Friday, March 4, 2016

When the "Silver and Black" was the "Black and Gold"

LOOKING BACK
By John Turney


Th-e Sil-vah and Bla-ack . . . You can still hear how Al Davis used to say it, with all the words seemingly having an extra syllable. Over the years "silver" meant different things to the equipment manager, for more on that read HERE. Nonetheless, the Raiders uniforms are a classic. They are clean and sharp and always look good, at least to me.

However, that color scheme was not always what the Raiders wore on the field. From 1960-63 they were Black and Gold. Their uniforms were nearly identical to the NFL's Chicago Bears except the Bears had the Navy and orange and the Raiders were black and gold.
1960-62 Raiders uniforms

1963 Raiders uniforms, though the 1963 numbers were block, not rounded.

A Jim Otto game-used jersey. The tackle twill numerals have faded.


Here is Otto, the next season when he adopted his famous Double Zero numerals. Flores is sporting the dark model.


Here are the Road jerseys. Colorization by John Turney

Here are the dark jerseys. Colorization by John Turney
And no, I do not have any suggestions for Mark Davis, the Raiders owner, as I did for Mr. Jerry Jones. Keep the uniforms as they are, with the occasional throwback with the white jerseys and silver numbers like the photo below:
1964, Colorization by John Turney

5 comments:

  1. I agree with you: keep the S&B uniforms as they are and use the 1963-64 white jerseys with silver number as throwbacks...
    ... but... I'd like to see a throwback to the original 1960 uniforms for the 60th anniversary of the AFL.

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  2. The Raiders colors were Orange and Black. The uniforms for the 60 thru 62 teams were donated from the Pacific Tigers, whose colors are Orange and Black. The logo was Mustard.

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    1. Na…they were that mustard yellow and black

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  3. '60 Jim Otto #50 in gold says different. He wore 00 the rest of his career. Otto was seen signing a *game worn gold jersey from 1960. Some people confuse an article in the Oakland tribune in March of '60 saying Orange, but that was projecting would be, not WAS. Thats incorrect because they changed their name from the seniors and color the following month in April. In June of '60 the AFL commissioner approved of the scheme color GOLD. They may have wore those used jerseys till their shipment came in, which was late due to a shipping error. As well its documented the Raiders jerseys came the very day before their first preseason game against the Dallas Texans that July. JOIN US ON RAIDERS DIEHARDS on MeWe.con -THE IRON

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    1. The 1st Raider Jerseys came hand me down from Pacific U, "The Tigers. The Arm stripes were dyed in. The Tiger colors were orange and black. The Raiders official color scheme on paper was changed to Black and Gold, But those Jerseys were the 1st jerseys, called orange and black by the tigers and called Gold and black by the Raiders.

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