(Editor's Note: Longtime uniform industry expert at first Mitchell & Ness and now as president of Pro League Authentics, Ray Jannelli shares his personal, inside story on the creation of the nostalgia NHL and WHA jerseys, which eventually led to Ray developing the "Vintage Hockey" series honoring the Original Six NHL clubs.
In the his previous installments, Ray wrote about the successful re-creation of 1970s NHL and World Hockey Association jerseys, and today details what went on behind the scenes in originating the jerseys to spotlight the NHL's "Original Six"…)
By Ray Jannelli
Following the success of the original Casey's hockey jersey (NHL) shipment and the World Hockey Association jerseys, I was ready to begin to spec out and produce the NHL Original Six. Nobody (or company) at that time was reproducing an accurate authentic original six team jersey.
Being at Mitchell & Ness at the time I had all of the necessary resources to make it happen. Research materials, manufacturers, jersey pattern templates and the syntax blueprint to put it all together. Of course, we had the "test track," the Mitchell & Ness retail store itself, again instant market validation, a place to test the customer's response to the product.
The year was 1990, Mitchell& Ness had secured the MLB License two years prior, and our sights were on the NHL. A license to manufacture and sell vintage ice hockey jerseys. 1990-91 was going to be a celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the NHL. The timing was perfect.
In 1989, I had collaborated with Richard Johnson of the Sports Museum of New England in Boston on the 1966 Bobby Orr rookie jersey. Curators Richard Johnson and Brian Codagnone were key figures in helping me develop the vintage NHL jersey collection, especially the 1940's Boston Bruins "Kraut Line" player jerseys.
All of the "Original Six" NHL sweater reproductions were from 1939 to 1949. I added one more to the collection, the New York Americans. The Amerks was a beautiful jersey, ahead of it's time, and also the first pro sports team to have the player's name on the back of a jersey, in five inch letters to boot!
Seven team jerseys, Bruins, Red Wings, Rangers, Canadiens, Maple Leafs, Blackhawks, and the aforementioned Amerks. Because of the 75th Anniversary and the new found interest in "throwback" jerseys, there was a sense of urgency to spec out (correctly),manufacture, get licensed and then market the NHL jerseys.
I will give credit to Richard Johnson of the Sports Museum of New England for coming up with the name for the collection: "Lord Stanley's Closet."
Great name!
I had Powers Manufacturing in Waterloo, Iowa construct the blank jerseys from my drawings, specs and measurements. I chose a cotton/durene material (closest I could get to a period authentic). The actual "on ice " period jersey would have been a knit wool sweater, but time was of the essence and minimums for a knit wool would not have been feasible for a time-sensitive "sample" test jersey.
The cresting was quite interesting, particularly with the 1944 Detroit Red Wings. Front crest, not much difference, but the sleeve patching was unique and intriguing. A "V" for victory patch was on the left upper sleeve and underneath that was Beethoven's 5th Symphony in Morse Code! On the right sleeve was a round 10% War Bonds patch.
Six samples for each of the seven teams were made. Our Mitchell & Ness clientele truly appreciated the quality and detail that went into the final product. Each jersey was numbered with an appropriate player of that time period, for example Woody Dumart for the Bruins and Ted Lindsay with the Wings.
The entire prototype inventory sold within the month. Something interesting happened though, three representatives from CCM Hockey stopped by the Mitchell & Ness retail store one day and purchased one of each style jersey. Less than one year later five of the seven styles were part of the CCM Heritage Collection line of vintage jerseys. Interesting.
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Phillies phans a loyal bunch: The team may have dropped its third straight Tuesday in Minnesota to fall to an astounding 9 1/2 games back in the N.L. East nearing mid-June, now five games under .500, and the nearly three-year long home sellout streak may be coming to an end sooner than later, but Phillies fans, especially women, are nothing but loyal in supporting the team as it attempts to rally to get back to post-season contention for a sixth straight year.
Pictured above several of the summer women's Phillies apparel proving popular among customers.
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2012 NBA Finals patch: As the NBA has done since 1996, the championship teams don the Finals patch, and here is this year's model pictured from Game One last night, Oklahoma City over Miami by 11.
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A reminder: For more news about Pro League Authentics and thoughts on the world of sports uniforms, Like our Facebook page, converse with us @PLAphilly, and visit our YouTube page.
PLA friend Chris Creamer of Sportslogos.net broke the great uniform story of the Tampa Bay Rays coming up with 1979 “faux pas” uniforms for their game against the Detroit Tigers on June 30.
You see the Rays are going to don 1979 Rays uniforms, even though the Rays did not even exist in 1979, coming into existence as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays with these garish colors in 1998.
Instead, they’ve been re-created to look as though they could have been worn in 1979, same with the hat which is described as having an alternate colored front panel and lower case lettering of a “t” and a “b.”.
The jerseys will be power blue pullovers, with alternate sleeve trim, and a patch, maybe something along the lines of this look.
Can’t wait to see the jerseys on the last day of the month at Tropicana Field.
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Authentic Store Buzz: When folks have been coming into the store lately, they’re drawn like magnets to the new Nike 2012 authentic NFL jerseys. Everyone wants to touch them and examine the many different fabrics used to make the jersey.
Among the latest arrivals we mentioned last week, the Packers Clay Matthews, Miami's Reggie Bush, and the Lions Matthew Stafford (pictured above, left to right).
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A reminder: For more news about Pro League Authentics and thoughts on the world of sports uniforms, Like our Facebook page, converse with us @PLAphilly, and visit our YouTube page.
Of the fifteen MLB games played Sunday, 10 featured at least one of the teams in an alternate jersey, some more colorful than others, with only five games played with the traditional home whites and road grays.
Oh, and in daylight, they looked pretty sweet as well.
It got us thinking; when the Astros move to the A.L. West next season creating two, 15-team leagues and ensuring that there will always be an inter-league matchup when the 2013 schedule is released, how often when all 30 teams play the same day (usually each day other than Mondays and Thursdays), will there be matchups of both teams in conventional white and gray, versus games in which at least one of the two teams, if not both, are in an alternate top?
Could it average as high as 10 of the 15 games being played on any given day?
One other alternate jersey note; the teal strikes a no-no. That was an unusual outcome to say the least Friday night at Safeco Field as six Mariner pitchers combined to no-hit the impressive Dodgers. And, as is customary for a Friday night home game, the M’s donned the teal jerseys. This season, making a return after a 10-year absence, the accompanying teal-billed caps which were worn regularly from 1993-2002, and were part of the Mariners historical pitching night.
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A reminder: For more news about Pro League Authentics and thoughts on the world of sports uniforms, Like our Facebook page, converse with us @PLAphilly, and visit our YouTube page.
(Editor's Note: Philadelphia area sports writer Ben Horrow contributes weekly to Authentically Speaking.)
By Ben Horrow
On Wednesday night Twins pitcher Jeff Manship took the mound to face the division rival Kansas City Royals. He entered the game in the 6th inning replacing Twins starter Nick Blackburn. Both Twins pitchers have last names that can be split into two separate words.
Manship gives you “man” and “ship” while Blackburn becomes “black” and “burn”. When Manship took the mound, Twins announcers realized that the name sewn on the back of his Jersey was spelled incorrectly.
Instead of “Manship” the righty’s name read Mansihp. Although this is embarrassing for both Manship and the Twins equipment manager, it does not constitute the first jersey gaff and it will most certainly not be the last.
Other similar equipment issues include the 2010 San Francisco Giants who misspelled “Fransico”, “Francicso”, the 2009 Washington Nationals who went with the unconventional spelling of “Natinals” and the 2009 Colorado Rockies, who misspelled outfielder Seth Smith’s last name “Smtih” instead of the proper Smith.
Interestingly, Adam Dunn’s misspelled
2009 Natinals jersey sold for $8,000 at the Nationals annual gala
auction. An impressive sum spent on a mistake. The "Natinals" lost the game on April 19, 2009 to the (Florida) Marlins 3-2.
While Manship’s name may have been misspelled, he pitched a scoreless 6th inning for the Twins on Wednesday en rout to the Twins 4-2 win over the Royals. Hysterically, when the Twins announcers noticed the misspelling, the Kansas City batter was Johnny Giavotella whose name, the announcers joked, could be spelled incorrectly without anyone noticing.
For more instances of misspelled jerseys, Sports Illustrated has a slide show full of them.
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This traveling baseball uniform is white: As has become a custom the last three years under seven year skipper Joe Maddon,, the Tampa Bay Rays traveling party showed up at Yankee Stadium Thursday all decked out in white, as per Maddon's instructions,
The reason? Because after the 7-3 victory over the Yankees, which has the Rays tied for first with the surprising Orioles in the A.L. East, the team was on route to Miami, hence the "all-white" South Beach look, the theme for this particular leg of the trip, a weekend intrastate series with the Marlins.
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Authentic Store Buzz: We've all heard the Nike pitch as ot relates to the new 2012 on field NFL jerseys, the varying fabrics used in the design from water repellent to mesh, and they are a pretty cool jersey to see up close and personal, no doubt about that.
Many jersey and plain old sports aficionados have been doing just that this week, coming into the store to see for themselves.
The latest arrivals include the Packers Clay Matthews, Miami's Reggie Bush, and the Lions Matthew Stafford.
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A reminder: For more news about Pro League
Authentics and thoughts on the world of sports uniforms, Like our Facebook page, converse with us @PLAphilly, and visit our YouTube page.
(Editor's Note: Longtime baseball uniform expert and author Morris Levin writes weekly for Authentically Speaking.)
By Morris Levin
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A reminder: For more news about Pro League
Authentics and thoughts on the world of sports uniforms, Like our Facebook page, converse with us @PLAphilly, and visit our YouTube page.
(Photo Credit: Associated Press Archives 2002)
Hard to believe but true, that in one game the Syracuse university basketball team wore three different uniforms, and we were there to witness it.
It was the nondescript semi-finals of the 2002 post-season National Invitation Tournament at Madison Square Garden, the then-Orangemen against South Carolina.
The problem became apparent before tipoff when the referees met the team captains at midcourt and discovered that under the warm-ups, both teams were wearing their home white jerseys and shorts. Apparently, both teams had been mistakenly told they were the home team and would wear white, and South Carolina didn’t even bring its road jerseys to New York.
Immediately, a Syracuse manager was ordered back to the team hotel and received a police escort for the 15 blocks back up to midtown Manhattan to fetch the road uniforms, but the game got underway with plenty of confusion, and an audible buzz from the crowd.
About the only basic difference to separate the teams were the orange trim for Syracuse, and the maroon for the Gamecocks.
Just under three minutes into the game, the manager came out of the tunnel with the bag of orange jerseys, a media timeout was called and the Syracuse players slipped on the orange tops courtside resulting in the look pictured above, the second uniform combination of the night.
In the locker room at halftime the Orangemen made the change complete putting on orange shorts, their normal road game uniform, and took the court for the second half in their third different look of the game.
In recap, Syracuse wore all white for the first 2:41 of the game. Orange jerseys and white shorts for the remaining 17:19 of the half, then all orange for the entire second half,
Oh, and the uniform snafu didn’t help Syracuse, they lost the game 66-59.
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A reminder: For more news about Pro League Authentics and thoughts on the world of sports uniforms, Like our Facebook page, converse with us @PLAphilly, and visit our YouTube page.
On this Tuesday, we'll throw out the jerseys of the teams we love to follow passionately. Let us know the jerseys of the teams you root for in our comments section below.
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More Nike jerseys in the door: The Redskins Chris Cooley (#47) and the Raiders Richard Seymour (#92) are the latest 2012 Nike authentic jerseys to hit the store (pictured above).
The authentic jersey is a sight to behold with its water repellent stretch fabric and ventilated mesh fabric over the "heat zones." All Nike authentic jerseys come with a serial number to prove they're the real deal. Contact the store for more information.
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(Photo credit: bullpenbrian.com - N.Y. Mets 2009)
First of all, this was to be an afternoon game, a day to celebrate the great career of reliever John Franco, the second most tenured player in the team’s 51-year history, with his induction to the New York Mets Hall of Fame.
Oh, the 35 minute ceremony was held prior to the game, but with the ESPN/MLB TV deal calling the shots, it was moved to the Sunday night slot as the Mets and Cardinals wrapped up a historic (the first Mets no hitter pitched by Johan Santana Friday night) three-game series, with the Mets wearing black jerseys for the first time this season.
The black was an ode to Franco who pitched in Queens between 1990-2004. His tenure overlapped the period in which the Mets began wearing black jerseys in 1998.
With the black jersey containing the Mets skyline patch on the left sleeve, the 50th anniversary patch was moved to the right sleeve on this jersey only, while the black Gary Carter “Kid 8” memorial patch was moved to the upper right chest, and had a white outline to stand out on the black shirt.
The Carter patch the team has been wearing all season did not have the white outline, but interestingly enough; the patch on the outfield wall at Citi Field did have the white outline since the first home series in April.
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And the winner is… From last Thursday’s note about the Twins wearing the “M” hat in Cleveland for this past weekend’s three-game series because they have been winning of late with it replacing the TC hats.
We put out the question which jersey would the team wear on the road with the cap, and guessed incorrectly that it would be the blue jersey with “Twins” on the front because that font matched the “M” on the cap.
Instead, the team wore the blue jersey with “Minnesota” across the front on Friday, the gray road jersey with “Minnesota” on the front Saturday and Sunday.
The end result; the Twins took two out of three from the Indians, and play in Kansas City Monday night. Their 20 wins are fewest in the American League, the Cubs and Padres have only won 18 games in the N.L.
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A reminder: For more news about Pro League Authentics and thoughts on the world of sports uniforms, Like our Facebook page, follow us @PLAphilly, and visit our YouTube page.
