AAFL

[RevNet]

Moving to the South Division now. First team up from this division...

Tuscaloosa Druids **UPDATE**

Location:Tuscaloosa, AL

Team Colors: Blood Red, Irish Green

Minor Colors: Dark Gray, Light Gray

Clash Color: Purple

Sponsor: Benchmark

Updated 09.02.2011: Filled in the "D" on the Away guernsey front. Outlined the home guernsey numbers in black.

To answer the question of "Why the Tuscaloosa Druids?", here's a quote from the FAQ section of the DCH Health System website:

Why is the City of Tuscaloosa called the Druid City?

In the late 1800s, the city fathers of Tuscaloosa planted oak trees along downtown streets. Just as the City of Birmingham was known as the Magic City because of its amazing growth, the City of Tuscaloosa became known as the Oak City, or, in recognition of the ancient British tribe that worshipped oaks, the Druid City. (You may know the Druids are the folks who are believed to have built Stonehenge in England.) You can see reference to Tuscaloosa as the Druid City in a number of places. The patch for the City of Tuscaloosa Police Department includes a reference to the Druid City. One of the former high schools was named Druid High School, and the Tuscaloosa telephone book lists several businesses that include Druid in the name.

When the city opened its first clinic in 1919, it was natural that they would name it Druid City Clinic after the city's nickname. When the city built its first hospital in 1923, it made sense to name it Druid City Hospital to honor the city's nickname and the city's first clinic.

Now, name me one thing that Tuscaloosa is well known for? I'll give y'all a hint: Roll Tide.

Tuscaloosa is home to the University of Alabama main campus. The blood red color references this fact. The Irish Green is a reference to one of the places where the Druids lived.

The wordmark is done in a font called Celticmd.

[RevNet]

Next team up...

Montgomery Governors

Location: Montgomery, AL

Colors: American Flag Red (Pantone 200 C), American Flag Blue (Pantone 281 C)

Clash Color: Columbia Blue

Sponsor: Raycom Media

A little tidbit for y'all: Alabama is home to the longest constitution in the world (mainly due to the document's 800+ amendments), and Montgomery is where it is stored, since it is the state capital. Lewis Lehe made a film about the constitution, its history, and the struggles with it. The film is called It's A Thick Book, and you can watch it here (it's 48 mins. long, so you have been warned):

Montgomery was also the first city in the country to have city-wide electric street cars back in 1886. It is also where in 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man, kickstarting the Civil Rights Movement.

The primary logo has the silhouette of the Alabama State Capitol's rotunda in its background. The kits here are pretty conservative.

The wordmark is done in Optima Bold.

[Gregmond]

Apart from there being too many stars in the wordmark, and the silhouette of the rotunda being a bit vague, I really love the Montgomery concept. You say that the kits are conservative ... which may be why I like them so much ... they're the most like traditional Aussie Rules jumpers which (IMHO) makes them the best. Well played!

I really like the Druids identity too, but I feel your Gaelic "D" is too intricate to be on the front of an jersey. Either simplify it for the guernsey, or ditch it and just use the Big-T for the jumper. I think the numbers on the back of the brick-red uniform will be difficult to read against the grey sash, but you could overcome that by outlining the numbers in bold black, like this:

[RevNet]

Next team up...

Dothan Hornets **UPDATE**

Location: Dothan, AL

Colors: Brown, Gold

Clash Color: Green

Sponsor: AAA Cooper Transportation (ACT)

Updated 09.06.11: Cleaned up the clash kit logo.

The Dothan area is a very agricultural area. Cotton was produced here in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, until the boll weevil population decimated the area's cotton plants by 1918. This would get the area's farmers to diversify their crops. One of the crops that was grown was peanuts. Today, Dothan is known as the "Peanut Capital of the World", because one-quarter of the country's peanuts are grown within 75 miles of Dothan. The National Peanut Festival is held in Dothan every November. The nearby city of Enterprise has the world's only monument dedicated to a pest, known as the "Boll Weevil Monument":

Dothan also has the world's smallest city block:

The brown and gold colors are attributed to the region's soil and the peanuts, respectively. The green clash color is attributed to Dothan being the "Hub of the Wiregrass".

The wordmark is done in a font named Squid Caps.

[RevNet]

Last team up...

Mobile Buccaneers

Location: Mobile, AL

Colors: Black, Teal, Silver

Clash Color: Red

Sponsor: Always HD

Mobile (pronounced Mo-BEEL) is an old city. It was founded by French-Canadian brothers in 1702 and became the first capital of French Louisiana. From there, it was ruled by the French, the British, and the Spanish before becoming part of the Mississippi Territory in 1813, and an Alabama city just six years later, when Alabama gained statehood. Due to its colonial heritage and the years thereafter, the city has many styles of architecture represented, ranging from Victorian to Greek Revival to even Egyptian Revival, an example of the latter is the Scottish Rite Temple:

Sports-wise, among other distinctions, Mobile has five members in the Baseball Hall of Fame, including Hank Aaron. Only New York City and Chicago have more. It also has the world's largest outdoor tennis facility with 60 courts.

When I first drew the primary logo, I saw that the hat and the top of the "M" formed a (sort-of) fleur-de-lis (a reference to Mobile's founding), and I immediately had to make it the secondary logo. Other than that, what you see is what you get.

The wordmark is done in a font called Big Top.

[Gregmond]

Nice work RevNet ... your concepts have improved throughout this process, and your recent uniforms are the most realistic of all.

I really like all three of the uniform sets for Mobile, I think the teal and white hooped away strip is my favourite of the entire project. I even love the red alternate, and the black home uniform is a simple, clear, traditional footy uniform. Well done.

I'm not sure that your Hornets logo is brilliant, but I am no artist and will stay away from commentating on that, but again, your three uniforms are nice. My only suggestion would be to make the Hornets stripes on the home jumper a colour other than black - perhaps green, but the contrast might not be strong enough ... white maybe? I like the "D" logo, although the wings could probably use a little work, but it really works well on the alternate. It may pop even more with a bolder yellow outline?

I think you've created a pretty realistic looking league that I can easily imagine running around ovals across Alabama! Congratulations ... and GO BUCS!

[RevNet]

Nice work RevNet ... your concepts have improved throughout this process, and your recent uniforms are the most realistic of all.

I really like all three of the uniform sets for Mobile, I think the teal and white hooped away strip is my favourite of the entire project. I even love the red alternate, and the black home uniform is a simple, clear, traditional footy uniform. Well done.

I'm not sure that your Hornets logo is brilliant, but I am no artist and will stay away from commentating on that, but again, your three uniforms are nice. My only suggestion would be to make the Hornets stripes on the home jumper a colour other than black - perhaps green, but the contrast might not be strong enough ... white maybe? I like the "D" logo, although the wings could probably use a little work, but it really works well on the alternate. It may pop even more with a bolder yellow outline?

I think you've created a pretty realistic looking league that I can easily imagine running around ovals across Alabama! Congratulations ... and GO BUCS!

Those aren't stripes, they're stingers (like on a hornet, bee, wasp, etc.), and they're supposed to mimic the one on the secondary logo.

Thank you for your advice, critique and praise, Gregmond. This is great for an idea that was whipped up (initially) in a day, especially coming from someone that follows the sport. I had a lot of fun making these kit sets and improving on them along the way.

I take it that you would buy the Mobile away guernsey. True?

I have a couple more ideas for TV bugs/graphics, trophies, etc., but I'll draw them out first before displaying them on here.

[RedSox44]

I love the new Steel Lynx wordmark!

Okay, now that the Birmingham wordmark is legible: this is all very awesome. The logos and unis are really good.

Now if only this would translate to real life...

[RevNet]

^Thank you, RedSox44.

Now, here are the league's trophies and TV graphics. On the trophies, "Left View" means the trophy's right side, and vice versa.

I like to call this trophy "The Golden Ball and Crown".

TV bugs/graphics:

The top three bugs would appear at the bottom of the TV screen. On the score bug (which would be raised a bit on the screen), the parts in grey would only pop up every once in a while. The extra information bug would be used for future games, package prices, etc. The black border around the full time score bug is supposed to simulate your HDTV. The black boxes to the right of the bug would display individual player stats.

[Gregmond]

Congratulations RevNet on a very cool overall concept.

Yep, I would buy the away jumper for Mobile, any of the Montgomery jumpers, the away or clash jumper for Huntsville, the alternate for Anniston, home or away for Birmingham.

If I ever make it to Alabama, I hope to see your ideas running around an oval somewhere!