LOOKING BACK
By John Turney
As a companion to
THIS piece I have added another suggestion to the Jerry Jones inbox. Here it is: Respectfully, please consider going back to the original color for the pants for the Dallas Cowboys uniforms.
As you can see in the originals, they were more of a silver with a
slight blue tint. In 1978 they went to a more bluish hue. You can see examples of those below. Of course, lighting and the type of film the photographer used can change things some, but it's pretty clear there was a change in 1978, 1986 and another in 2012.
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| 1965. The Original blue/silver |
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| Also 1965 |
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| 1969 |
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| 1971 |
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| 1973 a more gray tone |
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| 1975, Looking a bit blue that season, but could be lighting |
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| 1977 back to the silver/blue |
There was a change in 1978 to a more blue hue.
1978, Gridiron Uniform Database confirms slightly bluer hue
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| 1978. |
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| 1980s, same blue-hued pants |
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| 1985 still bluish (skinny numerals) |
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| 1986. When the fat numerals arrived, so too, does a slight green tint |
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| 1990s |
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| 2000s |
These are the recent pants. They have taken on a more greenish hue. Some call it a "
seafoam green".
Gridiron Uniform Database shows this change was in 2012. However, GUD shows the greenish tint began in 1986 and was even increased in 2012. In 2012 Nike was the manufacturer
for the uniforms, in 2011 it was Reebok which may account for part of the change, but as you can see below in the first shot is of Reebok pants and they look pretty darn green.
This is the one that even looks more greenish on High Definition televisions, at least from my eye. I am confident there are reasons why the pants are the color they are, billion dollar organizations test things, see what works best. In fact, back in "the day" the Rams owner Dan Reeves learned, from research that the shade of yellow that looked best in back and white televisions was buttercup yellow. Reeves would not let his team don a color of that name and
the 1964 Rams blue and white uniforms were born.
These are from 2011-2015 and you can decide:
Nice article that I agree with wholeheartedly. Ideally, the pants should match the silver blue patina of the helmet.
ReplyDeleteYour 1993 photo is actually from 1985:
http://s12.postimg.org/s9xvafn3x/50852314.jpg
From 1971-3, they were basically charcoal grayish:
http://s27.postimg.org/s05k5n3yr/84186840.jpg
http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=61409&stc=1&d=1331243723
In 1974-5 they got significantly bluer:
https://dallascowboysdishingthereal.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/longley.jpg
1976-7: the perfect shade of metallic blue, imo.
http://s30.postimg.org/lemd58i1d/78198325.jpg
1978-81: again, they got bluer (much to my chagrin).
http://s24.postimg.org/vihn7df9h/102979649.jpg
1982-85: Riddell took over and the front panels of the pants were made out of shiny spandex:
http://s17.postimg.org/ud6yj8hz2/s_l1600_27.jpg
http://s22.postimg.org/3jov2psgh/71205935.jpg
As I mentioned at the other forum, the greenish tint debuted in 1986. Here's a sideline pic from 1989:
http://s16.postimg.org/7oabguqvp/vlcsnap_2015_12_31_23h28m40s199.png
can you tell that I'm obsessed? :-)
Steve, you should contact Tim Brulia at Gridiron Uniform Database http://www.gridiron-uniforms.com/GUD/contact.shtml
Deleteyour information is great, you clearly follow it more closely than I do. With all those shots maybe GUD will show those changes on their excellent website
I do post over there, and I convinced them to incorporate the 1976-7, 1986 color transitions.
ReplyDeleteexcellent, you know, when I looked at that site for this article I couldn't see the differences... but I looked again and they are there, my eyes may not be able to pick things up but I appreciate the info and corrected post, I am glad other folks take an interesting in things and post in the comments, it helps me learn
DeleteUni Watch devoted an entire article to quirks in the Cowboys uniform set:
ReplyDeletehttp://espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=lukas/071025
The blues don't match, the silvers don't match. We (Cowboy fans) are lucky the team uses only one shade of white!