How did you track uni/logo changes before the internet?

[BigEd76]

Other interesting notes from the 1997 sets: they also featured the Jacksonville font update that was scrapped before the regular season:

...and only some of the sets that year had the new Oilers logo after their move to Tennessee (and the logo wasn't on the jersey or helmet yet):

[Jungle Jim]

These have already been mentioned, but it was Manny's Baseball Land and Starstruck for me. Someone mentioned seeing the Bengals new helmets in 1981, and I have a memory about that, as well. I bought one of the preseason publications and turned right to the Bengals preview, and there it was. A small icon of the striped helmet in 2D black-and-white. I think I stared at it for about five minutes straight and couldn't believe my eyes. Not long afterwards, I started practicing how to draw it, and soon mastered it. I've impressed some people over the past 30 years with my ability to knock out the Bengals helmet from memory.

An interesting thing is that the first official logo they used did not match the helmets. It looked like the photo below. Notice how the stripes are different that what the helmets actually had/have:

[BigEd76]

A few more then I'll stop:

--- The first time I saw the 1993 Patriots change (which was a really bad Photoshop attempt):

...but other sets had the real one:

--- None of the Ravens' 1996 cards had the logo or uniform, so Jonathan Ogden wore this instead:

--- The first time I saw the 1999 Titans change:

[CubsFanBudMan]

Sears / JCPenney catalogs in the '70s for NFL helmets.

Baseball cards in the '80s. I collected Topps, but the Sandberg rookie card from Fleer and/or Donruss had him in that light blue pinstriped road and that certainly is an early uni memory. Definitely a whale from my youth.

Manny's Baseball Land catalog in the late '80s through the '90s. I also picked up the NFL Record & Fact Book at Waldenbooks every year starting in 1990 and they had all of the NFL helmets in color inside the cover. Also, I'd go to the local sports store -- Merle Harmon's Fan Fair, Sportmart, wherever -- and they'd have the baseball caps lined up. A few that left an impression the first time I saw them include the Astros black, Rangers red, Mariners navy/teal and the White Sox black. I also remember seeing the Bucks green/purple logo for the first time at that sports store at Pier 39 (?) In San Francisco in 1993 I believe. Video games for me, too. I'm almost positive that NFL Blitz was where I first saw the new Buccaneers look. And of course the Tecmo Super Bowl helmet selection screen.

And then it was probably 2000 or 2001 when I was directed to the CCSLC's earliest versions by PirateNBama, Maury Brown and New Yorker (among others, I'm sure) after we were talking relocation / baseball business and making Portland concepts of the Marlins, Rays and Expos logos at the Oregon Stadium Campaign site. And of course along the way I learned about new-to-me resources like Okkonen, Henderson, Pantone/Colorwerx/SSUR, etc.

And I never left ... or stopped writing long-winded posts.

Cool topic. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

[WSU151]

That first Bledsoe card wasn't a photoshop...it was a rookie shoot in the spring. The jersey worn by Bledsoe was a cheap early incarnation of the 1993 set. Bledsoe never wore that facemask at Washington State.

[IceCap]

Catalogues, TSN, and sometimes not even knowing about new looks until I was watching the games.

[jake22]

Back when I was a kid I used to read Sports Illustrated for Kids. While all my friends were reading the stories and whatnot I was always looking for alternate uniforms and new stuff in general including new combinations. I loved those days. But then along came the internet and I was no longer a child, tis a shame.

[shaydre1019]

Back when I was a kid I used to read Sports Illustrated for Kids. While all my friends were reading the stories and whatnot I was always looking for alternate uniforms and new stuff in general including new combinations. I loved those days. But then along came the internet and I was no longer a child, tis a shame.

Do you remember the ones right before the '06(?) draft (vy, bush, leinart) they photoshopped them in a jersey where they thought they'd go. I think it was vy in a titans uniform oddly enough, bush in a texans and leinart in a jets uniform. It was the most amazing thing is ever seen. We got them on an incentive field trip to a boys&girls club and when we got back I just could not stop staring. I was just in awe it was like gladsadmad level work and I aspired to be that good in photoshop one day.

[twi]

Wow, I remember the Starstruck catalogs. I would study that thing like a monk studies a religious text. When I was a little guy my dad would actually quiz me by giving me the name of a MiLB team and asking who they were affiliated with, what color their cap was, or something like that.

I remember the Bucs logo package change absolutely blowing my mind, lol.

[danmerz]

The Sears and JC Penny summers catalogs....in the 60s and 70s

[Joshawaggie]

I remember the first I had learned of the Marlins and Rockies, it was from the logo stickers you'd get in a box of Frosted Flakes.

[Spearhead]

Back in the 1970s I followed changes through football magazines, particularly those that had color photos: Sports Illustrated, Texas Football, Athlon. But that was hit-and-miss. You could miss a change and not find out about it until 20-25 years later with the Internet.

Also, television. I remember finding out that the Oilers were switching from blue helmets to white by watching a college all-star game in the summer. The three Oiler rookies were all wearing white helmets and I thought, 'I hope that isn't the look they're going with.' The next day in the newspaper was a blurb that the Oilers were going with the white hats, never, never liked those helmets.

I also remember when the Astros went to the infamous "rainbow guts" uniform, one of the local sportscasters (Bob Allen, who's still on by the way) did a remote from the Astrodome in which he told viewers that the team was going with a new uniform and that he thought the fans would like them ... (((((WRONG)))))) .... Greg Gross liked them, though, when interviewed about the new unis, he said they were "far out."

He was technically correct.

[ltravisjr]

I used to look forward to these coming out each year. They had logos and either illustrations or verbal descriptions of the uniforms.

American League Red Book

National League Green Book

[chriscj83]

I remember the first I had learned of the Marlins and Rockies, it was from the logo stickers you'd get in a box of Frosted Flakes.

We must have eaten so many boxes of Frosted Flakes, because those stickers used to be everywhere..

[Sport]

These have already been mentioned, but it was Manny's Baseball Land and Starstruck for me. Someone mentioned seeing the Bengals new helmets in 1981, and I have a memory about that, as well. I bought one of the preseason publications and turned right to the Bengals preview, and there it was. A small icon of the striped helmet in 2D black-and-white. I think I stared at it for about five minutes straight and couldn't believe my eyes. Not long afterwards, I started practicing how to draw it, and soon mastered it. I've impressed some people over the past 30 years with my ability to knock out the Bengals helmet from memory.

An interesting thing is that the first official logo they used did not match the helmets. It looked like the photo below. Notice how the stripes are different that what the helmets actually had/have:

I too can draw the Bengals helmet from straight memory. I've been working on it my whole life.

In fact, that's how I used to track logos and uniforms of the NFL. As a young kid I'd look at pictures in magazines and books and then draw their helmets with colored pencils and tape them to my wall. I wish my mom had kept those.

[Joshawaggie]

I remember the first I had learned of the Marlins and Rockies, it was from the logo stickers you'd get in a box of Frosted Flakes.

We must have eaten so many boxes of Frosted Flakes, because those stickers used to be everywhere..

Hell yeah we did, and if there were logo stickers in today's frosted flakes, I'd do it again.*

*Full disclosure, I'll still buy frosted flakes even if there isn't logo stickers. I love them.

[Jungle Jim]

This has been posted before, but it's probably appropriate to post it again in this thread. I didn't live in Cincinnati in 1981, so I didn't see this broadcast. Instead, I lived in the Louisville market and weeks later they did a quick bit from training camp on the 6pm sports. The players were already wearing the stripes and that was the first time I saw them on an actual helmet:

[Frylock]

Anyone heard of John Fulgaro's Sports Logo Guide? It was printed in 1998 in black and white and probably laid out in MS Word. Still, it was a really great resource for sports logo histories. I still look at it time to time.

WAIT- I know it was after the internet became widely available. I just consider it a tool that was antiquated, yet effective.

Yeah, my bad.

Yeah! I have all three of those books. I was heavily credited in books two and three.

Anyway, the StarStruck catalog was HUGE for me, as were MinorLeagues/MajorDreams (I think they became StarStruck?) and Sports Illustrated actually had merch catalogs, too.

[Frylock]

And then it was probably 2000 or 2001 when I was directed to the CCSLC's earliest versions by PirateNBama, Maury Brown and New Yorker (among others, I'm sure) after we were talking relocation / baseball business and making Portland concepts of the Marlins, Rays and Expos logos at the Oregon Stadium Campaign site. And of course along the way I learned about new-to-me resources like Okkonen, Henderson, Pantone/Colorwerx/SSUR, etc.

Wow... Oregon Stadium Campaign and Maury Brown. Blasts from the past! I still follow Maury on Twitter (very cool guy) and I remember being highly interested in the OSC, going back to the original Vosmek plans.

[tulo5280]

NHL, NBA and NFL Drafts