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Finley

UA unis -- or, how I learned to ditch white and live in the red ...

07/24/2007 05:14 PM
Ryan Finley

Recently, my in-box has been filled with chatter about Arizona’s football uniforms.

As a uni-phile — and daily visitor to Paul Lukas’ superb Uni Watch blog — I couldn’t be happier to dive into the world of batwing jersey designs, helmets (white or navy, for that matter) and Arizona’s star-crossed history of football uniforms. Hey, it’s July …

Face it, Arizona’s uniforms haven’t exactly reached the pantheon of the Penn States, Michigans and USCs. But why should they have to be? The Wildcats’ gear has always been somewhat funky, and that’s OK.

From what I can gather, both from some my own research and the good people at The Helmet Project, Arizona wore red helmets back in the 1960s. For sake of argument, I’m avoiding the leather-helmet days, and the days when the Cats wore the oh-so-cool sage green and silver gear. Imagine, Arizona could be wearing uniforms that look something like this ; of course, knowing Nike, they’d probably have three helmets.

Anyway, I’m getting off-topic. Back to red. The Wildcats wore cardinal helmets from 1968-71, and then again from 1977-80. The earliest red helmets were logo-less;. the late-70s-early-80s ones had just the right amount of cheez for the time. First, Arizona used a gliding-A logo that was later adopted by the Akron Zips . In 1980, they switched to the ‘A’ logo that had been used by Jerry Kindall’s UA baseball team, a basic look that should have stuck — even if it did look a lot like Adams College in “Revenge of the Nerds”. …

But that’s just background. The uniform most fans remember is the all-white special , the Cats’ once-trademark white helmets with white jerseys and, depending on the coach, blue or white pants. If the red gear was the height of 1970s garishness, then the white look was an 80s-style overcorrection, as edgy as Alex P. Keaton in a sweater-vest. But Arizona won, so the unis worked. Larry Smith and Dick Tomey both embraced the white look. Even John Mackovic, a fashion plate in his own right, knew that monochromatic was the way to go as long as you had to wear white helmets.

Which brings us to the Stoops-era unis. Stoops and his guys announced on Media Day in 2004 that Arizona would be switching to navy blue helmets in order to try to establish a new identity. The helmets themselves are kind of a cool color; grayish in some light, nearly purple in other, it reminds me much more of the Houston Texans than the old New York Giants , and that’s definitely a good thing.

In 2005, Stoops broke out the piece de resistance , a red jersey that would give the Wildcats the new branding they so desperately craved.

Nike, in conjunction with Arizona’s equipment guys, added a color splash to the pants and that annoying fanny-pack thing , a piece of Nike branding that matched, of all schools, Miami . Heading into Year 3 of the uniform redesign, the Wildcats have six options: red jersey with blue pants, red jersey with white pants — my favorite — blue jersey/blue pants, blue jersey/white pants, white jersey/blue pants and white jersey/white pants.

But what to wear? Arizona’s equipment guys LOVE the red jersey/blue pants look, in part because it just happens to be good luck . It’s what they wore against UCLA.

Personally, I’m a red-jersey, white-pants guy, in part because (I think) it makes the white numbers pop.

Still, the red-white look leads to a problem — when Arizona wears my favorite getup, they have different colored helmet, jersey and pants. Makes them look kind of disheveled. Still it could be worse: the all-navy look at home makes them look like, in the words of Ron Burgundy, a blueberry

All in all, the new uniforms might not be classics , but things could be a lot worse

I’m a relative newbie at this. What do you guys think?

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  1. I agree with you, Ryan. The Blue helmet, red jersey and white pants combo is my favorite. It might look “disheveled,” but at least it’s patriotic!
    — AZCoachB    07/24/2007 07:18 PM    #
  2. Growing up in Colorado I always liked the old school UA uniforms. I guess the tradational look is still cool to me. The new stuff is better than Oregon’s by far and vastly superior to Wash State. Still I will take the tradational look of USC, UCLA, UW, Stanford and ASU over the new UA stuff. At least the purple helmets of UW are done. Those seriously sucked.
    The blue helmet, red jersey and white pants are pulled off so much better by the Giants. They only wear that once a year makes it a little better.
    — pat    07/25/2007 12:10 AM    #
  3. the white helmets, blue jerseys and white pants is just a trademark of arizona football. i talk with a lot of college football fans and they find out quickly i am an arizona fan, and they all say the same thing “man, why did you guys change your uniform?” believe it or not, arizona is pretty well known. we did have a trademark, (probably not to a penn st. level) but people remember the desert storm and those “loud” white helmets. to me, the blue helmets, red jerseys, white pants is just too many colors. and the blue helmet hides our bold A. but at least we are not oregon. it doesnt get any worse than that!
    — russell boatwright    07/25/2007 04:18 AM    #
  4. I’m partial to colors in which Arizona wins games.
    — Baux    07/25/2007 07:16 AM    #
  5. Finner-

    Things certainly COULD be a lot worse:

    http://publish.netitor.com/photos/schools/asu/sports/m-footbl/auto_action/a-2003homejersey1.jpg

    Brown and yellow. It makes me dry heave.
    — JoeMazz    07/25/2007 07:24 AM    #
  6. THESE are the best unis ever!

    http://www.theindependent.com/HuskersHQ/Photos/fb/kelsay1230.jpg

    It’s from the glory days of Dick Tomey, baby! Not some hack like Mike Stoooooooops!
    — Everett    07/25/2007 08:54 AM    #
  7. Here’s a better look at it:
    http://www.theindependent.com/HuskersHQ/Photos/fb/ksmith1230.jpg

    You can’t deny the greatness, and if you try you are just a snake from communist China.
    — Everett    07/25/2007 08:56 AM    #
  8. #2 – I’ll give you USC and UCLA but c’mon, man. Stanford? ASU? These colors make me want to kick a puppy! Washington’s are pretty good but they’re a toss-up with the U of A. Stanford and ASU? No thank you.
    — AZCoachB    07/25/2007 09:17 AM    #
  9. Apparently none of my links worked…
    — AZCoachB    07/25/2007 09:19 AM    #
  10. I could go either way on Stanford, but the “puke and rust” is traditional? My wife got her bachelors and masters at ASU, and even she thinks the color scheme is ridiculous. The only ASU gear she will wear is a white hat and a gray athletic tee shirt. As much as she hates to admit it, she says UA uniforms look way better.

    I’m partial to the old stripless blue pants with white jersey and white helmet look from the 90’s. It looked clean and tough, just how Tomey’s teams played. They should bring that look back for 2007. This whole fanny pack think they have now looks absurd.

    Personally, I don’t really care what they wear. If they win nine games, they can wear a Speedo and combat boots.
    — Bret    07/25/2007 10:42 AM    #
  11. the link everett posted is the uniforms we need to bring back! its a more tough look. like bret said, this fanny pack thing is just not doing it. but yea, hey i could care less if they come out and win 10 games.
    — russell boatwright    07/25/2007 11:43 AM    #
  12. Yeah the old UA unis are cool, prefer them much more, nice pictures of them, too bad Nebraska has to be in the picture!!!!! ASU’s color scheme bites but it is pulled off well. When was the last time they had a change in uniforms. I will give this. Their baseball unis are awesome. Give me black and gold anyday over either school. Go BUFFS!!!!!!
    — pat    07/25/2007 02:36 PM    #
  13. Pat-
    Puke and Rust is still disgusting, but I have to agree with you on the Buffs. The gold pants, white jersey is a great, rich look. Too bad they haven’t played as good as they look. Sorry for the dig, Pat, but I couldn’t resist. In all seriousness though, Dan Hawkins is the perfect guy to restore that program to what it once was.
    — Bret    07/25/2007 05:36 PM    #
  14. JoeMazz, you’re not allowed to dislike anybody given your awesome gig. Keep posting!
    — Ryan Finley    07/25/2007 09:54 PM    #
  15. Veronica Corningstone said Ron looked like a blueberry!!!
    — brian    07/26/2007 11:35 AM    #
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