Plain blue or white uniforms with only a number to break the monochromatic monotony have been a Penn State feature for more years than I can remember — and this Turkey goes back to the 1960s. I can recall only three minor changes: the stripe on the helmet, the Nike swoosh on the breast, and the v-neck trimmed in white (last year the trim turned blue). That’s it. Otherwise, it’s been the same since 1890, when the colors were changed from pink and black to blue and white.
Many of us, particularly the Paternoists, take pride in the symbolism of the plain uniforms with black football shoes. Tradition is, after all, a big part of college football. It is the constancy in Penn State football that has bonded the fan base through the years. We have loved the power expressed by unadorned, unaccessorized out-of-the-box player uniforms, the stealthily apparent lack of speed watching those black shoes eat up the yards, and the namelessness, suggesting a team effort transcends the individual glory. Players honor those who wore their number in the past by not usurping it for their own glory. Lots of good reasons.
We also like the way the program pushed back against Nike when that company wanted Penn State to participate in its gaudy Pro Combat uniform design program, even though Paterno and Phil Knight were great friends. No way would a Nittany Lion every wear something with duck feathers, the Maryland state flag, or even a picture of the Nittany Lion shrine on his shoulder. That was for “them”. Plain blue and white is for us.
When Bill O’Brien was hired, he said that he would do nothing to change the uniforms, but that was then and this is now. The Sandusky case has been tried and the slimy ex-coach has been convicted. The administration has been accused of covering Sandusky’s tracks for 15 years. Joe Paterno is dead, his legendary career sullied. There is some impetus to make changes that put the past behind and speak to a new future, even though the NCAA is going to rub our noses in it for several years, sanctimonious hypocrites that they are.
But I digress.
“I reserve the right to change my mind,” said Bill O’Brien when asked why he has been singing a different tune about uniform changes of late. He has made some noise about wanting to make a small design change that will undoubtedly piss off some purists if it is made to happen. He has talked to players and their parents about it. He wants to put names on the jerseys. I can feel the grumbling in my old Turkey gizzard!
“There ain’t no ‘I’ in team!” you say.
(Comeback: Yeah, but there’s three “U’s” in “shut the fuck up!” I saw that one on Facebook recently and thought I would share the laugh.)
I don’t think the absence of names means as much symbolically as it does historically. Penn State fans don’t want change. We’re old farts now, right? We demand to keep things as they are. “Change” is why some of us voted for Obama, and look at how that one turned out. Now, we’re doubly resistant to change. Why do we fear change so much? Does it take us out of our comfort zone?
Frankly, this Turkey has been looking at those plain old uniforms for one helluva long time. Paterno’s teams reused uniform numbers on offense and defense, and sometimes, especially on special teams players, we had to scratch our heads about who did what to whom. Furthermore, everybody isn’t as good as this Turkey and the other forest creatures with whom he hangs out at memorizing numbers. So, what is so god-awful wrong with putting a name on the jersey?
Tradition. Change goes against it. Yeah, well, when I attended State, girls were called “coeds” and they had to be back in their female-only, well guarded dorms by 11:30 pm on weeknights. They couldn’t live anywhere outside the dorms unless they were either over 21 or married. Good old Penn State traditions.
I didn’t hear anybody squawking when that one changed!
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! I addressed that before. We’re going to see a lot of strange people running around in Penn State uniforms because we’re going to be getting one-star recruits, and damn few of them, for the next five or six years. Who has the time and energy to memorize all their numbers? We’ll be having a big bail-out before spring practice, no doubt. Lots of new numbers, lots of new names.
I say, go ahead and put names on the jerseys. You go tell O’Brien that’s not the Penn State Way. Go ahead, I dare you! What you’re really telling him is, “We don’t want you. We want Paterno.” Sorry, you can’t have him. He’s in another dimension now. How about getting over it, huh? There’s too much of that going on at a time when we should be letting the new order take charge and watching its results. Quit screwing with it. O’Brien will get what he wants.
By the way, he said he was unsure that he could get the names thing done by September 1, the home opener against mighty Ohio U. This might have to wait until the fateful 2013 season.
What do you think of that change? No one is talking about duck wings or checkerboards. Just names. How about it?
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jd says
i would go for numbers on the helmets, but no names.
The Nittany Turkey says
I’d go for anything short of Nike Pro Combat at this point.
—TNT
Joe says
Hmmh-looks like I’m another old geezer that’s been following the Nits since the mid 60’s!
jd made the comment about the numbers, that was I think one of the more significant changes over the years when they were removed.
But I think some change is good.
It typically takes me about 3 or 4 games until I can associate a number to a player (especially with the use of the same numbers on offense and defense), but in addition to ease the fans identification, I think names on the jerseys let’s everyone know at a glance who these individuals are who chose to give up the glamour of playing for a B1G championship, going to a bowl or leaving because a prettier girl came along but because of their love of the university, their desire to get a PS degree and their teammates, chose to stick this out for one, two, three or four years.
I also think it would be great if we would add a discrete patch (blue on blue, white on white) that showed the graduation rate of our football team to show how we always put “football first”. I could just see the media trying to figure out what the hell that meant and if we were trying to honor Paterno in some clandestine way.
Bill must have a reason for doing this-perhaps just simply signifying that this is truly a new beginning.
I think they will take the field on September first with new unis.
I’ve also decided I’m going to mute the TV and listen to the audio of the games on the radio.
The Nittany Turkey says
Yeah, I matriculated at Penn State in 1964. That’s also when I enrolled.
The graduation rate is a good idea that might mitigate the downside of the uniform changes for the die-hard Paternoists. A big 77 somewhere, but you would have to know where in order to find it.
At one point, perhaps back in “The Dark Days” we got tired of listening to Musberger, Griese, etc., making stupid comments, so we had a bastardized A/V setup that allowed us to listen to Steve Jones and Jack Ham while watching the TV video. It worked out pretty well, although there was a cost to subscribe to the Internet feed of PSU football.
—TNT
Joe says
Well you have me beat by a couple of years. Enrolled in ’68 and graduated in ’72 (still can’t believe I did it in 4 years with all the brain cells I killed!)
It’s interesting the football team’s GSR (Graduation Success Rate) is 80% and the GSR is a whopping 90% for all athletic teams as compiled by our friends at the NCAA for 2010-11. What it really means is that you have a better chance of graduating at PS if you’re an athlete. Maybe we are too focused on athletics!
It’s also interesting that the 2010-11 GSR results were being announced while Emmert was taking PS to the wood shed for letting the culture of football supersede the academic mission of the university. What a fraud!
I have passed the suggestion to O’Brien.
BigAl says
Putting names on the uniforms may help with recruiting, so go for it. I always thought that the real reasons for not having them were probably (1) the locker room attendants were too lazy and (2) some of the names were too long to fit (e.g. Schreckengaust.)
Regarding the uniform changes since the 60s, Paterno also dropped the numbers on the helmet sides and the blue stripe down the pants legs.
The Nittany Turkey says
I agree that recruiting will benefit, particularly from the parents’ viewpoint.
I remember a Mad magazine cartoon that showed a bunch of players in a huddle. One Polish guy had a name label that extended across his back and halfway down his sleeve, like Wisniecziewskiewicz.
The pants legs lost the blue stripe to the helmet, I guess. Am I remembering correctly that the helmets in Rip’s days were plain white with no stripe?
—TNT
BigAl says
I wasn’t sure so I looked thru the Penn State Football Vault (the Vault is a book series that covers most of BCS conference teams) written by Lou Prato. I think its out of print now – but its probably the best book covering ALL of Penn State’s football history.
And from the photos in the book, it appears that the strip first appeared between 1951 and 1954. There’s a photo of Roosevelt Grier wearing the striped helmet (page 80) and those were the three years he played at State.
The 1954 uniform (page 77) also had arms stripes similar to the ones that the Detroit Lions used to have – three parallel stripes with the middle one being about 4 times as thick as the top and bottom ones. The stripes were gone by 1959 which is probably why nobody remembers them.
Joe says
I looked through every reference I have and it would appear that the helmets always had a blue stripe. Here’s a link that shows Rip with a couple of his boys wearing their “lids”. Don’t know the year.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/145519-a-salue-to-rip-engle
The Nittany Turkey says
I’m pretty certain that the one on the left, #85, is Dick “Hands” Anderson, who was an end on the 1962 team that finished #9. Dick was my Phys Ed coach as a grad assistant in 1964. I have no idea who #57 is.
—TNT
Jim says
Changing the configuration of the uniforms will not benefit the victim’s of Sandusky’s crimes, nor will it change people’s opinion about the scandal. The uniforms have been a topic with fans since 1975 and since then many fans and players have complained about the boring look of the uniforms. In the mid-seventies there was a local TV broadcast on PBS with Joe Paterno that had questions and answers about the team. The program was called TV quarterbacks. There wasn’t a week that when by without a fan calling the program complaining about the uniforms as well as some of the players who were not happy with the uniforms. So maybe a change would end some of the controversy about the plain boring uniforms. I would suggest making two changes, first put the trim back on the uniforms that was taken away last year and second put the numbers back on the sides of the helmets. The last year that the numbers were on the helmets was1974 and everybody complained when they came out on the field in 1975 without the numbers. Before 1975 no one complained about the uniforms, afterward there were a lot of fans saying bring back the numbers because the uniforms looked to vanilla. I think the trim was added in 1980 because the players complained about the uniforms and I have to admit the uniforms looked better with the trim. So this change would be a compromise between the fans that want to change the uniforms and the fans that don’t. The change would be small and it would bring back the old traditional look and the trim that we are used too. Take a look at the pictures of the teams before 1975 and you will see a plain but handsome uniform that no one complained about and if the current players want their names on the uniform then let them have that too.
The Nittany Turkey says
You’re either a great historian or you’re as old as this foul old fowl!
Thanks for your perspective, Jim. I pretty much agree with your proposals, including the names (if the players want them). I think there’ll be a lot of “Whodats” on the team this year, so the names would improve their visibility to their parents and their fans.
—TNT