Steelers preseason 1968

Just found this photo of Rocky Bleier


His number is 26, so it must be 1968, his rookie season (the Steelers lost to the Bengals in preseason)

2 Steelers with stripeless sleaves, I don't know the other players

The game is from 8/25/68, played at old Mountaineer Field in Morgantown, WV.

Can't tell for sure, but it appears that the Steelers are wearing their 1967 jerseys here, with the sleeves cut off. The sunlight is hitting the shoulders, making the yellow shoulders practically invisible.

Mako, I must say, you are finding some gems out there!

timmyb wrote:it appears that the Steelers are wearing their 1967 jerseys

I was thinking the same thing but wasn't sure because of the light

timmyb wrote:Mako, I must say, you are finding some gems out there!

I have time to "waste"...

I think it's from the same game since Tom Watkins (if it is him) played with the Steelers only in '68

We can now tell for sure they're using the 1967 jerseys

Mako,

I'm with you on the 67 Steelers jersey for this 68 preseason game.

AND it looks like the Bengals have a stripe separation on the sleeves on their black jerseys for the 68 preseason, too.

Gotta ask, where did you find these pics??

I have a couple of questions.

1) Is it possible the Cincy jerseys with seperation between sleeve stripes were their 'warm-weather' jerseys? We have a newspaper photo of them wearing the white version of these jerseys @ Denver the same Preseason. Also, in 1977, they wore the non-seperated durene jerseys for a late season home game against Pittsburgh (their 'cold-weather' jerseys?). They had gone completely with the seperated's since last wearing the durenes in 1973.

2) I can't quite tell looking @ #69 but it kinda looks like he may be going NNOB. What do you guys think?

3) Does it also seem that Cincy is wearing the pants with the equal BOB stripes they wore in the Denver game instead of the regular season ones they wore with the 'much-thicker' orange central stripe?

4) Since 1968 is the year the Steelers introduced essentially their current look, does logic dictate since we found evidence from this game that they likely wore the 1967 "BATMAN" jerseys (B & W) for the entire '68 Preseason, waiting to unveil the new uniforms when the season started?

timmyb wrote:Gotta ask, where did you find these pics??

ebay seller
I started saving his scans in february 2010. Unfortunately most of them are undated

Bill Schaefer wrote:I have a couple of questions.

1) Is it possible the Cincy jerseys with seperation between sleeve stripes were their 'warm-weather' jerseys? We have a newspaper photo of them wearing the white version of these jerseys @ Denver the same Preseason. Also, in 1977, they wore the non-seperated durene jerseys for a late season home game against Pittsburgh (their 'cold-weather' jerseys?). They had gone completely with the seperated's since last wearing the durenes in 1973.

Likely.

Bill Schaefer wrote:
2) I can't quite tell looking @ #69 but it kinda looks like he may be going NNOB. What do you guys think?

My analness is showing. I need to see more than one player before I can speak for the team in general. One "trend" about the AFL teams in general is that a LOT of the teams didn't seem to bother with NOB's until the regular season.

Bill Schaefer wrote:
3) Does it also seem that Cincy is wearing the pants with the equal BOB stripes they wore in the Denver game instead of the regular season ones they wore with the 'much-thicker' orange central stripe?

Looks that way!

Bill Schaefer wrote:
4) Since 1968 is the year the Steelers introduced essentially their current look, does logic dictate since we found evidence from this game that they likely wore the 1967 "BATMAN" jerseys (B & W) for the entire '68 Preseason, waiting to unveil the new uniforms when the season started?

I give a tentative yes. I would like to see pics from their other exhib games, though.

notice they do have the preseason helmet numbers in this era

Yes.

I think the Steelers no front helmet numbers began in force in 1971.