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Marquette Basketball 1970's/80's


illwauk

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All this talk about old school college hoops unis made me realize that despite having grown up watching them, I have no idea what Marquette wore between the Al McGuire and Dwayne Wade eras. When I did a google, I found this page:

http://wiki.muscoop.com/doku.php/the_marqu...y_project/start

All I can say is, WOW... how ahead of their time are some of these? Using baby blue, navy blue and yellow together back in 1974? 3 decades before it became the flavor of the week in the NBA. And the 1981 jersey would be considered trendy TODAY even though it?s 27 years old. Unfortunately, I either wasn?t around or am too young to remember most of these. Matter of fact, seeing the 1993 jerseys kind of jogged my memory since now I seem to remember them having used those jerseys (or at least similar ones) since at least the late 80?s.

I?ve been trying to see if I can find pics of some of these in action with no luck (there?s next to no pics of anyone who played between the Final Four appearances)? can anyone help?

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All this talk about old school college hoops unis made me realize that despite having grown up watching them, I have no idea what Marquette wore between the Al McGuire and Dwayne Wade eras. When I did a google, I found this page:

http://wiki.muscoop.com/doku.php/the_marqu...y_project/start

All I can say is, WOW... how ahead of their time are some of these? Using baby blue, navy blue and yellow together back in 1974? 3 decades before it became the flavor of the week in the NBA. And the 1981 jersey would be considered trendy TODAY even though it?s 27 years old. Unfortunately, I either wasn?t around or am too young to remember most of these. Matter of fact, seeing the 1993 jerseys kind of jogged my memory since now I seem to remember them having used those jerseys (or at least similar ones) since at least the late 80?s.

I?ve been trying to see if I can find pics of some of these in action with no luck (there?s next to no pics of anyone who played between the Final Four appearances)? can anyone help?

Good find, maybe the Cavs found a pic of that 1974 jersey too when they designed their alt.

But it looks like they weren't always ahead of the times. What's up with the swimsuit from 1971? I would love to travel back in time and be at the meeting where that was proposed!

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New York Jets |3-3| First, AFC East

New York Mets |74-88| Fourth, NL East

New York Islanders|34-37-11| Fifth, Atlantic Division

New Orleans Hornets |21-45| Third, Southwest Division

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The "Cavs" template was pretty popular back then. In fact, IIRC, the Cavs were the first ones to use it. I just noticed how the Grizzlies/Nuggets colors were used even back then.

I don't know about the "swimsuits" either, but those aren't anywhere NEAR the fugliest jerseys from that era. That was around the same time my school (UWM) wore jerseys that looked like they were pieced together from a ransom note:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1970s-UWM-Panthers-gam...7QQcmdZViewItem

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I seem to recall that forward Bo Ellis designed the 76-77 uniform. Notice they were one of the only, if not the only, team that had the shirt tails out. The home featured a gold, satiny top, I seem to recall, over white shorts. It was a revolutionary look at the time.

I loved that era Marquette: the uniforms, the teams and the coach.

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Well, that site doesn't have the 2007-08 jerseys on there yet. However, they look a lot like a mix of 1974 and 2006, so while they were "ahead of their time," Marquette can't resist digging them back up. Weirder still is that the powder blue has been out of their set for years. Now it's the main color of their warm-ups and accent on their away jerseys, yet it's not on the court whatsoever. It still seems like it shouldn't be in their set, and considering how teams wear powder blue now, it looks cheap.

EDIT: I just noticed that it was only the 90th anniversary ones on top, and the new one would be in the 91st year. I'm sure we'll see that spread again for the centennial.

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Well, when they get it wrong they really get it wrong. There are a lot of mistakes in between the 1969 black circle uniform and the 1981 "tie dye stripe" uniform.

Edit: I also found photo evidence that the 1969 version was worn as late as 1972 - here is Allie McGuire wearing it on an SI cover from February of that year:

0221_large.jpg

I think these may have been worn simultaneously with the "bumble bee" look identified as 1971. Also, what is identified as the 1973/74 uniform may have been worn as early as 1972/73. If not, then the bumble bees might have been 1972/73.

I'm pretty sure the version of the Bo Ellis shirttail out uniform identified as "1977" were worn earlier than that. I'm fairly certain that version was worn for two years - 1974/75 and 1975/76 - the yellow with light blue trim was the home uniform and the blue with yellow (on the SI cover previously posted) was the road uniform. These were definitely not really metallic or dazzle finished like today's uniforms; they were just a shiny version of nylon mesh that was popular in the early to mid 1970s. I could be wrong; these might have been only used for 1975/76, but I'm pretty sure that version was around for two years. For 1976/77 - their championship year - they modified them to use the metallic gold. The home jersey was white with gold lettering trimmed in blue, blue neck/arm trim and the gold shorts had blue/white/blue stripes; the road jersey was blue, had white lettering trimmed in gold, gold neck/arm trim, and the gold shorts had blue/gold/blue stripes.

EDIT - Found the April 4, 1977 SI cover - Marquette's championship -showing the second and final version of the shirttail out look:

0404_large.jpg

The uniform identified as 1973 with the zig/zag pattern was either 1977/78 or 1978/79 - either the first or second year after Al McGuire retired.

It helps to have been in jr. high and high school during that era. <_<

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I seem to recall that forward Bo Ellis designed the 76-77 uniform. Notice they were one of the only, if not the only, team that had the shirt tails out. The home featured a gold, satiny top, I seem to recall, over white shorts. It was a revolutionary look at the time.

I loved that era Marquette: the uniforms, the teams and the coach.

I think DePaul wore untucked jerseys in the early 1980s.

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Man, I had no idea Marquette had such a storied uniform history. Of course, I've heard about and seen the untucked McGuire uniforms before, but MU never struck me as a particularly distinctive program from a uni standpoint during my lifetime. But illwauk's right: they were way ahead of the curve. Those '73 and '74 jerseys look as if they could be worn by any program out there today. And the '81 "urban camo" style side panels is incredibly 2000s. Hell, even the 1940 jersey looks very, very modern.

On 1/25/2013 at 1:53 PM, 'Atom said:

For all the bird de lis haters I think the bird de lis isnt supposed to be a pelican and a fleur de lis I think its just a fleur de lis with a pelicans head. Thats what it looks like to me. Also the flair around the tip of the beak is just flair that fleur de lis have sometimes source I am from NOLA.

PotD: 10/19/07, 08/25/08, 07/22/10, 08/13/10, 04/15/11, 05/19/11, 01/02/12, and 01/05/12.

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Man, I had no idea Marquette had such a storied uniform history. Of course, I've heard about and seen the untucked McGuire uniforms before, but MU never struck me as a particularly distinctive program from a uni standpoint during my lifetime.

Me either. I was aware of the McGuire unis because MU made it to the final four in 2003 and that was at the apex of the throwback craze, but all of these other ones were new to me. Since there seems to be more than a few people here who seem to know their uniform history maybe someone can tell me what made them go from being so uninhibited and innovative in the 70?s and early 80?s to being bland and conservative for most of the late 80?s and 90?s. Even the D-Wade era jerseys look uninspired compared to what they had in the McGuire/Post-McGuire years.

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Well documented, John in KY. I was a teen then, but your memory is obviously not so fuzzy as mine.

Being a transplant from Ohio but growing up here in Louisville in the 1970s was pretty much hoops heaven - since this allowed me to legitimately root for both Louisville and Kentucky. I really started watching a lot of college ball during the 1973/74 season, and this area was on top for a few years there:

1975 - Indiana undefeated but lost to Kentucky in the regional final; both Kentucky and Louisville make the Final 4 but lose to UCLA (Louisville in the semis, Kentucky in the championship game)

1976 - Louisvile and Kentucky somewhat down, but Indiana goes undefeated and wins the championship

1977 - all 3 somewhat down; watched Marquette send McGuire out with a championship

1978 - Kentucky gets their first post-Rupp banner

1979 - Indiana State steals the spotlight from the "big 3" programs, but Magic's Michigan State team takes the trophy

1980 - Louisville takes their first trophy

1981 - Indiana gets their second trophy

Not to mention the Kentucky Colonels were contenders in the ABA, winning the next-to-last championship in 1975.

Bringing this back to Marquette, since they were also a perennial contender in those days, they frequently made the game of the week, so I saw them a lot from 1975-77.

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Well, when they get it wrong they really get it wrong. There are a lot of mistakes in between the 1969 black circle uniform and the 1981 "tie dye stripe" uniform.

Edit: I also found photo evidence that the 1969 version was worn as late as 1972 - here is Allie McGuire wearing it on an SI cover from February of that year:

0221_large.jpg

I think these may have been worn simultaneously with the "bumble bee" look identified as 1971. Also, what is identified as the 1973/74 uniform may have been worn as early as 1972/73. If not, then the bumble bees might have been 1972/73.

I'm pretty sure the version of the Bo Ellis shirttail out uniform identified as "1977" were worn earlier than that. I'm fairly certain that version was worn for two years - 1974/75 and 1975/76 - the yellow with light blue trim was the home uniform and the blue with yellow (on the SI cover previously posted) was the road uniform. These were definitely not really metallic or dazzle finished like today's uniforms; they were just a shiny version of nylon mesh that was popular in the early to mid 1970s. I could be wrong; these might have been only used for 1975/76, but I'm pretty sure that version was around for two years. For 1976/77 - their championship year - they modified them to use the metallic gold. The home jersey was white with gold lettering trimmed in blue, blue neck/arm trim and the gold shorts had blue/white/blue stripes; the road jersey was blue, had white lettering trimmed in gold, gold neck/arm trim, and the gold shorts had blue/gold/blue stripes.

EDIT - Found the April 4, 1977 SI cover - Marquette's championship -showing the second and final version of the shirttail out look:

0404_large.jpg

The uniform identified as 1973 with the zig/zag pattern was either 1977/78 or 1978/79 - either the first or second year after Al McGuire retired.

It helps to have been in jr. high and high school during that era. <_<

Back in the 1960s SandKnit became Marquette's uniform supplier. The Warriors would come out with a new design every couple of years. Al McGuire loved to be a little different with his designs. The uniform with the circle holding the number was supposed to look like a Formula I Grand Prix racing car. This set was one of about 10 styles that SandKnit began marketing in 1969 under a program called "SandMark" styles. Each uniform had matching stirrup socks and warm-ups for a complete look. Each design set had a Roman Numeral name such as "SandMark I through X." The MQ uniforms shown for '68, '69, '71, '73 and '74 were part of the SandMark collection. The "camo" panels you refer to were a take-off on the Bengals' striping that SandKnit did for the NFL club. Some of the more-famous designs from SandMark were the Grand Prix of Marquette and the horizontally-striped pants worn by the Seattle SuperSonics and St. John's of the 1970s. All the uniforms and warm-ups were made from flat-finish (no sheen) 100% Nylon Doubleknit. Dazzle cloth and MicroMesh weren't around until about 1985. All SandMark stripes were knitted-in. I was a SandKnit dealer in those days and we sold SandMark uniforms to several high schools and colleges in the Rochester, NY area. SandKnit also offered knit plaid patterns and some very unique pastel shades such as MQ's "Electric Blue" and shades in Lime Green, Raspberry and Lemon Yellow. You had to be there in those halcyon days of the early 1970s with the really funky designs for clothing and uniforms. It was a wild time!

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Man, I had no idea Marquette had such a storied uniform history. Of course, I've heard about and seen the untucked McGuire uniforms before, but MU never struck me as a particularly distinctive program from a uni standpoint during my lifetime.

Me either. I was aware of the McGuire unis because MU made it to the final four in 2003 and that was at the apex of the throwback craze, but all of these other ones were new to me. Since there seems to be more than a few people here who seem to know their uniform history maybe someone can tell me what made them go from being so uninhibited and innovative in the 70?s and early 80?s to being bland and conservative for most of the late 80?s and 90?s. Even the D-Wade era jerseys look uninspired compared to what they had in the McGuire/Post-McGuire years.

The fact that Al McGuire was vice chairman of the board of Medalist Industries, a sports equipment manufacturer based outside Milwaukee, had a lot to do with it. Every time Marquette had a national TV appearance, they'd unveil a new uniform.

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The fact that Al McGuire was vice chairman of the board of Medalist Industries, a sports equipment manufacturer based outside Milwaukee, had a lot to do with it. Every time Marquette had a national TV appearance, they'd unveil a new uniform.

Interesting. So that would make Marquette kind of the Oregon or Miami of their day, wouldn't it? Every time their supplier came up with some crazy-arse new uniform ideas, they got first dibs.

On 1/25/2013 at 1:53 PM, 'Atom said:

For all the bird de lis haters I think the bird de lis isnt supposed to be a pelican and a fleur de lis I think its just a fleur de lis with a pelicans head. Thats what it looks like to me. Also the flair around the tip of the beak is just flair that fleur de lis have sometimes source I am from NOLA.

PotD: 10/19/07, 08/25/08, 07/22/10, 08/13/10, 04/15/11, 05/19/11, 01/02/12, and 01/05/12.

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