Looks that scream "THE SEVENTIES!" (pt. 1)

[B-Rich]

Okay, so with the movies recently on a ?Back to the Seventies? kick (I highly recommend "Anchorman", btw?laugh out loud funny), and the ?retro? craze still on for now, I was thinking:

What uniforms just scream ?SEVENTIES!!? when you think of them or see them?

With that I mind, I compiled a text list with visuals:

In baseball, no mention of seventies unis is complete without the Astros look, beginning in 1975:

Called the rainbow stripes, or ?tequila sunrise? look, they featured these for several years. Several college baseball teams followed this style. (Tulane, for example). Perhaps ?the? quintessential seventies look.

?Earth tones? were popular in the seventies: notably browns, , oranges, yellows and reds. The Padres used the first three, (in various combinations) as shown here from 1978:

Another team going the ?earth tone? route was the singularly named ?The Hawaiians? of the WFL.

No truth to the rumor these colors and unis were inspired by the Polynesian Resort at Disneyworld, but they?d fit right in.

Bright primary colors were also big in the seventies: the brighter the better, usually to be seen on color TV (which by then just about everyone in America had). One combo you don?t see much of anymore is (kelly) green and gold (yellow). Most notably, the A?s used these in a variety of configurations under Charley O. Finley:

Looking very similar and au courant for the time, the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the NASL featured the same color scheme with bold stripes and a dandy collar:

[B-Rich]

Other bright color combos could be found in football. The Southern California Sun used orange and magenta, a color no one has since bothered to use in a primary fashion:

The Philadelphia/Vancouver Blazers of the WHA used a two-tone orange combo:

Luckily, that one only lasted a short time. On the other hand, the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1976 used a similar ?Florida? Orange and red combo, which, like your parents? avocado refrigerator and goldenrod dishwasher, screamed ?70s? well into the 1990s:

Perhaps a little early for their time, the NHL California Golden Seals used an aqua/teal kind of ?Pacific Blue? with gold in their last two years of existence, many years before the teal explosion of the 90s and perhaps presaging the Pacific teal used with the San Jose Sharks:

[B-Rich]

But perhaps the most used bright color combo, particularly around the bicentennial year of 1976, was the good old red, white and blue. Star and stripes were prominently featured (along with too-short shorts) by the NBA Nets and Bullets, as well as the NHL Washington Capitols:

Wacky uniform styles were also in vogue, with stand-out, bold contrasting stripes very popular. Already mentioned were the sleeve stripes of the Rowdies, but who could forget the bold side panel pattern featured by the ?76 Cavaliers?:

Or the explosion in a paint factory that was the Kansas City Scouts jerseys?

[B-Rich]

And, the pride of the disco era?the infamous ?V jerseys worn by the Vancouver Canucks beginning in 1978. I?ve also included an actual photo of these things in action to show just how loud they were.

But the award for the most ?seventies? (and perhaps the weirdest) accoutrement?has to be the ?western? fringe used in the beige, buff and brown jerseys worn by the NASL?s Caribous of Colorado (picture doesn?t quite do it justice). Luckily, these only lasted a year.

Anyway, thanks for taking a ride on the way-back machine. Thanks to the sources of these seventies gems. Any other suggestions or thoughts?

[TFoA]

BEST

RETRO

UNIFORMS

EVER

Really, no joke... For some odd reason, that just struck me as being the GOAT when it comes to retro in the 70s...

[Discrim]

you forgot powder blue road jerseys

and Earl Campbell's tearaway jerseys

most notably, the Hawks' blue and lime unis (and the Pacers' similarly styled versions)

[xyzzyva]

Now while I differ from most people in thinking that pink could, if used correctly, be well used as a primary color (think Italian soccer), there is no hope for the neon-pinkish color magenta. Exhibit A:

Other bright color combos could be found in football. The Southern California Sun used orange and magenta, a color no one has since bothered to use in a primary fashion:

IMO, there's no way to pull this out of the fire... and it should be shot into the Sun never to return. Ugh.

[Sean84106]

Early 80s....with the trend clearly set by the 1970s:

AD, baby!

[Phil]

You should turn this into an article for SportsLogos.net!

[mac]

tonight the pirates and reds are wearing uniforms from the 70's the reds have on their classic gray pullovers and the pirates are wearing yellow jersey and black pants its not represented in this picture, to me 1970's baseball is the pirates uniforms. The only problem is that the reds are wearing their black batting helmets.

[Stampman]

I didn't like that look for the Seals--I preferred their earlier looks--both with and without the blue---I asociate the Canucks more with the 80's even if they adopted it before the 80's began... for loud 70's looks though, check out whauniforms.com

[Survival79]

tonight the pirates and reds are wearing  uniforms from the 70's the reds have on their classic gray pullovers and the pirates are wearing yellow jersey and black pants its not represented in this picture, to me 1970's baseball is the pirates uniforms.

Here are the Pirates uniforms in action:

JULY 23

JULY 24

[KCScout76]

I remember the gold Pirates unis with the "round" hats - I still have my Pirates hat like that.

[IronChefShark]

you want the truth about baseball unis in the 70s?

Heres a good article on it!

yeah I know, shameless plug

[DEAD!]

Shameless plug, maybe, but a good article. What happens in the 70's should stay in the 70's. A good classic design will stand the test of time. Habs, Blackhawks, Yankees, Celtics are proof of that. I agree with the Brewers argument. IMO, the Brewers current logo is 10X better than the MB glove logo. As for the Padres. I like the Kahki colour uniforms, it's one of the team's colours. However, it looks too much like white.

[NJTank]

Looking at these uniforms it is clear the 70s were the decade that taste forgot

[Moser316]

Those Pirates uniforms have to be the absolute worst throwbacks from the 1970's era (and that's really saying something). When I went to high school in the early-to-mid 1990's, our freshman baseball team got hand-me-down uniforms from the previous varsity teams, and our uniforms for the 1994 season were modeled after the old Pirates uniforms from the late 1970's-early 1980's. We called them the "bumblebee" uniforms because we thought they were so ugly. Maybe in hindsight, it was done out of incentive to improve your performance enough to get called up to the JV level

[Stampman]

But remember, it was the 70's--polyester leisure suits, disco, platform boots, Kiss as a true novellty, the Sex Pistols were shocking-instead of ho-hum...

If they looked ahead to what we have now--they might say--how bland & boring--give it some colour!

So it is a matter of perspective--and why I prefer the classic look overall, but still believe there is room for other looks too, so let them go 70's--it's only for a few appearances at most--is 1 game going to kill you?

The main reason baseball unis are so boring is they're all so similar--and I don't say that so I'll know which team is which, no it's because they all look so similar--I like variety, 'tis the spice of life--

"oh look they broke out the pinstripes"

"OOH how daring"

While some of the out there looks don't look good--I applaud their courage to be different, to make a statement, etc...

I don't care which celebrity is wearing what uni--I like waht I like, and that along with variety makes me appreciate that most sports leagues have variety, even if that includes tackiness...

Would I want to see a whole league of 70's throwbacks? Depends which league--

The NHL--sure--it never got as bad as most

[WJMorris3]

How about those Phillies uniforms that were all-burgundy? Ugly, ugly, ugly!