Just about that time!

by Tim Brulia

It's been awhile since we did a blog. But as we gear up for a new season, the NFL's 100th, we thought we'd alert you to a virtually completed project that has been about five years in the making.

Preseason uniforms and their matchups.

The GUD uses 1940 as a starting point for the preseasons as prior to 1940, exhibition games were a rather scattershot set up that occasionally took place during the season or even the postseason. Still, even in the early years of this endeavor, there are plenty of games against non-league teams, minor league teams, glorified sandlot squads and even Canadian Football League teams, among others.

As the years go by, the preseason schedule gets a little more structured, eventually settling on a rather lengthy six game schedule and finally, in 1978, settling on a four game slate that we are very familiar with today.

Over the years, the preseason games have had some really quirky uniform designs. In particular, when a team was headed for a new look for the coming season, their preseason attire would feature a mish-mash of old designs from the previous season and the upcoming season. In some cases, a team would trot out a new design (notably the 1969 black helmeted Saints and the 1984 orange numbered brown jerseys of the Browns) that would be scrapped for whatever reason before the start of the season.

Our normal yearly team pages highlight uniform combinations that were worn only in the preseason. To view specific preseason matchups, please click on the desired season from the decades buttons on our homepage (please note that 1920s and 1930s are not available)

then click on the specific year, .

the click on the PRE button

From here you will see a weekly listing of games on the page.

Click on the game you wish to see in detail

and there it will be!

As always, if you see any errors, please contact us with documentation to verify your finding and we will certainly make the proper adjustment.

Special thanks to Bill Schaefer and Larry Schmitt for their extremely hard work in this project.

Enjoy!

UNDER RENOVATION

I have received a slew of emails over the past several months regarding 'broken' and/or incorrect images showing on various pages of GUD.

Over the past several months, our site has been undergoing some changes involved with the technical coding and layout. Basically, we been modernizing GUD. As the improvements continue to roll out, there will be some older pages still containing these 'broken' or incorrect images. Rather than make the corrections on the old pages that are going to become obsolete as the changes occur, we are waiting to make the corrections on the new, permanent versions of the pages.

We understand that our viewers expect the best from GUD in terms of accuracy, and we will continue to provide that moving forward as soon as possible.

Your continued patience is appreciated during this time.

Thank you.

Bill Schaefer

GUD

Time Keeps On Tickin' Tickin' Tickin,' Into the Past

This is not going to be an extensive blog entry, folks...more of an FYI.

Over the past few weeks, Larry Schmitt and I have researched and entered the game times for 1932-69 games. 1970 and forward had already been included on the weekly match-up page. 

This, in turn, has re-sequenced the games on each week's page in much the same way that recent season pages do, as well.

Hope you all enjoy the added information.

Bill Schaefer
GUD

WORK AHEAD!

Attention GUD FAITHFUL:

While the GUD is in the process of making the site a little more cohesive, you will tend to notice that the occasional image won't show appropriately.

Fear not.

As adjustments are made, these images will return better than ever.

If you require a particular game that has an incomplete image showing on the weekly match-up pages, go instead to the team's yearly image for that season. Below the yearly image you will see the regular season and postseason matchups for that team being displayed. These same images with the scores and game information will eventually be mirrored over to the weekly match-up pages where you are used to seeing them.

We appreciate your patience as we continue to make the GUD better than ever.

Thank you.

Bill Schaefer and the rest of the GUD team

How Do We Choose a Random Uniform Matchup on Facebook?

by Tim Brulia


As you likely know, the Gridiron Uniform Database has a social media presence. We can be found on Facebook and Twitter. We may shoot for Instagram down the road, but for right now, Facebook and Twitter serves us - and you, we hope - rather well.

A popular feature on Facebook is what we call the "Random Uniform Matchup," or "RUM." You might be curious as to how we arrive at such a post, which features a boatload of information squeezed onto a tiny post.

Well, we don't keep secrets on the GUD, so we'd like to share how we do it.

1) We lay out a grid, courtesy of Google Sheets, which has a calendar, This is where we monitor what we have posted from day one of the RUM to the present. We allot so many spots for decades going back to the 1940s. As of February, every 29 days, we allocate a certain number of days per decade. This is based on the number of games played by the NFL going back to 1940. The allocation is as follows:

2010s: 5
2000s: 5
1990s: 4
1980s: 4
1970s: 4
1960s: 3
1950s: 2
1940s: 2

The individual decades are placed entirely at random. For the 60s, we use 2 NFL matchups per cycle and one AFL matchup. For the 40s and 50s, they alternate every Thursday, as our homage to "Throwback Thursdays."

2) After the decades have been put into dates, we then use the services of random.org to randomly select a specific year from that decade. For example, if the grid has an "0" beside it, we go to random.org to select a year from the 00s. Whatever year random.org chooses, say 2007, that's the year we go with. We do make adjustments here and there if we feel a certain year has been used too often or not enough,

3) Now we choose the week of the season. The day after Labor Day, we consider the regular season to have kicked off. We use a Tuesday to Monday schedule, So for Week 1, we will use a RUM from previous Week 1's. Week 2, we'll select a prior season's Week 2 games, and so on. We use this format right through the season, including each playoff round and Super Bowl week. To culminate the season, we use that day's Super Bowl matchup (the only non random matchup of the year), and the following day, we use the Super Bowl Champion with a RUM from the just completed season. From the next day until Labor Day, random.org is used to select the week, with no single week being used more than every seven days.

4) From here, we use a specific game from the year and week chosen. Again, random.org is used. So let's say 2007 Week 2 so far has been randomly chosen. We identify how many games were played that week from the GUD's weekly lineup of matchups. This helps to account for weeks with byes, if any. Since there are no byes in Week 2 of 2007, random.org selects a game from 1 to 16. We get game #8 for the week. Per the GUD, that works out to San Francisco 49ers at St, Louis Rams. So, that game would get put on our Facebook page.

5) Since the entry used in our example in #5 has all of the anecdotal information that we use for the RUM (except for the teams' win-loss records, which we'll cover later) entry on Facebook, we'll cover the matchups that do not have this information. We use the website 506sports.com to gather a lot of this info. A section on the 506sports.com forum contains an index that links to all NFL games played since 1947. These links, listed by season, contains by week, the date and time of each game, the network televising the game and the commentators assigned to the game. These facts are then placed in the text accompanying the RUM.

6) To find the venue of the game chosen, we consult the profootballarchives.com website. PFA lists by season every game, including stadium where the game was played.

7) Finally, to get the win-loss records for the two teams and the score of the game shown on Facebook, we use shrpsports.com/nfl. From here, we can go to a link for "team for a season," choose one of the teams, click on the particular season and find the game in question. The link lists opponents by week, with the W-L record going into the game as well as the score.

All of this information is gathered and then posted on the GUD's Facebook page. In turn, the GUD's Twitter account will post a link to the Facebook post.

Even though this sounds like a lengthy process, it really only takes about 3 minutes to complete, even less if the info on the graphic is there.

Every now and then, the GUD will feature a bonus RUM, which might be a matchup from one of the defunct leagues, like the All-America Conference (1946-1949), The World Football League (1974-1975), the United States Football League (1983-1985), the XFL (2001), and others.

To see what game shows up next on our Facebook page, here you go: https://www.facebook.com/gridironuniforms/

Enjoy!

Pretty As A Picture

11/3/46 - Chicago Cardinals @ Boston Yanks

Even though the games have all been played and fans are awaiting the NFL Draft, the GUD's season never stops. You may have notice some 'old-timey' updates being installed on the site with more to come in the near future.

Also, for those of you who do not frequent the GUD's Forum, an ongoing project is worth checking out. Two topics, in particular, we hope, will draw your attention.

As most of our viewers know, we have been able to successfully document the uniforms being worn for all games back through 1950. We also have better than 95% accuracy for the 1940s. We are still working on filling in those missing gaps.

In order to do so, we have been scouring the online newspaper archives as well as recruiting assistance from public and university libraries in the areas in which games took place. 

We have several hurdles in our work. 

First, teams in Brooklyn (Dodgers & Tigers), Staten Island (Stapletons), Cincinnati (Reds), and Portsmouth (Spartans) were not well covered photographically by their local media. These teams account for over 90% of our undocumented games from the 1930s.

Second, locating photos of games that were played in Philadelphia and Detroit is financially difficult. The public libraries in those cities want to charge a large sum of money to have their librarians search through their newspaper archives since none of the GUD leadership lives in the area to conduct the search themselves. The funding must be paid up front with no guarantee of success. Other libraries have either performed the searches for free since we know the dates of the games or have charged a modest $5 to $10 fee depending on the size of the request.

When looking upon the photo at the opening of this blog, I'm reminded of a line from the opening minutes of the movie Titanic. Despite its grainy appearance, should this photo have remained hidden - so to speak - from football fans forever? The Yanks wearing bright mono-yellow uniforms cast against the bright red of the Cardinals. The Boston Public Library was nice enough to send this to me in response to my request since a photo for this game did not appear in the online archives of the Boston Globe.

Here is a photo of those glorious 1946 Yanks uniforms displayed on QB Paul Governali...

Thirdly, a small degree of hubris may be a contributing factor, as well. By that I mean that several teams like the Redskins, Lions, Steelers, Packers, and Bears spent a number of years with only one uniforms combo. When we assembled the weekly uniform match-up pages, this was taken into consideration. We knew that when the Cardinals would play the Lions that the Cards would be in red jerseys and white helmets and pants. We knew that the Lions would be in blue jerseys with silver helmets and pants. We did not need to see a photo to know what had to be. Still, for games such as these, we'd still like to possess a photograph from that game.

Additionally, some of these games we are working off of the research of our own Tim Brulia who dug into this very topic years ago before the GUD was born. However, at the time, he only documented the uniforms rather than saving a photo off of microfilm. A good example of this would be the 10/7/50 Cleveland Browns @ Pittsburgh Steelers game. We just haven't been able to wrangle the photo that Tim located years back.

As you may have noticed, the GUD has also been working to include Preseason games in our weekly matchups for each season. Unfortunately, these photos have been especially hard to track down. Even home games were rarely covered with photos by major newspapers. Also, in the 1950s, teams had a habit of playing the majority of their preseason games in 'barnstorming' fashion by making trips to cities like Winston-Salem, Hershey, Mobile, Lincoln, Salt Lake City, and Portland. Again, many public libraries were very accommodating to requests. But, alas, even the local papers in those cities appear to have not published photos from every game despite the fact that it was a pretty 'big deal' to have the pros come to play in these non-NFL cities.. 

In the 1940s, teams didn't play a set number of preseason games. Some played five or six games while others, like the Cardinals and Dodgers, often only played two or three games. 

Additionally, teams like the Steelers and Dodgers spent a few years playing their Preseason games against several semi-pro and independent teams. Obviously we will not be expanding our coverage to include those teams but we'd still like to document the League teams, especially in a situation where they wore something out of the ordinary for a given season. 

Recently, we uncovered photos of the 1948 Los Angeles Rams playing two exhibition/preseason games in Honolulu against the Hawaiian Warriors team. In the games, the Rams wore their 1947 pants (yellow-blue-yellow stripes) instead of their 1948 pants (blue-yellow-blue stripes).

9/6/48 - LA Rams @ Hawaiian Warriors

Below are the lists of the games for which we are seeking photos, both regular season and preseason. If you have any leads or contacts through which we could find photos from any of these games, please contact the GUD hierarchy so we can continue to insure that we are 'just getting it right.'  

And thank you for all of the continued love and support you all throw our way. We love hearing from you!

Regular Season

9/25/32 - Brooklyn Dodgers @ Staten Island

10/2/32  - Chicago Cardinals @ Portsmouth Spartans

10/2/32  - Chicago Bears @ Staten Island

10/9/32  - Staten Island @ Brooklyn Dodgers

10/16/32  - Portsmouth Spartans @ Staten Island

10/20/32 - Portsmouth Spartans @ Staten Island (N) 

10/30/32 - Brooklyn Dodgers @ Chicago Cardinals

11/6/32  - Chicago Bears @ NY Giants

11/6/32 - Portsmouth Spartans @ Brooklyn Dodgers

11/13/32 - Chicago Cardinals @ Brooklyn Dodgers

11/13/32 - Portsmouth Spartans @ Chicago Bears

11/20/32  - Boston Braves @ Portsmouth Spartans

11/20/32  - Chicago Cardinals @ Staten Island

11/24/32 - Green Bay Packers @ Brooklyn Dodgers

11/24/32  - NY Giants @ Staten Island

11/27/32  - Chicago Bears @ Portsmouth Spartans

11/27/32  - Green Bay Packers @ Staten Island

11/27/32  - NY Giants @ Brooklyn Dodgers

12/11/32  - Green Bay Packers @ Chicago Bears (I have several photos from the Chicago Tribune but they are too grainy to decipher anything due to snowy playing conditions.)

9/17/33 - Cincinnati Reds @ Portsmouth Spartans

9/24/33 - NY Giants @ Portsmouth Spartans

10/1/33 - Chicago Cardinals @ Portsmouth Spartans

10/4/33 - Boston Redskins @ Pittsburgh Pirates

10/8/33 - Chicago Bears @ Brooklyn Dodgers

10/8/33 - Chicago Cardinals @ Cincinnati Reds

10/11/33 - Cincinnati Reds @ Pittsburgh Pirates

10/18/33 - Portsmouth Spartans @ Philadelphia Eagles

10/22/33 - Pittsburgh Pirates @ Cincinnati Reds

11/5/33 - Philadelphia Eagles @ Cincinnati Reds

11/5/33 - Pittsburgh Pirates @ Brooklyn Dodgers

11/12/33 - Green Bay Packers @ Portsmouth Spartans

11/26/33 - Boston Redskins @ Brooklyn Dodgers

12/3/33 - Brooklyn Dodgers @ Cincinnati Reds

12/3/33 - Chicago Bears @ Portsmouth Spartans

9/23/34 - Chicago Cardinals @ Cincinnati Reds

9/30/34 - Chicago Cardinals @ Detroit Lions

10/3/34 - NY Giants @ Pittsburgh Pirates (N)

10/7/34 - Chicago Cardinals @ Cincinnati Reds (N)

10/10/34 - Chicago Bears @ Pittsburgh Pirates (N)

10/17/34 - Boston Redskins @ Detroit Lions (N)

10/28/34 - Pittsburgh Pirates @ Brooklyn Dodgers (newspaper article states BRK in green helmets & jerseys)

10/27/35 - Philadelphia Eagles @ Brooklyn Dodgers

11/3/35 - Detroit Lions @ Chicago Cardinals

11/10/35 - Philadelphia Eagles @ Chicago Cardinals

11/17/35 - NY Giants @ Chicago Bears

12/8/35 - Boston Redskins @ Brooklyn Dodgers

9/28/36 - Chicago Cardinals @ Detroit Lions (N)

10/4/36 - Philadelphia Eagles @ Brooklyn Dodgers

10/14/36 - Detroit Lions @ Brooklyn Dodgers (N)

10/25/36 - Chicago Cardinals @ Brooklyn Dodgers

11/5/36 - Pittsburgh Pirates @ Philadelphia Eagles (N)

11/22/36 - Detroit Lions @ Chicago Cardinals

9/19/37 - Pittsburgh Pirates @ Brooklyn Dodgers

9/24/37 - Chicago Cardinals @ Washington Redskins

9/26/37 - Chicago Cardinals @ Philadelphia Eagles

12/5/37 - Chicago Bears @ Chicago Cardinals

9/23/38 - Pittsburgh Pirates @ Brooklyn Dodgers

10/2/38 - Chicago Cardinals @ Brooklyn Dodgers

10/26/38 - Philadelphia Eagles v Chicago Cardinals @ Erie PA

11/13/38 - Philadelphia Eagles @ Brooklyn Dodgers

11/20/38 - Chicago Bears @ Brooklyn Dodgers

11/20/38 - Philadelphia Eagles v Pittsburgh Pirates @ Charleston WV

12/4/38 - Cleveland Rams v Pittsburgh Pirates @ New Orleans LA

9/20/39 - Cleveland Rams @ Brooklyn Dodgers

11/6/39 - Pittsburgh Pirates @ Brooklyn Dodgers

11/26/39 - Chicago Bears @ Chicago Cardinals

9/22/40 - Philadelphia Eagles @ Cleveland Rams

9/28/40 - NY Giants @ Philadelphia Eagles (N)

10/5/40 - Chicago Cardinals @ Detroit Lions

10/26/40 - Brooklyn Dodgers @ Philadelphia Eagles (N)

9/27/41 - Detroit Lions @ Chicago Cardinals (N)

9/27/41 - Brooklyn Dodgers @ Philadelphia Eagles (N)

11/23/41 - Chicago Cardinals @ Cleveland Rams

10/9/43 - NY Giants @ Phil-Pitt Steagles (@PHIL)

11/19/44 - Brooklyn Tigers @ Boston Yanks

11/19/44 - Cleveland Rams @ Card-Pitt (in Chicago)

10/7/45 - Chicago Cardinals @ Philadelphia Eagles

12/7/47 - Green Bay Packers @ Detroit Lions

10/4/48 - Chicago Bears @ Chicago Cardinals (N)

10/7/50 - Cleveland Browns @ Pittsburgh Steelers

10/16/54 - Baltimore Colts @ Detroit Lions

11/5/55 - Baltimore Colts @ Detroit Lions

Preseason Games

8/21/42 - Pittsburgh Steelers v Cleveland Rams @ East Liverpool, OH

9/5/42 - Chicago Bears @ Pittsburgh Steelers

9/19/42 - NY Giants v Western Army All-Stars @ Syracuse NY

9/20/42 - Brooklyn Dodgers v Long Island Clippers @ New Brunswick NJ

9/8/43 - NY Giants @ Sampson Naval Training Station @ Sampson NY

9/12/43 - Brooklyn Dodgers v Camp Lee @ Camp Lee VA

9/19/43 - Brooklyn Dodgers v New Brunswick All-Stars @ New Brunswick NJ

9/26/43 - NY Giants v Camp Lee @ Camp Lee VA

9/23/44 - NY Giants @ Detroit Lions

10/1/44 - Washington Redskins @ Chicago Bears

9/5/45 - Detroit Lions @ Windsor (ON) Rockets

9/19/45 - Green Bay Packers v Pittsburgh Steelers @ Hershey PA

8/23/46 - Pittsburgh Steelers @ Scranton (PA) Miners

8/24/46 - LA Dons v San Francisco 49ers @ San Diego CA

8/30/46 - Pittsburgh Steelers v Newark Bombers @ Hershey PA

9/12/46 - NY Giants @ Jersey City (NJ) Giants

9/13/46 - Chicago Cardinals @ Greensboro (NC) Patriots

9/15/46 - Detroit Lions @ Charlotte (NC) Clippers

9/15/46 - Pittsburgh Steelers @ Paterson (NJ) Panthers

9/15/46 - Washington Redskins @ Norfolk (VA) Shamrocks

9/17/46 - Boston Yanks v Long Island Indians @ Lynn MA

8/22/47 - Pittsburgh Steelers v Bethlehem Bulldogs @ Erie PA

8/22/47 - Buffalo Bills v Baltimore Colts @ Hershey PA

8/24/47 - LA Dons @ San Francisco 49ers

8/31/47 - Boston Yanks v Detroit Lions @ Flint MI

9/6/47 - Pittsburgh Steelers v Norfolk Shamrocks @ Wheeling WV

9/13/47 - Pittsburgh Steelers v Richmond Rebels @ New Kensington PA

9/17 /47 - Philadelphia Eagles v Bethlehem Bulldogs @ Bethlehem PA

9/23/47 - NY Giants @ Jersey City (NJ) Giants

9/8/51 - NY Giants v Washington Redskins @ Birmingham AL

by Bill Schaefer

2017 NFL Season Kick-Off - the Only Constant is Change

2017 NFL Season Kick-Off - the Only Constant is Change

Shortly after Super Bowl LI last February, Bill contacted me with a request for some help with an ambitious project for the off season - revising, updating and upgrading the histories of every NFL team from 1970 through 2011. This also included the AFL legacy teams for the years 1960-1969.

This would actually conclude the project we undertook during the 2016 off season where we revised and updated all the NFL teams from 1940 through 1969 and the AAFC from 1946 through 1949.

Indeed, there is no off season at the GUD!

The impetus for this massive overhaul of the GUD library primarily originated from a need to correct the size and position of jersey numbers and NOBs. However, as is always the case, once we start digging in the photo archives we always notice details that have slipped by our discerning eyes previously.

One general trend we saw is that many teams in the late 1960s through the mid 1970s had multiple jersey sets (typically one durene and the other mesh) and each usually had its own unique number and NOB fonts. This is also true for Washington in the 1980s.

Some of the other notable discoveries include:

From 1996-1999 Buffalo used four different manufacturers and had four different number fonts
(click on any of the below images to see a larger version)

The Jets have often featured mis-matched greens in their uniforms, which is particularly evident on the white jerseys.

And the Jets also had wordmarked socks for one year only in 1989.

A few years back we discovered Cincinnati featured different striping patterns on their pants in 1997, 1998 and 1999. However, we did not notice until now that they also had different shoulder stripes for each of those seasons as well.

In 2002 Philadelphia began the season wearing green socks with their white pants, but midseason switched to black socks with all jersey and pants combos.

Washington shelved their striped white socks in favor of their solid burgundy socks with their burgundy pants for late season games in 2004.

Atlanta switched to white facemasks in 1976, one season earlier than we'd thought.

New Orleans' mis-matched array of golds began in 1996, several years earlier than originally thought.

Tampa Bay's helmet stripes were truncated in the back, never reaching the base of the helmet from 1978 through 1996.

Atlanta wore wider collars that we'd been showing, and the collars on the white jerseys had different variations.

 

Over the years, there have been alterations in the Rams helmet horns. Sometimes they were obvious, and other times they were subtle. Bill has gone to great lengths to display these as accurately as possible. The Rams will now feature a helmet detail box with their uniforms to better illustrate each unique variation.

The helmet logos for Seattle are on an upward angle, not horizontal as had been depicted. Also, their shade of green from 1976 through 2001 was darker than originally thought.

Kansas City wore white belts with the red pants in 2000 and 2001.

The Raiders silvers for their helmets and pants are quite a bit lighter than what our graphics have displayed up to this point. The next update will correct this.

These are just a few of the highlights. Details for every team are noted individually in Bill's Updates blog.

For now, the primary focus for the GUD will be keeping up with the 2017 season. While the occasional historical discovery may appear every now and then, the large scale overhauls are done until 2018.

The uploads for the remainder of  the teams not yet displayed in Bill's Updates blog (the NFC South, NFC West and AFC West teams) are done, loaded in the cue and will be revealed on the GUD soon.

Enjoy the 2017 season!

Larry