By Phil Hecken
As we put a close on the first week of bowls, I wanted to give the spotlight once more to my normal “Sunday Morning Uni Watch” uni reviewer, Terry Duroncelet, since I’ve asked him to bring us a review of every bowl game as they happen (on the weekends, obviously). I’d hoped to have TJ give us the scoop on the first four bowls last weekend, but our signals got crossed, and I promised we’d have them for you here.
Of course, like many regular season games, there were a few teams who had to change uni components (new helmets, decals, alternates, throwbacks, etc.) from their normal uniforms, and there were of course, a few who went the “traditional route.” Last weekend, I tried to predict the winner (using the spread) of each bowl game by picking a team’s overall uni portfolio for the season. Thus far, my picking has been above average. Because I just KNOW none of you are keeping score at home, I’ll post my picking results after each bowl review (in blue).
So, without further ado, here’s TJ with a special edition of…
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Saturday Morning Uni Watch
By Terry Duroncelet
Hi guys! Yeah, sorry about that miscue from last week. But I hope you all had a great holiday season, and rest assured, I’m hear and ready to fill you in on everything that the teams are wearing in every bowl game. Yes, every last one. As tradition has it, I will be referring to these teams by their full name. Without further ado…
• Colorado State vs. Washington State (played on Saturday, December 21st, 2013)
A fine-looking game to kick things off, as the Washington State University Cougars had the honors of playing in the first bowl game of the season, and wore white jerseys and pants for the occasion, with crimson helmets, of course. But it was their opponent for that game — the Colorado State University Rams — that would come back in the 4th quarter, coming back from a 22-point deficit to win it 48-45. And they did it in green helmets and jerseys with gold pants.
Skipper’s Pick: CSU. Final Score: CSU 48-WSU 45. Record 1-0
• USC vs. Fresno State (played on Saturday, December 21st, 2013)
At the same time as the first game, these two schools from my home State of California played in… well, it wasn’t in Cali. Either way, the University of Southern California Trojans dressed in their best home attire: cardinal helmets and jerseys with gold pants. As for the California State University (Fresno) Bulldogs? They wore some fantastic helmets with the regula– wait wait WAIT… weren’t we promised throwbacks? Or is that for next season? Either way, I feel cheated. Buy yeah, they wore their normal white jerseys and pants with the classic helmet.
Skipper’s Pick: USC. Final Score: USC 45-FSU 20. Record 2-0
• San Diego State vs. Buffalo (played on Saturday, December 21st, 2013)
The San Diego State Aztecs didn’t look too bad in their red helmets, black jerseys and black pants. Not exactly my favorite look, but a passable one. The mess that was worn by the Buffalo Bulls– excuse me… the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, of the Northeast region of the United States of America, of North America, of the Northern Hemisphere, of the Western Hemisphere, of the planet Earth Bulls? Not so much. Blue helmets, white jerseys that I cannot even begin to begin to take seriously, and black pants. Let’s move on.
Skipper’s Pick: SDSU. Final Score: SDSU 49-SUNYB 24. Record 3-0
• Louisiana-Lafayette vs. Tulane (played on Saturday, December 21st, 2013)
This is the one that my Dad was really excited for, mainly because it featured two Louisiana schools. Okay, that was the only reason. But nonetheless, it would be the Tulane University Green Wave’s last game in the Superdome for a good long while (and it would sadly end in a loss), as they have a new, homey-vibe campus stadium in the works that’s set to open in 2014. They wore an all-white uniform, with new white helmets. They had metallic graphics on the sides, a new stripe/wave/wing thing on the top of the helmet, and #18 on the back of all of the helmets for Devon Walker, who suffered a spinal cord injury playing for Tulane last year. The opposing University of Louisiana at Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns wore red helmets and jerseys with black pants. Apart from the phantom V thing underneath the arms, it’s a solid look.
Skipper’s Pick: ULL. Final Score: ULL 24-Tul 21. Record 4-0
• East Carolina vs. Ohio (played on Monday, December 23rd, 2013)
Oh, boy… BFBS vs. a brick ball of a uniform. In the black corner, we have the Ease Carolina University Pirates in their all-black togs. In the white corner with too much mortar, we have the Ohio University Bobcats in their white brick jersey… things. At least they wore those wonderful helmets that I love, along with green pants.
Skipper’s Pick: Ohio. Final Score: ECU 27-Ohio 20. Record 4-1
• Oregon State vs. Boise State (played on Tuesday, December 24th, 2013)
The Oregon State University Beavers wore their black helmets and jerseys with white pants [a first ever for that combo in this uni set-PH] against the Boise State University Broncos, who also wore white pants, but with white jerseys and blue helmets.
Skipper’s Pick: OSU. Final Score: OSU 38-BSU 23. Record 5-1
• Bowling Green vs. Pitt (played on Thursday, December 26th, 2013)
It seemed like a normal day for the University of Pittsburgh Panthers, they’re readying themselves for their bowl game (and wore white jerseys and pants with gold helmets for the occasion), and then all of a sudden, here come the Bowling Green State University Falcons in… grey. Now, I’ll be honest: I actually like this design in a vacuum. Orange and dark grey work really well together. But there are so many technical things wrong with this outfit, that even Tosin Abasi and Travis Orbin are saying “Yeah, let’s tone it down, BG”. For starters, it’s 2013, and teams with the means to get sturdier numbers for their jersey tops are still using screenprinted graphics? Why? Staying in line with the numbers, the bigger issue is the visibility. It’s kind of hard to see the orange numerals with the brown stroke on the grey tops unless you have an HD T.V.. It’s nowhere near as much of a mess as Michigan’s tops for last season’s bowl game, but still unpleasant to watch. They wore the tops with orange helmets and pants. Also, note this shot of the locker rooms. I know that it’s practice gear, but it’s still odd to see Russell practice jerseys (if not a full uni) paired with the gameday Adidas togs.
Skipper’s Pick: BGSU. Final Score: Pitt 30-BGSU 27. Record 5-2
• Northern Illinois vs. Utah State (played on Thursday, December 26th, 2013)
The Northern Illinois University Huskies wore black helmets, jerseys, and pants against the Utah State University Aggies, who wore navy helmets and pants with white jerseys.
Skipper’s Pick: USU. Final Score: USU 21-NIU 14. Record 6-2
• Maryland vs. Marshall (played on Friday, December 27th, 2013)
The University of Maryland, College Park Terrapins dressed in their White-Ops uniforms while the Marshall University Thundering Herd wore green jerseys and pants with white helmets, but the helmets had flag-desecration decals. Rare that Maryland looks better than their opponent.
Skipper’s Pick: Marshall. Final Score: MU 31-UMd 20. Record 7-2
• Minnesota vs. Syracuse (played on Friday, December 27th, 2013)
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Golden Gophers had some spiffy new helmets that they wore with maroon jerseys and (thankfully) white pants. The Syracuse University Orange… didn’t look so orange. They wore those weird fade helmets, white jerseys, and navy pants. From that same game, hats! Speaking of hats, this happened (h/t to Shayne Ratcliff for the dented helmet photo).
Skipper’s Pick: UM. Final Score: SU 21-UM 17. Record 7-3
• Washington vs BYU (played on Friday, December 27th, 2013)
The University of Washington Huskies wore Paul’s lifelong dream of a uniform monochrome purple with their shiny gold chrome helmets against the Brigham Young University Cougars, who wore white/white/navy.
Skipper’s Pick: BYU. Final Score: UW 31-BYU 16. Record 7-4
That does it for the first wave of bowl games. Come back tomorrow, and we’ll go over today’s bowl games. See you then.
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Thanks, TJ!
I’m pleased today to let you know that the folks who bring you the “Gridiron Uniform Database,” a fantastic historical resource, and who’ve branched out into other areas, are back with yet another new database to add to the uniform historical record.
If you’ve been reading Uni Watch for some time, you’ll recall how the database grew up under Tim Brulia and Bill Schaefer, and how it took flight under Rob Holecko. Today, Tim is back to describe to you a new project. Here’s Tim:
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Another Database From The GUD folk
by Tim Brulia
Following on the heels of adding the history of the College All-Star Game to the Gridiron Uniform Database and the launch of the United States Football League (USFL) database in early November, the people behind the GUD are pleased that we were able to launch on Christmas Day, another new database that we hope all you fans of sports history will enjoy
Ladies and gentlemen, the World Football League (WFL), which can be found here: http://wfl.uniformdatabases.com/.
After we launched the USFL database, there was much clamoring for something similar for the WFL. The WFL Database was launched after exhaustive research from our graphic engineer, Bill Schaefer. We hope you enjoy this additional feature as much as we enjoyed putting it together.
What will come next from the Gridiron Uniform Database guys? We urge you to stay tuned in 2014 to find out!
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Thanks Tim (and Bill and Rob)! Looking forward to the next uniform history project, as I am sure many Uni Watchers are as well. Good Luck and Godspeed.
Uni Tweaks Concepts
We have another new set of tweaks, er…concepts today. After discussion with a number of readers, it’s probably more apropos to call most of the reader submissions “concepts” rather than tweaks. So that’s that.
So if you’ve concept for any sport, or just a tweak or wholesale revision, send them my way.
Please do try to keep your descriptions to ~50 words (give or take) per image — if you have three uniform concepts in one image, then obviously, you can go a little over, but no novels, OK? OK!. You guys have usually been good with keeping the descriptions pretty short, and I thank you for that.
Like the colorizations, I’m going to run these as inline pics — click on each one to enlarge.
And so, lets begin:
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We begin today with Brent Hatfield, who has some logos for the Pack:
Hey Phil,
I decided to update the classic Green Bay Packers logo. I chose the #21 to display on each logo because that is the year they were established. I really don’t have too much else to say, except I’d like to share them with the UNI WATCH community.
Brent Hatfield
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Next up is Paul Lee who has a pair of possible Clippers logos:
Phil,
Here’s a Clippers logo concept. (In the first logo, the sails are equidistant; in the second logo, the masts are extensions of the letters I, P and R.)
Paul Lee
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We close today with Brandon Moore (a good guy who you should follow @BrandMooreArt) who has concepts for the Washington football club:
Hi Phil,
Since uni-watch has been interested in the latest Redskins news and an appreciator of uniform/logo concepts, I thought I would share mine for the Redskins.
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Brandon Moore
Independent Graphic Artist
The above is just a fraction of the work Brandon has done on this concept; putting them all on here would take up a full page. If you’d like to see more (and please do) just click here. OK? OK!
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And that’s it for today. Back with more next time.
U.W.F.F.L. Week 17
By Rob Holecko
This was a memorable week in the UWFFL Playoffs. Like the NFL in 1971, we had a double overtime game end of Christmas Day. And like that epic Dolphins-Chiefs tilt, Miami also won our game, as the Cougars defeated the San Diego Storm, 118 to 111.
As a result, we have pushed back this week’s semifinal game until next week. Both semifinals will now be on January 4, as Miami will take on the top-seeded New York Sharks, while Detroit will take on Minnesota, and both winners will of course advance to UWFFL Bowl XIV.
Last week we had a little controversy as the game between the New York Garbologists (0-15) and the Los Angeles You Tubers (1-16), which was billed by some in the media as “The Toilet Bowl”, featured no winner — No, it wasn’t a tie, someone in the “league office” thought it would be funny to offer “Nobody” as a voting option, and predictabily both teams lost to nobody. The Final Score: Nobody 21, New York 11, Los Angeles 9. The league is looking into the matter and taking measures to insure that that never happens again.
So instead of a UWFFL playoff game to vote on, we will offer for you today four important UWFFL minor league matchups with playoff implications. At the end of the season, the Top 2 nationally ranked teams will make the National Championship Game, while the top 4 teams in each conference will make the conference playoffs. The National Champion and the three Conference Champions will be promoted into the UWFFL in 2014. You can check out the standings for all conferences here and the current national BCS rankings here.
In the Eastern Association, the #13-ranked Brooklyn Uni Watchers (11-3) are in 4th place and take on the current #2 BCS ranked Florida Geckos (12-2), who are also in second in the conference.
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Brooklyn at Florida
Brooklyn
Florida
pollcode.com free polls
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In the Central league, the national #1 team, the Birmingham Vulcans (no relation to the WFL Birmingham Vulcans, although they may wear a WFL throwback someday) at 11-1-1 take on the 7-5-1 #14 Youngstown Bobcats. At 4-4-1 in the conference, the Bobcats are in a tough battle with four or five other teams for that last playoff spot in the CL and desperately need a win and are breaking out a fauxback design.
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Birmingham at Youngstown
Birmingham
Youngstown
pollcode.com free polls
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In the PCC, the #4 ranked 14-2-1 Anchorage Orcas, who are well-positioned for the playoff race in second in the conference, take on the #22 San Antonio Black Knights, 8-8, who are currently in ninth in the PCC, and probably need to win their last three games to have any shot at the post-season. They are wearing their “patches” throwbacks, which have four military patches honoring the four branches of the military, where the NOBs ordinarily would be.
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Anchorage at San Antonio
Anchorage
San Antonio
pollcode.com free polls
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Finally, a nice looking interleague match, as the #8 Swisshelm Express (8-3-1), who are in good shape in the Central League race head from the Pittsburgh area up north to take on the Maple Leaf Cup champions, the #20 Les Machine du Montreal, who are at 8-7 overall, but at 5-6 in the EA, need some help to make the postseason.
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Swisshelm at Montreal
Swisshelm
Montreal
pollcode.com free polls
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Enjoy this week’s action and be sure to head on over to uwfantasyfootballleague.com to vote on all of the other action, and we’ll see you next week for the UWFFL Semifinals.
Check it all out at http://www.uwfantasyfootballleague.com.
Uni Watch News Ticker: Not a lot of submissions from yesterday, so it’s Old School ticker today.
Check out these fake pretty hilarious Texas A & M (fake) unis (thanks, Brinke). … “In a completely unsurprising move,” writes Bob Novotny, “Middle Tennessee will ‘murica up their helmets against Navy for Monday’s Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl.” … From the “who knew?” file, Warren Junium says, “There is a plaque in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium that recognizes Papal Masses said in the Stadium.” … Corporate-speak alert, for at the UnderArmour All-America Football Game, “Players from the Nitro (Grey/ Hyper Green) and Highlight (Red/ Black) squads will be outfitted from head-to-toe with the latest and greatest in Under Armour innovations, including the revolutionary and redesigned UA Highlight Cleat.” (thanks CJ Koluch). … What’s up with this helmet? Well, it’s a retirement present for Tony Gonzalez (good spot by Scott Lederer). … “Watching a clip of the Cowboys-Vikings game from the ’82 season,” says Lukas Hoffland, ” I noticed that the Cowboys pants had two *different* tones. The front had their current shiny silver-green, while the back had their original flat silver pants color, all separated by the blue-white-blue pants stripes. Look at the Monday Night Football clip to see what I mean (starting from the first moment the difference becomes apparent in the broadcast).” He adds, “From what I can tell, this started when they began wearing the hip number on the “home” pants in 1982, and was gone by 1989 when they removed the hip number (and went to the shiny finish on both the front and the back).” … Here is an article about the Chisolm High Basketball Coach winning his 1,000th game. (His team was previously listed in the ticker for their striped socks, notes submitter Jim Ullmer). … “When bad things happen to a good school,” cautions Cort McMurray). … The team John Kitna coaches in Washington (Lincoln) has practice gear, both offense and defense, from the New Orleans Saints, says Tom Marcotte. “As you know Kitna has signed with the Cowboys to back up Orton. He is donating his salary to the school.” … Curtis Peddle was on ebay and noticed in the October 1983 edition of the Hockey News Ron Sutter is wearing a road sock variation that he had never seen the Flyers wear before. “1983-84 was the year that the Flyers got rid of the Cooperalls and switched back to the socks. The only road design I was aware of for 1983-84 was the orange with a black and white stripe, as evidenced on the 1984-85 card of Flyers forward Ilkka Sinisalo.” Anyone know when this was? Preseason maybe? … Andrew Cyr thought these “local high school” jerseys were pretty cool. The gallery for the jerseys are at the bottom of this article.
That’ll do it for my penultimate post of 2013 everyone. It’s another big day for bowls — four of them today. Thanks to TJ for the nice bowl roundup (I’ll have him back to wrap all the other bowls, but this will be the only lede). Tomorrow will be a big day for Hockey fans, as the Hockey Wing (or at least the President and First Mate) and I will be breaking down and grading the outdoor hockey sweaters and unis (there are two “big” outdoor games–Winter Classic and Heritage Classic, and several “Stadium Series” games). So that should be a nice way to send out 2013.
Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken.
Peace.
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“The day the Nationals adopt navy pants to go with their red alt jersey and the Mets adopt a monochrome royal jersey/pants combo as their alt set, that’s the day I’ll approve of baseball teams going color-on-color.”
–R. Scott Rogers
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