The Lost History of the NFL: A Throwback Concept Series

[MDGP]

In 2012, a young board member known as Lafarge ended a small NFL fauxback uniform series to take one a new, grand project. His vision? A series chronicling what the NFL might be like had all 32 teams existed since the 1930s. Consisting of hundreds of new designs, templates, and histories, the project would become the greatest concept thread in the history of the boards. Why do you not remember it, you ask? It was never finished and the idea lay abandoned for nearly a decade. However, in 2020, @mcrosby made a call into the ether for its return. And so, the Lost History of the NFL was reborn.

 

 

Before I get into the concepts themselves, the series consisted of several rules in order to keep the series manageable.

 

1. Each team has three uniforms, worn once against each division rival. The teams shall wear uniforms of the same era. No repeats.
2. All uniform designs must be plausible for their era.
3. Uniform selection is prioritized as follows: Throwbacks, amalgams (combining elements of multiple real throwbacks), and fauxbacks.
4. All designs must be from before the AFL-NFL Merger and have not been worn as a throwback in real life.
5. Teams shall wear at least one dark and one light jersey. A color jersey may suffice as a light jersey in a color vs. color matchup.
6. No one-helmet rule. Hey would you look at that, I took so much time off that the NFL itself decided to make this rule obsolete!

7. If a team existed in real life, they will be given a real impact player who wore that jersey. If the team did not yet exist, the number will represent the approximate year/era I am attempting to replicate.

 

Like any good NFL rule, the above rules shall be enforced inconsistently and at my own discretion.

 

The first division shall be posted momentarily in the next post.

 

UPDATE: Hi there, if you're new to this thread and wondering why people have been talking about using only the number 11, that's because I initially used only the number 11 for each jersey for no reason and agree in hindsight that it was stupid, so as commissioner of this thread I suspended myself indefinitely (reduced to 8 games by an arbitrator) and then went back and changed all that, and added rule #7 above.

[MDGP]

We begin our journey in the oldest division in the national football league, the NFC NORTH.

 

Lions: This throws back to an oddity from the Lions’ days as the Portsmouth Spartans. Though records of the 1931 Spartans are scarce, pictures from their road matchup against the Giants show the team wearing several different designs, one of which, became the concept above. Most notably, the uniform featured a quite ridiculous striped design that converts well into a shoulder yoke for a modern template. Modeled by Hall of Famer and coach in pretty much every pro league you could imagine, Dutch Clark.

 

Packers: We’re all aware of the Packers’ blue circle throwback from the early 2010s, and history generally remembers those as the correct uniforms. However, a colorized picture from a Milwaukee newspaper exists, showing the team in yellow, a source that gridiron-uniforms lists as correct. Whether it’s correct or not, this uniform felt like a more interesting option than any of the other yellow Packers jersey of the era and serves as a fun reference to Green Bay’s sheer inability to not screw up a throwback uniform. (Now featuring a more era accurate number font, thank you packerfan21396) Modeled by Johnny Blood McNally, who is listed as wearing 24 for the Packers, but his individual picture had him wearing 27, so that's what you're getting because weird historical quirks are fun.

 

 

Bears: A simple throwback to their oft-used dark uniform during the 1937 season. This was the only time the Bears have ever worn an Orange-Blue-Orange helmet-jersey-pants combination. Modeled by hall of famer Dan Fortmann.

 

Vikings: This design is a play on the Vikings’ color scheme and the origins of real life Vikings. As any child would know, the Vikings primary color, Purple, is created by combining red and blue, making the Vikings’ color scheme Red+Blue, Yellow, and White. Likely not coincidentally, the Scandinavian Nations, from which real life Vikings originated, each feature a national flag consisting of a nordic cross featuring some combination of red, blue, yellow, and/or white. Those flags are represented both by the color scheme of the uniform, but also by the cross-paneled leather helmet design.

 

Tomorrow, we head down south, to the league's youngest division!

[mcrosby]

Can you link the original thread? 

 

[MDGP]

3 minutes ago, mcrosby said:

Can you link the original thread? 

 

I knew I'd forgotten something. Linked in the original post, and also right here.

 

 

[packerfan21396]

Good start, love me a late 20's circle Packers.  When it comes to throwbacks, you could change the throwback to modern standards or change the modern template to throwback standard.  Personally, I prefer the latter, which would mean that the circle in the front is 2010 massive rather than the 1929 size.  But I'm also okay with that circle size, but my only criticism then would be to slap on some boxtop 1's like you did for the Bears.  The Packers had the quintessential 20's number font that I wish could be reproduced for the modern-day throwbacks, but the Packers refuse and slap on their normal block instead.

[MDGP]

2 minutes ago, packerfan21396 said:

Good start, love me a late 20's circle Packers.  When it comes to throwbacks, you could change the throwback to modern standards or change the modern template to throwback standard. Personally, I prefer the latter, which would mean that the circle in the front is 2010 massive rather than the 1929 size.  But I'm also okay with that circle size, but my only criticism then would be to slap on some boxtop 1's like you did for the Bears.  The Packers had the quintessential 20's number font that I wish could be reproduced for the modern-day throwbacks, but the Packers refuse and slap on their normal block instead.

 

I actually didn't clarify that in the rules, because these are meant to be modern throwbacks, current uniform rules, particularly with numbers size will apply here.

 

In regards to the number font for the Packers, that's a good call. I think I looked primarily at the throwbacks when doing this design, which probably should've been a red flag. I'll get that fixed up for you.

[jbird669]

Great start!

[MDGP]

While the NFC North designs were almost entirely historical throwbacks of the 1930s, the AFC South teams has allowed (and in two cases, required) entirely new designs for each team and providing a bit more creative freedom as I re-imagine the NFL's youngest division as 1920s squads.

 

 

Jaguars: During the 1920s and 30s several teams wore two diamonds on their chest and Jacksonville felt like the perfect franchise to incorporate that design. Downtown is home to the James Weldon Johnson Park, which has a diamond shaped fountain at its center. The use of a black diamond was informed by the Jaguars actual use of the color as well as the park's history, as it has been an historically popular location for civil rights rallies. Johnson himself, a Jacksonville native and leader of the NAACP, should be known to NFL fans as the writer of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" also known as the black national anthem, which was played prior to all Week 1 games and the Super Bowl this past season. A white number on the black diamond was chosen for legibility purposes, as many uniforms in the past did not include front numbers.

 

Titans: Where the Jaguars uniform design is a reflection of history, this Titans design is the exact opposite. Here, I decided to completely ignore the existence of the Oilers and pretend that the Titans existed. A large part of this project was examining ways to incorporate outdated 20s designs to work on a modern template. Ultimately, taking a cue from northwestern, I determined that high contrast between the front number and the stripes was the way yo go, with the jersey color acting as an outline to increase legibility. The vertical stripes mimic the common style of the era. Here, both stripes run perpendicular to the horizontal chest stripes, each creating the letter T. The helmet is based on the design of helmets that featured colored front patches with a tail (The most famous variation being the Princeton/Michigan design). The shape itself is a reference to the shape of Titans' current T logo. While brown pants were far and away the most popular choice in the era, some teams, most notably the Packers chose for Navy blue, so navy blue makes its appearance here to round out the set.

 

 

Colts: In their first ever game in 1953, the third (and current) iteration of the Baltimore Colts wore a rather bizarre helmet design that feature two stripes crossing at the top of the helmet. It was the only game they wore that design before going to a traditional helmet stripe, but that design reminded me of the old panel leather helmets, and seemed like something an identity could be built around. This design is fully designed around the idea of crossed stripes. Most notably, the shoulder stripes, which are based upon the design of the Indianapolis flag, a symmetric cross meeting a circle with a star inside. While the city flag includes red, I decided to keep this design solely in Colts colors. This shoulder design combines two commonly used elements from the 20s, the shoulder stripe, and the shoulder logo.

 

Texans: Since the Texans have practically no actual uniform history, I decided to enact a change that I've wanted to see the actual team make for years, promotion of red to primary status. During the 1920s, most uniforms consisted of only two colors, so I wanted to incorporate that here. Initially, the uniform featured red strips on the front that formed an H, but that created legibility issues with the numbers. Therefore, I transformed the red H into a sublimated design on the white jersey and changed the numbers to red, with the sleeves featuring single thick red stripes. The helmet takes on a minimalist rendition of a common painted leather helmet style, with the top painted white featuring similar sublimated strips, and the bottom painted red.

[MDGP]

Today we head to the NFL's winningest division, the NFC East

 

 

Eagles: This matchup takes us to the mid to late-60s at the beginning of the Eagles “lots of stripes era.” Though not as wild as the striping on the 1970s uniforms, these uniforms feature their own unique design, featuring both shoulder and sleeve stripes. This became a bit of a challenge, as current sleeve lengths required the stripes to be condensed, creating a sort of frame around the numbers. Ultimately, I think it works since the actual design would be impossible on most jersey cuts. Here's a disappointing fact, we missed out on the Double Jurgensen by a mere two years, so instead you get to see what Bob Brown's jersey looked like.

 

Washington: Due to the recent name change of the Washington Football Team I felt that bringing back imagery of the offensive name would undermine the name change, so I decided to alter the ideas behind the imagery into a design that fits the new name. In the 1960s WFT had two different helmet designs, a feather that acted as a helmet stripe, and an arrowhead similar to that of Florida State. While examining these design, inspiration struck. I took the long stripe element of the feather and combined it with the point and the color scheme of the arrowhead, creating a helmet stripe representing the Washington Monument. The rest of the uniform remains unchanged from the original design. Modeled by the third best quarterback your grandpa ever saw back when football was truly great, Sonny Jurgensen.

 

 

Giants: The chest stripe design has long been popular for concept artists and here I decided to bring it back. While this version was the lesser worn of the chest stripe designs of the 1930s, legibility concerns led me to pick the version without any white on the chest. Modeled by New York Yankees but not those New York Yankees legend Ray Flaherty.

 

Cowboys: Originally this was designed to feature a large star centered on the chest. However, the shape did not work with numbers.To deal with this, I decided to make the star smaller and placed it on the upper left chest, in the same position as the Steelers, Jaguars (former) Jets’ (former) patches. This obviously mimics the imagery of a sheriff’s badge, which has regularly been associated with cowboy culture for decades. The sleeves and socks feature multiple thicker stripes as was popular in the era. Finally, while drawing wing designs on the helmet of another team, I realized that when straightened, the lines and points form the top of a star. 

[ramsjetsthunder]

I like the sleeve design for the colts, but not sure if it's 30's enough.

[MDGP]

Next up: The AFC West, the only division made up entirely of original AFL teams.

 

 

Chiefs: Kansas City has one of the most consistent uniform histories in the NFL, having made only two or three major changes in their 61 years of existence. Because of this, I wanted to create a design that was drastically different from any of their actual uniform designs. To do this, I decided to once again travel to the 1920s and feature a design inspired by old school leather strips. The strips on this jersey are designed to emulate the heart/fountain symbol on the Kansas City flag, extending from the waist before splitting and then dropping back down on the sleeves.

 

Raiders: This is a design where I took some historic liberties. Nobody in NFL history has worn diagonal sashes, however, the phenomenon of diagonal striping isn't that uncommon. Many designs featured upside-down chevrons and others had designs creating an upward facing chevron. I decided to combine the two ideas to create an X-shaped design inspired by the crossed swords on the raiders logo. The helmet features a front panel helmet design inspired by the famous Las Vegas sign.

 

 

Broncos: The Broncos orange crush uniforms are iconic, and I wanted to make a design based around their design but an earlier era. Before the packers used it in 1960, the color-white-color stripe design was actually very uncommon, so I decided to make the design with the traditional three stripe design and blue socks with orange stripes. The helmet design is a front panel based on the mountains from the Denver Flag.

 

Chargers: Though the color-white-color stripe design wasn't common, it was used briefly in the late 40s by the Boston Yanks. This design is built around creating an earlier version of the Fouts era design, featuring a blue-yellow-blue sleeve stripe. This design, like many chargers designs is built around the lightning bolt design. Here, the stripes are inspired by Dartmouth's unique helmets, and combine that stripe design with a lightning bolt design.

 

 

[Htown1141]

One thing I wish I could get a better read on is the number font for a lot of these teams. I think one of the coolest things about early football uniforms was a lack of standardization in both size and shape, and only showing 11's doesn't allow for that, if that makes sense. Maybe using a famous player number (20, 22, 7, 81 for the lions, 15, 14, 36, 92, 4, 12 for the packers, etc.)

 

For the Texans specifically, I think a darker red or red/orange would look great, and the helmet design feels reminiscent of the Astrodome, actually. Maybe making it a slightly more overt reference (with like a circle at the top or something) might make it feel more connected to the city the way that others are. I also don't know about the sublimated H, I think something you could do that could keep the H in the design is make the vertical bars of the H into shoulder stripes, while the crossbar of the H becomes a stripe similar to Indianapolis' on the shoulders.

 

I love this series tho, and will probably come back to comment more about some other teams in the future. Kickass stuff, fr

[jbird669]

The Broncos look is on point!

[MDGP]

So it turns out I kinda burned myself out with this awhile back and changing all the numbers around was the last thing I wanted to do, but it appears that after a brief break of... 18 months (yikes), I'm officially ready to continue this journey!

 

We're crossing leagues again and heading back down south to take a look at the NFC South.

 

 

Falcons: So yeah, you've probably noticed that there are no actual real life analogues for either of the teams in this matchup. I basically decided to make my own version of City jerseys from the various other leagues that could also serve as a reference to 1920s uniforms. This falcons jersey depicts a stylized Falcon rising from the flames below, a reference to the mythical phoenix that represents Atlanta's rebirth after being burned to the ground during the civil war. This imagery is depicted in a manner to also emulate the popular but utterly useless leather strips found on many uniforms of the 1920s. Originally the jersey was to be red/black/brown, but I just couldn't resist going all in on the peach (I legitimately surprised myself with how much I like this color scheme).

 

Buccaneers: When I say the word Gasparilla, you might think of the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl, the greatest college bowl game ever held. But to citizens of the Tampa area, Gasparilla is a festival celebrating the fictional invasion of the city by the apocryphal pirate José Gaspar and his crew. Each year the Jose Gasparilla, a black and white striped ship adorned with hundreds of colorful flags, sails into the bay, "capturing" the city. These jerseys depict the ship, with a black and white base adorned with a series of colorful stripes on the shoulders and socks. As noted earlier, there really isn't a contemporary analogue to this (but I guess you could say it's like those Hawaii jerseys from a completely different era.)

 

 

Panthers: While the previous divisions all stayed within the same general era, we're getting a pretty big split this time, moving to the turn of the 1960s. In this concept the Panthers are depicted wearing a combination of less popular styles of the early 60s. On the jerseys, the UCLA stripes (UCLA hadn't added the gold center stripe yet) were never truly popular in the NFL, having been worn by a few teams, but never gaining high level traction like the Northwestern Stripe. By the 1960s, the 49ers and Colts were the only teams wearing the style. Meanwhile, block numbers were (unsurprisingly) king with only the bears opting for a curved number style. These jerseys take inspiration from that font, but also include a serif at the top of the 1, which was still a style that some teams used. Finally, while most teams had adopted logos by this point, not every team had jumped on that train, and I depicted that here. And what's that on the shoulders? Is that a pointless, easily fixable inconsistency between the sleeve numbers and the front/back numbers? You're absolutely right! Good ol' 60s!

 

Saints: I decided to give New Orleans a look that would actually make them look good in all white for once. Like the Panthers, this jersey combines several elements from different teams to make a perfectly plausible, but entirely unique jersey. The Bears lend their triple stripe on the sleeves, while the Giants provide their triple stripe pants. The socks are inspired by the Niners and Bears, but with a multicolor twist that teams hadn't adopted quite yet. And finally, the Browns (and sometimes the Steelers) provide the helmet with a mismatched number font and helmet stripe that teams of the era just couldn't figure out how to match with the jersey stripes. (Seriously, if this site existed in 1959 some of you would lose your minds watching every single game).

[Discrim]

1 hour ago, MDGP said:

(Seriously, if this site existed in 1959 some of you would lose your minds watching every single game).

Probably   Hell, I got an uncle who hates the Lions' throwbacks many of us love.

[GrayJ12]

I really love the Bucs look and the backstory behind it. I have never heard that story before. I feel like adding the old Jolly Rodger onto the helmet might help it look more like a pirate ship, IMO. The pattern on Atlanta's jersey reminds me of the pattern on the old Bears jersey (that they brought back in 1994). Really good stuff here!

[MDGP]

I am not letting this series die, damnit! Thanks to lessons learned doing my college hockey redesign series, I've actually made sure that got everything fully prepped and it's just about posting the actual designs, so this time we're actually getting it done!

 

Today we're moving back up to the AFC North for two wildly different eras of design.

 

 

Bengals: Everyone definitely loved and didn't despise those 1930s striped Steelers throwbacks (to be fair I genuinely loved them) so naturally everyone will want to see the Bengals do a similar thing. The Steelers, however, were not the first team to use hoops on their jerseys, as they were somewhat widespread during the 1920s as well. The concept is simple, tigers have black and orange stripes, so the jersey is entirely black and orange stripes. Unlike the Steelers numbers, there's enough contrast for white numbers with black outlines.

 

Browns: The Browns jersey takes its inspiration from several designs from the 1920s. The chest features a triangle, a nod to the Dayton Triangles who featured the shape on their chests, as well as a nod to the rock and roll hall of fame, famous for its pyramid shape and located right next door to Cleveland Browns Stadium. The sleeves take inspiration from the Cardinals sleeve stripes and logo from the era. This also features an homage to the famous <=B=> logo by depicting the C on the sleeves as a vertical football with the two stripes running through it. Finally, the jersey includes plain brown pants inspired by the darker leather pants color that some teams wore at the time.

 

 

Ravens: The Ravens take on a traditional 1960s NFL look featuring a purple helmet and jersey with white pants. I initially thought of black for the helmet, but in my research I discovered that only one team in the NFL or AFL wore a helmet that could be considered darker than the team's dark jersey during that era, the Denver Broncos. And even then it's debatable whether that color blue can be considered darker. Therefore, the purple helmet was used. The helmet features a logo inspired by the Ravens' original shield shape, but flipped sideways to form a B reminiscent of the Packers' iconic G logo. The jersey and socks feature a traditional triple stripe, and the pants have a single black stripe in honor of the Ravens' actual first jersey featuring a single white stripe on the pants. This stripe is somewhat anachronistic, as almost every team by this point had triple stripes on the pants, but Washington did have a single stripe at the time, so it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility.

 

Steelers: The Steelers actually existed, so they get their real road jersey from 1963-1965. There's not much to say about these jerseys, the most notable feature being the contrasting yellow sleeves with a black northwestern stripe. This was also during the brief period in which the Steelers did not wear yellow pants. As with the other real throwbacks, this jersey is modeled by Hall of Fame full back John Henry Johnson.

[MDGP]

Lots of real throwbacks today in the NFC West.

 

49ers: You know the famous 49ers throwback that the team wore in Super Bowl XXIX and recently brought back? It, like many of the throwbacks from the NFL's 75th anniversary, is inaccurate due to the league not changing teams' primary helmets. In actuality, the team wore red helmets with a silver stripe. Honestly, it's amazing the Niners ever wore this as a throwback. The original jerseys were worn only during the 1955 season in which the Niners went 4-8 and finished 5th in the NFL West. The jersey is modeled here by Hall of Fame QB Y.A. Tittle.

 

Rams: The Rams are synonymous with shoulder stripes, having worn at least one jersey with them every season since 1962. These are the jerseys that started it all. Worn for only two seasons before the Rams' experiment with blue and white, they feature blue-yellow-blue UCLA stripes with matching stripes on white pants. This looks is incredibly underrated and would still make a fantastic look for the team today. The jersey is modeled by The Secretary of Defense, Deacon Jones.

 

 

Cardinals: The Arizona Cardinals are the NFL's oldest franchise and one of two charter members that still exist, so naturally they're going to feature jerseys from the earliest days of the league. The jersey for this matchup is based on the team's second ever uniform paired with their socks from the version of the jersey worn in 1927. This jersey featured three large cream stripes on the sleeves and a similar striping patter on the socks, with an added 4th stripe. The original jersey also featured the team's wishbone C logo on the sleeve cuff. Due to constraints of modern templates, this small feature has been removed. Paddy Driscoll, the NFL's original triple threat, models this jersey.

 

Seahawks: Our only concept jersey of the day has the Seahawks in a double blue color scheme inspired by the team's 2000s jerseys. Thin stripes on both the chest and sleeves were pretty common during the earliest days of the league, so I placed 6 on the chest and 3 on each sleeve as an homage to Seattle's 12th man. Half of these stripes are Navy blue while the other half are steel blue, inspired by the Frankford Yellow Jackets' asymmetrical stripes worn during the 1926 and 1927 seasons. Finally, while a vest majority of teams during the era wore naturally colored leather helmets and pants, several teams wore dyed gear including the Green Bay Packers, who wore similar blue color pants in 1927 and 1928.

[MDGP]

Back to the AFC East and through our first cycle of the league!

 

 

Dolphins: The early 1930s marked the tail end and eventual death of the leather patches on football jerseys. For this jersey Miami uses the chevron design previously used by the Steelers and Bears. However, this uses only two vertical bars, creating an M on the chest. The helmet continues my altering of the traditional helmet wing style, depicting a sunburst similar to the one that has graced the Dolphins' logo since their inception.

 

Bills: You know the Bills' terrible 2000s uniforms? As it turns out, there's an actual historical equivalent of these jerseys worn by the New York Giants. Everything from those 2000s jerseys is here, multiple blues, a shoulder yoke, a red side panel that doesn't match the pants. The only real difference is the helmet, which takes on the red streak from the team's logo as an extended front helmet wing.

 

 

Patriots: The Patriots design is inspired by the famous New England flag that has been flown since before the revolution. To depict this, the jersey is depicted in red monochrome with contrasting white sleeves. The helmet features a design not inspired by the national football league, but rather the American Football League of the 1936-37 seasons (it took 4 tries to create an AFL that actually worked). The Boston Shamrocks and the Brooklyn/Rochester Tigers both wore a small logo on the front of the helmet within a contrasting helmet wing. Here, I depicted the green pine tree as seen on the New England flag.

 

Jets: The Jets whole concept depicts a prior history in which the New York Titans wore green prior to their blue and gold jerseys. These feature a pretty simple 1930s jersey, with a simple white jersey with contrasting shoulder yokes and butt stripes with barber poll socks. The helmet is anacronysm depicting a double helmet stripe inspired by the Dartmouth Big Green's iconic helmet, which itself would not be worn until 1964. As I noted before, I reserve the right to ignore the rules at my discretion (I believe I only did that for the Jets).

[fortunat1]

So glad that I found this series. I love all of the jerseys so far, as well as the idea behind it all. I always appreciated the usage of shapes and patterns in place of logos on football uniforms, as well as old school brown pants, so this thread has quickly become a favorite of mine.

 

The Dolphins, Seahawks, and Ravens stick out as favorites so far. I look forward to seeing how you continue the series, as you've been able to do so much with vintage/traditional designs.