New Orleans Saints - A Uniform Odyssey

[Gothamite]

One of those gorgeous 1967 Saints jerseys has come up for auction - a Jim Taylor gamer.

 

 

I prefer the thick-number version, but damn that's a beautiful jersey.

[BlueSky]

It is indeed...so much so that I finally got one made. 

 

Wanted everyone to know I haven't forgotten this unfinished thread, just been crushed at work for weeks then the holidays came. Hope to get back to it soon.

[BlueSky]

Missed this fantastic and truly remarkable pic in my original posts. Talk about serendipity. Along with those gorgeous uniforms, we have; Saints legend Danny Abramowicz, then a rookie; QB Gary Cuozzo, looking shell-shocked, hardly a surprise in those days of Saints ineptitude; Packers legends Paul Hornung (sporting a Sir Saint polo and cleats!) and Jim Taylor, both of whom signed in New Orleans, though Hornung never played due to a neck injury that forced his retirement; Taylor's helmet with the weirdly "early" w/b/w stripes (see first post on previous page) while Abramowicz and Cuozzo have the standard '67 b/w/b; and John Gilliam, who famously ran back the opening kickoff of the Saints' first regular season game for a TD. And finally, New Orleans music legend Al Hirt, in the background with his trumpet!   

 

[Gothamite]

I always loved having Al Hirt in the ownership group.  A little local color, fitting to have a jazzman in the organization.

 

 

[OnWis97]

That photo two posts above this one seems to have inconsistency between thick and thin numbers.  Unfortunately, there are no same digits to compare, but 46 and 42 (I think) seem to have thinner numbers than 31 and the guy in the jacket (X5).

 

EDIT: That seemed familiar...so I went back and saw it addressed in the first post of the thread.  So I'll add a couple of unpopular opinions...

 

1. Those black helmets are terrific. I wish they'd stuck with them.

 

2. I don't think this is the best the saints have looked...particularly with some of the quirks with number font and helmet stripes (white-only, or too-wide white).  I'd go with something like the mid-1990s: http://www.gridiron-uniforms.com/GUD/images/1996_NewOrleans.png?6181.

 

The Saints are one of a very few teams (the Lions comes to mind) for whom I did not like the uniforms when I was a kid and I love them now.  Not really sure why.  With both the Saints and Lions, they were just "blah" to me in the 1980s.  Maybe i liked a flashier helmet logo or had not developed the appreciation I now have for the basic "three-stripe" helmet stripe pattern (which I wish the Lions had brought back), whatever the case, the Saints, without changing the essence of their identity slowly crept up the list for me.  The helmet logo is a home run (as is the full design with the stripes; though it would be better if it were black). and the colors are great.  Similarly, Bubbles the Lion is great and Honolulu blue and silver is a terrific combo.  I don't tend to change too much, even going back to childhood, so maybe it's because those were not very good teams back in the 1980s (though I loved the Bucco Bruce Bucs, so who knows...).

[NYC Cosmos]

They should use the black jersey with the 70's-80's pants.

 

 

 

 

[Jungle Jim]

On 10/6/2017 at 4:07 PM, B-Rich said:

I'm with you 100%.  The black pants are a TRAVESTY, a joke, and to a large degree, bad luck-- we seem to lose more often in them.

 

I'm pretty sure it's a BFBS thing, and I've heard so many younger folks saying things like, "Ooh we look so bad-ass in the all-black outfits"...

 

Total BS. I'd prefer an LSU/Georgia Tech look focusing on the gold helmets/white jerseys/gold pants look most of the time, maybe going over to black jerseys for home games the second half of the year (say, from the weekend before Halloween on).

 

And burn the black pants.  Burn them all. Never let them see the light of day again.

 

 

This x1000, and hopefully today's heartbreaking loss will convince to put those hideous things in the dumpster, never to be seen again.  How is that so many teams got it so right in past decades and then look like complete garbage today?

 

I've always believed that in football, the pants should either match the helmet or be white, with very few exceptions. So, in the case of the Saints, the gold pants with matching helmet stripes is the way to go, regardless of black or white jersey.  I was going to say that if they must have black pants, they should at least put striping down the leg and wear contrasting socks.  But I deleted those keystrokes, because there is no redeeming them.

 

One final pet peeve about the Saints:  there are racing stripes down the middle of the helmet, but three-part stripes appear nowhere else on the uniform.  The helmet stripes work for the Cowboys, Packers, 49ers, etc, because the pants match. The Saints need follow suit by matching them up on the pants, and including some on the jerseys.  Either that, or remove them from the helmet.  

[Chewbacca]

6 hours ago, Jungle Jim said:

 

This x1000, and hopefully today's heartbreaking loss will convince to put those hideous things in the dumpster, never to be seen again.  How is that so many teams got it so right in past decades and then look like complete garbage today?

 

I've always believed that in football, the pants should either match the helmet or be white, with very few exceptions. So, in the case of the Saints, the gold pants with matching helmet stripes is the way to go, regardless of black or white jersey.  I was going to say that if they must have black pants, they should at least put striping down the leg and wear contrasting socks.  But I deleted those keystrokes, because there is no redeeming them.

 

One final pet peeve about the Saints:  there are racing stripes down the middle of the helmet, but three-part stripes appear nowhere else on the uniform.  The helmet stripes work for the Cowboys, Packers, 49ers, etc, because the pants match. The Saints need follow suit by matching them up on the pants, and including some on the jerseys.  Either that, or remove them from the helmet.  

I really do hope that the Saints will go back to wearing their retro jerseys full time. Their color rush jersey is downright gorgeous and I love the matching black throwback jersey as well.

[BlueSky]

Not sure if this is really a digression since it fits the topic. Anyway, some of you may have heard of the 1969 movie Number One in which Charlton Heston plays Saints QB Ron "Cat" Catlan. Cat is essentially that era's Brett Favre - the aging gunslinger who can't call it quits.

 

It's now available on DVD (and Amazon video too) and I recently bought a copy. There are the typical and forgettable melodramatic elements but the film is absolutely golden for uni geeks like us and anyone interested in the NFL of the late '60s, especially the Saints. It's no exaggeration to say I felt as if I had ridden a time machine back to Tulane Stadium at the time I attended my first game as a wide-eyed 8-year-old.

 

Before getting to some uniform-oriented screenshots, most of you have probably seen the Saints version of the iconic mid-'60s Dave Boss paintings/prints he did for each NFL team. I think they were created in '66 or early '67, at least the Saints edition because the uni on it is so different from what they ended up wearing. More on that in a moment. 

 

Here's a movie shot of the Saints' GM's office with the poster on the wall. Nothing unusual there (hey, I have one framed on my office wall too!). 

 

 

 

What caught my eye is that in a later scene at Catlan's house, it's clearly the same base poster but it's been modified to show the player with Catlan's number 17. Looking closely, they may even have changed tthe face time more resemble Heston. Sorry for the narrow shot, it was way at the edge of the movie frame.

 

 

 

While we're on the Boss poster, I decided to compare the poster to the uniforms that actually saw the field in 1967. I should have added that the helmet gold is different too. The face mask is especially surprising. As I mentioned, I have the poster and it definitely looks white (compare it to the sleeve stripes). Interesting since masks were almost universally gray back then.

 

 

There's a lot of stuff in the game shots that seems so quaint now, like this from Tulane Stadium where they haven't just painted the end zones in the opponent's colors - they even have Cowboys goalpost pads! It appears some scenes for the climactic game sequence were filmed at the Saints-Cowboys game on November 3, 1968. This shot looks to be from just after the Saints' only score that day, a FG (note the Saints cheerleader in mid-cartwheel so it wasn't a Cowboys score).

 

 

 

 

More to come...

 

[BlueSky]

There are a lot of locker room scenes too. The Roger Moore (Google him, young 'uns) doppelgänger in the jacket, making a cameo playing the third-string QB? That's Saints owner John Mecom, Jr., who was in his mid-20s when he became the team's first owner in 1966 (he was 29 in this photo). Note the player has the reversed pants stripes. The pants and helmet stripes are an ongoing and glaring inconsistency in the film.   

 

 

A very, very glaring inconsistency - crazy mix of helmet and pants stripes here:

 

 

 

Rams WR Cooper Kupp's grandfather is long-time Saints guard Jake Kupp (#50). He was a Pro Bowl O-lineman - at 250 lbs.  The awesome socks are a bonus.  ;-)

 

 

 

An average high school locker room in 2018 puts the bare-bones Tulane Stadium facilities to shame. I'd kill for that bin full of jerseys. 

 

 

 

Recognize the guy on the left?

 

 

 

How about now? Who knew Junior played for the Saints? 

 

 

 

I want the coach's jacket!

 

 

 

Cat has flashbacks to when the Saints won the Super Bowl (right - the same team that wouldn't have a winning season until almost 20 years after the film's release). Presumably that's supposed to be champagne they're covered with but it looks more like shaving cream in the film.

 

 

 

Here's DB Dave Whitsell, wearing the jersey my recently acquired replica represents, going teammate surfing in the wild and crazy SB winning locker room. Think on this a minute - Whitsell came to the Saints "washed up" at 31 in 1967. He was left unprotected by the Bears in the expansion draft. He must have been p***ed because he intercepted 10 passes, a team record that still stands, and remember they played a 14-game season back then. He became the Saints' first Pro Bowler that season. 

 

 

 

Wait, it is shaving cream. Look in the player's hand at lower right.

 

 

 

 

More to come.

 

 

[andrewharrington]

On 12/1/2017 at 11:22 AM, OnWis97 said:

That photo two posts above this one seems to have inconsistency between thick and thin numbers.  Unfortunately, there are no same digits to compare, but 46 and 42 (I think) seem to have thinner numbers than 31 and the guy in the jacket (X5).

 

EDIT: That seemed familiar...so I went back and saw it addressed in the first post of the thread.  So I'll add a couple of unpopular opinions...

 

1. Those black helmets are terrific. I wish they'd stuck with them.

 

2. I don't think this is the best the saints have looked...particularly with some of the quirks with number font and helmet stripes (white-only, or too-wide white).  I'd go with something like the mid-1990s: http://www.gridiron-uniforms.com/GUD/images/1996_NewOrleans.png?6181.

 

The Saints are one of a very few teams (the Lions comes to mind) for whom I did not like the uniforms when I was a kid and I love them now.  Not really sure why.  With both the Saints and Lions, they were just "blah" to me in the 1980s.  Maybe i liked a flashier helmet logo or had not developed the appreciation I now have for the basic "three-stripe" helmet stripe pattern (which I wish the Lions had brought back), whatever the case, the Saints, without changing the essence of their identity slowly crept up the list for me.  The helmet logo is a home run (as is the full design with the stripes; though it would be better if it were black). and the colors are great.  Similarly, Bubbles the Lion is great and Honolulu blue and silver is a terrific combo.  I don't tend to change too much, even going back to childhood, so maybe it's because those were not very good teams back in the 1980s (though I loved the Bucco Bruce Bucs, so who knows...).

 

On 1/15/2018 at 12:16 AM, Jungle Jim said:

 

This x1000, and hopefully today's heartbreaking loss will convince to put those hideous things in the dumpster, never to be seen again.  How is that so many teams got it so right in past decades and then look like complete garbage today?

 

I've always believed that in football, the pants should either match the helmet or be white, with very few exceptions. So, in the case of the Saints, the gold pants with matching helmet stripes is the way to go, regardless of black or white jersey.  I was going to say that if they must have black pants, they should at least put striping down the leg and wear contrasting socks.  But I deleted those keystrokes, because there is no redeeming them.

 

One final pet peeve about the Saints:  there are racing stripes down the middle of the helmet, but three-part stripes appear nowhere else on the uniform.  The helmet stripes work for the Cowboys, Packers, 49ers, etc, because the pants match. The Saints need follow suit by matching them up on the pants, and including some on the jerseys.  Either that, or remove them from the helmet.  

 

I think the Saints could look fine coordinating their stripes a bit better, but I hope it’s not to the one they use on the helmet. That style of stripe is just... default in the NFL, and there are already too many teams that use it. I was actually quite glad the Lions did something different. New Orleans is a unique, creative city with so much opportunity for a signature design element. I even like the solid black or solid white stripes that show up in that poster or in early photos, but they have such a simple uniform that I think they could pull off a stripe with a heavier personality. Just give me old gold and I’ll be happy.

[BlueSky]

More screenshots from the movie. These are from practices. 

 

The really wide white number outlines on the black jerseys.

 

 

 

Tom Barrington on a sweep, which I included because...

 

 

 

...it looks almost exactly like this shot from a real 1969 practice scrimmage with the Chargers (black helmets make it '69):

 

 

 

The Saints' rather Spartan facilities of that time.

 

 

 

Nice contrast of another inconsistency, the sleeve stripes on the black (equal width) and white (black is slightly narrower than gold) jerseys.

 

 

 

Coach in awesome team jacket addressing the "team," oddly only about 30 guys. I guess extras and more unis weren't in the budget. No Saints wore #s 3 or 41 until 1971, so those jerseys may have been made for the movie. There may be other numbers like that but those two jumped out at me.

 

 

Next up will be the best of the bunch - the game shots.

[BlueSky]

Okay, on to the big game sequence. In the movie, it's the season opener vs. Dallas at Tulane Stadium. In reality, some of the shots are from the November 3, 1968 game against the Cowboys while others are staged. Turns out there's a very obvious way to tell between the two - see if you can spot it.

 

Starting with some lagniappe for any readers from New Orleans - a couple of the bus cruising down Airline Highway on the way to the stadium, one with a Coke billboard that actually looks more mid-'70s to me than 1969:

 

 

 

I drove Airline Highway and passed that Town & Country sign a million times going to/from work at the airport.

 

 

A few of the players walking out for warmups:

 

 

 

More on these hedges in a minute. 

 

 

Pregame pageantry:

 

 

 

Something nobody does anymore - the "cue guy" signaling the rest of the kickoff team when to start their sprints:

 

 

I believe that's Gene Howard, who wore #29, downing the kick. John Gilliam, #42, did this the first time the Saints ever touched the ball in a regular season game. Note mismatched pants stripes (again) and the nearby hedges, notorious for swallowing many a receiver whose efforts carried them out of the end zone.

 

 

 

Real players:

 

 

 

Fake players:

 

 

 

More later...