Thursday, May 14, 2020

Okay, Fine, We'll Do It—A Look at the Rams' Uniforms Through the Years

 LOOKING BACK
By John Turney
As expected the Rams and Nike ruined the Rams helmet horn. Here it is, fixed
with a more properly shaped horn

A few hours ago on RamsWire, we got a pretty typical post called  A look at the Rams' uniforms through the years. It's not bad. Some good shots there. But like the Rams uniform release with the errors in that, this was incomplete. So, we thought we'd give a more complete version—in color.

We've ignored various patches and changes in fabrics and focused on major changes in the uniforms unless noted. Hope you like it and find it informative.

Here goes—

In 1937 the Rams wore red and black.
1937
In 1938 The Rams changed to blue and gold for the first time, with a dark blue (navy and yellow).
1938
1938
In 1939 they went to a royal blue with yellow numbers and an old gold helmet and pants.
1939-40
In 1941-42 The uniforms were similar but went with yellow helmets rather than old gold.
1941-42
The pants were white. Also had a gold version.
1944 Blue
Cleveland wins the NFL title, Gold jerseys ad contrasting blue shoulders.
1945 Gold
First year in Los Angeles gold jerseys and helmets. 
1946 Gold

1946  Blue
Same jerseys but now a blue helmet. 
1947
1948 was the first year of the Rams' iconic horn on the helmet. Pictured is Fred Gehrke the man who painted the helmets. 
1948
Rams also had a blue jersey in 1948.
1948 Blues
In 1949 Rams broke with tradition and went with red and gold and changed the horn for one year.
1949 Gold
1949  Red
In 1950 the Rams added Northwestern stripes and went to white pants. In 1951 the pants became pure white, in 1950 they were white but had a slight grey sheen to them (not pictured). The fabric was simply different in 1950 than from 1951 forward causing them to look a bit darker than other white pants from some other teams.
1950-52
They also had a blue jersey they rarely wore -- here in 1950 with the slightly grey pants.
1950
In 1953 the Rams added white trim to the numerals.
1953-57
Rams went to white jerseys with Northwestern stripes - this shot from early 1960s.
1957-61 Roadies
And blue jerseys with the same striping and white trim around numerals. 
1957 blues
In 1958 the white striping was removed.
1958-62 homies
In 1962 the Northwestern stripes were replaced by UCLA loops. 
1962-63 roadies
In 1964 the Rams went with what became their incon look with fat shoulder stripes and th blue and white color scheme.
1964-72 homies
They also had a sharp color for their road blues.
1964-72 roadies
In 1973 the Rams went back to blue and gold. The numbers were hard to see from the press box so the white trim was removed after two preseason games.
1973 preseason with white trim around numerals
The Rams wore this uniform from 1973-99. They wore blue shoes from 1973-76 and in 1981 they switched from grey facemasks to blue. Also, the original Rams socks had white trim but when the white trim was taken from the jerseys it appears the Rams ordered new socks sans the white trim. 




1973-80 homies (1977-80 white shoes, 1973-76 blue shoes)
This was the road uniform (with a couple of years as exceptions) from 1973-99. The mask went from grey to blue in 1981.
1973-80 roadies
1981-99 blues (usually homies) 1981-99 blue facemasks
1981-99 whites (usually roadies) (1981-99 blue masks)

1986 the Rams switched to thinner pants stripes and they had a sheen to them

For the NFL's 75th Anniversary teams wore "Throwback uniforms". This was the Ram iteration. 
1994 (1951 throwbacks)

In 2000 the Rams changed from royal blue and gold to navy and old gold (Millennium blue and New Century gold they called it). And they had a lot of iterations with two jerseys and three pants.

In 2002 the Rams changed the names of the colors to "Midnight blue and Championship gold" from "Millennium blue" and "New Century gold" for some reason. 

Then when they moved back to Los Angeles in 2016 they changed to white masks and white horns and there were even more combinations. Throw in the blue and gold throwbacks and the gold color rush uniforms it's quite a lot to keep track of. We think we got them all.

2000   square numerals

2000 square numerals

2001-2011  rounded numerals

2001-2011 rounded numerals

2001 (preseason) 2007-2016
2003, 2007, 2010-16

2005, 2007-2016
2009-19 Throwback

2015, 2017-19 color rush


2007-2016
2017

2017
2017-19
2017-19

Finally, the new ones were announced yesterday. They are Rams Royal and Sol and the light ones are "Bone". That means blue and gold and light gray. 
2020- Royal over Sol

2020-  Bone (light grey)

2020-  Royal over Royal
So, there it is. A more comprehensive look at the Rams uniforms, in color, since 1937.

Comments welcome. 

4 comments:

  1. if "iconic" means shoulder stripe and (boring) blue and white for a long time but with a zillion iterations then I guess you're right John.....the BEST look is 53-57.....those yellow tops with the block numerals highlighted in white are so striking....("hey Rams....go back to the classic 'curl around' horn!")

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  2. Absolutely awful what they have done. The changing of the horn on the helmet is unforgivable. It seems as though Kevin Demoff wants to leave his mark with this move. He has made the Rams a laughingstock in terms of their uniforms.

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  3. I like the "bone" uniform more and more. Still would like the shoulder and stripe elements to look more like 1968, though.
    Nice stuff, getting these pics together.
    The 57-61 roadies are surprisingly cool looking.

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