Timmy B returns from Canton


Last week, May 15th and 16th, I spent two days of research and touring the facilities at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.  As reported last week in this space, my objective was to find as much information as possible regarding uniforms worn by National Football League teams from our missing uniform era of the Gridiron Uniform Database (GUD), 1920-1932.
I had said that I had no idea how (un)successful I would be.  As it turns out, I was able to track down roughly 30% of the uniforms of the era.  My most successful season was probably 1931, where it looks like I found information on 6 of the 10 teams that season.  My least successful season would have to be 1924, where I was only successful in nabbing 2 of the 18 teams.

Jon Kendle, Researcher at the Hall, was more that kind enough to assist me with the project. All day on the 15th, he dug through the photo archives of the Hall for the team photo files for the 1920-1932 years.  I had to wear a pair of white gloves as I sifted through the files in search of these ancient pictures.  The files were listed by team.  There were also negatives mixed in with the available photos.  Alas, many of the files were empty.  But still, I was able to gather a lot of information.  Unfortunately, I was not allowed to take pictures of the material that I sifted through.  However, I was able to log descriptions of the photos as best as I could.  In due time, we hope to bring you the results on the GUD.


I also went back on the 16th to finalize my findings, and came across a couple of surprises.  We hope to include these as well in the coming days and weeks.  I thanked Jon for his help and then I did a tour of the Museum itself.  It's $21 for a tour of the facility.  I took as many uniform-themed photos as I could, most of which accompany this blog.  Two interesting items of note: One was the "Super Bowl Experience" where there was a "tease" of training camp footage from years past and the 2011 season, with some regular season footage from the 2011 season up to the Conference Championships.  Then we entered the theater for a 25 minute feature from NFL Films, exclusively for the Hall, of Super Bowl XLVI.  It was done as only the creative geniuses at NFL Films could provide.  The seating at the theater was movable.  We saw all of the stuff of the lead-in to the Big Game and when it was time for kick-off, the seating area moved from one screen to another.  The exit led us to a display of all 45 Super Bowl rings.  Talk about bling!


The other item of interest came near the end of my tour.  A couple of volunteers lugging around a large trunk happened by where I was taking a break. They said, "Are you here for the helmet presentation?" As I muttered "no," they said, "Too bad!!"  They opened the trunk and pulled out about 10 helmets, some very old, some reproduced and some that were experimental.  It was an enlightening 15 minutes of the history of the pro football helmet, from when it was just a thick woollen cap, to a projected model that was still on the drawing board, that featured safety features to deter concussions as much as possible.

The Hall is undergoing yet another expansion that will culminate next year, to coincide with the Hall's 50th anniversary.  It is worth the while of any football fan, to visit this facility.

Getting back to the task at hand.  To be honest, because of the rather ship-shod way that the NFL kept track of things before 1933, and based on my research last week, it will be a most monumental task to have a complete database of uniforms from before 1933.  I think it could be possible to have complete years back to maybe 1928 or so.  But beyond that...

Still, we think this will be a great step forward as we go backward more in time.  Again, I wish to thank the staff, volunteers and Jon Kendle at the Hall for all the courtesies extended to the GUD.

To view all of Tim's pictures from the Pro Football Hall Of Fame trip, click here.

22 comments:

  1. Neat writeup! Thanks for putting in the work to track down that information. I'm looking forward to seeing what you've found!

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  2. Great stuff Timmy! I love the history of the early NFL and can't wait to see the results from your research.

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  3. Tim,

    Superb work!, How difficult is this project? Since 1920, 48 Franchises have failed in the NFL, ( 35 in the first decade!) Not since 1952 has an NFL team gone bankrupt(1952 Dallas Texans ) This is what is making what Tim is doing so noteworthy! You have my respect.


    - Leatherhead

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  4. Tim, the franchise colors of both Louisville NFL franchise remains unknown. Can you tell me what are the uniform designs for the failed 48 NFL franchises from 1920-32?

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  5. As we speak, the old-fashioned mail system is in the process of delivering Tim's freehand renditions of as many of these teams as possible to me for 'digitalization.' We'll be getting as many of these out as possible as soon as possible.

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  6. Where's Bill Schaefer's hometown?

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  7. Well, 'Anonymous,' I was born in Illinois but was raised in Erie, PA. Graduated from McDowell HS in 1990.

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  8. Tell me Bill, what are the team colors for the Louisville Brecks/Colonels, Orange Tornadoes & Racine Tornadoes?

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    1. You can also refer to this site...

      http://www.ssur.org/research/TeamColors/Football_Outdoor/NationalFootballLeague/NationalFootballLeague.htm

      It's got a lot of good info but is only about 90% right when it comes to having the right shades of certain colors. Mostly accurate, however.

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  9. LB/LC - unknown as yet (but I have a call into a Louisville sports specialist about this topic)

    Newark (Orange) Tornadoes - navy, white, and surprisingly enough...orange

    Racine Legion (Tornadoes only for 1926) - crimson red and white.

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  10. Will Tim's renditions be up in either June of throughout the summer?

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  11. Renditions on the level with the rest of the site will be up as soon as they're deemed by our team to be ready.
    Keep checking in.

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  12. So the 1920-1932 NFL uniforms are on the site in the near future right?

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    1. I'm a high school teacher by trade. Once summer kicks in, I'll be able to work on these with a little more gusto. To quote the Finucci Brothers, "You worka fast o' you worka good. You no rusha da Finuccis." We won't sacrifice quality for 'quicks.' When Tim & I first did 1933-58 (the pre-FUPP years), we went through at least 3 drafts of each combo until we agreed what we had was correct. I don't foresee those kinds of issues for this era due to the lack of detailed characteristics we see in modern jerseys. No pants stripes. Few numbers. A good deal of solid, 1-color jerseys. That kind of thing. It should be an interesting process.

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  13. What are the franchise colors of the New York Brickley Giants? I know they were Red, White & Blue right?

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  14. See above reply to your comment May 30, 2012 2:00 PM regarding team colors.

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  15. See above reply to your comment May 30, 2012 2:00 PM regarding team colors.

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  16. Are the 1920-1932 Uniforms on this site in time for football season?

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  17. They should be.

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  18. Here's a look at the early uniforms for the Green Bay Packers in the NFL.
    1921-1922: Dark Blue jerseys with "ACME PACKERS" in Gold across the front, Khaki pants & Dark Blue socks.
    1923-1924: Gold jerseys with 9 thin navy stripes on each sleeve, Khaki pants & Gold socks
    1925-1926: Dark Gold Jerseys with wide Navy Blue stripe covering shoulder & collar extending to top of each arm & navy uni numbers, Gold socks & Khaki pants.
    1927-1928: Navy Blue jockey-like jerseys with inverted triangle clavicles & 13 gold vertical stripes from chest to stomach, faded Blue canvas pants & Gold socks with 2 Navy Blue stripes.
    1929-1930: Solid Navy Blue jersey with small yellow circle containing navy numbers on chest, Solid Tan pants & Navy Blue socks.
    1931-1932: Solid Dark Navy jersey with curvy yellow numbers on back, Khaki pants & Dark Navy socks.
    All Packers uniforms from 1921-1932 also contains a leather brown helmet.

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  19. Great work Tim, too bad so much missing info from the early years. The early years do fascinate me. As does the history before the 50's.

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  20. First of all I am a NEWBIE to this site and UNI-WATCH.com as of today and I just want to THANK all the folks that made up these sites! Now I can gas on about UNIFORMS as much as I want to get things off of my chest without driving my Husband NUTS! We watch football together YES and I LOVE the game!!! BUT in addition to loving the sport of FOOTBALL I also happen to have some sort of A.D.D. or A.D.H.D. or O.C.D. when it comes to noticing every little detail on a Football uniform. My Hubby says my memory is uncanny for noticing even the slightest little graphic change or color arrangement on a uniform. Well, all I've go to say to me it makes the pleasure of watching a good game of football all that much more pleasurable when the uniforms of the 2 teams that are playing are nice neat and clean graphically to look at, but when a couple of teams with UGLY UNIFORMS get together the entire game is painful to watch. Like for example in my opinion if the Cincinnati Bengals played the Seattle Sea Hawks now the thought of looking at 4 quarters of those teams colors and UNI Designs are just a nightmare! It wouldn't matter who wore road or home colors in that game! However, the thought of watching let's say the New England Patriots in their Home Colors and the Kansas City Chiefs in their road colors were to play, that would be a pleasant game to watch. The Navy Blue Jersey with Red and White of the Patriots against the Bold White with Red graphics road jersey of the Chiefs with the red pants is a nice thought. Especially with the Patriots being in their HOME Colors and the Chiefs being in their ROAD colors. Lastly my closing thoughts on all football uniforms is that the ROAD TEAM should ALWAYS WEAR WHITE and the HOME TEAM should always wear their HOME COLORS. Because I for one being as huge of a football fan as I am think that WHITE should be for the ROAD TEAM and COLORS at HOME so the number 1 most important reason of all is so WE THE PAYING FANS can enjoy our HOME COLORS of our team right here AT OUR HOME STADIUMS! That's the way it ALWAYS should be COLORS for the FANS at home and WHITE on the ROAD!

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