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Classic/Traditional High School Football Uniforms


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Living in Kentucky, I have been exposed to some great high school football in my life. As surprising as it is, there is a lot of tradition and history when it comes to high school football in the state of Kentucky, and many programs boast beautiful, unique visual identities in this terrible world where high schools copy logos and uniforms from college and professional teams. I want to start a thread highlighting some of the best traditional high school football programs and their graphic identities across the country. Think of your Penn State, Michigan, LSU, and Alabamas of the high school world, the design motifs that will never change like the gold helmet of Notre Dame or the Clemson tiger paw. 

 

I am privileged enough to have my high school wear one of my favorite high school uniforms of all time, though I may be somewhat biased. Somerset High School dons gold helmets, purple and white jerseys with LSU/UCLA stripes, and either gold, purple, or white pants to complete a perfectly balanced and clean, traditional look. The "Briar Jumpers", named after Song of the South's B'rer Rabbit after an upset win over the Louisville Boys School in the early 1900s, are one of the premier programs in Kentucky to never have won a state title.

 

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Next, the traditional rival of Somerset, the Danville Admirals claim stake to many state titles and a reputation of arguably the greatest small school program in the state. The silver helmets and pants, the anchor logo on the state outline on the helmet, and the blue and white jerseys are easily identifiable as representations of timeless success.

 

Danville

 

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The Corbin Redhounds are another traditional powerhouse in the state of Kentucky with many state titles. The Hounds have similar silver helmets and pants, but add a classic "C" helmet logo and clean, bright red jerseys with the team nickname "Redhounds" on the back nameplate. This school was featured in the movie 23 Blast.

 

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What are some of the best high school uniforms and helmets in your area? I absolutely love seeing how communities come together and have such tradition for their local high schools.

 

 

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Bryan Station (also in KY) have had pretty consistently good uniforms imo. I may be biased though. Being a city school, we’ve been good, but lately we’ve not been the best.

 

The last uniforms are our current ones.

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Also, my parents both were briar jumpers. Never thought somerset highschool would see the light of day but here it is lol.

 

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In all honesty, among the high schools in my hometown, I think only one is still wearing the same color helmet now that they were when I was a senior (2000-01).

The full name is Washington Park High School, but we all just call it Park.  Though they've switched to navy in several other sports, football still wears orange helmets and pants with royal blue jerseys.  Brent Moss wore it, Kevin Barry wore it, John Clay wore it.

Far as jersey colors, things are a bit more consistent: Park wears blue with orange numbers, Horlick usually wears red (though they've also worn black), St. Cat's wears mostly black, Lutheran wears purple (usually with gold numbers), and Case wears forest green, though since we've seen so many coaches come and go, the uniforms have gone in damn near every direction, from Eagles lite to Notre Dame style, to an Oregon-2000s Miami hybrid...IIRC Case currently wears something resembling a green and gold Boston College/Princeton lovechild.  With the Ravens' numbers...or is it the Warriors' old font?  I forget which.

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I covered preps in Texas for parts of six seasons, the last in 2012. Mission Veterans Memorial adopted this set in 2008 and hasn’t changed since. 

 

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The irony of them having such a traditional uniform is that Vets is the upstart and much newer school in its town. The original school (Mission High) is one of the most traditional in that region and is the alma mater of Tom Landry, but has no real memorable visual signature. 

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1 hour ago, BJ Sands said:

I covered preps in Texas for parts of six seasons, the last in 2012. Mission Veterans Memorial adopted this set in 2008 and hasn’t changed since. 

 

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The irony of them having such a traditional uniform is that Vets is the upstart and much newer school in its town. The original school (Mission High) is one of the most traditional in that region and is the alma mater of Tom Landry, but has no real memorable visual signature. 

 

Here's what's funny... the Mission Veterans Memorial Patriots play the San Antonio Veterans Memorial Patriots this week in the playoffs.

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14 hours ago, BJ Sands said:

I covered preps in Texas for parts of six seasons, the last in 2012. Mission Veterans Memorial adopted this set in 2008 and hasn’t changed since. 

 

5220207d7eb84.image.jpg?resize=544,759

20101105_VMHS+v+E-E+Football_023.jpg

The irony of them having such a traditional uniform is that Vets is the upstart and much newer school in its town. The original school (Mission High) is one of the most traditional in that region and is the alma mater of Tom Landry, but has no real memorable visual signature. 

 

I feel like any high school using UCLA/LSU stripes over the shoulder is bound to look good. I feel biased myself but I think it is just a clean, traditional look that's hard to get wrong.

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I will also add 2 more traditional programs in Kentucky.

 

Highlands in the Cincinnati/Nothern Kentucky area has many state titles and has a royal, pristine to their football program. The Bluebirds play in clean blue and white uniforms and have an old logo on their shoulder pads.

 

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The Belfry Pirates are a consistent powerhouse in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, with stark red and white jerseys and an intimidating pirate helmet logo representing tough, physical football.

 

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10 hours ago, bluegrasswildcat said:

I will also add 2 more traditional programs in Kentucky.

 

Highlands in the Cincinnati/Nothern Kentucky area has many state titles and has a royal, pristine to their football program. The Bluebirds play in clean blue and white uniforms and have an old logo on their shoulder pads.

 

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I love how the FTH is based off of the Power K of Kentucky's past. Jared Lorenzen's alma mater. St. Xavier (Louisville) changed to the X with cross a few years ago and theirs was based off the same K and H like above. I personally wonder if there is a font that those stylized letters are based on. I am sure there is but I haven't found it yet.

 

 

 

 

 

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12 hours ago, bluegrasswildcat said:

I will also add 2 more traditional programs in Kentucky.

 

Highlands in the Cincinnati/Nothern Kentucky area has many state titles and has a royal, pristine to their football program. The Bluebirds play in clean blue and white uniforms and have an old logo on their shoulder pads.

 

Brad-Greene-Highlands-550-425.jpg

 

highlandsrunontofield.jpg?width=3200&hei

 

 

Do you happen to have a photo of the retro mascot on the helmet and sleeve?

 

The helmet striping inconsistency has my OCD level rising.

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I absolutely love the old classic Kentucky Power K. Its disappointing the last logo update took away even the last remnant left in the UK logo. I didn't notice that local high schools used fonts based on the logo though, so it is refreshing to see that. As far as the Highlands bird logo goes, I couldn't find a great photo of the retro mascot, but I did find something.

 

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I also think it would be interesting if Highlands wore the helmet that the bird does in this logo instead of putting the bird on the helmet.

 

 

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3 hours ago, bluegrasswildcat said:

I absolutely love the old classic Kentucky Power K. Its disappointing the last logo update took away even the last remnant left in the UK logo. I didn't notice that local high schools used fonts based on the logo though, so it is refreshing to see that. As far as the Highlands bird logo goes, I couldn't find a great photo of the retro mascot, but I did find something.

 

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I also think it would be interesting if Highlands wore the helmet that the bird does in this logo instead of putting the bird on the helmet.

 

 

 

META: A thread about "mascots in logos wearing different/altered versions of the actual uniforms" would be an interesting and challenging discussion.

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4 hours ago, bluegrasswildcat said:

I absolutely love the old classic Kentucky Power K. Its disappointing the last logo update took away even the last remnant left in the UK logo. I didn't notice that local high schools used fonts based on the logo though, so it is refreshing to see that. As far as the Highlands bird logo goes, I couldn't find a great photo of the retro mascot, but I did find something.

 

Bird-Mascot-Image.jpg

 

I also think it would be interesting if Highlands wore the helmet that the bird does in this logo instead of putting the bird on the helmet.

 

 

Pretty cool as is. If they increased the line weight a bit, and cleaned up the shoulder/wing, it’d be really great.

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Quote

 

I am not incredibly knowledgeable about other states high school football, but I strangely research some of the best programs around the country. Two other interesting visual identities come from Indiana and Alabama.

 

In Fort Wayne, IN is the Snider Panthers, with a black and yellow color scheme and a script "Snider" on a black helmet in what seems to be a great looking uniform set.

 

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The next team hails from Mobile, AL, where the Baker Hornets don Penn State-esque navy and white simple uniforms with a stylized "B" on the helmet.

 

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So "copy the local college" is a thing in Kentucky too, eh?  Cause it's a pretty big thing in Wisconsin, at least a few powerhouse schools use letter logos based on the motion W, Mequon Homestead and Kimberly being two prominent examples.  Each being predominantly red with white helmets helps.

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1 hour ago, Discrimihater said:

So "copy the local college" is a thing in Kentucky too, eh?  Cause it's a pretty big thing in Wisconsin, at least a few powerhouse schools use letter logos based on the motion W, Mequon Homestead and Kimberly being two prominent examples.  Each being predominantly red with white helmets helps.

 

After looking at those two schools and their uniforms, I wouldn't say Kentucky high schools copy the Kentucky Wildcats in the same way. The two schools you mentioned are direct copycats with the same color scheme.

Here is Mequon Homestead.

 

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And here is Kimberly.

 

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Compared to Wisconsin.

 

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However, the schools in KY using similar fonts to UK's power K aren't direct copies.

 

For example, here is St. Xavier's helmet, only using a similar font style.

 

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Compared to Kentucky's power K.

 

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1 hour ago, BellaSpurs said:

Scott County, and Fredrick Douglass Highschools, two of the best currently in KY, Douglass also has a Clemson recruit, which is a big deal in town.

 

 

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I would give Scott County the edge over Douglass in this case. Douglass is too much of a Miami copycat and is too new to have their own identity yet despite their on-field success. Scott County's red helmets and facemasks are a staple of big school success in central KY. 

Also, it is fun to note that in this year's playoffs, Scott County defeated an undefeated Douglass 28 to 27 in the second round of the KY 6A State Tournament in one of the upsets of the year in Kentucky high school football. 

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On 11/19/2018 at 10:55 AM, BJ Sands said:

(Ooooh, Valley Week is upon us.)

 

But seriously, Mission Vets was looking to build an identity that wasn’t just “Mission High’s little brother” and a part of that was the uniforms. 

 

 


Yeah and that's a great thing bc their early uniforms were hot garbage. They utilized silver and blue and red in a really terrible way. 

Also, i was very confused when i read a post about their matchup this week. 

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