overlooked 50th anniversary

[timmy b]

well as one of those whose love of uniform history is shared by a few others out there....

this season is the 50th anniversary of the introduction of numerals on the sleeves or shoulders on the football jersey. also - and probably more commonly known - as "tv numbers", 8 of the 12 nfl teams sported them in 1956. the teams were the colts, bears, lions, packers, rams, giants, eagles and steelers. it was also in 1956 that cbs began televising in earnest nfl regular season games. as teams were still sporting dark jerseys when playing each other (that would change in 1957), the addition of numerals on the sleeves would make for easier identification of players for the fans viewing the game on the philco console at home.

the other four teams would eventually follow suit; the redskins in 57, the 49ers during 1958, the browns (switching from numbers on the sides of their helmet to the sleeves in 1961) and the cardinals in 1962. ironically, the steelers in 1957 would take them off the sleeves and stick the numbers on the sides of their yellow helmets (a la the browns) and would keep them on the helmets until 1962, when they would be affixed back on the jersey sleeves.

in the afl, all the teams would wear sleeve numerals, except for a year in 1967, the chargers would remove them. when the bengals joined the afl in 1968, old-liner paul brown refused to place numbers on his team's shoulders or sleeves, holding out until 1980.

a month or so after the 1956 nfl season, the detroit red wings would pick up on the football idea and become the first hockey team to sport tv numerals, in fact redesigning their white jerseys to focus attention to the nifty new numbers. soon afterwards the other five teams would follow suit, with the black hawks wearing them in 57-58, canadiens, the rangers and bruins sporting them in the 58-59 season with the last holdout being the toronto maple leafs, who would finally attach nubers to their sleeves starting with the 1962 stanley cup playoffs. for a spell the st. louis blues would keep them off of their white sweaters in the late 60's thru the early 70's.

all hail the tv numbers' 50th anniversary!!

timmy b

[DGivens87]

I'm gonna comment on this because it is something that is important to modern football unis. The advent of the NFL on TV necessitated a uni code change, one in which I don't believe has been done since.

Good ol' TV numbers...happy 50th!!!

[Discrim]

heh, then happy anniversary, sleeve number!