Taking it back to the U-NI-VER-SI-TIES...

[tBBP]

Guess what...it's ME AGAIN!

Been gone from the Concepts boards for a good lil bit (blame work, the Army, and myriad other stuff), but I've actually had a lot of good concept ideas cooking in my head for a very long time now...and one of those was a re-do (or, shall we say, a "modest refreshening") of the North Carolina Tar Heels football squad.

This actually ain't the first time I've done a college team concept...This is. (That was a challenge by one BigShoop a LONG time ago...)

Okay, so on to the Tar Heels here. To be certain, I think we all know the basketball program at UNC gets most if not all the shine (even though the men's lacrosse and especially the women's soccer team--Mia Hamm, anyone?--has done more than their fair share of headline-grabbing) at the program, and they certainly have the uniform sets to match that. The football squad, on the other hand, well...since the days of Julius Peppers and Dre' Bly, the look has kinda gone--no, wait--it HAS gone bland. No real character at all...so I decided to do something about it. (You paying attention, MIKE??? You know who you are...)

Well, first of all, I did use UNC's basketball look as a basis for this new look, namely the typography. Yes, I know there are other institutions out there (namely the U. of Tennessee) who've hitched their wagons to the Berthold City font family (although modified to suit them, respectively), but I believe it was Carolina who was first with it (I may be wrong), and they are certainly the most well-known for that typeface (outside the Phoenix Suns--but that's another story for another time). And I can't think of any other school that is attached to its colors as is UNC (the columbia color, "carolina" or "tar heel" blue to most of us, and the white actually represent the two societies that were known at the school--dialectic and philanthropic, and when athletics got introduced to the campus (which, by the way, was the nation's first PUBLIC institution), it was only natural the athletic teams take on those two colors, to represent unity amongst the student body. (How you like THAT one, D???)

Anyway, I decided to keep this look rather simple, as has been the case with UNC for a while now, but with certain elements to add "spice". First of all, I kept all navy to a trim (which is what the color's purpose was to begin with) and really emphasized the tar heel blue and white. I decided to go San-Diego-offset style with the numbers and striping here, just because it lends a look of class, I believe, to the overall set. That is also why I didn't saturate this uniform with Carolina's damn-near proprietary argyle pattern, even though every bone in me wanted to do so. That pattern, however, DID show up on the collars of these jerseys, a la the houndstooth special edition Crimson Tide jerseys, just to tie in the school's athletic "image", if you will. Home jerseys are t/h blue; roads are white. Since I can not recall ever having seen a single UNC alt set, none is included here; there are two differing road sets, however--one with blue pants; the other with white pants. The blue-pants version includes striped white socks; the other two sets have solid columbia socks--excuse me, tar-heel blue socks. The jersey also doesn't have any sleeve striping; instead, I decided (even though it's only visible in one place in this display) to utilize Ramses the Ram on the sleeves.

Overall, I think this is a good, refreshing look to the UNC football program...and a good way to get them noticed, if not out of that patheticall bland mess they're in now. (Somebody put in a call to Butch Davis!!! )

Oh yeah, one other thing: the names and numbers DO have meaning behind them...let's see who (outside of Mike, of course ) can figure out what they are!!!

Anyway, here it is...the University of North Carolina Tar Heels for you folks! C&C very much appreciated.

[LEWJ]

Dude this is Outstanding! I really wanna see to see the "argyle diamonds" pattern from the collar, on the middle stripe of the pants, that would be cool. (IMO)

Overall: A+

(If you added that pattern to the pants, It would be A++ work, IMO)

[Eye]

Love 'em. Road set #1 is tiiiiight. Just sharp looking, all of the unis. Heh, I thought those were the Phoenix Suns numbers even before I read your introduction, Bucco, but then I was like, nah those are the UNC numbers (I'm sure many of us know of the slight modifications between UNC's, the Suns' Tennessee's number's, as you yourself explained, Bucco.) Good thinkin' in not putting the argyle pattern as the pants stripe (or in the pants stripe) because it would have drawn the attention away from the better elements (such as the neck argyle pattern, names and numbers, which stand out and look beautifully by the way, and of course the pants striping, which also contrasts nicely with the primary color of the pants and looks beautiful) of your design. What's that on the back of the neck? I read your introduction, and didn't read anything about that, unless I missed something. I'm not usually a fan of logos on the back of the neck, so the only thing I'd say to make this set perfect is to get rid of that (or if it is the ACC conference logo, maybe put it on the pants, perhaps the left thigh) on an otherwise killer set. Awesome work.

-E.A.R.

[koizim]

A++++++++++++++++

This is the #1 college football concept on CCSLC!

If these were for sale I would snap one up in a second.

My one suggestion is maybe an alternate in navy or Carolina blue with argyle side stripes.

[Jamikel]

Oooh, I like. Butch Davis already has plans to get some more exciting uniforms after this season, and this does it perfectly while still staying in touch with our school's traditional attitudes towards uniforms.

A couple nit-picks: I personally would prefer a bit more navy in the uniform. Butch is on record as liking the navy, and I think it really helps the two colors pop off each other. Nothing much, just a little bit thicker trim and solid navy socks for the home set, a la Michigan would be perfect.

Ditch the 90's Ramses. The trend lately has been to move away from that design and back towards the classic Ramses. But personally, I would prefer to see the actual Tar Heel logo get some love for once.

[kewp80]

I dunno, I think putting the argyle stripe pattern on the pants would be over kill for football uniforms, I would like to see a little more nave though, other than that this is A+ work. Great job once again man! I absolutely love the socks!

And where did the ram logo come from? I have always wondered that.

[RamblinGamblinTiger]

Wow.

x5

The only suggestion I would have is maybe make the numbers on the white jersey the dark blue because the light blue #s would be hard to see from a distance...

[creativelysain]

And where did the ram logo come from? I have always wondered that.

Why a Ram for a Mascot?

In 1924 Vic Huggins, UNC's head cheerleader, decided that Carolina needed a mascot like N.C. State's Wolf and Georgia's Bulldog. At the time, Jack Merrit, known to his fans as the "Battering Ram," was a popular member of UNC's football team. Making use of this nickname, Huggins hit upon the idea of a ram as the Carolina mascot.

The cheerleader went to Charles T. Woollen, the University's Business Manager, and asked him to find twenty-five dollars to buy a ram. They ordered UNC's first mascot from Texas.

The 1924 team had been in a slump and Carolina fans were looking for something to break the jinx. The Tar Heel sports staff joined the campus in hoping that the new mascot would bring the much-needed luck.

The mascot, who was named Rameses, arrived in time for the UNC-VMI game on 8 November 1924. The fans saw a defensive struggle. No one scored until late in the fourth quarter when a UNC player executed a perfect dropkick for a 3-­0 victory. Carolina fans credited the first Rameses' presence for pulling Carolina past VMI, and giving birth to the long line of rams who have witnessed Tar Heel games.

http://www.unc.edu/about/traditions.html

[VitaminD]

Brandon, my man... BRAVO!

First off - your knowledge of the Di/Phi Societies... somebody did their research. But that's nothing new from you - I know more about airplane livery because of these concepts. Kudos.

Second - thank you thank you thank you for keeping navy to a minimum. You're right, we in Tar Heel Nation are insanely attached to Carolina Blue and White. Navy serves a purpose of providing a little contrast, but by the end of the Mack Brown/Carl Torbush years, the navy was getting out of hand. If nothing else, the best thing John Bunting ever did for the program was de-emphasize navy and allow the school colors to be prominent. So thanks for getting that; a lot of folks don't.

Third - this concept is pretty much what every UNC concept I've ever thought about would look like. The City Bold is, more or less, "our font", although it seems like more and more programs are using it somewhere in their identity. It's natural to link the football program to the hoops program (I can't say our "most successful program" until the women's soccer team adopts City Bold... ), which is better known nationally. I'd be one of those people putting argyle down the thick pants stripe or around the edge of the sleeve. I never warmed to the '90s ram, and I can't see him being put on the uniform. Anything more than the interlocking "NC" would seem strange if they weren't to use stripes.

You've done yourself proud. Of course I am biased - but that just means I pore over UNC stuff with more scrutiny, and if it didn't look right, I'd be hollering about it. You don't hear me hollering anything but praise here.

[gordie_delini]

nice work her (can i get a copy of that template in AI format please?) I like how you incorporated the pattern into the neckline, and I agree, going down the pants stripes would make it even better.

[Swashbuckler]

Very nice. As a proud UNC alum I wouldn't mind seeing these sets at all. Kudos for not doing what one poster suggested.......I hate the argyle on the hoops unis and would hate them even more on the football sets.

Would rather them never wear the light blue pants and go all white on the road, but it would be neat to see navy blue pants. Also, I wonder if Carolina blue facemasks would look better than the white. (FYI, the Heels wore navy facemasks in the mid 80's for a couple of seasons, believe it was my senior year in high school and my frosh year at UNC..Mack Brown did away with them when he took over for the 88 season.)

edited..wait, I realize that I didn't pay close attention to the pix or that message! I see the argyle around the neck and I have to admit, that doesn't look bad at all! I can't believe I'm saying that!

[Ben5]

Bravo. bucco b, you are cementing yourself as my favorite football concept maker. I'm even warming up on the template. When I did my ACC series a year ago (has it been that long?) I used the same font, so kudos for proving that great minds think alike. One suggestion I might make is to try Northwestern sleeve stripes. After attending a game down in Chapel Hill in the fall (WF 24 UNC 17 ) and seeing the highlight video, I realized that the stripes look good in this color. Speaking of color, I find it funny how many reply say they want a blue jersey or pants even though you pointed out you just used it as trim, which is it's intend. Once again, great job.

[sacker12]

Those look remarkable.

[walkdesign]

Guess what...it's ME AGAIN!

Been gone from the Concepts boards for a good lil bit (blame work, the Army, and myriad other stuff), but I've actually had a lot of good concept ideas cooking in my head for a very long time now...and one of those was a re-do (or, shall we say, a "modest refreshening") of the North Carolina Tar Heels football squad.

This actually ain't the first time I've done a college team concept...This is. (That was a challenge by one BigShoop a LONG time ago...)

Okay, so on to the Tar Heels here. To be certain, I think we all know the basketball program at UNC gets most if not all the shine (even though the men's lacrosse and especially the women's soccer team--Mia Hamm, anyone?--has done more than their fair share of headline-grabbing) at the program, and they certainly have the uniform sets to match that. The football squad, on the other hand, well...since the days of Julius Peppers and Dre' Bly, the look has kinda gone--no, wait--it HAS gone bland. No real character at all...so I decided to do something about it. (You paying attention, MIKE??? You know who you are...)

Well, first of all, I did use UNC's basketball look as a basis for this new look, namely the typography. Yes, I know there are other institutions out there (namely the U. of Tennessee) who've hitched their wagons to the Berthold City font family (although modified to suit them, respectively), but I believe it was Carolina who was first with it (I may be wrong), and they are certainly the most well-known for that typeface (outside the Phoenix Suns--but that's another story for another time). And I can't think of any other school that is attached to its colors as is UNC (the columbia color, "carolina" or "tar heel" blue to most of us, and the white actually represent the two societies that were known at the school--dialectic and philanthropic, and when athletics got introduced to the campus (which, by the way, was the nation's first PUBLIC institution), it was only natural the athletic teams take on those two colors, to represent unity amongst the student body. (How you like THAT one, D???)

Anyway, I decided to keep this look rather simple, as has been the case with UNC for a while now, but with certain elements to add "spice". First of all, I kept all navy to a trim (which is what the color's purpose was to begin with) and really emphasized the tar heel blue and white. I decided to go San-Diego-offset style with the numbers and striping here, just because it lends a look of class, I believe, to the overall set. That is also why I didn't saturate this uniform with Carolina's damn-near proprietary argyle pattern, even though every bone in me wanted to do so. That pattern, however, DID show up on the collars of these jerseys, a la the houndstooth special edition Crimson Tide jerseys, just to tie in the school's athletic "image", if you will. Home jerseys are t/h blue; roads are white. Since I can not recall ever having seen a single UNC alt set, none is included here; there are two differing road sets, however--one with blue pants; the other with white pants. The blue-pants version includes striped white socks; the other two sets have solid columbia socks--excuse me, tar-heel blue socks. The jersey also doesn't have any sleeve striping; instead, I decided (even though it's only visible in one place in this display) to utilize Ramses the Ram on the sleeves.

Overall, I think this is a good, refreshing look to the UNC football program...and a good way to get them noticed, if not out of that patheticall bland mess they're in now. (Somebody put in a call to Butch Davis!!! )

Oh yeah, one other thing: the names and numbers DO have meaning behind them...let's see who (outside of Mike, of course ) can figure out what they are!!!

Anyway, here it is...the University of North Carolina Tar Heels for you folks! C&C very much appreciated.

B-E-A-UTIFUL!!!!! Perfect!! I like the idea of trying to add the argyle to the pants as well.

[tBBP]

Hey folks...thanks for all the comments!

To answer some things: the thing above the nameplate is Ramses the Ram. Not that I'm a fan of that type of thing, but that little element is quickly gaining steam around football circles (and who'da thunk the Arizona Cardinals...THE ARIZONA CARDINALS...woulda been an innovator, of sorts, in uniform design???), so that's the only reason I stuck that there. About the N/W stripes on the sleeves...I so very desperately wanted to do that, but, for some reason I just felt that would make the look "too stripey"...a little TOO traditional...and I wanted to keep a cleaner, sleeker look to this, which is also why I stayed away (as amazing as it is) from doing the argyle thing on the pants stripes, even though it's plenty of space for it. The other reason for that is I just felt that'd be a bit TOO gimmicky, in a way, and I want people to look at that as a FOOTBALL uniform first, with a bunch of nice elements to it. So that left me with the argyle collar (which I was going to do anyway), and, though you can't see it here, argyle-trimmed sleeve cuffs.

SO...I see no one's yet been able to offer up a guess to the "lil" riddle I embedded in my intro to this concept post...any ideas? (Mike, I'm sure you know...or if you ain't sure--which I don't know why you WOULDN'T BE--feel free to guess too.) Who wanna take a stab at it??? One's pretty easy (the answer's literally RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF YOU); the other may be a little tougher to guess...

Whatchy'all got???

[averyj]

Hey folks...thanks for all the comments!

To answer some things: the thing above the nameplate is Ramses the Ram. Not that I'm a fan of that type of thing, but that little element is quickly gaining steam around football circles (and who'da thunk the Arizona Cardinals...THE ARIZONA CARDINALS...woulda been an innovator, of sorts, in uniform design???), so that's the only reason I stuck that there. About the N/W stripes on the sleeves...I so very desperately wanted to do that, but, for some reason I just felt that would make the look "too stripey"...a little TOO traditional...and I wanted to keep a cleaner, sleeker look to this, which is also why I stayed away (as amazing as it is) from doing the argyle thing on the pants stripes, even though it's plenty of space for it. The other reason for that is I just felt that'd be a bit TOO gimmicky, in a way, and I want people to look at that as a FOOTBALL uniform first, with a bunch of nice elements to it. So that left me with the argyle collar (which I was going to do anyway), and, though you can't see it here, argyle-trimmed sleeve cuffs.

SO...I see no one's yet been able to offer up a guess to the "lil" riddle I embedded in my intro to this concept post...any ideas? (Mike, I'm sure you know...or if you ain't sure--which I don't know why you WOULDN'T BE--feel free to guess too.) Who wanna take a stab at it??? One's pretty easy (the answer's literally RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF YOU); the other may be a little tougher to guess...

Whatchy'all got???

Does the name on the back have anything to do with Bailey, North Carolina?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailey,_North_Carolina

[tBBP]

Hey folks...thanks for all the comments!

To answer some things: the thing above the nameplate is Ramses the Ram. Not that I'm a fan of that type of thing, but that little element is quickly gaining steam around football circles (and who'da thunk the Arizona Cardinals...THE ARIZONA CARDINALS...woulda been an innovator, of sorts, in uniform design???), so that's the only reason I stuck that there. About the N/W stripes on the sleeves...I so very desperately wanted to do that, but, for some reason I just felt that would make the look "too stripey"...a little TOO traditional...and I wanted to keep a cleaner, sleeker look to this, which is also why I stayed away (as amazing as it is) from doing the argyle thing on the pants stripes, even though it's plenty of space for it. The other reason for that is I just felt that'd be a bit TOO gimmicky, in a way, and I want people to look at that as a FOOTBALL uniform first, with a bunch of nice elements to it. So that left me with the argyle collar (which I was going to do anyway), and, though you can't see it here, argyle-trimmed sleeve cuffs.

SO...I see no one's yet been able to offer up a guess to the "lil" riddle I embedded in my intro to this concept post...any ideas? (Mike, I'm sure you know...or if you ain't sure--which I don't know why you WOULDN'T BE--feel free to guess too.) Who wanna take a stab at it??? One's pretty easy (the answer's literally RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF YOU); the other may be a little tougher to guess...

Whatchy'all got???

Does the name on the back have anything to do with Bailey, North Carolina?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailey,_North_Carolina

Outside of the fact that Junius Peppers hails from there (yes, I looked that up, too), no, that's not it. Sorry...

Anyone else???

[creativelysain]

Kory Bailey #12 (the same one who is a dook fan i think), and #39 is Chesley Borders.

[tBBP]

Kory Bailey #12 (the same one who is a dook fan i think), and #39 is Chesley Borders.

Can't get much more literal than that, can it? (Well, one of them...)

#12, Kory Bailey, one of UNC's best WR's in recent years, and, I believe, #6 on NC's all-time receiving yards list. I believe he still lives in Chapel Hill, and has a good many business ventures going down there. As was mentioned in a previous post, during my research into what name/number to use, I cam across this guy and then, in my trivia knowledge of weird things I read an retain, I remembered there was a little town in North Carolina named Bailey, which produced one of the greatest UNC products of all-time: Julius Peppers.

Let me also put this out there: NC is not without its fair share of NFL greats, and Peppers ain't even the best defensive player to come out of there. Along with Dre' Bly and himself, there's another UNC alum who made himself WELL-known in the NFL during the '80s, and pretty much redefined his position:

The name LAWRENCE TAYLOR ring a bell???

Okay, so about the other number, since I don't think anyone's going to get it: 39 is the number currently being worn by starting Pittsburgh Steelers tailback Willie Parker, who is also a UNC alum (although he was seldom used towards the latter end of his UNC career).

Make a little more sense, now?

[creativelysain]

aaahh, Parker wore #15 at Carolina, that's why it threw me off a bit.