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!
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