Search This Blog

Monday 9 April 2018

Sports uniform

Baseball uniforms were first worn by the New York Knickerbockers Baseball Club in the mid 19th century. Their uniforms were pants made of blue wool, white flannel shirts and straw hats.

The NY Knickerbockers (at left) posing with their rivals in 1858

The earliest evidence of colored shirts used to identify soccer teams comes from early English public school football games, for example an image of Winchester College football from before 1840 is entitled "The commoners have red and the college boys blue jerseys" and such colors are mentioned again in a Bell's Life in London article of 1858.

The world's first spiked running shoes were worn at an indoor athletics meeting in New York in 1868

The first shin pads were worn in 1874 by the Nottingham Forest soccer player Sam Weller Widdowson, who cut down a pair of cricket pads and wore them outside his stockings.


Football shin pad By Luxo - Self-photographed

After suffering a number of broken fingers, baseball shortstop Arthur Irwin developed the first infielder's glove while playing for Providence in 1883. He used a buckskin driving glove several sizes too large.

The New York Yankees announced in 1929 their intention to put numbers on the backs of their uniforms, becoming the first baseball team to engage in continuous use of numbers. The first numbers were based on fielding positions in the batting order thus, Babe Ruth wore number 3 and Gehrig 4. By 1931 all AL teams were using them; it was to be a further two years before all NL players were numbered.

The Brooklyn Dodgers announced on March 10, 1941 that their players would wear batting helmets during the 1941 baseball season. General Manager Larry MacPhail predicted that all baseball players would soon be wearing the new devices.

The first professional football team to sport an insignia on their helmets was the Los Angeles Rams in 1950, who hand painted yellow horns on their blue leather helmets.

On October 20, 1951, Drake University football player Johnny Bright was the victim of a brutal on-field assault during a game against Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University). Bright, a star running back and halfback, was blindsided by Oklahoma A&M linebacker Wilbanks Smith, who struck him in the jaw with his forearm. The hit broke Bright's jaw and knocked him unconscious.

The assault on Bright led to changes in NCAA football rules. In the years following the incident, the NCAA mandated the use of more protective helmets with face guards. These changes helped to make the game safer for all players, and they are still in place today.

The trend towards low-top basketball shoes began in the 1970s with the introduction of the Nike Blazer, a popular basketball shoe that featured a low-cut design. Over time, other brands began to offer low-top basketball shoes as well, and by the early 2000s, they had become a popular choice among many players.

Kobe Bryant was influential in popularizing the low-top trend. His partnership with Nike resulted in the development of several signature low-top basketball shoes, including the Nike Kobe 4, which was released in 2009 and is often cited as one of the most innovative and influential basketball shoes of all time.

Michael Jordan started the baggy shorts trend in the NBA. All because he wanted to wear his college shorts under his Chicago Bulls uniform.

1 comment: