POST YOUR ODDITIES!

I think we should have a thread to post uniform and helmet oddities...stuff that perhaps one player wore and doesn't really qualify for a separate entry in the database...

Let me start with Miami Dolphins running back Norm Bulaich...



Bulaich played with the Dolphins from 1975 to 1979; I'm not sure when this particular photo was taken...

Note the helmet logo, it's the infamous Dolphin "inside the sun", which the team had abandoned after Super Bowl VIII in January 1974. This photo also shows guard Larry Little wearing the common post-1973 logo. (Other than the 1994 throwback) Bulaich was the only player to wear this logo after Super Bowl VIII...and he wore it for a while before changing to the common version.

I recalled this anomaly for decades before coming across this photo as proof. One thing to note is that Bulaich had concussion problems during his career, so perhaps the Dolphins issued him a special helmet that they dug out with the old logo...just a theory.

well, that railing in the background looks like the Vet, so I'm guessing that's 9-24-78 at Philadelphia, although I guess it could be St. Louis or Pittsburgh

Weren't there a couple of 'Skins that wore the 'curved feathers' decal beyond 1982? I want to say Joe Washington and Dave Butz but I'm not sure.

That's the first time I ever noticed the curved feather on the '82 Skins helmet -- yet the 72-81 helmet was the same as 83-on ... so they won the Super Bowl in the first year with that helmet, yet they changed it back !?

Calvin Hill: no stripes on the sleeves.

dirwuf wrote:I think we should have a thread to post uniform and helmet oddities...stuff that perhaps one player wore and doesn't really qualify for a separate entry in the database...

Let me start with Miami Dolphins running back Norm Bulaich...



Bulaich played with the Dolphins from 1975 to 1979; I'm not sure when this particular photo was taken, but the oddity I'm pointing out occurred over a season or two.

Notice the helmet logo, it's the infamous Dolphin "inside the sun", which the team had abandoned after Super Bowl VIII (January 1974). This photo also shows guard Larry Little wearing the common post-1973 logo. Other than the 1994 throwback, Bulaich was the only player to wear this logo after Super Bowl VIII...and he wore it for a while before eventually changing to the common version.

I had recalled this anomaly for decades before coming across this picture as proof. One thing that strikes me is the difference in his helmet striping than the rest of the team. The thinness and spacing are much more in line with the Dolphins 1969 helmets (which also bore the "inside the sun" logo)...so perhaps Bulaich was actually using a 1969 helmet! Just a theory...

I can confirm Bulaich was still wearing the "dolphin in the sun" helmet 11/20/78 on MNF against the Oilers. He must've just liked that 1969 helmet and kept it his whole career.

















Also, notice while many of the Dolphins have all 5 stripes showing, a good many of them, Griese and two others in the top picture in particular, have their sleeves cut off, only showing three stripes. I guess that was common, like the Calvin Hill picture.

About the Redskin helmets, this page confirms most of what we have in the database, except the "spider" pattern helmet it says Sammy Baugh wore in 1939, which we don't have in the database:

http://www.helmethut.com/skinsdept.html

Rob Holecko wrote:I can confirm Bulaich was still wearing the "dolphin in the sun" helmet 11/20/78 on MNF against the Oilers. He must've just liked that 1969 helmet and kept it his whole career.

That scenario doesn't work as he played the first 5 years of his career with the Colts and Eagles, not joining Miami until 1975...so the helmet was laying around for 5 seasons before Bulaich nabbed it...

it's just a longshot theory

let me restate... "he must've liked that 1969 helmet when he got it in 1975 and kept it the rest of his career"

Kent Hull (#67) liked his 1989 pants sooooo much, he kept wearing them even to the 1992 Super Bowl (in 1993). No wonder they lost by 100 pts!

In this picture he's just to the left of #74 Erik Howard.


This is a good picture because you can see his pants stripes actually look more like the Giants than the rest of the Bills!

The RB #24 is wearing the Giants 1975 white socks (the stripes match the jersey sleeves), the rest of the team is wearing the 1976 version.



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http://www.apimages.com/OneUp.aspx?st=k&kw=%22new%20york%20giants%22%201976&showact=results&sort=relevance&intv=None&sh=10&kwstyle=or&adte=1308225198&pagez=60&cfasstyle=AND&rids=207bda0a3bfd4df783d02d07a9d9936f&dbm=PY2009&page=1&xslt=1&mediatype=Photo

From the Cleveland Memory Project site posted on here. The Giants # 20 helmet decal is reversed, like a negative image.

Good stuff, guys! Keep it coming!

One thing on that helmet claim of Slingin' Sammy. I'm not so sure that was used for at least regular season play. Don't recall ever seeing the 'Skins wearing a spider stripe design in the leatherhead era.

Rob Holecko wrote:

Also, notice while many of the Dolphins have all 5 stripes showing, a good many of them, Griese and two others in the top picture in particular, have their sleeves cut off, only showing three stripes. I guess that was common, like the Calvin Hill picture.

I just noticed that when I was watching that Earl Campbell Monday nighter last week.

As for the curled feathers, if I remember correctly Joe Washington was the only player on the 1982 Redskins NOT to use that logo.

It was mentioned here about the 82 feathers. Shortly after the Packers won the last Super Bowl, there wasa series of shows concerning the 82 playoffs. One thing that was very noticable was that you would see bothe feather style on the lines at the same time. Watching for it made it almost difficult to watch as it was jumping out on every play. Not certain about 83 as I have not come across any from that season, but 82 did have both used at the same time.

Was watching a NFL Network re-air of Super Bowl XXV that I recorded a few years ago, and it reminded me of a variation I hadn't seen mentioned.

Apparently for 1990, the Buffalo Bills had switched from 2 stripes on the sleeves to one stripe; but I saw three players (Scott Norwood, James Lofton and Mark Kelso) that still had the "2-stripe" variant for at least that season.

(Will add pictures I find online or {if later on} screencaps)

I'm not sure if we've had this one on here but...



I'm guessing this is Cleveland at the LA Dons sometime from '46-'49 (AAFC)
Motley's jersey numbers seemed odd to me. His 6's drop-shadow went up to the right instead of down to the left like everyone else pictured. Then I figured it out. By the time the equipment manager got around to #76, he was probably out of 6s. So he did the next best thing...he turned a 9 upside down. Hence the 'drop-shadow' goes up to the right!

Here's something that came to my attention this morning from last night's game (didn't notice while watching).

There is a Ram defender (haven't seen another pic showing a number or name) who is wearing all-white socks.

Any word on the size of the UNI-FINE he received?

I haven't seen any report of a fine, but I did put a name and number on the culprit - Chris Long.

I'm not sure this can be considered conclusive, but Curley Culp's Dungard facemask sure looks white compared to the Other Oilers' gray masks. This would certainly be an oddity since the Oilers never officially paired white masks with the Columbia blue helmets. Even Ted Washington's Dungard looks much more gray by comparison in the second photo.

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/defensive-end-elvin-bethea-linebacker-steve-kiner-and-news-photo/80031269

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/linebacker-ted-washington-of-the-houston-oilers-sacks-news-photo/78533161

Milwaukee T wrote:It was mentioned here about the 82 feathers. Shortly after the Packers won the last Super Bowl, there wasa series of shows concerning the 82 playoffs. One thing that was very noticable was that you would see bothe feather style on the lines at the same time. Watching for it made it almost difficult to watch as it was jumping out on every play. Not certain about 83 as I have not come across any from that season, but 82 did have both used at the same time.

If I recall correctly from the 1982 season (shortened by a long players strike), the only two players who had a straight feathered decal were Joe Washington and Dave Butz.

Washington had a Kelley model hemet that he wore at Oklahoma and kept that helmet his whole career. Supposedly, the Kelley helmet had a clear shell in which the colors and logos were painted on from the inside. Since changing the Skins logo from the striaght feathers to the curled feathers, I guess the Redskins equipment guys just let it go, and got the OK from the NFL.

As for Butz, I'm not sure of the reason. But Butz loved to have his helmet's battle scars (gouges, scratches, dings, etc.) not cleaned up and polished over, but remain there unblemished, perhaps a sign of "macho." However, IIRC, late in the season, the decal got so smudged up to the point of illegibility that I think he relented and the curled feather logos were applied to his helmet.

Inspired by today's blog...

Joe Cribbs wore a grey facemask during Buffalo's win at Shea Stadium against the Jets:


The rest of the Bills, of course, wore blue facemasks...

Thanks, Larry... added to the article

Market42 wrote:Was watching a NFL Network re-air of Super Bowl XXV that I recorded a few years ago, and it reminded me of a variation I hadn't seen mentioned.

Apparently for 1990, the Buffalo Bills had switched from 2 stripes on the sleeves to one stripe; but I saw three players (Scott Norwood, James Lofton and Mark Kelso) that still had the "2-stripe" variant for at least that season.

(Will add pictures I find online or {if later on} screencaps)

Found an example (mentioned this earlier but that post disappeared) of Scott Norwood after his Super Bowl misfire -- with the two stripes clearly visible

Was looking at some pictures from the Sports Ecyclopedia site on the Baltimore Colts (treated as separate from Indianapolis).

Notice something missing from Curtis Dickey's helmet?
http://www.sportsecyclopedia.com/nfl/balticolts/DickeyBal.jpg

That reminds me of the Seahawks football card picture where they airbrushed out the helmet logo.

Notice the back of Joe Washington's jersey during a huddle in the 1982 NFC Championship game and spotted that the name font was not in the serif lettering the Redskins used at that time. The PowerDVD program I have on this used laptop I got for Christmas apparently doesn't have a "capture feature" (will grab picture from one I know has that feature).

I think the thing with the Bills was that everyone on the team started with the 2-stripe models but most players elected to cut the sleeves shorter by removing the bottom stripe. This is similar to something the Lions did as well as a few other teams that I cannot think of at the moment. If I recall, 4 or 5 teams did this around the early 90s.

I can't take credit for spotting this one but I can't for the life of me find where I discovered it. Maybe it was in BLEACHER REPORT or something.

Anyway, the story goes that Mrs. Montana packed the jersey Joe wore in their Super Bowl XIX victory over the Dolphins in January 1985 in his suitcase as a 'good luck' gesture. Well, Joe took it one step further and wore the jersey for the game!

In 1988, the Niners change their jerseys slightly by narrowing the stripes, shortening the sleeves and introducing a serifed font for the nameplate.

In looking for photos, I have since noticed that more than just Joe wore the older jerseys. The difference between the sets of sleeve stripes is very easy to notice.

Here are Roger Craig, John Taylor, and Jerry Rice wearing the new 1988 models...




Here's Joe Montana, Ronnie Lott, and Riki Ellison (#50) wearing the older jerseys...




*** - This is going to lead to an update for the 1980-1995 Niners in terms of the sleeve stripes due to the fact that the currently displayed stripes for this time period a) reflect no change in 1988 and b) don't reflect accurately the stripes used from either the 1980-87 (wide stripes/elbow-length sleeves) or the 1988-1995 (thin stripes/bicep-lentgh sleeves) varieties. Stay Tuned for the update.

Bill Schaefer wrote:Kent Hull (#67) liked his 1989 pants sooooo much, he kept wearing them even to the 1992 Super Bowl (in 1993). No wonder they lost by 100 pts!

That's not the only oddity in this picture. One that I thought had been mentioned was Jim Kelly wearing an Apex jersey instead of the usual Champion uniforms Buffalo wore at that time? Any idea what that was about wearing a different supplier's jersey?

timmyb wrote:
Washington had a Kelley model hemet that he wore at Oklahoma and kept that helmet his whole career. Supposedly, the Kelley helmet had a clear shell in which the colors and logos were painted on from the inside. Since changing the Skins logo from the striaght feathers to the curled feathers, I guess the Redskins equipment guys just let it go, and got the OK from the NFL.

No, he didn't use the same helmet his whole career; you can't repaint those clear shells on the inside once they are done. But Joe Washington did use Kelley helmets his whole career (well, maybe in college it was still a MacGregor - Kelley bought the helmet when MacGregor got out of the business). Another thing I noticed on HelmetHut - Washington then had a Kelley with the curved feather while everyone else went back to the straight feather logo becuase Kelley was just behind on getting decals.

The same thing is going on with the initial photos of Norm Bulach on this thread - his helmet is a MacGregor/Kelley and, since it is a clear shell, must have had the old logo put on it.

I scanned this one from my library - three HOF'ers in this pic: Emlen Tunnel, Tom Landry and Dante Lavelli.

The oddity is Tunnell, who is wearing his old leather helmet from 1948 (Landry is wearing the plastic helmet the Giants switched to in 1949.)

Noticed something interesting while watching the 1988 Bills highlight film. Apparently, FB Jamie Mueller appears to be the only player on the team to have the "TV numbers" on the shoulder pads (vs. the sleeves).

Also interesting is that it appears this was only on the home jerseys during the regular season (shot of Mueller in the AFC Championship loss to Cincinnati and the Divisional win vs. Houston shows the TV numbers in the regular position).

(Mueller's home jersey [slightly blurred])

(Mueller's home jersey [playoffs])

(Mueller road jersey)

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/quarterback-john-elway-of-the-denver-broncos-during-a-game-news-photo/73632366
Another interesting example is from what ended up becoming the Super Bowl XXI preview (Giants vs. Broncos; 11-23-86). It looks like John Elway is wearing a jersey missing a serif on the #7 (not much different from the Champion-style jerseys).

To my knowledge, this is the only time Elway wore a jersey with a different number design than the other Broncos.

EDIT - Just ran across a picture confirming Elway was wearing a Champion jersey
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/quarterback-john-elway-of-the-denver-broncos-throws-a-pass-news-photo/150848831

Jim Taylor wore a helmet with inverted stripe pattern for most of the 1967 season.

This photo, likely from Week 14 of 1964 since the Lions went to the darker shade of blue for 1965, features 49er Jimmy Johnson wearing an over-the-shoulder striped jersey from San Francisco's 1959-63 collection amid his teammates wearing the new 3-stripe version.
(Provided to Uniwatch on 5/27/14 by Tom Farley.)

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NDgyWDc3Mg==/z/wU4AAOxyeglTa9qq/$_57.JPG

Bill Schaefer wrote:This photo, likely from Week 14 of 1964 since the Lions went to the darker shade of blue for 1965, features 49er Jimmy Johnson wearing an over-the-shoulder striped jersey from San Francisco's 1959-63 collection amid his teammates wearing the new 3-stripe version.
(Provided to Uniwatch on 5/27/14 by Tom Farley.)

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NDgyWDc3Mg==/z/wU4AAOxyeglTa9qq/$_57.JPG

I'm just wondering how the equipment manager missed Johnson wearing an out of date jersey that looked that much different from the then-current version (as opposed to the Kent Hull pants example where one would almost have to look for the different pattern to spot it).

San Francisco @ Green Bay 11/18/56

Hugh McElhenny (running with the ball) is wearing his 1955 pants.

Ran across a YouTube upload of the Minnesota Vikings' Week 11 game vs. the Green Bay Packers in 1977; and a shot of the Packers just before the opening kickoff shows defensive back Steve Luke's jersey is missing the normal stripes

Philadelphia at Dallas 11/17/63 - Eagles player has a wingless helmet.

The wingless player #82 is George Tarasovic, who had been picked up on waivers from the Steelers about 10 days earlier. That seems like plenty of time to get his full uniform ready, but obviously the Philly equipment people missed the memo.

Another Buffalo Bill (not Kent Hull, possibly #59 Mitch Frerotte?) wearing old pants.
Houston @ Buffalo AFC Wild Card Playoff 1/3/93

bigbluelarry wrote:Another Buffalo Bill (not Kent Hull, possibly #59 Mitch Frerotte?) wearing old pants.
Houston @ Buffalo AFC Wild Card Playoff 1/3/93

I would think that was Mitch Frerotte. Also noticed (much like the Super Bowl XXVII where someone noticed Hull's old pants and I noted Jim Kelly's Apex jersey) Frank Reich and possibly Steve Christie wore Apex jerseys here instead of the Champion jerseys

Craig Morton is missing his "NFL 50" patch
Dallas at Cleveland 11/2/69

Not sure if this has been caught already, but...

contrary to the absolute set-in-stone canon of Dolphin uniform history, we have... drumroll please... SLEEVE STRIPES in 1970 Preseason!!! This has to be a case where someone wanted to make due with what they had. These would have had to be the non-meshed jerseys from 1966-69.



#53  




#59 (Doug Swift)

I was shocked to see this in my searching today. I had extremely little personal documentation for the crazy-quilt mishmash of 1970 Dolphin uniforms.

Thanks. If you click over to the "NFL Preseason" portion of the Forum, there is a thread that we started regarding the location of photos for every preseason game for the purpose of trying to find those pesky 'preseason only' uniform combos.

With the merger taking place prior to the start of the 1970 season, our own Timmy B began the process by starting with the seasons in the 2000s and slowly working back towards 1970. The fruits of our labors will be added in as soon as we finish updating each of the teams in a really BIG way - check the most recent blog entry!

1970 was a 'banner' year for 'preseason only' combinations. In addition to what already exists in the site, Tim has located more 'unique to preseason' combinations for the Jets, Raiders, Saints, Lions, Broncos, Rams, Redskins, Patriots, and yes...the Dolphins for the exact reason you just pointed out. Of note, it would be almost impossible to tell on B/W photos but the Dolphins updated their shade of aqua going from 1969 to 1970 with the 1970 version being slightly lighter/brighter than the 1969 variety. As you stated the non-striped jersey was what they wore throughout the 1970 season so the striped version would not have been made in the new shade of aqua. It is extremely likely that both shades of aqua would have been worn in these preseason games.

The 3rd posting in that Preseason photo thread contains a list of preseason games we have yet to uncover a photograph from. Any help that can be lent in that direction would be greatly appreciated.

Found a few more oddities. First, Oakland cornerback Henry Williams' jersey had a serif nameplate for at least part of the 1979 season (as seen in this screen grab from the 1979 Monday Night game vs. New Orleans)


Was just watching an upload of the 1990 NFL Films project Big Plays, Best Shots and Belly Shots of 1989 Season (which my dad apparently recorded part of a slightly different version off an airing on my local CBS affiliate in September 1990 and which I just ran across today {this was one of those projects I was wondering what it was}); and Packer offensive tackle Ken Ruettgers at some point was still wearing the 1984-88 jersey with the Packer logo on the sleeve

I happened to see the Week 10 Game of the Week from 1967 between the Steelers and Giants. Approximately 1:40 into the video, the Steelers are in the process of trying a field goal. The oddity stems from the fact that the Pittsburgh holder, Dick Hoak, has no face mask.

The supposed two previous references to the "last player to play without a face mask" were Tommy McDonald (year?) and Garo Yepremian (1966), yet nothing on Hoak.

From Week 3 this season - Kirk Cousins sock stripes are upside down.