Has Michigan ever worn throwback or alternate uniforms
...are throwbacks. No alternates required. There's a running joke on here about wearing all maize unis. It...will...never...happen.
At least our home uniforms are throwbacks, i don't know if you would consider our away throwbacks with the stripes.
Well then we can designate the Away jerseys as "alternates" since they seem to vary over time.
Although, we've also pointed out the use of white pants:
I wouldn't exactly call the bright yellow pants "throwbacks". I remember when maize was really maize....and miss those unis.
I really like the font on those 60's throwbacks. You just don't see font like that anymore. Nice.
We wore white pants on the road in the mid-70s
Here is what they looked like. Too big to embed
I think it was 72-75 that the team wore the all white road jerseys.
I guess they don't look too bad. Though we kind of looked like Penn State with winged helmets.
I'm pretty sure it was only in 1974 and '75.
And if we do start wearing alternate uniforms, whoever hatches that idea should have their balls pounded flat with a rubber hammer.
the 1997 team wore.
Rose Bowl emblem on jersey? I liiiike.
I'd advocate firing him on the spot.
Shoe's right, though—we're already in throwback mode; the only school in the conference that's more throwbacky is Penn State.
I can live with the thin stripe at the top, but those curved stripes are ugly. I don't see the point of them.
The top stripes at the shoulder are OK, but I don't like the stripes at numbers on the sides. It's a little too much.
Wouldn't mind them running out in these for a game. Could be pretty cool
Yeah, except, if I'm not mistaken we sucked when we wore the helmets with the numbers on them
...1959 - 1968, according to The Helmet Project.
Michigan's record during that period:
Year | W | L | T | Win % | Big 10 |
1959 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0.444 | 7 |
1960 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0.556 | T5 |
1961 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 0.667 | 6 |
1962 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0.222 | 10 |
1963 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 0.444 | T5 |
1964 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 0.900 | 1 |
1965 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0.400 | T7 |
1966 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0.600 | T3 |
1967 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0.400 | T5 |
1968 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0.800 | 2 |
Total | 51 | 42 | 2 | 0.547 | 5.1 |
Not that hot, but the 1964 Rose Bowl winning team finished the season ranked number 4 by the AP and the UPI. The 1968 team finished ranked 12 and 15 by the AP and UPI respectively.
You know, there's something weirdly comforting about looking at that chart in our current context. We've gone through periods of mediocrity before, and always come out with periods of awesome. Gives me hope for the future.
They wore them starting in 1956, at least according to HelmtHut
http://www.helmethut.com/College/Michigan/Michiganindex.html
...then the 1956 team finished the season ranked 7th in both polls. So in 13 seasons, there was 1 great season and two good seasons. On average, Michigan was a middle of the pack Big Ten team with an average conference standing of 5 and a .549 winning percentage
Here are the records:
Year | W | L | T | Win % | Big 10 |
1956 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0.778 | 2 |
1957 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0.611 | 6 |
1958 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 0.278 | 8 |
1959 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0.444 | 7 |
1960 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0.556 | T5 |
1961 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 0.667 | 6 |
1962 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0.222 | 10 |
1963 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 0.444 | T5 |
1964 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 0.900 | 1 |
1965 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0.400 | T7 |
1966 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0.600 | T3 |
1967 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0.400 | T5 |
1968 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0.800 | 2 |
Total | 65 | 53 | 4 | 0.549 | 5 |
against somebody some time in the mid 90's. It looked alright, but I wasn't a big fan. Give me my classic uniform, no need to ever change it.
all blue? including the pants? against OSU in the last 50 years? NO WAY
it wasn't OSU. But I'm not crazy, we did wear that once. I'd love to see if someone can find a photo/video cause I can't find it anywhere.
While I am not able to evaluate your mental health status, I can assure you that we did not wear blue pants at any point in the 90s.
That's because it doesn't exist except in your memory. I haven't negged you and I'm not going to, but you're simply completely 100% mistaken about the blue pants. As Shoe has pointed out, we didn't wear blue pants back in the early forties, and I've been following Michigan football since the mid-60s, and I know we've never, ever worn anything other than yellow/maize pants of varying hues during that time. I'm pretty familiar with team photos taken during the 1950s and they weren't wearing blue pants either.
My grandfather attended UM from 1901 to 1905, and in his photo album there's a shot taken right on the sidelines during the game between Michigan and Chicago in 1904. While it's obviously in black and white, I think it's clear that even that far back, we were not wearing blue pants. Without doing the research I suppose we can't rule out that blue pants might have been worn at some point in the first three decades of the 20th century, but I'd guess you weren't around then. Although if you were that might explain things...
try looking over there next to the unicorn, the leprechaun and H.R.
Puff'nStuff
You're wrong about the beards.
You must be confusing us with West Virginia.
I am 100 percent certain that we never wore all-blue during that time. You must be thinking of Cal or West Virginia.
They could wear sweaters and leather helmets.
Are you thinking about the Detroit Lions? They did that once during the Barry Sanders years I think. But I will go drink a bottle of clorox bleach right now if you can find a picture or other proof that michigan wore all blue during a game. Never happened.
I don't think it's enough to get a big glass of bleach poured but in the early 40's the uniforms looked dangerously close to all blue...(though certainly not in the 90's)
http://bentley.umich.edu/athdept/football/fbteam/1940fbt.htm (all blue?)
compared to http://bentley.umich.edu/athdept/football/fbteam/1946fbt.htm (certainly not all blue)
full archive... http://bentley.umich.edu/athdept/football/football.htm
...you'll be able to find a game photo with all blues from that era.
Here's Tom Harmon, for instance:
Bob Wiese on the 1943 Michigan - Indiana game program:
I loved the white pants......I wish we'd use them again:
If your answer is Al Gore, that means you're from an alternate universe in which Michigan did wear blue pants during the '90s. I suppose that means that in your universe Coach Mo didn't have the meltdown in the restaurant, LC never became HC, and John Cooper has won two national titles at OSU. I think I prefer this one, although it did mean we had W for eight years.
Fine, I deserve all these negs considering I provided no proof that I'm not completely insane. When a memory that's cemented into your head is completely rejected, it's hard not to feel like you're in an episode of the Twilight Zone:
August 2nd, 2010 at 10:59 AM ^
Michigan actually wore throwbacks for several home games last year:
Western Michigan: Michigan kicked off the 2009 season wearing simple navy blue jerseys with maize numbering in honor of the 1939 uniforms:
Notice the similarity in navy blue-colored jersey with maize numbers on the front and back, plus the maize pants and navy blue socks.
Also, in honor of former Wolverine great Tom Harmon, one of our backs agreed to juke the entire opposing defense out of its collective jock strap.
Notre Dame: To celebrate this classic rivalry between college football's two winningest programs, and the general greater winningness of the more winningest of the two winningest programs of course, the Michigan Wolverines ran out and touched the banner in the same classic unis that the team wore in 1991 for "The Catch."
Michigan QB Tate Forcier also agreed to turn a crucial 4th down and short into a long touchdown in honor of Desmond Howard's accomplishments.
Ohio State: Both Michigan and Ohio State came out for the renewal of this classic rivalry in their respective uniforms from the 1950s, as best seen from this classic photo from the 1950 matchup:
The key thing to notice is the helmets. Michigan's had wings on them, and Ohio State's didn't have as much bird poop as they do today.
Here's another shot:
Notice anything different between that and, say, this:
As such, Michigan and Ohio State played a close game determined largely by the teams' respective punters (though OSU cheated and used an arm-punter instead).
FUTURE:
In 2010, Michigan plans to unveil throwback 1938 uniforms where Michigan will sport the iconic wings from Fritz Crisler's era, and in the Michigan State game this year, M's running backs will run down the tunnel sporting the classic black spikes that have traditionally trampled Spartans every season.
Contrary to popular belief, Crisler's innovation was not the colored wings - those were widely used before he arrived (since the old leather helmets used to feature extra padding up there). His innovation was the three stripes, which made the helmet more visible, especially from behind.
Last year there was rumor that M would wear white pants for the Illinois game. I wasn't a huge fan of the idea at the time, but in retrospect maybe that would've been the minor change in the universe that would have gotten Roundtree (?) across the goal line and put the game away. Fahk.
It was Iowa. I don't think there was talk about us wearing white pants against Illinois.
The only change in the universe we needed for the Illinois game was for the line judge to be in better position to see Carlos Brown on third down. He was in.