jeebus wrote:i agree...100% i LOVE THE CURRENT ORANGE JERSEYS and think the brown ones should only pop up once in a great while.
We disagree.
I believe the brown jerseys are the only good jerseys our teams have worn in years -- or at least since Josh Harris played here.
I believe in brown as the primary color. I also believe in a traditional look for us.
To my eyes, Ohio University has the best uniforms in the conference. These things take advantage of that institutions two most valuable assets: It's ancient tradition, and the word "Ohio."
There is merit to trying to reinvent the football uniform -- but the challenge is to do it right.
Oregon, incidentally, did it right. They threw out the rule book and they made a bold statement. When Oregon steps onto a field, they are not confused with any other football team in the world. They broke ground.
When Bowling Green steps onto the field, I would like it understood that this is Bowling Green, and no other team -- not Clemson, not Syracuse, etc. That should be the goal.
Here, brown is a key weapon. By making brown the dominant color, we set ourselves apart instantly.
It becomes more of a challenge to make a bold modern design statement, especially in our situation.
I sense that when we work with suppliers, they essentially pitch us concepts that have been tried elsewhere -- which is entirely at odds with what Oregon achieved and the goal of truly reinventing the uniform.
And we see the result, I think, in the orange home and white road jerseys. Essentially, we have an odd font for the numerals and some swooshes around. A lot of football teams have been dabbling with these concepts for years.
I've never cared for them.
In fact, I think we will be snickering at them a couple of decades hence -- perhaps comparing the whole fad (and, yes, I see our current nonbrown uniforms as faddish) to the baby blue phase of major league baseball road uniforms a couple of decades back.
Some of the traditional versus modern question comes down to how you see our university and your aspirations for it.
On the one hand, we are a relatively youthful institution that has never allowed itself to be tied too tightly to the cobwebs of pomp and tradition. Certainly, one doesn't see that when one looks at campus architecture.
And yet, when I look at our football team, I see a strong, proud tradition. I see a half-century of winning tradition in the MAC, in a state that drips with football tradition. I see that we play in a stadium named for this fella:
So, at the end of the day, I figure we should probably come up with a uniform that Doyt Perry would have liked.
The brown home jerseys are pretty close to that. And that's why I like 'em.
That's my take.
