GQ Names the Twenty Best and Five Worst Pro Sports

[Brick]

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories....02284800&EDATE=

Green Bay Packers, St. Louis Cardinals, San Diego Chargers Top Best-Dressed

List; Denver Broncos, Tampa Bay Devil Rays Named Worst-Dressed

NEW YORK, Oct. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- In the November 2004 issue of GQ, writer

Paul Lukas names a definitive list of the twenty greatest-and five worst-

sports uniforms of all time. Lukas's best-ever picks from the history of major

pro sports include the Green Bay Packers, St. Louis Cardinals, San Diego

Chargers, Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Yankees, Montreal Canadiens, San

Francisco Warriors, St. Louis Rams, Houston Colt .45's, Dallas Cowboys,

Indiana Pacers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Kansas City Chiefs, New York Mets, Chicago

Blackhawks, Jacksonville Jaguars, Chicago Cubs, New York Nets, Boston Red Sox,

and Oakland A's. The best-dressed list:

Green Bay Packers (1961 - 1979): Forest green and mustard yellow-the

perfect autumnal color palette for a fall sport. Toss in the nicely stylized

"G" on the helmet and you've got the sports world's equivalent of the Platonic

(or at least Cheeseheadian) ideal.

St. Louis Cardinals (1962 - 1970 and 1992 - present): Yankees pinstripes

get all the attention from old-schoolers, but the Cards' birds-on-the-bat

insignia, which debuted in 1922, is every bit as classic-and more playful.

San Diego Chargers (1967 - 1971): Generally speaking, men should never

wear pastels, but we'll make an exception for San Diego's sorely missed powder

blue jerseys. Is there any doubt that the team would win three more games a

year if they brought back this design?

Pittsburgh Penguins (1977 - 1980): There are certain things that will

always be funny: a man slipping on a banana peel; a pie in the face; and a

penguin on ice skates. We liked this one best when it contained blue.

New York Yankees (1936 - present): The Bronx Bombers didn't invent

pinstripes (teams were wearing them long before the Yankees even existed), but

no other team has created so much visual resonance from such an innocuous

design. Simple, timeless.

Montreal Canadiens (1958 - present): As iconic in Canada as Yankee

pinstripes are here. Some say the little "H" inside the chest logo stands for

"habs" (as in les habitants-native French-Canadians); actually it stands for

"hockey." Either way, c'est magnifique.

San Francisco Warriors (1966 - 1971): Gotta love a team that puts "the

city" on its jerseys. "Yeah, that's right it's the city. You got a problem

with that?" Bonus points for putting the rear uni numbers inside a little

trolley-car illustration.

St. Louis Rams (2000 - present): The first NFL team to wear a helmet

design (halfback Fred Gherke, a former art student, painted horns on the lids

in 1948). Neatly straddles the line between modern and traditional, thanks to

a 2000 update.

Houston Colt .45's (1962 - 1964): Oh, for the days when something as

politically incorrect as a smoking pistol could be depicted on a baseball

uniform. Imagine the merchandising and promotional possibilities! Alas, the

team changed its name to the Astros after only three seasons.

Dallas Cowboys (1966 - present): It's tempting to penalize the Cowboys for

coach Bill Parcel's Humpty Dumpty-esque physique, but it's hard to argue with

the elemental simplicity of the helmet star and the blue/silver color scheme.

Indiana Pacers (1971 - 1974): Basketball players are tall. So any non-

vertical element, even if it's just a diagonal stripe coming across the

shoulder, is a good idea. Why don't more NBA teams do this?

Pittsburgh Pirates (1957 - 1961): The best trend in baseball attire these

days? The return of the vest, of course. The Pirates weren't the first vested

team (that'd be the 1940 Cubs), but they brought the sleeveless look into the

mainstream with their 1960 World Series championship.

Kansas City Chiefs (1969 - 1988 and 2000 - present): If we wear red pants,

we look like total clowns, but when the Chiefs do it, they look swank and

badass all at once. Don't try this at home.

New York Mets (1965 - 1977 and 1995 - 1998): A sharp-looking design with a

history lesson thrown in at no extra charge, the Amazin's original uni took

its colors from New York's two previous National League teams-blue from the

Dodgers, orange from the Giants.

Chicago Blackhawks (1964 - present): Okay, so if Native Americans played

hockey, they probably wouldn't put white people on their jerseys. But if they

did, let's hope their design would be as handsome as this one, with its

multihued headdress, feathers, and cool tomahawk shoulder patches.

Jacksonville Jaguars (1995 - present): Yeah, we know-teal sucks. But this

is more of a turquoise, and the key is in the details: the gold trim, the

subtly modern number font, the slick helmet logo. Twenty years from now, it'll

be a classic.

Chicago Cubs (1990 - 1996): If your team's going to be cursed, they may as

well look good. The primary colors look particularly snappy during day games

at Wrigley, and who doesn't love that bear sleeve patch?

New York Nets (1972 - 1976): In the old ABA, which used a red-white-and-

blue basketball, how come the Nets were the only team smart enough to wear a

stars-and stripes uniform?

Boston Red Sox (1936 - 1967 and 1979 - 2002): If your team's going to be

cursed, they may as-eh, just see the Chicago Cubs.

Oakland A's (1972 - 1980): Baseball teams wear white at home and gray on

the road-or at least they did until Charlie Finley bought the A's and dressed

them in green and gold.

Lukas's five worst-dressed include:

Denver Broncos (1960 - 1961): How bad were Denver's inaugural brown-and-

mustard uniforms, with their infamous vertically striped socks? So bad that

when the new uniform arrived in 1962, the players torched the old socks in a

bonfire.

Tampa Bay Devil Rays (1998 - 2000): The idea, however misguided, was that

the Rays' multicolored jersey logo reflected the colors of the sea. Apparently

nobody noticed that it looked like a really bad 1970s airbrush painting. After

three years, it was mercifully retired.

Cincinnati Bengals (1981 - 2003): The basic concept of adorning a helmet

with stripes instead of a logo is a good idea. Stripes on the shoulders and

pants sound okay, too. So why is the result such an eyesore?

Houston Astros (1975 - 1986): This design is reportedly among the biggest

sellers on the throwback-jersey market, which just proves that popularity has

nothing to do with good taste.

"The 20 Greatest Sports Uniforms of All Time," appears in the November

2004 issue of GQ, on newsstands nationwide Tuesday, October 24, 2004. GQ is

the leading men's general-interest magazine and part of Conde Nast

Publications, Inc.

[Brick]

I don't know why but only four of the five worst-dressed are included.

[DEAD!]

Ah, yes the guy who make the Uni-watch articles

This list has it's mistakes.....

Cincinnati Bengals old jersey, one of the worst? Yet, the SF Warriors and Indiana Pacers 70's jerseys on of the best? That should have been the other way around.

And please don't get me started on the Chragers' powder blues.

BTW go to the GQ website, Lindsay Lohan's on the cover.

[B-Rich]

(channeling Homer Simpson): "ummm... Lindsay Lohan.."

Paul Lukas is okay, but this is a guy who has said that purple shouldn't be allowed as a sports color. Give me a break......

[JamesCraven]

Okay, the Bengals' current uniforms are WORSE than the ones that preceeded them.

Then again, why did they look like a punk rock band?

[Needschat]

I wonder why GQ did not include some of the lime green jerseys, like those from the Atlanta Hawks in the early 70s and the Orlando Thunder from the WLAF? And they did not include any soccer jerseys. If they had, I wonder where the 1978 Caribous of Colorado would have been? You remember those jerseys, the brown and biege ones..that had a leather fringe midrift???

[CubsFanBudMan]

I'm lost on the Cubs "1990-1996" listing. If I recall correctly, the team had three different road uniforms with three different patches and the home unis were in a state of transition as well, adding red trim, then removing it and adding it again, making them button down, adding names on the back, etc., etc. (And it incudes the "Cuba" era.) I like the choice, the years picked seems odd, though.