TIL... San Antonio Spurs in red, white and blue

[B-Rich]

All of my life, I've know the San Antonio Spurs uniform and colors were black, silver and white.  That was what they were back when I first became aware of them in 1976, when they merged into the NBA;  that's what I've seen them wear ever since (notwithstanding the 'fiesta' logo background in the 1990s).   I, of course, was fully aware that they had moved from Dallas when they were the Chaparrals since the ABA's founding. 

 

Then today online, I came across this photo of James Silas:

 

 

Which kind of piqued my interest.   A little Google research later, and I found these, as well:

 

Apparently, from what I can gather, these were ONLY worn in the 1973 preseason, before the classic Spurs logo was developed and the silver and black unis were available.   These unis are almost certainly holdovers from their red, white and blue gear as the Dallas Chaparrals (Chaps).  Note the "Spurs" and "San Antonio" appear to be cheap one-color iron-ons, not sewed-on lettering as it was in Dallas.

 

[sc49erfan15]

54 minutes ago, B-Rich said:

 

Note the "Spurs" and "San Antonio" appear to be cheap one-color iron-ons, not sewed-on lettering as it was in Dallas.

 

 

I was aware of this brief transitional color scheme, being a self-professed ABA fan (or as big of a "fan" as one can be of a league that ceased to exist 11 years before I was born).

 

Your point about the "cheap one-color iron-ons" is a good one, never really considered that - it's especially weird considering the Spurs seemingly reverted back to this "cheap" look almost a decade later.

 

Take a look at the following 3 jerseys and tell me which order you'd assume they were worn in:

 

   

 

Makes sense that those would be in order, right? The plain white "San Antonio" font on the first black jersey is clearly a holdover from the red one, right?

Wrong! The red jersey is from the 1973 preseason, as you said. Then the third "black-on-black" was worn from 1975(6?) until 1981-82, then back to the boring plain white font from 1982-83 until 1988-89!

 

It's like they discovered a stash of old jerseys in 1982 and decided they'd trot them back out. I feel like there's got to be a story here - or not? Things were weird in the early '80s NBA.

 

Bonus: here's David Robinson wearing the plain white script jersey, which he never wore in a game (unless there's another "old jerseys in the preseason" situation), as the "Spurs" wordmark was added to the front for the Admiral's rookie 1989-90 season:

[Old School Fool]

Ironically the Spurs court was red, white and blue for awhile in the 70s/80s.

 

 

[Ark]

The fiesta logo with the plain black uniforms is perfect for that team. They are like the Brooklyn Nets but good (or the Nets are like the San Antonio Spurs but bad)

[TheRealPepman]

@eibram, will those uniforms above  count for your NBA uniform database?

[MJWalker45]

On 10/9/2022 at 4:53 AM, Old School Fool said:

Ironically the Spurs court was red, white and blue for awhile in the 70s/80s.

 

 

That was the HemisFair Arena, prior to their move to the Alamodome, and they didn't have as much control over scheduling in that building that they did when they moved to Alamodome. I think part of the Convention Center is sitting where it used to be now after some recent additions and renovations.  This wasn't the last time they wouldn't use the Spurs colors on the court either. They may ahve just brought the court with them from Dallas, or that may just be the court that HemisFair already had when they moved. Interestingly enough, the Alamodome had two basketball courts. One for the Spurs, and another for TAPPS/UIL high school or college games, since they had different markigns for all three divisions at the time. 

Someone recreated this in NBA2K.

1986/1987 they finally had spurs colors in use on the floor. 

[B-Rich]

6 hours ago, MJWalker45 said:

That was the HemisFair Arena, prior to their move to the Alamodome,

 

Ah, yes, the HemisFair Arena.   Saw ONE Spurs game there in the spring of 1983, my freshman year of college during the one year I spent at Trinity University in San Antonio.   Playoff game against the Denver Nuggets (in their rainbow unis) that night;  very high scoring game-- the Nuggets under coach Doug Moe were known as a high scoring, no defense team.  Spurs were a good team that year with the George "Iceman" Gervin and Artis "A-Train" Gilmore; they won the Midwest Division and had the 2nd best record in the Western Conference (behind the Lakers). 

  

 

Went to the game with my roommate and his girlfriend;  afterwards we went to top of the Tower of the Americas. 

 

Damn, I'm old...

[MJWalker45]

2 minutes ago, B-Rich said:

 

Ah, yes, the HemisFair Arena.   Saw ONE Spurs game there in the spring of 1983, my freshman year of college during the one year I spent at Trinity University in San Antonio.   Playoff game against the Denver Nuggets (in their rainbow unis) that night;  very high scoring game-- the Nuggets under coach Doug Moe were known as a high scoring, no defense team.  Spurs were a good team that year with the Iceman George "Iceman" Gervin and Artis "A-Train" Gilmore; they won the Midwest Division and had the 2nd best record in the Western Conference (behind the Lakers). 

  

 

Went to the game with my roommate and his girlfriend;  afterwards we went to top of the Tower of the Americas. 

 

Damn, I'm old...

I've lived here 20+years and still haven't gone to the Tower of the aMericas, that either makes me a local or wannabe local. Hahahahaha!!!! Maybe I'll do that after the XFL season starts

[stumpygremlin]

On 10/9/2022 at 5:53 AM, Old School Fool said:

Ironically the Spurs court was red, white and blue for awhile in the 70s/80s.

 

With Denver's uniforms matching the colors of the court, it looks like this could be a Denver home game.

[Sec19Row53]

18 hours ago, stumpygremlin said:

With Denver's uniforms matching the colors of the court, it looks like this could be a Denver home game.

The ball was the home team