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Tim and Bill (and Rob’s) NFL Uniform Project – Part III

robsplashpic2

By Phil Hecken

About a month ago, I told you about the beginnings of a very special project — one which may some day go down in the annals of uniform history — on a par with Marcus Okkonen’s Dressed To The Nines That of course, was Tim & Bill’s “NFL Uniform Project.” If you didn’t see either one, Part I is here and Part II is here. At the time, we heard from Uni Watch NFL Historian Tim Brulia and his able graphic partner, Bill Schaefer. They were thisclose to launching a full-blown website; all they lacked was someone with the proper experience in building one.

Well, shortly after those posts ran, they found one, in the form of Uni Watch reader and Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan Rob Holecko (who you may know as “Rob H” from the Comments section), who you’re about to meet in a bit of greater depth today. Rob is the man who became the final piece to a very important puzzle — the man who enabled Tim’s vision and Bill’s graphical expertise to now find a home on the Internet. I’m pleased now to bring you Rob, who’ll explain the last part of the NFL Uniform Project. Here’s Rob:

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The Gridiron Uniform Database
By Rob Holecko

For the past few weeks I have been working with Tim Brulia and Bill Schaefer to help them build the website they described they were looking for to house their amazing collection of pro football uniform history. I am pleased to announce that we have launched a website called The Gridiron Uniform Database, on the web at GridironUniforms.com. We hope that our website will become the definitive reference for football uniforms in much the same way that Dressed To The Nines is for Major League Baseball uniforms.

My motivation in undertaking this task was pure selfishness. The truth is, I was selfish in that I wanted there to be a website that I could go to to look up these images. As a sports fan, I have visited the Dressed To The Nines site as well as Craig Wheeler’s Football Uniforms Past and Present. When I read on Uni Watch the first part of Tim and Bill’s story, I figured that they’d be putting together a website in no time.

When the second part of the story ran, it ended with a request that if anyone had the skills to create such a website to get in touch with Tim and Bill, I at first hesitated.

I thought someone more qualified than I would step forward and work with the guys. I knew some basic HTML and web design and played around with designing some websites before, but nothing too big. I am interested in this subject and would have loved to work with them on this, but I certainly thought they would already be working with somebody by the time I emailed them.

About a month ago, I started a website of my own chronicling all of the occasions of throwback uniforms being worn in the major sports, so working on this site with Tim & Bill was right up my alley. ThrowbackReport.com was just something I threw together. I had found that there was no real resource on the web showing the games with throwback uniforms, so I decided to create my own. ThrowbackReport.com currently has pictures from over a hundred MLB games that teams wore throwbacks in, and although it does include NFL, NHL, NBA and others, the focus of that site right now is MLB games.

So after seeing Throwback Report, Tim and Bill agreed to work with me, and the three of us have spent the last three weeks e-mailing back and forth, much as Bill and Tim have been doing for the last two years in getting the details of the images just right. We have discussed everything from layout and design and site interface, to how to make the website easy to use and informative, and how to present the information in the best way possible.

At first the website was just going to be a database of the images, much like “Football Uniforms Past and Present” was. I used to visit that site, as well. It is a shame that it has not been maintained. We were first just going to try to replicate Craig’s site, but with Tim & Bill’s graphics. But as we were making corrections and additions to things, I suggested to the guys that they should have a blog. With on-going debate and discussion about changes to the database, a blog is a perfect way to illustrate those changes on a daily basis.

After adding the blog Tim, Bill and I decided that The Gridiron Uniform Database would also need a forum. A forum is a necessity for a website of our nature. Say someone visits the site and sees a possible error. Perhaps the stripes on the socks of the 1938 Bears should be a different color. They can visit the forum and start a thread about it.

I have been writing the blog daily since May 29, however in the future all three of us will contribute. We each plan on having regular features. Right at the beginning here, our focus has been on primarily adding content to the website, and keeping a daily update going on what has been added. As we go forward, you can be sure that Tim and Bill will be contributing quite a bit as well. With the blog format, we can continue to update website visitors on what is going on at the database. This isn’t an overnight process, this website will never be ‘complete’, however we can certainly make it the best we can. With the blog and the forum, we hope to really build a community (presumably predominately Uni Watchers) to discuss and comment on changes to the database and NFL Uniforms in general.

At the present the website has the images that every NFL (and AFL and AAFC) team has worn since 1933. It currently also has all of the head-to-head matchups from the 2010 season, and previous seasons will be added sequentially. The guys are all the way back to the mid-80s on creating the head-to-head match-ups. The limiting factor on getting them in is really how fast I can put them in. In the future we will be adding pages which will show all of the historical head-to-head matchups between two teams.

The hardest part is completed. Putting all this together, getting the team pages and the yearly pages done has pretty much taken the most of the last three weeks. Now comes the fun part, as we “open up for business.” I hope that everyone who visits the website will find it informative, but also enjoyable.

But is there enough content for a daily blog about simply NFL Uniforms? Uni Watch is a great ‘niche’ website, in that it focuses on the entire field of “Athletic Aesthetics” — well the goal of our blog at The Gridiron Uniform Project is to sort of be a ‘sub-niche’ – focusing on one aspect of the Uni Watch “universe.” Whereas Uni Watch is a daily must-read for me, I hope that our website will maintain a level of quality that members of the Uni Watch community will feel they want to visit it daily as well.

There are literally hundreds of stories to be told about NFL uniforms of the past, and between Bill and Tim and myself we will bring them to you. Already in the past two weeks, we’ve talked about the Steelers’ lack of preseason helmet numbers, the two-toned material of the 49ers uniform pants of the 1960s, and a discovery that the Redskins actually wore blue in a game in 1942.

This week we’ll be looking at the 1941 Eagles’ uniforms and whether they wore black-and-silver that year or green-and-silver. I hope that our website can devote more time and coverage to these historical football uniform stories on a more in-depth basis than Uni Watch has the time and space to do. We’ve only scratched the surface, as long as there are corrections and adjustments to be made to the database, there will always be more to be done.

I hope to keep the blog fresh, funny and informative. But the real star of this whole project is Tim & Bill’s graphics. When I saw the examples of their work on Uni Watch, I felt it would be a shame if they weren’t showcased somewhere on the internet. Realizing that I was in a position to help them, I felt it was my duty to do so.

You can visit our website at GridironUniforms.com, and you can follow us on twitter @GridironUniform.

~~~

Thanks, Rob. Just a tremendous effort all around. I want to wish you guys all the success in the world, and I’m sure there’ll be many a Uni Watcher who heads over to your board to say “Hello” and to begin using the database for all kinds of research. Great, great job Tim, Bill & Rob!

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michigan jersey 1

Michigan & Notre Dame gear up for the big game…

The Michigan Wolverines and Notre Dame Fighting Irish both released new uniforms which will be worn in the special, first-ever, nighttime game to be held in the Big House later this season. Paul will have all the details and a full article on this tomorrow, so I’ll save any commentary until that time, but you can check out some photos and graphics now.

It’s an interesting look (for both teams), who are not coincidentally both adorned by the three stripes. Stay tuned for Paul’s full review on these new looks tomorrow.

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colorize this

Colorize This!

Occasionally, I will be featuring wonderful, high-quality black and white photographs that are just begging to be colorized.

Interest in this seems to have been revived since Gary did his fantastic tutorials. That’s a very good thing. But this week the submissions were less. That’s not good.

Let’s get started.

~~~

OK — just to show that there is always a counterpoint to a point…got an interesting E-mail from Paul Stave, who is NOT a fan of colorizations. In the interest of “equal time” (or some such quaint journalistic notion), here’s what Paul has to say:

Hi dudes. I read this blog every day and am usually in agreement with your thoughts on Douchebaggery, stirrups, Pro Combat, old school unis, slight alterations of unis, etc. The obsession with unis was stuff I thought about years ago before finding your site and realizing others thought the same as me. Cool!

One thing I respectfully disagree with is the Colorize This posts. It reminds me of Ted Turner’s lame attempts to colorize the MGM classics 20-25 years ago. To me its like putting the arms back on the Venus de Milo, to see what it would have looked like. Okay maybe thats a stretch….but I love the B/W photos.

You guys do great work, it’s very much appreciated! Just thought I would share an opinion.

Thank you so much

Paul Stave
Spokane WA

~~~

On that note, lets move on. Up first is the one and only George Chilvers, who begins with this:

Hi Phil

What an excellent response to this week’s Colorize This. Hopefully we’ll get some more regular contributors.

This is one I’ve been working on this week as well as Bruce’s Dad, but my monitor died last weekend and until I bought a new one I was without my PC! It felt like my right arm had been chopped off :(

Now this is potentially an interesting one for your readers, but I need to be diplomatic. You see, outside of your borders, in the main people don’t know who won the Superbowl this year (and even I as a regular reader wasn’t completely sure), and (how can I put this) think the concept of a World Series only competed for by teams from the US of A to be, well, quaint.

But ironically there is one representative USA team that is widely known throughout the world, but which I suspect is fairly unknown within the States.

The year was 1950. The World Cup had been inaugurated in 1930, and in the three tournaments before World War II England, founding nation of the modern game, held themselves aloof. Why should we enter? We knew we were the best team in the world.

But in the first post-War tournament in 1950 in Brazil they entered, and were drawn against USA. Then even less a soccer-conscious country than they are now, if possible. England were expected to rack up a “cricket score” (an English expression). On 29 June 1950 in Belo Horizonte the match was played and, you guessed it, the USA won 1-0. There was only one American reporter at the game from the St Louis Post-Despatch who could not get the paper to pay for his trip, and took holiday time to report. Very few English papers reported the game, and those that did assumed the scoreline was a typo, and reported that England had won 10-0 or 10-1.

And this is the team that did it.

Possibly the most famous American sporting team in the world, and yet one your readers may not even be aware of. I wonder if anyone could name any of the players without Googling or Wikipedia’ing. It’s a funny old world :)

Best wishes

George

~~~

Turns out that was sent to me about two weeks ago, and as sometimes happens, I neglected to put it in last weekend’s post. My bad. But since the pickings are slim this week, it will stand out more, right? Anyway, George sent me another one with a gentle reminder this week:

Hi Phil

Now – don’t forget this one!!

Some colourisations just work well throughout, and I must say I’m rather pleased with this one. It shows how important a good quality starting image is – this one is over 50 years old, but the characters in it seem as though the picture was taken yesterday. There’s enough going on in the background too to keep the interest.

The subject may appear obscure. It’s the 1960 league champions of Mozambique, Sporting Lourenco Marques. Mozambique was still a Portuguese colony at the time (well, officially an overseas province of Portugal), but one of these players became a world star very soon after. I wonder if anyone can spot him?

(If not I’ll give the answer fairly quickly).

Just to make sure there’s not a problem in sending messages could you just hit “reply” to let me know you’ve got it.

Cheers!

George

Thanks George — I also have great news to report on the personal front for Mr. Chilvers — this week he became a first-time grandfather! He’s officially been given the rest of the weekend off so that he may enjoy (and spoil) his first grandchild! Cheers, George.

~~~

Next up is Keith Kreindler, who has, well, something else:

Hey Phil,

I thought you’d be into this – I know it’s a little bit of family promotion, but my brother Graig’s work might be right up your alley. A different take on ‘Colorize This’

Cheers,
Keith

~~~

Next is, of course, Gary Chanko, who has a rather timely photo today:

Yesterday’s Uni Watch Stirrups Club Update featured this Washington Senators pitcher that needed colorization. Not the best B&W original quality, but does show the Comrade’s favorite look.

Gary

~~~

And finally, we have Larry Bodnovich, who helped me on the very first entry I ever did on the art of colorization. Well, he’s here with his first new submission, using some of the new techniques he’s learned:

I just got Adobe Photoshop Elements 9. For 35 bucks with rebate from Buy.com. I just got it the other day and messing around with it. Pretty daunting but many great editing tools to fix up or clean up older photos.

My dad was Michael Bodnovich. This studio picture was in Republic, Pa in SW Pa.

The original is here

I always look forward to the weekend colorizations I still need to learn the layers from those tutorials.

Keep up the good work.

Larry Bodnovich

Great job Larry.

~~~

OK, that’s all for this week. May or may not take a one week hiatus on “Colorize This!” for next weekend. It will depend on a couple of things, including how many submissions I receive this week. As always, send me your colorizations or your suggestions for same. Cool? Cool!

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Benchies Header

Benchies

by Rick Pearson

Maybe if he weren’t only slightly taller than a fire hydrant…

~~~

6-12-11 s-caddy 2

And your beautiful, Sunday full-size Benchies.

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all sport uni tweaks

Uni Tweaks

We have another new set of tweaks today.

If you have a tweak, change or concept for any sport, send them my way.

Remember, if possible, try to keep your descriptions to ~50 words (give or take) per tweak. You guys have been great at keeping to that, and it’s much appreciated!

And so, lets begin:

~~~

We start with Rafael Ortiz-Torres, who is taking on a team perhaps most sorely in need of new unis:

Hey Mr. Hecken

This is my Toronto Blue Jays concept. I basically took the current incarnation of the blue jay head, and gave it the dark blue-light blue-red treatment reminicent of the retro blue jay everyone recognizes and loves. I also created an alternate utilizing the Red Maple Leaf. Uniform wise, there are six combinations; one, which is my personal favorite, is the powder blue that uses matching pants with the jersey.

Thanks in advance for posting

~~~

Next up is Andrew Hall, who, like yesterday’s tweakers, redesigned the Washington basketball team:

Phil,

These are some potential alternates I’ve created for the Washington Wizards. They feature the “DC” logo and one is inspired by Marvel Comics character “U.S Agent.” I wanted to use the “DC” logo for the alternates because the words “DC” have yet to appear on the chest of an Wizards uniforms. The “US AGENT” alternate looks like something John F. Walker would wear to fight crime.

Thanks,

Drew Hall

~~~

And the last tweak today comes from Nick Tippens, who uses a Tim E. template to cool the Heat:

Hi Phil I got in touch with you a couple weeks back about Tim O’Brien’s NBA tweaks, and after emailing back and forth with him, ended up deciding to try my hand at it. I’ve ended up really enjoying it. Attached is my first project, a Golden Yellow Alternate Uni for the Miami Heat. This Golden Yellow color is used as an accent in almost all of their uni combinations, so I thought it would be cool to see it as the featured color. I think it turned out alright. Just thought I would share it with you.

Thanks,
Nick

~~~

OK everyone. That’s all for this week. Thanks to all the customizers.

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65122191

Partying like it’s 1936….

The Padres and Nationals threw back to 1936 last night. Nice lead up to the game (with some historical anecdotes) can be found here. As far as the uniforms themselves…

Count me as a fan. Now, the Padres had worn these throwbacks before, so I expected they’d look good and they did not disappoint. Good job by Majestic, and…in a wonderful (and unexpected) turn, not only did the Padres show sock, they wore sanis and stirrups! Well done.

Not to be outdone, however, were the Nationals, who, despite the typically plain front, sported an absolutely gorgeous uniform (which was plenty colorful), including the best part: drop dead gorgeous stirrups, also with period appropriate white sanis. Comrade Marshall, who is offering the 1935 Nationals for this year’s 4th of July ‘rup, needs to offer the 1936 stirrup next. But wait…(in my opinion) it gets even better — check out the red sanitaries on Ian Desmond (and after seeing highlights of this game, he wasn’t the only one)!!! I know many, if not most, of you don’t like that look, but I rather fancy that look. Just sayin.

Really though, stellar effort by both teams to get things right, despite the Majestic makers marks and the MOTB on the undershirts, it was a fun looking game. OK, so some of the guys need a lesson in pants blousing, but we can work on that.

~~~

And in Milwaukee, the Brewers had Spanish (Hispanic?) heritage night, and they broke out the “Cerveceros” jerseys, but with a new twist. These were gold, or, I guess more appropriately, beer colored. Kinda cool, I guess, for a one-shot. And the Cardinals played along, wearing Cardenales tops, in gray. Looks pretty good, and they seem to have actually used a spanish noun rather than lazily slapping a “Los” in front of Cardinals as so many teams are wont to do.

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That’s going to do it for this fine Sunday. Everyone have a good one. Big thanks to Rob Holecko (and of course Tim & Bill) and all the colorizers & tweakers (and Ricko too). Peace yo.

~~~

The Dallas Stars: Standing Up for Unoriginality in Uniforms Since 1993. — Lloyd Davis

 
  
 
Comments (112)

    Awesome.

    Also I’m about 90% sure that you guys have the wrong number font on the Raiders 2009 throwback uniform, but my google-fu is failing me in finding a picture to prove it.

    Wanted to point out that Reds pitcher Mike Leake is now 3-0 with a 1.98 ERA in 4 starts since he started wearing stirrups. Coincidence? I think not.

    It saddens me to say that the Nats did not get it right last night. The ’36 Nats jerseys had block “W”s link link link

    RS Rogers, I know you’re out there: Here’s a photo of link that shows the middle of the cap block “W” ending in a point. (The photo of brother Rick linked above does as well.) That said, Mr. Rogers has shown us photos here in which that “W” appears flat all the way across the top, so it’s likely variations did exist.

    Finally, I’m sure the ’36-37 Nats did not two-color block numbers. In the <a href="link and link I’ve seen, they look like single-color McAuliffe font.

    Much as I want them to, the Nats did not get it right last night.

    Excellent points on accuracy, or lack thereof. Nice try for the Nats, but they fell short in important regards. On the other hand, isn’t it basically on the home team to make the throwback duds?

    As to the cap, the photo (and a previous one linked hereabouts) simply does not show a pointed center on the W. It suggests the possibility of a pointed center, but like the last, it’s just not definitive. It could show that, but it could equally well show a flat-topped center on a fold in the fabric, or a slight variation in the felt, or even a flat-topped W that’s just narrower than the flat area atop each of the W’s two side bars. Any of these explanations is just as likely, given the scant evidence we have so far. I’m not saying the Nats never had a pointy-middle W – which anyway I think would be more attractive than a straight block, so I kind of hope this variation is established to be true – just that the photos linked here so far do not establish that they did.

    But the various 1936-37-era cap photos do all seem to suggest that the middle of the W reached as high as each of the two sides. The throwback cap the Nats wore last night had a middle that did not reach to the full height of the letter. I’ve seen no photos that suggest the Nats ever wore a lower-middle W. So yet another entry in the Nats long list of completely anachronistic, but still quite attractive, “throwback” unis.

    Perhaps I’m more easily convinced than you, but from reading our posts I’m guessing that we both have a mutual interest in and connection to the AL Nats franchises that would help us to find an answer. Guess I’m trying to say we should dig into this offline.

    If you’re amenable, maybe we could exchange e-mail via one of our hosts (Phil or Paul) and take it from there?

    I know I’m going to catch Hell for this, but I’m glad to see Adidas went with the retro logo. No maker’s mark would be better of course, but I do love me some 3-leaf Adidas. I like both uniforms for the most part, nothing too garish, but nothing too historically accurate from what I’ve read either, and that disappoints me. Either way it’s a nice distraction from all the WVU news I’ve had to deal with…

    Also, that Padres/Nats game was indeed a beautiful sight.

    If you have to have the true MOTB on a uniform, the retro version is the better option. The Michigan throwback is better than what I expected, but there are two problems:

    (link)

    1) There’s a stripeless void in the middle of #53’s yoke.

    2) Adidas seems to be suffering from MNNOB (Majestic No Name On Backitis), because there’s a gap in between the aforementioned yoke and the numbers.

    Notre Dame looks horrendous.

    (link)

    The only two saving graces being the helmet and the socks. Plus, the model looks abnormally skinny — almost anorexic by college football standards.

    (link)

    (link)

    What? ND’s unis look fine! Whats wrong with them? You just said they are “horrendous” and left it at that. Then you say “The only two saving graces being the helmet and the socks.” So, what exactly is wrong with the jersey and pants? Plain gold pants, white jersey with kelly green numbers and sleeve stripes. What’s wrong with it? Its a very classy, traditional look. Plus, I think kelly green and gold is a very underrated combination.

    The jersey is warped, and the shoulder stripes nubs look nothing like the uniform that they’re trying to depict. All because of the super-stretchy muscle shirt. The model’s frame isn’t helping much either. Had it been a non-stretchy jersey, then it would look so much better. The pants are okay because they are — more of less — the usual pants for ND, so I left them alone.

    I forgot to mention the moronic white shoes. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think ND wore white shoes in that era (late 50s?).

    ND’s unis would look great is they were to do the following:

    1. Use OLD GOLD, as worn in the pre-Holtz past, and not the pathetic modern “Vegas Gold” that is the color of weakened Cat Piss ….; and

    2.) Use the original, full “UCLA” type shoulder stripes. If High Schools can get them, then ND can get them – unless they simply want to pose instead of replicate their older uniforms ….

    The ND “Throwback” unis shown are PATHETIC …

    Yeah, I prefer to see the trefoil as well, but that thing is almost as big as the number on the front of the jersey — one step forward, two steps back.

    I’m inclined to agree with you. While it is a shame they couldn’t leave the logos off for one game (come on, Adidas–it’s ONE F***ING GAME), it is nice they at least went with the old trefoil logo. I’d be willing to bet that they specifically did that in the spirit of the “throwback” game.

    A couple other notes re: ND’s kit: the green is a bit lighter (more “kelly” than “forest”) than last year’s green vs. Army. Secondly, the numbers have no navy/gold outline — the first time ND has worn a numeral sans trim since 1985 (seen here vs. SC)

    link

    I know I’m going to catch Hell for this, but I’m glad to see Adidas went with the retro logo. No maker’s mark would be better of course, but I do love me some 3-leaf Adidas.

    The problem with that logo is that it’s graphic symbol AND a wordmark. Too much. The symbol already stands for Adidas; no need for the word underneath it.

    Just a quick reply to Paul Stave.

    I really do understand where you’re coming from. My brother-in-law is a professional photographer who loves old pictures, and thinks I am a Philistine.

    But although I love old photos I primarily love history, and bringing history to life. Life has always been in colour, so I’m just trying to see what people of the time actually saw. By adding colour to old photos I bring them to life for myself. And that’s an important point.

    I am very very happy to share my work with all of you guys. But if I didn’t share it I’d still do it. Because I’m doing it for me – I enjoy doing it and I enjoy the end result.

    If you enjoy old black and white photos, and the art that made them then that’s great.

    But equally allow me to enjoy them in my way. The world is plenty big enough for both our views to fit. And there’s a hell of lot of worse things going on :)

    I never understood the b&w only people. As you say George life was in color. If they had the chance to use color film and if the cost was the same they would use it.

    I agree so much with your comment on this. I too love history and old pictures. Just wish we could see everything in color.

    If I may…

    A special word of THANKS to Bill and Rob for coming along when they did. If it weren’t for them, the stuff would just be sitting in the room collecting dust and other particles.

    Bill had the dedication to see it through and then some. Rob has the tekkie knowhow to share for all the world to see.

    Many thanks also go out to Paul for his article in February 2009 that featured the 1933-1958 database to help get it all started.

    And ueber thanks to Phil to get Bill’s story, my story and Rob’s story out there to bring it all together.

    Can’t end without thanking those who did contact me along the way who didn’t quite see it through. You at least made the effort with your samples and interest.

    Bill, Rob and I will do our very best to make this the most
    accurate and informative site of its kind it can possibly be.

    You guys better stick a footnote on the ’62 Broncos, or Ricko’s gonna flip out. ;)

    /the site’s flippin awesome though

    Yup, brown horse needs to be more purple, something between blue (which I believe the decal was) and brown (which it became when applied to the orange helmet).

    The idea, I’m convinced, was that it was designed to be blue, but they actually wore purple-brown.

    Much like those gold Lions helmets. Yeah, they WORE gold helmets, no doubt about that. But it wasn’t on purpose. It just turned out that way.

    I remember posting those Lions helmets after doing screen grabs. So the theory about the Bronco logo is an interesting one.

    The story about Penn States original colors being pink and black is along those lines. Those colors faded after a while. So PSU went to blue and white.

    As I said in “My Story,” I’m just glad my art “didn’t suck!” It’s funny, after we got done doing the ’33-’58 years and we went on to redo ’59-current, I went back and took another look at ’33-’58. I couldn’t believe how bad I thought they looked by comparison to the stuff I’d just done. So I actually went back and pretty much redid ’33-’59 a second time. In hindsight, the first drafts did suck! Thankfully, Tim was willing to put up with my artistic nit-picking and we got it done. Congrats, Timmy. We did it. Rob, if it weren’t for you, Tim and I would still just have a big collection of football players on our computers. Thanks for making it come to life.

    Gotta agree on the Nats-Pads game, good showing by both teams. I wish the Padres would wear that uni all the time; even though I’m always harping for a return to a brown color scheme, I could definitely live with what they wore yesterday. Only thing about the Nats I don’t like is that the plain front doesn’t look good in polyester – ugh, does ANYTHING look good in polyester? Wish there were some way for them to make very lightweight flannels for an authentic retro look…

    -Jet

    USA 1950: Joe Gaetjens. There was a terrific SI article about him during the lead-up to last year’s World Cup.

    Very nice work on the photo.

    Is there a way to view each team over the years as opposed to every team in a single year?

    You can look at all teams for a given year clicking the year on the left. You can look at a single team’s yearly images clicking the team on the right.

    Checking out GridironUniforms now… Amazing.

    Bravo Zulu to all those involved!

    Indeed! I’m mostly a hockey/baseball guy but I foresee many hours spent at this site

    -Jet

    Tim, Bill, Rob,

    Fabulous work on the data base. Happy to see the very detailed sock striping(differences in spacing,etc.). You guys got the Browns ’69 sock/sleeve stripe differences perfectly. One adjustment you could make: Brownies went back to grey face masks in 2006 (60th season).

    Thumbs up to the Gridiron Data Base.

    Wonxerful G&G once again. Among us Yank footishests, George, 1950 is known, if not savored. Thanks for livening them up.

    And that summarizes why George’s reply to the anti-colorization post was so thoughtcul. Sometimes color can render remote times vivid and pungent. World War I is a classic example. Color can supplement, not displace b&w. AND there are good colorizers and not-goods. G&G are very good. Check out Shorpy gor tboze less gifted.

    Posted from a soccer tourney. cheers!

    Posted from a soccer tourney.

    Ah, so that explains the typos — you weren’t allowed to use your hands to type that.

    Today’s “Tank McNamara” is devoted to college football uniform menus a la the Oregon Ducks. Nice.

    link

    @Nick Tippens: LOVE the Heat tweak. Did it myself back in July of last year (on MS Paint) but didn’t look anywhere as good as yours. I guess Tim’s 3D template made it extra awesome :) Thank you Tim E. O’Brien!

    My Heat tweak
    link
    (The reason why it looks orange instead of the gold-yellow is because I used the “color picker” tool in MS Paint and that’s the “gold” color that it picked up from the Creamer’s SportsLogo’s Miami Heat illustration.)

    As featured on
    link
    (A year later, and my “history lesson” still holds: no non-“previously-Nike” have won the NBA title since the 1994 and 1995 Rockets, and you’d have to go back to 1983 to find the next oldest non-Nike team who went all the way. (Yeah, I know, they use to wear Champion and Sand-Knit, but I meant that those teams who chose Nike–or were chosen by Nike–have won the bulk of the titles.) But I digress.

    Anyway, I’ve also contacted Tim and he was kind enough to take and fill requests, and I tweaked this Bulls pic even further to get this nifty (IMHO) Bulls tweak:

    Bulls alternate
    link

    Just so people know:

    I did NOT create that bball template. I think I was the first person ’round these parts to really use it, but it is not my creation. I don’t want to take credit for someone else’s work and I think that’s a Frasier Davidson template.

    _____
    But as I already told Nick when he sent me a copy of that Heat tweak, it’s AMAZING.

    All I can say to Tim, Bill, and Rob is “hallelujah!” Congratulations on creating this Shangri-La for uni-watchers.

    Bravo, to all of those involved with ‘The Gridiron Uniform Database’. Fun as hell navigating through that site.
    Looking forward to Paul’s write-up on the Michigan and Notre Dame unis tomorrow. Really diggin’ Michigan’s look.
    Something about those link I really like; the simplicity/symmetry. Believe it’s just the stem that differs in this set?

    Not able to dig in to all of today’s piece yet, but I had to respond to this:
    “They feature the ‘DC’ logo and one is inspired by Marvel Comics character ‘U.S Agent.'”
    DC…Marvel…was the irony intended there, Andrew? ;)

    In fact, that gives me an idea on what to rename the Wizards. All the good patriotic names appear to have been taken, so forget that and call them the DC Marvels. Imagine the superhero-ish unis you could come up with for that!

    Before Phil groans too much at that…at least it’s better than “Pro Combat,” eh?

    Now, speaking of US Agent, Marvel is now owned by Disney, so will we end up back with the Bullets moniker, as in the Monorail at the Disney theme parks? Quiet a stretch, I know, but one can only dream! :)

    Tim, Bill, Rob. Superb work gentleman! It’s already in my favorites.

    The Packers grip strip unis were of 1927-28 vintage not 1929 as indicated by the caption on the blog post and related piece.

    Leatherhead

    thanks — pre-1933 is out of our focus range for the time being, I just put 1929 because that’s what the place I got the photo said..

    ANY references from the B.C. era of the NFL 1920-1932 will be noted and saved for future reference.

    One thing’s for certain…I think this era we will be 95+% accurate for helmet colors and pant colors, considering they used plain leather helmets and plain canvas pants.

    Hate to say, but I don’t think that era will ever be 100% complete or accurate, but we can try!

    @LI PHIL

    I did NOT create that bball template. I think I was the first person ’round these parts to really use it, but it is not my creation. I don’t want to take credit for someone else’s work and I think that’s a Frasier Davidson template.

    Ok timmer, I hear ya…I will no longer credit you with that, but what you’ve done with baseball and the soon-to-be seen hockey template is nothing short of outstanding.

    What’s next? Soccer’s been done and we already have a football and hoop template…

    How about BASEketball? :p

    But seriously, great work Tim, whether the template was yours or not, and Phil, for filling in on the weekends :)

    I was at the Petco Park throwback game last night and took some pictures with Uniwatch in mind. I also sent my slideshow link to Paul, but I’ll put it here in the comments too for anyone that wants to look now:
    link

    Enjoy! Fun throwback game, same modern-day-lousy-Padres offense.

    @SimplyMoono – sorry about the spelling mistake there. Must have been my complete lack of sleep from getting those photos uploaded and edited late into the night :)

    @BurghFan – they were members of the Pacific Coast League Padres. In the order they appear in the slideshow they are Earl Averill, Rod Graber, Rudy Regalado, Bob Skinner and Bob Usher.

    The Gridiron Uniform Database is unbelievably awesome. What great work! Thank you guys! You did (and are still doing, I can see) an excellent, highly detailed job. Again, thank you!

    The Blue Jays tweak looks amazing, though I’d get rid of the red outline on the Blue Jay for the uniforms. Works as a standalone logo (and on the hats), but there’s too little red on the uniforms themselves.

    not following

    do you not agree or do you not see the sanitaries and stirrups?

    or do you just not like my hyperbole?

    I saw the Michigan uniforms online yesterday and the Irish too. The Irish is a little closer to what was worn.

    Michigan’s is another of those make believe uniforms that were never worn.

    sigh

    While checking out the gridiron uniform database, I came up with an idea:

    What about a note that denotes a change in design when looking at a team’s section. For example the Ravens page would have a * next to the 1997 Uniform title, 1999 Uniform title, and the 2000 Uniform title, as each of those years marked a change in the uniform, that isn’t very obvious from the thumbnail view. There’s no need to get specific about what the changes were, just that there was a change.

    Just now checking out the Gridironuniformdatabase. Just bookmarked it.

    Great work guys

    Not speaking for Tim & Bill, but just for myself, that is something we could consider…. what I do is open two images in separate tabs and click back and forth you can see what has changed (very useful in seeing, for example that two different versions of the same year have had a change…. for example look at these two in different tabs:

    link

    link

    and click back and forth you can see the change we made.

    But yes, notating that there was a change from the previous year would be something we might consider adding one day…

    Thanks for all the kind words everyone. It has been, and continues to be, a labor of love! Not to take anything away from the images but as far as information goes, pop a look into the ABOUT THE TEMPLATE for all kinds of hot bits about all the little nuances we’ve been dealing with.

    One other good thing about the database site is for colorizers.

    For any good old NFL picture from sites such as Corbis

    Another neat feature of the database site is the team vs team idea. The what unis were worn by both teams in certain years.

    Gee so much work by you guys. Just know there are people like me who really appreciate the hard work.

    Tim and/or Bill (GridironUniforms.com), Do you have a way that I can email you? I checked the site, and didn’t see an email address. It’s entirely possible I looked right at it and didn’t see it though.

    Thanks, and GREAT WORK!

    Go to the ‘About’ link on the right and look on that page you will see our email addresses… (also in FAQs on that page)

    What’s the line on how many times Dwayne Wade jumps into a pump fake biter tonight? When I take jump shots, I jump straight up. Not forward. He’s like Fernando Vina leaning into pitches. Douchen une baggen.

    He’s like Fernando Vina leaning into pitches.

    ~~~

    maybe someone will pull a joey belle on his antics

    [Quote]The subject may appear obscure. It’s the 1960 league champions of Mozambique, Sporting Lourenco Marques. Mozambique was still a Portuguese colony at the time (well, officially an overseas province of Portugal), but one of these players became a world star very soon after. I wonder if anyone can spot him?[/Quote]

    That player is Benfica great and Portuguese legend Eusebio!

    Excellent job on this post fellas.

    Went to the Sporting KC game vs. the Chicago Fire the other night. My first MLS game, or any other professional soccer game for that matter. Had a BLAST. The new stadium, Livestrong Sporting Park was VERY cool. The seats were all close to the field and provided a great experience all in all. Still think Soccer should do a few more things to provide more scoring as the game ended 0-0. I understand keeping with the worldwide rules but geez, 0-0? One team can dominate and end with a tie or even lose. The goal is to prove you are a better team and this doesn’t do it. 5-3 would be a great game score but is extremely rare. Hockey has a shot on goal about once a minute, IMO soccer needs to create more scoring chances. Maybe loosen the offsides rules. Just my uneducated observation.

    :P indeed.

    The goalie (keeper?) used his hands outside the box in the game we went to. So he gets to sit the next game.

    0-0. :P

    That was great. Kids said that was their favorite part. The cow scored the only goal of the game and the first ever goal at Livestrong. No counting the goal that was disallowed.

    Fuck. That Cleveland thing shouldn’t be here. What should have been here was this:

    The cow probably would have been my favorite part, too.

    And soccer really does have bullshit offsides rule. They need a blue line or something.

    This is the soccer you need to go see, Ben:
    link
    Although they went too far in the other direction and introduced multiple-point scoring. A goal should be one point. You’d have lots of 5-3 games, but they wanted to have scores that look like football games. Anyway, it’s still fun to watch.

    Glad you enjoyed it, but the potential that the underdog can survive to a draw, or even snatch a win againstthe odds is one of the great attractions.

    Yes there are some absolutely dire 0-0 draws. But utter domination by one side is equally boring. I’ve seen some absolutely brilliant 0-0 draws when either we have held on, or have done everything but score.

    The build-ups, the skills, the shots, the missed chances, and everything else make it a great game.

    Without any alterations, thank you, to scoring systems. It’s done us fine for about 150 years :)

    LOVE that gold Brewers jersey! They should keep it and put “Brewers” on the front, get rid of the blue home jersey, and keep the blue “Milwaukee” road jersey. AMIRITE???

    Until next year…then they start winning their own.

    Great great season. And now I can give my Mavericks shirt a break for a few days.

    Now that the Mavs won, Adidas will roll out their terrible Championship stuff. The shirt is OK, but the “locker room” cap is beyond dreadful:

    link

    Always loved adjustables, be they snapbacks or velcro. None of my ball caps are fitted.

    I was into fitted baseball caps for a while, but now I prefer adjustables, especially after the dry cleaners shrunk my fitted MLB 59Fifty cap…

    OK, I only had time for snide comments this morning before I had to go downstate for what seems like the 13th funeral/memorial service I’ve been to this year.

    Now that I’ve had time to check it out, I’ve got to say fantastic work on The Gridiron Uniform Database, fellas. I really hope nobody’s expecting me to get any work done this week.

    They’ve tried that for the last few years, but only looks like a real “mashup” this year, i.e., it actually looks like the official on-court uniform, at least from the back.

    link

    Arizona State baseball’s Deven Marrero was wearing a batting helmet without a logo tonight. Trying to find a photo, but my search is not exactly going as planned.

    Not a big tattoo guy, but I give credit to Dallas’ link (my vote for link by the way). He got a tattoo of the NBA trophy as a team motivator, vowing to have it removed if the Mavs lost. Thankfully he won’t have to go through with that.

    Big ups on the tweaks…All of them were good. Would love to see them. Although Toronto had a classic look, the suggestion is a nice way to marry the old with something new without looking drab.

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