The 1972 Project - FCS: Northern Iowa Panthers

[colinturner95]

Just when I think I can get back in to a flow on this thread, I find myself swamped with other things.

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Football - Every once in a while, the random lists I use for these series give us a little gem. In this particular case, we get in back to back teams, the two teams that play in the "Oldest Rivalry in The South": William & Mary whom we just saw previously and now, the Richmond Spiders. Now the Spiders currently play in the CAA but will be moving to the Patriot League starting next season so I went ahead and used that as their conference since that's likely where they'll be when this is all said and done. Now to the actual design. I wasn't trying to rip off @NH4's design for Richmond, but when they're the only team in the NCAA to have the Spiders' nickname, the low-hanging fruit is hard to ignore. I almost flipped the helmets to navy being the primary, but white seems to have more recent relevance so white remained the primary helmet, with both keeping the Spider on the sides. Jerseys add a subtle spider web to the sleeve caps with the team logo on the sides. I didn't plan on sleeve caps being contrasting but when the web was on red, it just gave off too much Tobey Maguire Spider-Man to me (nothing wrong with that, just felt wrong for a sports team). Pants, I went back and forth on using the stripe the other sports will come to use but it didn't fit for me. So wordmarks on the side of the pant legs. 

 

Hockey - another club team getting the elevation, and unlike W&M, Richmond does not have serviceable club uniforms. Okay, they're not completely awful, but when you're forced to use an academic logo on a sports uniform, already losing points with me. So those uniforms skate away, and now we get something that resembles the Regina Pats, with some added spiders to the shoulders in the Nike corners of the shoulder yoke. I can't really pinpoint the why, but I liked a Rangers' style wordmark for the home and away so that's what they get. Like football's sleeves, contrasting shoulders on the away and alternate uniform. The alternate jersey resurrects the early 2000's spider logo, which I felt was the perfect alternate logo for the front of a jersey. The hem stripe changes slightly and is matched on the socks as well. 

 

Baseball - Ironically, the most traditional of the sports I do for all these teams is surprisingly the most modern. Baseball combines the spider sleeves with the stripe which was something I wanted to do on football but it felt like too much there, but somehow it feels like it works better on baseball. Slightly slanted versions of the wordmarks on the home/away tops. Alt jersey swaps for the forward facing spider. No crazy pants, just a couple belts options for one set of striped pants. Hats are either navy/red or tri-colored with the spider front and center. 

 

Basketball - Basketball in somewhat of a surprise remained possibly the most traditional in a sense. The tops really feature none of the spider effect. Classic style stripes around the rounded neck and arm holes. Arched versions of the wordmarks on the chests of the home and away. Alternate brings in the front spider to the chest, as a spiritual successor to the first time the Spiders tried a red jersey with the logo on the chest. Shorts have the stripes on the hem, and around the bottom. The spider design comes in here as I tried to do a Chicago Bulls style design on the sides of the shorts, with a much simpler stripe set up. Beyond that, a traditional wrap up to a fairly modern take. 

 

In other good news, the website has all the new teams (minus Richmond) updated! Mobile and tablet are still a ways out and I'm still working out some random kinks on the web version on some sizing and alignment issues (mostly on the FCS conference page)  but if you can look past those, you can start mixing and matching uniforms for the 24 teams already done! Since I need to update the links in my signature, you guys can check it out here >>> https://colinturner95.wixstudio.io/the1972project

 

C&C welcome!!! I keep saying it, but I should be able to get back into a roll on these

[colinturner95]

The MLB series is back on its feet, now its 72-FCS's turn:

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

Purple is truly a wonderful color. It would be nice if more sports teams in general would find away to utilize it. Luckily for me and us, Northern Iowa does a pretty good job already. 

 

Football - They've come a long way from their sleeve cap days but the Panthers still lacked something that was truly theirs. Panthers aren't necessarily a unique nickname but I was a big fan of their logo and I developed a pointed shape that took on their logo's shape and formed a nice sleeve hit out of it. By and large the helmets don't change too much. Satin shells in both colors, purple getting the full logo with the black alt getting just the Panther head. Gold and black facemasks add to the possibilities. The base of the jerseys stays pretty close to real life's, just with the new stripe on the sleeve. Pants echo the stripe, just coming up from the bottom of the pant leg. 

 

Hockey - UNI did have a ACHA D3 team, but their last post on social media came in 2015 and it seems as thought that ice has long been melted in Cedar Falls. But now they get a second chance. Rather than lead with the pointy stripe on the sleeves, I went with an adapted full weight version on the traditional spots and the pointed stripe on the front side yoke. It can also be found in its original form on the pants. Socks mirror the jerseys, as usual. The black alternate is something similar to a uniform I did in my Idaho high school hockey series, with the pointed stripe forming a shoulder length stripe. 

 

Baseball - In a similar story to hockey, varsity baseball was discontinued at UNI in 2009 but lived on as a club sport, but they also have gone somewhat silent on social media so they might also have fallen by the wayside. In this case however, the new uniforms adopt the new stripes but eschew the current wordmarks for some past inspiration. The home whites and road purples share a wordmark that combines the baseball team's old wordmark with the new stripes, and the black alternates bring back an old NI interlocking logo. And in another unique baseball team quirk, the stripe runs from the top down due to the potential for knee length pants being worn. 

 

Basketball - The only other current varsity sport at UNI, basketball finishes us off with some elegant but still modern uniforms. Solid color stripes compliment the side-worn Panther stripes on the jersey and shorts. The UNI wordmark can be found on the chest of the home and away uniforms, with the logo being used on the alternate tops. 

 

C&C welcome!