Throwback uniform
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Throwback uniforms and jerseys are one-time or limited-time variations on a sports team's uniforms styled to resemble uniforms from that team's past. First promoted in baseball in the 1980s, they have proven popular in all major pro and college sports in the USA, not only with fans, but with the teams' marketing and merchandising departments.
Throwbacks were first popularized in Major League Baseball, where teams not only wore renditions of their past styles, but also tributes to defunct minor league and Negro League baseball teams as well. Often, the games where teams will wear throwbacks are promoted as "Turn Back The Clock Nights".
Throwbacks also make occasional appearances in college football games, National Hockey League games, and in National Basketball Association games.
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[edit] NFL 1994
Throwbacks were introduced in the NFL in their 75th anniversary season of 1994. The designs varied widely in their accuracy:
- While no attempt was made to simulate obsolete leather helmets which were phased out in the 1950s, teams simulating uniforms from the era of leather headgear simply removed all decals and striping from their regular hard-shell helmets.
- All jerseys displayed the player's last name on the back side, though this practice did not become standard until the 1970s; it became mandatory in the NFL in the late 1970s.
- In most instances the fonts and typestyles used were only approximate matches at best.
- Arizona, Chicago and Pittsburgh wore reproductions of uniforms that pre-dated large numerals on the front of jerseys, so instead smaller numerals were worn on the right shoulder [1].
All the teams were informed that they would be wearing the Throwbacks during week 3 of the season. Some teams continued to wear theirs throughout the season. The San Francisco 49ers wore replicas of their 1955 uniforms in their Super Bowl XXIX victory. The uniforms were well-liked enough that the 49ers brought them back, in slightly modified form, for 1996-1997. In 1998, the gold pants from before were returned, in more modern form.
Both of the NFL's New York teams' throwbacks proved so popular with their fans that the teams returned to wearing them full-time soon afterwards: The Jets' replicas of their 1968 uniforms, and the Giants' 1961 uniforms, with the lowercase "ny". Both teams have restored the 1960s decals as their primary corporate logos.
As a result of the NFL modifying its rules to allow teams to wear alternate jerseys in 2002, throwbacks still make occasional appearances, especially on Thanksgiving Day. The Buffalo Bills, San Diego Chargers and Dallas Cowboys traditionally wear their early 1960s throwbacks twice each season. Of note, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who dramatically changed their uniforms and team colors in 1997, have never worn their orange throwbacks, and owner Malcolm Glazer has forbidden NFL Properties from reproducing the Buccaneers' original logo and color scheme, in an attempt to bury the team's mostly woeful history from 1976-96.
[edit] Other North American sports
The Major League Baseball throwback uniforms prove popular not only among team fans but also with viewers of TV highlight shows. Some throwback nights will feature the Oakland Athletics wearing one combo or another of the the gold/white/green uniform set it featured in the 1970s and 80s, or the Pittsburgh Pirates' yellow/white/blackcombo of the same era. A recent (2006) throwback day saw the Houston Astros revert to their orange-and-red Rainbow Guts uniforms.
In the National Hockey League, the "Original Six" teams wore throwback uniforms several times during the NHL's 75th anniversary season in 1991-92. As of January 2007, several teams use throwback uniforms during the regular season as their third jersey, such as the Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Vancouver Canucks.
One notable throwback design is in the NBA, where the New York Knickerbockers often feature their 1970s and 80s white-and-orange uniforms. The warmups and uniform shorts of that era feature in orange the same "interlocking NY" the New York Yankees feature in blue on the front of their home jerseys.
[edit] International
The throwback uniform concept is also popular with various sporting clubs internationally, and are often used to celebrate a team's heritage much like their use in the United States.
The Australian Football League features an annual "Heritage Round" that uses the concept. After the inaugural 2003 heritage round St Kilda used their heritage guernsey as their away uniform from 2004 onwards. Also in 2003, Port Adelaide angered Collingwood by wearing their traditional black and white guernsey which was also the same colours as Collingwood. Collingwood’s anger was considered outrageous seeing as Port didn't even play Collingwood in that game. The designs of heritage guernseys and uniforms worn today can be found at FootyJumpers.com
Throwback uniforms or 'retro shirts' as they are known in the United Kingdom, are also sometimes used in association football, albeit (as with the NFL) with modern fabrics. In 2005-06 Arsenal Football Club changed their home colours from red and white to maroon to commemorate their final season at Highbury Stadium; the maroon colour was the same shade the team had worn when they had moved to Highbury in 1913. More authentic reproductions of kits from the past have become popular fashion items, especially jerseys linked to successful or memorable teams.
[edit] See also
- Mitchell & Ness
- special paint scheme - "Retro" paint jobs found their way into NASCAR in the 1990s
![[1]](http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Stadium/3028/pitt-v-colts.jpg){kind=link}