Is anyone Suprised that no Major Team has ever used Pink as one of their main colors?

[CGL77]

I don't know about pink as a primary colour. I love the Hitmen jersey, though.

[Drakonius26]

Yeah, about the only color pink could work with is black. The Calgary Hitmen jerseys, and the old Spurs warmups from back in the day weren't too bad, but overall it usually doesn't work for any sports team. It's a shame purple is getting more and more phased out, as is the color combination of green and gold too.

[phutmasterflex]

Not surprised because for major teams, it's the masculinity and pink isn't associated with masculinity. Should we see more pink? I don't care. But do we need it? Not really.

[Discogod]

My high school basketball team wore pink jerseys for half a season, albiet accidentally. The jerseys were reversible, red one side, white the other. Very cheap quality, and after a few washes the white half had turned salmon pink. NOT a good look..

[Alphabet Man]

Not surprised because for major teams, it's the masculinity and pink isn't associated with masculinity. Should we see more pink? I don't care. But do we need it? Not really.

You are close to the mark. The answer is simply to do with the social nature of sports - Masculinity and homophobia. Sport is traditionally built on masculinity that dates back to the ancient Greeks. Pink is not a masculine colour, and more associated with gay men. It's not about pink being a girls colour. Sport is traditionally homophobic. It's all about being more masculine than your opponents. So if you want to be masculine on the field, you wont wear pink.

So to answer the original poster, I'm hardly surprised. Having studied the sociology of sport, it makes sense.

[TruColor]

Not a major team, but in the World Football League, the Southern California Sun did it.

Magenta and Orange. Not Pink.

Ironically, just today I found someone who claims to have the Pantone colors for the Sun. I'm as happy as a little girl.

Here's the actual colors the Sun wore:

Only one other professional franchise (that I have found so far) has used that exact shade of Magenta...the Omaha Racers of the Continental Basketball Association between 1994-1995 and 1996-1997:

I going to do some digging and see if the Floridians of the ABA may have used that color as well...they called that color Magenta too...

[TruColor]

Oh, and it's worth mentioning that the Wichita Falls Texans also of the CBA (from 1991-1992 through 1992-1993) wore these colors:

These are estimates, but they were definitely using Neon colors...I remember these colors from living in Dallas during that era. I believe they won the CBA championship (or at least came close) during that period.

[JohnnySeoul]

I really don't see why not one Nhl, nba, nfl, or mlb team has ever used pink as a main color. And no there is no such thing as a feminine color.

Cause nobody in the U.S. would want to buy a pink jersey. And yes, pink is a feminine color and is the reason it is used for Breast Cancer Awareness.

[eriqjaffe]

The New York Giants were as close as any "major" US league team has ever come, IIRC:

Granted, the Okkonen colors aren't very accurate, ColorWerx shows it as a darker "violet" shade.

[Gothamite]

Magenta and Orange. Not Pink.

Ironically, just today I found someone who claims to have the Pantone colors for the Sun. I'm as happy as a little girl.

Here's the actual colors the Sun wore:

This is an excellent example of what you often say - that color descriptions are subjective and therefore worthless. That color swatch looks awfully pink to me.

[tBBP]

My memory may be fuzzy, but I believe the now-defunct Jacksonville Lizard Kings of the ECHL also used pink/magenta as a team color for a short time. Their sweaters were black with pink/magenta and lima-bean green trim, sorta akin to the green the Seattle Seahawks. (I also remember them having one of the coolest logos I've ever seen.)

CWx...you happen to have a swatch sheet for that team, by chance?

[TruColor]

Magenta and Orange. Not Pink.

Ironically, just today I found someone who claims to have the Pantone colors for the Sun. I'm as happy as a little girl.

Here's the actual colors the Sun wore:

This is an excellent example of what you often say - that color descriptions are subjective and therefore worthless. That color swatch looks awfully pink to me.

Yep. I'm thinking that the majority of clubs - especially in the "early" days of color standards - were matching to four-color process versions of these colors. Which would be a darker version of this color.

[TruColor]

My memory may be fuzzy, but I believe the now-defunct Jacksonville Lizard Kings of the ECHL also used pink/magenta as a team color for a short time. Their sweaters were black with pink/magenta and lima-bean green trim, sorta akin to the green the Seattle Seahawks. (I also remember them having one of the coolest logos I've ever seen.)

CWx...you happen to have a swatch sheet for that team, by chance?

You're probably referring to this set, I'm guessing:

[TruColor]

The New York Giants were as close as any "major" US league team has ever come, IIRC:

Granted, the Okkonen colors aren't very accurate, ColorWerx shows it as a darker "violet" shade.

I was just estimating the color...assuming it was darker than Marc Okkonen's representation. I don't know how accurate mine are.

[tBBP]

My memory may be fuzzy, but I believe the now-defunct Jacksonville Lizard Kings of the ECHL also used pink/magenta as a team color for a short time. Their sweaters were black with pink/magenta and lima-bean green trim, sorta akin to the green the Seattle Seahawks. (I also remember them having one of the coolest logos I've ever seen.)

CWx...you happen to have a swatch sheet for that team, by chance?

You're probably referring to this set, I'm guessing:

That'd be the one.

I did manage to find a picture of the jersey I was referring to--I think it was only used for one or two seasons. As far as the trim color, well, eh...

Definitely looks a bit more pink/magenta-ish to me...but it may just be me.

[TruColor]

My memory may be fuzzy, but I believe the now-defunct Jacksonville Lizard Kings of the ECHL also used pink/magenta as a team color for a short time. Their sweaters were black with pink/magenta and lima-bean green trim, sorta akin to the green the Seattle Seahawks. (I also remember them having one of the coolest logos I've ever seen.)

CWx...you happen to have a swatch sheet for that team, by chance?

You're probably referring to this set, I'm guessing:

That'd be the one.

I did manage to find a picture of the jersey I was referring to--I think it was only used for one or two seasons. As far as the trim color, well, eh...

Definitely looks a bit more pink/magenta-ish to me...but it may just be me.

The fabric colors certainly could have been lighter...but I will say that the color swatches I provided are using actual confirmed Pantone colors.

Pantone colors are used for color standards, but that doesn't mean that there aren't variations between printing and fabrics and thread colors, etc., etc.

[illini1]

I heard a rumor that Penn State might of had Pink as a color, but that rumor could be wrong.

It's true. Their colors were originally pink and black. The reason they changed colors is the dye they used for the pink jerseys kept fading the white by the end of the season. The may still be listed as the official colors. I'm not sure about that part though.

[TruColor]

I heard a rumor that Penn State might of had Pink as a color, but that rumor could be wrong.

It's true. Their colors were originally pink and black. The reason they changed colors is the dye they used for the pink jerseys kept fading the white by the end of the season. The may still be listed as the official colors. I'm not sure about that part though.

Nah...here are the current institutional colors and athletic colors for Penn State:

[tBBP]

My memory may be fuzzy, but I believe the now-defunct Jacksonville Lizard Kings of the ECHL also used pink/magenta as a team color for a short time. Their sweaters were black with pink/magenta and lima-bean green trim, sorta akin to the green the Seattle Seahawks. (I also remember them having one of the coolest logos I've ever seen.)

CWx...you happen to have a swatch sheet for that team, by chance?

You're probably referring to this set, I'm guessing:

That'd be the one.

I did manage to find a picture of the jersey I was referring to--I think it was only used for one or two seasons. As far as the trim color, well, eh...

Definitely looks a bit more pink/magenta-ish to me...but it may just be me.

The fabric colors certainly could have been lighter...but I will say that the color swatches I provided are using actual confirmed Pantone colors.

Pantone colors are used for color standards, but that doesn't mean that there aren't variations between printing and fabrics and thread colors, etc., etc.

All of which just lends further credence to what you always say about teams' use of Pantone standards: how it looks on the chip and how it looks on fabric can vary significantly.

That particular jersey always was a head-scratcher...aside from that one, the Lizard 'ings' uniforms definitely used a darker purple in their uniforms, pretty much exact to your swatch sheet. Really just makes me wonder if that jersey was just someone's one-off idea or something. (I will add that I always have liked that jersey, too.)

[winghaz]

The official school colors of the University of North Dakota are green and pink -- green for the grass and pink for the state's official flower, the prairie rose. This is something fans of UND's arch-rival, North Dakota State University, like to constantly point out.

However, the official athletic colors for UND are green and white. Some sources say the official colors are green, white and black, but I don't know if black is really official. Black wouldn't be bad as an extra official color, for the soil, coal and oil.