olympic track-and-fielder Nick Symmonds auctioning off a spot on his arm for a temporary tattoo sponsorship? Reader Vince LoBosco says the issue goes a lot deeper than that:
Symmonds has been leading a charge lately to allow for more advertising on uniforms/bodies of the athletes in order for them to supplement their income. Right now the IAAF only allows for one main uniform sponsor. For runners, that generally means a shoe company. And right now the shoe companies generally devote a lot of money to a few athletes. Those who are new and/or not well-known might find it difficult to get a sponsorship from a shoe company that allows them to earn a living and still be able to train. For some the shoe deal they get is pretty much that — shoes and apparel. The athletes still have to pay coaches, trainers, meet fees, and travel expenses out of pocket.
I know how you hate sponsorship on jerseys, but changing the IAAF rules will allow more athletes the means and opportunity to be competitive at an international level. The other benefit you might like is that the racing will be a lot more visually appealing. Right now there are generally three colors in any race: Nike’s uniform, Reebok’s uniform, and Adidas’s uniform. Occasionally someone else will pop up, but they are outnumbered. The new standards would be set up similarly to what triathletes do, so runners wouldn’t be plastered with ads like a Czech hockey team.
I know Symmonds has blogged about this before, but I’m having trouble finding links. Here’s an article about his efforts, though. And here’s one about Lauren Fleshman encountering problems while trying to wear a temp tattoo during the New York City Marathon.
All very interesting. A few thoughts:
• While I would prefer to see a uni-verse complete free of logo creep, I do think athletes in individual sports (running, tennis, golf, etc.) are different than athletes in team sports. It has always been my position that logo creep in these individual sports is much, much less offensive.
• That said, this notion of amateur athletes “needing” huge training budgets and supplemental income really puts the lie to the whole notion of amateur athletics. Look, these people are essentially full-time athletes, so let’s just call them professionals and get it over with.
• And that said, the notion that every athlete somehow deserves a shoe deal or other sponsorship, as if it’s an entitlement or something (which Vince didn’t outright claim, but it’s sort of implied), strikes me as waaaay off-base.
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Oh, what a tangled merchandising web we weave: Friday’s post about the unbranded NFL merch currently showing up on the Majestic and NFLshop sites prompted a very informative note from reader Chris M., who works in sports retail:
Regarding Majestic, they’ve been making NFL products for many years now, but it isn’t actually Majestic. These products are actually licensed by their parent company, the VF Corporation. VF has a sub-license through Reebok that allows them to make select NFL apparel. There are about 1,000 rules involved in what they are and aren’t allowed to do, but the gist is that Reebok has exclusivity on sideline apparel, including jerseys, as well as all the other very carefully selected merchandise that players and coaches wear on the sideline. VF is allowed, and will continue to be allowed after Nike takes over, to make what is deemed NFL FanWear. VF uses their Majestic reps to sell the line, but it has to remain unbranded because Reebok has to be seen as the only official supplier of NFL apparel.
Side note: You may notice that the locker room championship gear is also unbranded. This is because VF actually holds the license for the official locker room hot market apparel. This is the same sort of deal that also allows G-III and Mitchell & Ness to make NFL apparel, although their rules are slightly different because they are considered fashion apparel.
As far as the Pro Line jerseys found on NFLshop,com actually being the Nike designs, I am kinda doubting that. Nike will be releasing three tiers of jerseys. They will be known as Game, Elite, and Pro. Their price points will be $100, $135, and $250. Game jerseys will be equivalent to what is currently called a replica. It will have all screen-printed numbers and lettering. The Elite will then move you to what is now known as premier, which will have the tackle twill lettering and numbering. This is what they are currently selling for $100 as a Pro Line jersey, which is why I have my doubts as to this being the Nike product. The Pro level will be equivalent to the current authentic level, which is going to be a close replication of what is actually worn on the field.
Another reason I don’t think Pro Line = Nike: The primary reason behind keeping the updated jerseys so secret is an effort to keep bootleggers from getting a jump start on making fake Nike jerseys.
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That thing from last year that I wouldn’t shut up about: Permanent Record — my research/storytelling project involving a bunch of early-1900s report cards that I found in a discarded file cabinet — is once again an ongoing concern, and there’s some major news to report. You can check it out on the PermaRec blog.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, there’s a good backgrounder on Permanent Record here. And if you meant to read the original PermaRec series on Slate last fall but never got around to it, you can check it out here.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Fast work by the Penn State basketball team, which added a strip of black electrical tape in memory of Joe Paterno in time for yesterday afternoon’s game against Indiana. (And no, that player wasn’t crying — just wiping away some sweat.) … Ya think maybe sports have become a little too prominent in high education? You’re not the only one. … Big news from Bill Henderson, who says the next edition of his MLB jersey guide should be out in June. … Big brand makeover for DC Comics. … Last Thursday I Ticker-linked to a photo of former NHL ref Andy Van Hellemond wearing what appeared to be the NHL logo on his armbands, which I’d never seen before. But Shane Barnes posted a comment suggesting that the logo might actually carry the initials of former NHL official John McCauley. Sure enough! Good call. … UTEP hoops wore their Texas Western throwbacks the other day. … Some guy in the UK has a butt-load of soccer jerseys (from George Chilvers). … Temple’s basketball players now hasve eyes on their feet (from Marc Miller). … Kids Adults These Days, Part 1: A Georgia woman was arrested for allowing her 10-year-old son to get a tattoo with his deceased brother’s jersey number (from Brady Phelps). … Kids Adults These Days, Part 2: A Baltimore school caused an uproar by holding a Ravens pep rally with an interesting dress code — kids wouldn’t be allowed to attend unless they wore purple or Ravens gear. … Here’s a slideshow of Angels uni history. “Features some good looks — and some bad mustaches,” says Brett Crane. … Spike Lee presented President Obama with a pair of Air Jordans the other day (thanks, Brinke). … Baylor punter Spencer Roth has posted a BFBS uni to Facebook. Let’s hope that never makes it onto the field (from Drew Mastin). … San Francisco’s city hall was lit up in 49ers colors in advance of Sunday’s NFC title game (from Jon Ratshin). … Here’s a really cool bowling dress, even if the embroidery does rhyme with “Wayne Hagin.” … Adrian Acosta spotted someone wearing a Jags jacket with the original prototype logo. Nice! … New football gear branded with a basketball player for UNC (from James Gilbert). … Just about everything you could want to know about the history of the Gatorade shower ritual is available in this article. … In a barely related item, small change for the Florida Gators logo. … Here’s something I’ve never seen before: Wilt Chamberlain wearing either bandages or a Rip Hamilton-style mask (great find by my old college buddy Jeff Katz). … Yet another uni adjustment for Ohio hoops, in the form of some logo-based striping (from Johnny Bruno). … Here’s something I didn’t know: Logan Morrison of the Marlins has a ritual of going high-cuffed on Sundays (from Jon Silber). … Check out these little hand-carved Ivy League mascots (from Terry Paffenroth). … Mike Piazza says he wants to wear a Mets cap on his Hall of Fame plaque. After we get the Marlins jokes and steroid wisecracks out of the way, any sober reading of Piazza’s career stats should make it clear that he made his biggest mark as a Dodger. … Alex Fraser took a bunch of photos at the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships. “I’m pretty sure this was my favorite jersey of the weekend,” he says. … Coupla Saturday-night college hoops notes from Jim Vilk: Pepperdine wore some very nice throwbacks and the Louisville/Pitt game was red vs. gold. … Gumball helmet king Bill Jones appears to have been creating some virtual arena football cards, which provide lots of good uni views (thanks, Ricko). … “Five generations of WVU grads in my family and I have never once seen the logo on this hoodie,” says Joshua Pryor. … More G.I. Joe silliness, this time for the Ohio State hockey team (from Adam Sgriccia).
Today, as we sit back and enjoy one of the greatest sports days (the NFL Conference Championship Games), it’s a John Facenda kind of day. Four teams left — two of whom will go on to the ultimate game — the Super Bowl. And while there have been some truly super Super Bowls, the best day for football is today — no not too much glitz and glamor, just enough hype, and no truly awful half-time shows, this is the real deal. And I love it.
Today’s early game is the AFC Championship game, featuring the Baltimore Ravens at the New England Patriots. A big game, to be sure, and one that could be very close or a blowout … a big time defense against a big time offense. Four rings exist between these two teams. And this just may be both teams’ last great shot at glory. It won’t be the uni-delight of the second game, as the Patriots and Ravens don’t rank among the greats, or classics in the uni department. Both teams fall squarely in the lower end of the uni scale. In fact, about the only question there will be is whether the Ravens will wear white pants (which look pretty good) or their black tights, which do not. They went purple over black last weekend, so my guess is we’ll see the black pants again today.
That brings us to the second game — the true beaut. And for that, I’m joined by my doubles partner Brinke Guthrie, who’ll take a look at the Giants/49ers matchup, today and through the years — they’ve got quite a playoff history — and this one should be a classic. Here’s Brinke:
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(First, put yourself in a John Fascenda mindset. Then read along.)
A foggy mist envelopes the creaky old stadium. It was on its last legs years ago, and a shiny new arena beckons in the near future. A drenching rain has turned the once plush emerald field into a quagmire, and two old-school NFL titans tee it up for the right to represent their conference in the NFL championship game. But that game will be played under climate-controlled conditions on an artificial field, with fans breathing artificial air. This…is the real deal. Outdoors, the way Lom-bah-di intended it. Warriors hunkered down in the muck, focused on delivering the pigskin to the promised land……the other team’s end zone.)
A classic uni-matchup today in the NFC, as the Giants head west to play in San Francisco. While that sentence might be historically more accurate for the late 1950s, it’s also a big deal by the Bay, as the Niners attempt to return to the Super Bowl for the first time since early 1995, while Big Blue tries to get back to the big show following their 2008 win over New England. Let the record show that between the two teams, there’s a total of eight Lombardi trophies between them- three on the East Coast, and five on the West.
The Niners will be decked out in their classic red jerseys with gold pants. I’ll grade this look an A- for two reasons. One, the truncated sleeve stripes. No, no, no. Two, the helmet’s SF logo still has a black outline. Lose it- there’s no black anywhere in their scheme anymore. Change it to red, and there’s a winner. I’d also like to see all-white shoes- because that’s the way Joe Cool wore them.
As far as the Giants go, they’re coming in with their old school white tops/red trim and the gray pants. Nice clean retro look, but I’ve always thought a wordmark would look better than the NY, and would fit better under the NFL shield.
The Niners lead the all-time series against the Giants, 18-17..with seven of those meetings occurring in the post-season, and the Niners hold a 4-3 edge there. The wildest and most recent of those playoff match-ups occurred January 5th, 2003, with the Niners pulling it out late 39-38. Niners were wearing the usual home cardinal red/gold with the (clunky) drop-shadow and the logo on the sleeve stripes- always thought that to be overkill. Like the look of the red numbers/blue trim on the Giants white jersey.
Tough game for Joe Montana in January of 1991- Leonard Marshall of the Giants just flattens him, and the Giants go on to win the NFC 15-13. Is Joe wearing “L.A. Gear” cleats? Sure is, and looks like a tape job with a markered logo in that clip. That was a nail-biter, but there have been some true blowouts, too. January 15, 1993- Niners win 44-3. January 4, 1987, the Giants roll 49-3.
Back in 1985, the Niners had their classic look going, and the Giants slipped by Joe & Co, 17-3. Click here for a great Pat Summeral intro.
Oh, and there’s another game today, too—the uh, Ravens play the Patriots.
Bonus:
No matter what team you pull for, the Giants, Niners, Ravens or Patriots, click on each link to download a desktop wallpaper to display.
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Thanks Brinke! And if you know either of us, you’ll know we’re on opposite sides of the rooting spectrum today. Who’s Brinke pulling for? Guess. He and other 49er fans are certainly in good company. And of course, I’ll be pulling for Big Blue. Should be a good one.
Are you ready for some football?
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Benchies
by Rick Pearson
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Taking into account certain socio-economic cultural landmarks…
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.
And so, lets begin:
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We start with Blake Pass, who has some new ideas for the Braves:
Here are a couple of submissions for the Atlanta Braves. The first is a new alternate that could be used for both home and away. They always seem to be too conservative to me when it comes to alternate uniforms. Both current home and away alts have a version of the standard uniform wordmark…so, I decided to change that up a little.
The second is just a replacement for the current home cap. I’ve always been an “outline guy”, so I’ve always thought that the white “A” on the cap needed a couple of outlines…navy and then red to help tie it in with the rest of the cap.
Blake Pass
~~~
Next up is Clint Richardson, with some Ramblin’ Wreck ideas:
We all know Georgia Tech has the worst unis in all of football. I thought I’d try my hand at changing that. Being an Auburn fan, I’m a sucker for the triple stripes on the sholders and pants. I hate the idea of white at home, white on the road. With these three concepts, GT would be wearing blue at home, white on the road, and a gold alternate. Three new helmets exist, a blue one with a single gold striple, a gold helmet with a blue-white-blue stripe, and a white helmet with a blue-gold-blue stripe. Helmets, pants, and jerseys are all interchangeable.
I personally like the mono-white look myself.
(Ignore the UnderArmour logos, it was just on the template)
Clint
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And finally we have Andrew Bushway, who has new thoughts on Mizzou:
OK, peeps, that’s all for today. I spent yesterday visiting an uncle who lives a couple hundred miles away (and hadn’t seen since my father’s passing), so I didn’t have time to get to the colorizations — we’ll get to those next week. Everyone have a great Sunday, and enjoy the Conference Championship Games. Are you ready?
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“No background knowledge. Limited research. Present something lame and call it forward-thinking. Employ copious quantities of hyperbole and pseudo-esoterica. — Nike reminds me of the time-honored tradition of bullshitting your way through an essay test.” — Rick Pearson
Back again with our NHL tweaker/concepter-extraodinaire, Tim E. O’Brien, who has some grandiose NHL concepts that we’ve already seen, and has a few more in the bag. Previously, he basically created a ‘pro combat’ template for hockey, did up some nifty concepts for a good number of NHL teams, and resurrected some “defunct” clubs (and I’m hoping I can talk him into concepting some more defunct teams as well as some national teams for the 2014 Winter Olympics). But for today, he pretty much concludes the NHL. I especially like that he (and a concepter, which follows this article) have attempted to right the wrong that is the new Islanders third uni. So, you know the set up — here’s Tim:
These unis are a combo of throwback and current designs. All the unis feature some black but the main striping patterns come from the era of the Flames singular Cup win.
For the captaincy patch, I use the Calgary Flaming C logo and for the alternate captains, I use the Atlanta Flames Flaming A logo.
A more mountainous feel on the unis (and pants) that evokes earlier, happier times in Colorado. I also removed the black helmet and pants and eliminated gray except for on the crest.
The third is inverted Home colors, which some have said is almost indistinguishable from the Home uni, but I say, what’s so wrong with that?
The Devils don’t need too many changes. I did very minor stuff on the home and road, but I bring back the old green jersey from Jersey’s first 11 seasons and bring it back as the permanent third. It’s classic uni that deserves to be seen at least a few times a year.
Well, that’s it for now, until next time, happy tweaking.
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Thanks Tim. And I know for a fact that Mr. O’Brien is hard at work on those Olympics & Defunct unis, so we’ll be seeing those down the road. Readers? What say you?
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Au revoir, Gofair…
It was only a matter of time — the Minnesota Golden Gophers have gotten the new combat treatment from the swoosh. Or, as Nike puts it, “The fully-integrated uniform system incorporates the latest in performance innovation and design. The redesigned base layer facilitates the uniform’s overall innovation, delivering the ultimate in lightweight protection for maximum speed. Strategically placed seams, pads and cooling zones also help minimize distraction and optimize protective coverage.” We’ve heard this all before, but perhaps now that the Gophers have finally gotten “space age” uniforms, their on-field performance will improve. Or, perhaps not.
Let’s go to the video tape…
OK — that’s actually not too bad. And by “not too bad” I mean, “in comparison to last years uniforms.” The new uniforms will have some funky fonts, but other than that, they are relatively spartan (no offense, Michigan State fans). And it looks like they’ll have the full nine combinations available. In fact, about the splashiest thing about these uniforms is the rather odd, seemingly superfluous “bricklike” striping pattern on the numbers. But I happen to like them (so far). The bold gold meshes well with the muted maroon (ooh, I rhymed and alliterated in the same sentence). About the only downside appears to be a creeping in of some black on the helmet in the form of the facemask and rear bumper. I would have preferred a gray facemask, but the black isn’t overwhelming — as long as other parts of the uniform don’t contain any BFBS.
But are those fonts just some randomly computer-generated thing swooshie came up with? And what about the brick pattern? Is there any rhyme or reason? Why, yes. Once again, Nike’s spin-meister press guy supplies our answers: “Brick patterns and texture are also prominent in some of the design elements. Jersey numbering and lettering on the white and gold jerseys will be printed with a brick pattern, which was taken directly from one of the walls of Memorial Stadium, which is on display at the McNamara Alumni Center. Meanwhile, the finish of the new helmets was designed to simulate the look of brick.” OK. No, really, I kind of think these are a nice touch. And what about that gold jersey? That’s for special games, like homecoming. Just don’t schedule the North Dakota State Bison for that one.
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.
And so, lets begin:
~~~
We start with Charles Molgat, who has a tweak for the Jets crest:
Hi Phil,
Chuck Molgat here in Toronto. Finally got around to crafting the non-military version of the new Winnipeg Jets logo that’s been bouncing around in my head for awhile. And just in time for Christmas. Ha! Anyway, please let me know what you think when you get a chance. I like the fact it ends up looking like a peace symbol, which wasn’t the original idea but fits with the whole idea of Jets fans being unhappy with the militarization of the team’s uniforms. The jet on this one is taken from the old WHA crest from 1973 that made the jump to the NHL and then was replaced in 1990.
Love the site. All the best,
-Chuck
~~~
Next up is Shane Bua, who has a new Canucks concept:
Hey Phil,
I was talking with friends the other day about the V sweaters that the Nucks wore in the 80s, and decided to modernize the look a little. First time ever using gimp, but I don’t think it came out too bad.
I haven’t been able to decide on a sleeve logo. I can’t stand the orca, and stick-in-rink just doesn’t scream sleeves to me.
Shane
~~~
And we close with Walter Helfer, who has a new concept for the Islanders:
Dear Phil,
Obviously the Isles need all the help they can get, designwise. I’m unsure how vital an orange jersey is to their interests, since their enemies, the Flyers, already have one. But it *did* create the opportunity to furnish an orange helmet, which would be unique. The block “I” on the nautical flag is a theme I’ve kicked around; the aim was to find a suitable Islander identity without adding baroque and excessive detail.
Walter
And that’s it for today. Back next time with more.
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OK folks, that’s it for today. Tomorrow is the real great day in sports — the NFL conference championship games (one of the greatest days on the sports calendar — and way better than Super Bowl Sunday). I’ll be off the boards for a large part of today, so all you guys play nice, OK?
~~~
“Most design sucks, most art sucks, most music sucks, most movies suck, most food sucks, most books suck, most TV sucks. Hell, most people suck. That’s part of why good things are so special.” — Paul Lukas
Brinke spotted that yesterday afternoon. It’s even more interesting in light of something reader Chaz Noerenberg had pointed out to me earlier in the day: NFLshop.com is selling a series of jerseys called the Pro Line. If you look at the listing for one of them, the fine print reads as follows:
The Pro Line NFL jersey is manufactured on behalf of NFL Shop and is not manufactured by Reebok. The Pro Line NFL jersey is only sold through NFL Shop. … The Reebok logo does not appear on this jersey.
Faaaascinating. Chaz was curious to learn more, so he started a thread on Chris Creamer’s site. You can read the whole thread, but the key info was posted by someone who engaged in an instant-message chat with one of NFLshop.com’s customer service reps. Here’s what he posted:
[The NFLshop.com rep said] Reebok isn’t making jerseys anymore (including for the Pro Bowl), so the NFL had to whip these up themselves. They are not branded and supposedly are not produced by Nike. However, I doubt they would be able to get potentially hundreds or thousands of jerseys made to sell this week on such short notice. I picture two scenarios:
1) These are the eventual Nike product, just without the swooshes. Swooshes will be screened onto the remaining stock to be sold after March.
2) They made a few thousand non-branded jerseys for all the playoff teams just incase and these will all end up at TJ Maxx this spring.
[The rep] said that they weren’t notified yet of the price of the new Nike replicas. Also confirmed that Reebok hasn’t made new stuff this year, and they have just been selling the inventory the whole season. He said not to expect a big sale in March.
Now, I don’t really care about spending $100 on a polyester shirt. In fact, as most of you know, I don’t care about any of this merch — chuck it all in the drink as far as I’m concerned. But I will say this: If you insist on wasting $$$ on this crap, now is the time to do it, because we have temporarily lurched into into this alternate reality in which there is NO LOGO CREEP! It won’t last long — Nike officially becomes the NFL’s outfitter on April 1 (how fitting) — so allow me to repeat that ringing endorsement: There’s never been a better time to waste your money on this crap than now.
As for something I actually do care about, the most interesting thing about all this is the revelation that Reebok won’t even be making the uniforms for the Pro Bowl. So will that game have unbranded unis? If so, it’ll be the first NFL game without a maker’s mark in a long, long time (if you count the Pro Bowl as an NFL game, which I’ll admit is a squishy assessment at best). How long? Frankly, I have no idea, but I’m thinking at least 20 years. Anyone..?
Incidentally, I asked the NFL to show me this year’s Pro Bowl uni designs a few days ago. They said, “We’ll check.” They’ve become very unresponsive to my inquiries lately (I think I’ve kinda been shit-listed, just for generally peskiness), so I have a feeling we’re all gonna see the designs when the rest of the country does. But if they’re really logo creep-free, it’ll be worth the wait.
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Human billboards, continued: Totally forgot to mention in yesterday’s post about Instant Sponsor that an Olympic track runner recently auctioned off space on his left arm, in the form of a temporary tattoo. Look, here’s his actual eBay auction, which garnered a whopping 85 bids, topping out at over 11 grand.
This isn’t the first time an athlete has auctioned off advertising space on eBay. The first such instance I’m aware of — and I’m pretty sure just the first one, period — took place way back in August of 2002, when pro bowler Kim Adler auctioned off nine square inches on her skirt. The winning bidder was an outfit called Pacific Pools, at a price of $14,389.89 (and hey, that was in 2002 dollars).
Speaking of Instant Sponsor, yesterday I floated the idea of bidding on one of their auctions (which should be cheap, since nobody else appears to be bidding). Having now looked at IS’s fine print, I see a few yellow flags. But I also see that IS has an office right here in New York (although the company is headquartered in Australia), so I’m gonna give them a call either today or Monday and try to learn more. Stay tuned.
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Too bad Hot Doug’s wasn’t around to sponsor anyone back then: A few months ago I linked to this wire photo about the Chicagoland Football League. Reader Brian Powers just caught up with that photo and has some interesting additional info:
The caption on the side of the photo noted the introduction of the Newton (Iowa) Nite Hawks into the CFL in 1974. I lived in Newton during that time, and my father and I helped out with the club. One detail that the photo doesn’t reveal that well is the uniform and equipment sitting on the table. When Jim Foster (future inventor of arena football) landed the team in Newton, he was resourceful enough to get the University of Iowa to donate all of their used football equipment, including helmets, jerseys, pants, pads, and even rain capes.
So many players who played collegiately at other schools were donning Iowa gold and black for the Nite Hawks. It was an odd sight to see former Iowa State Cyclone standouts like Ray King, Jim Wingender, Gerry Petsch, and Karl Schueneman in Hawkeye colors.
On a similar note, the Nite Hawk logo on the sides of the helmets was designed by Kansas City graphic artist Don Vernon. His company did all the graphics and branding for the Maytag Co., which was headquartered in Newton.
The Nite Hawks played good football and there were many Big 8 players that played in the Chicagoland Football League after college. Some players successfully made NFL rosters. The CFL became the Northern States Football League a couple years later, using the same logo but with “NSFL” on the shield.
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Uni Watch News Ticker: Minnesota’s new football uniforms will be unveiled today. Meanwhile, the team’s Facebook page has the new wordmark, which features breathtakingly poor kerning. Are they really gonna leave that “A” hanging off the end like that? Amateur hour. … Did you know bowl season is still ongoing? Here are the jerseys that were worn in last night’s Artificial Grass Bowl (from Mike Donnelly). … A City College of San Francisco student had dyed his hair with a 49ers helmet stripe. But c’mon, no “SF” logo? (From Al Cummings.) … Jerome McDonnell’s father-in-law is a high school football coach, and one of his players is going to Northwestern. “He was over at the guy’s house when the Northwestern coaches were there, and at one point one of their coaches pulled out an iPad to show the player what their uniforms would look like next year,” says Jerome. “According to my father-in-law, they had four to five designs, and one was a throwback with gold trim.” … Tyler Hansbrough of the Pacers has been wearing goggles in practice after an eye injury (from Ben Traxel). … Reprinted from yesterday’s comments: Really depressing news out of Kentucky, where advertising may now be allowed on school buses. And if you don’t see anything wrong with that, I recommend checking out the discussion that took place in yesterday’s comments. … Here’s something you don’t often see: a hockey player — in this case Devin Setoguchi of the Wild — tossing a baseball (from Maks Skuz). … This is too good: There’s a movement to make sheep shearing an Olympic sport (thanks, Kirsten). … Here’s something we all missed: Eric Lightenberg says the Wild and the Flames wore this helmet decal back on Jan. 13. “It was in honor of Minnesota high school hockey player Jack Jablonski, who was paralyzed from the neck down after being hit from behind during a game,” says Eric. “The Wild also had the logo behind their bench during the game. It’s been the big story here in Minnesota the last month.” … Chris Holmes is creating a gallery of AFL programs. “I’ve gotten up through 1966 so far,” he says. “If anyone can help me fill some holes, I’d appreciate it.” … Also from Chris: Someone is posting a crazy amount of Texas-related sports photos. … Liverpool FC has inked a new kit deal with Warrior Sports. “I don’t know much about Warrior Sports, but it’s worth noting that they’re owned by Boston-based New Balance and Liverpool is owned by Fenway Sports Group, so there’s a Boston connection there,” says Ashley Wilkes. … Camo warm-up jersey in the works for the Avalanche (from Chris Grey). … Cougars may be an endangered species, at least in terms of team names. … New home kit for the L.A. Galaxy (from Isaac Rosenthal). … You know spring training is right around the corner when assistant Cubbie clubbie Gary Stark is affixing the raised “C” logos to the batting helmets (big thanks to Cubs media guy Jason Car). … Really nice throwbacks on tap for Iowa hoops (from Jack Coyier). … New umpires’ uniforms for Japanese baseball (from Jeremy Brahm). … Also from Jeremy: New uniforms for the Japanese soccer team Urawa Red Diamonds. … Someone on eBay is selling a bunch of cool college football T-shirt iron-ons. … The Heat wore their new black alts at home last night. … RIP, Johnny — you may be gone, but the hand jive will always live on.
Benchies
Uni 
Au revoir, Gofair…
