The 1919 Packers dominated Wisconsin's semi-professional football scene, winning their first ten games by a staggering combined score of 565-6. The Racine Iroquois were the only team to even score against Green Bay's mighty Blues, scratching out six points (trimming the Packers' lead in the game to a mere seventy points). The Packers would meet finally their match in the final game of the season, when the Beloit hometown ref called back three Packer touchdowns and the mighty Blues fell to the Beloit Fairies (named for their sponsor, the Fairbanks-Morse Company), 6-0.GREEN BAY "PACKER'S" (sic) 1919
Standing: Nichols, Powers, Coffeen, Martin, Sauber, Martell, Leaper, Ladrow, DesJardien, Zoll, Muldoon, Rosenow, Petcka, G.W. Calhoun Center: Lambeau Lower Row: Abrams, Gavin, McLean, Bero
Now we can see what that jersey might have looked like in person.
I think this one is gorgeous. I'd be tempted to pick one up myself. Very unique, from a forgotten moment in Packers history.
It's not perfect (his stripes are far straighter and more evenly placed than the originals) but it's still pretty fun. I suspect that the Packers meant that the gold "ribbing" against the blue jersey gave the impression of gold and blue stripes, rather than having blue stripes actually sewn on to the jersey.
His interesting take on this classic jersey is to replicate the short-lived variant with a satin torso, seen here on Arnie Herber and Don Hutson:
This is the one where his "Circa" embroidery bothers me the most, cluttering up the area between yoke and numbers.
Straightfoward enough - he's even closer to the correct font than the Packers themselves usually get.
I've long wished that the Packers would capitalize on their long uniform history; in the absence of action from the club, looks like fans are starting to step up. Hope the Packers are paying attention.
Centers previously had to choose numbers between 50 and 59, with 60 to 79 available if 50 to 59 weren't available. They now may choose any number between 50 and 79.The NFL originally experimented with assigning numbers by position in 1952, formally codifying the system in 1973 and amending it in 1989.
Defensive linemen may now choose from 60 to 70 and 90 to 99, and linebackers may pick a number from 50 to 59 or 90 to 99. These changes were aimed at recognizing the overlap between linebackers and defensive ends, especially in the 3-4 defense.
Also, the rules now permit a player to move from one position to another and keep his number, if he played the prior position for at least a year and if he is moving from a position that is eligible to receive passes to another eligible position, or if he is moving from one ineligible position to another ineligible position.
So here we go.
My first thought was "Acme Packers"? The Acme Packing Company was long removed from the picture by 1929.Since there wasn't anything particularly noteworthy for the sideline apparel from that 1929 season, the team focused in on the Acme Packers, the nickname of the club in 1921-22, to draw on the first decade of the team's existence.Ugh. Not a big fan. I don't mind updating the 1929 uniform to meet the NFL's current equipment regulations, but what's the point of mixing and matching from opposite ends of the decade? It's not as though the Packers needed some excuse to sell Acme Packers merchandise.
"We wanted to give it an old-time, weathered look," (said Kate Hogan, the Packers director of retail operations). "It's really about picking up the colors and what one would say has a 'vintage' feel to it. We really tried to think about what people would like, what they would enjoy. That's what we try and do. We want to make sure our designs keep in mind what our fans would be looking for."
I also have a hard time visualizing Mike McCarthy wearing the "old-time, weathered look" on the sidelines:
I do like the leather helmet graphic, though.
So there you have it. Merchandise goes on sale soon.NFL teams are allowed to have a third jersey that they can wear for up to three games per season (no more than two home games) for a five-year period. Packers President/CEO Mark Murphy said last month that the team will wear it for home games only, for one or possibly two games in 2010, with future use to be evaluated.And about the design process itself:
The Packers first began the process of working toward a third jersey more than a year ago. After first submitting its interest in doing so to the league, the team began to work with the NFL on a couple of different options. Hogan said the league put in a great deal of time and effort to assist the Packers with designs, looking through not only what archives the team had but also those at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. (emphasis mine)Really? Couldn't tell by looking at it, unless they the archive search was ultimately fruitness in helping them find anything distinctive enough to sell. I don't really mind them wanting to jazz up the new sideline and retail gear with a contemporary flair (which is essentially what they did with the throwback uniforms), but linking them to the Acme Packers is odd. It's as though that's going to be the umbrella title for all blue-and-gold from now on out, which is extremely misleading at best.
Hogan said that two of the (proposed uniform designs) were historical ones that were re-creations of uniforms worn in the past, while another was what the league refers to as an 'alternate color' version. Since Green Bay wears green and white jerseys, that alternate jersey would have been a gold one.Hmm. Dodged a bullet there, I think.
They couldn't even use an appropriate font?
This uniform, with its blue numbers in gold circles, was worn in 1929 and 1930 and was the inspiration for the Packers' 2010-2014 throwback alternates. In this photo, we also have exemplars of two styles of pullover sideline jackets from the period.On, you Blue and Gold, to glory,
Win this game the same old story,
Fight, you Packers,
Fight, and bring the bacon home to Old Green Bay.
Green Bay Packers to Wear Navy in a 2010 GameJust spreading the word....
by Paul Lukas
ESPN.com
March 30, 2010Courtesy of the Green Bay Packers
Can you imagine your Green Bay Packers in an outfit like this?
In case you missed it the other day, the Green Bay Packers recently unveiled a throwback alternate uniform, which they'll wear for one as-yet-unspecified game in 2010. The design is based on what the team wore in 1929.
If the sight of the Pack wearing navy instead of green is a shocker, it shouldn't be. They actually wore a variety of navy-based uniforms for the first several decades of their existence, like this 1940 design. The thing is, color photos from the NFL's early days are rare, so most fans have no idea what their favorite teams used to look like. Neither do many of the game's historians.
That's why a recent discovery by reader Chance Michaels is so amazing. It's a rare newspaper color insert from 1940, providing one of the best views available of the NFL's early color schemes.
Some of the teams are vaguely recognizable — that's an Eagles player at lower right, and a Redskin at lower left (Andy Farkas, incidentally, is generally credited with being the first player to have worn eye-black, even though he's not wearing it in that photo). But it's weird to see Mel Hein of the Giants wearing so much red — and even weirder to see him, as a center, wearing uniform No. 7!
Meanwhile, is that a Cardinals player at upper right? Nope — it's Perry Schwartz of the Brooklyn Dodgers, which was an NFL team for over a decade. And who's that in the center? It's Parker Hall of the Cleveland Rams -- the same franchise that later moved to L.A. and now resides in St. Louis. And they still wear blue and gold, even if the shades have changed.
This 23-year-old Houston, Tex., wizard is the football players' football player and rated as one of the most polished performers in the business. He does everything well, but his forward passing is something the fans rave about—and so do his appreciative teammates on the champion Green Bay Packers. In fact this six-foot-one, 190-pound, former Purdue star blazed into fame when he paced an all-star college team and out-passed the famed Slingin' Sammy Baugh of the crack Washington Redskins in 1938. Last year, his second with the Packers, Isbell whipped 73 successful passes—eight for touchdowns—for a gain of 749 yards in 103 tries.
It seems strange to see a quarterback wearing #66, but this picture was obviously taken in the pre-season, when players seemingly wore whatever jersey the equipment manager had handy. Isbell wore #17 throughout his career in blue, as seen in this photo of Isbell and Hutson taken at the All-Star Game on August 29, 1940:
This is Curly Lambeau's classic blue and gold uniform, introduced in 1937. The sock stripes were removed after a few seasons, although it's hard to establish exactly when, as many players of the late 1930s/early 1940s seemed to have eschewed the full socks altogether (at least in the warmer months). In this photo from Wrigley Field, we have one Packer wearing striped socks and Isbell (with the ball) wearing no blue socks at all, only the low whites:
The bare-leg fashion seems to have passed by the mid-1940s, and when socks returned as a permanent part of the uniform they were solid navy, as seen in this 1947 photo:
The stripes would make an appearance on the 1994 throwbacks:
Isbell himself is an underappreciated part of Packers history. Drafted out of Purdue in 1938, he took the league by storm. As the caption notes, he led his team to a surprise win over the Redskins in the 1938 College All-Star Game (which at the time featured the best college athletes against the reigning NFL champions).
Isbell had just as much success in the pros, gradually taking the passer role over from Arnie Herber. He platooned with Herber for the first three years of his career in the "Notre Dame box" formation. This allowed Lambeau to use him as either a passer or a rusher - he led the Packers in rushing in 1938 and 1939, and the entire NFL in rushing average in 1938. As a passer, he led the league in attempts, completions, passing yards and touchdowns in 1941, and completions, yards and touchdowns in 1942.
The 1942 season was to be his last - Isbell only played five years with the Packers before retiring from pro football at 28. He later explained "I saw Lambeau go around the locker room and tell players like Arnie Herber that they were done. I vowed it would never happen to me." Having left on his own terms, Isbell returned to his alma mater as a coach. He has been selected to the NFL's 1930s All-Decade Team despite only playing his rookie and sophomore seasons in the 30s.
Although Isbell was inducted into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame in 1972, his short career has led him to be largely, and unjustly, forgotten by football fans. Had Isbell continued to play in blue and gold, he may well have followed Baugh into Canton.
"Hutson and Herber were the absolute perfect combination for a quarterback and a receiver. You had a guy who could throw the ball 65 yards in the air, and you had a reciever who could get downfield and outrun everybody. I mean, the first time Herber completed a pass to Hutson was in a game against the Bears for 83 yards for a touchdown."
No color this time, unfortunately. But we are treated to a few seconds of the 1937 short film Pigskin Champions, which featured the World Champion Packers in an intrasquad exhibition of football skills.
That's Herber leading the offense in borrowed white jerseys. The defense is wearing the 1935-1936 uniform, kelly green shirts with gold sleeves and pants, topped off with the striped helmets. 
This might have been the last appearance of this uniform set - by the time the film was distributed in October of 1937, Lambeau had brought back the navy-and-gold color combination and introduced his classic gold-yoked uniform.
Pigskin Champions is extremely hard to find. I know that it was played on Green Bay television as part of special programming around Super Bowl XXXI. Taped copies of that presentation circulate every now and then - if anybody has a copy, please drop me a line.
A fauxback uniform is essentially "what the team would wear now if they never changed their uniform style". It allows for innovation in manufacture, cut and construction, everything except the uniform's style.
In context, on the players, it looks more reasonable. It's still larger than I would have liked, but not as overwhelming.
If this is the best the Packers could do within the constraints of the NFL's uniform regulations, then I'm all for it.
I can't have been the first to note a resemblance to Marquette's racing-stripe basketball uniforms from the late 1960s and early 1970s (right). A friend mentioned that it reminded him of an old Porsche or Vette. A classic Le Mans sort of vibe.
On the back, we have the standard names and numbers.
Obviously, names weren't there on the originals. I'm not sure about the numbers. We know that the Packers were using thin numbers, possibly gold, on the backs of their jerseys in 1932. It's certainly possible that the '29 Packers had gold block numbers on the back.
The pants are simple tan, a visual echo of the canvas pants worn by the original club. Socks are navy, apparently worn without any whites at all. Not much to say about either of these, except that I approve wholeheartedly. A clean, classic look.
Here's where the limitations of a fauxback design start to show themselves. Helmets of today bear no resemblance to the leather helmets of yore.
The originals look great, but the modern interpretations look unfinished and awkward.
Perhaps if they added some subtle shading, a slightly darker shade of brown, it might hint at the old leather strips (excuse the rushed Photoshop job):
This would be similar to what the Michigan Wolverines (and less famously, the Delaware Blue Hens and Princeton Tigers) do with their helmets. Although these schools abandoned the winged leather helmets half a century ago, they retained the old layout. The pattern, once painted onto alternating strips of leather, gives a visual echo of old construction on the contemporary shells.
