Rose Bowl ticket seekers (1951)

Click photo to embiggen.

Rose Bowl ticket seekers, in December 1951. The fellows in this photo rock a badass mix of casual and formal (note wingtips with rolled up jeans, righteous pea coats and leather jackets, etc.) The first national television audience for a college football game saw Illinois clobber Stanford 40-7 in the Grandaddy of Them All (TM) (C) (R) etc

etc

Hollywood Stars uniform shorts (1950)

Manager Fred Haney models the correct uniform worn by the Hollywood Stars in 1950. The Pacific Coast League's Hollywood Stars "innovated" the wearing of shorts as part of their on-field uniforms, long before the much maligned experiment of my beloved White Sox in 1976. As both the Stars and Sox discovered, shorts while lighterweight and more comfortable and damn sexy, were not ideally designed to slide into third base in. The shorts for both teams were folded in short order.

Simpsons Sears Catalog (1957)

Snapped from the Simpsons- Sears catalog, 1957, generously shared by Flickr user Wishbook. I really dig the Hawks sweater and I would definitely take advantage of the complete set savings for toque, sweater, and stockings. The lad models were obviously not enforcers- they are far too pretty. I'm tempted to export this into Microsoft Paint to add some Frankenstein facial scars.

Simpsons-Sears also had a great logo in the Fifties, according to Wikipedia.

wrong uniform: Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in football jerseys (1927)

Babe Ruth in a Notre Dame jersey and Lou Gehrig in USC jersey in promo shot for Irish/ Trojans game at Soldier Field in Chicago, 1927.

the varsity jacket: Mergenthaler Vocational- Technical High School (1954)

"Students sitting outside with school jackets on, at Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School" from Life Magazine, 1954

The students model three, count 'em, THREE different varsity jackets. I prefer the "Mervo" model.

Ralph Bunche- Air Nobel Peace Prize (1927)

Future Nobel Peace Prize winner Ralph Bunche models Chucks and shorty shorts in this photograph. The photo says ca. 1931, however Bunche graduated from UCLA in 1927- so this photo is either from then or from his later scholarly pursuits at Harvard. Bunche was an all around athlete at UCLA before moving on to help write the UN charter and broker peace in the Middle East, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950. Below, Bunche at far right rocks a cool letterman sweater at Harvard. I'm guessing that C stands for California?

the varsity jacket: John McKay, USC coach (1964)

Wampum High School basketball uniform (1957)

" Wampum High-school team member during "handicap" practice session, wearing weighted smocks, golashes, gloves, glasses which partially obstruct vision, all intended to improve their game." from Life Magazine, December 1957

Dig the striped side piping on those shorty short shorts!

sold on eBay- vintage 1960s US Marine Corps durene football jersey

I love when my eBay items go to people who appreciate them for nostalgic personal reasons!

Winning bidder, Tim, shares this story:

"My dad was the Commissary Officer there in the late 60s/early 70s, and my aunt and uncle worked at the base in the late 50s and 60s. I think the team was just a semi-pro type team that played other bases. There were several Army and Air Force bases within 100 miles. There was a field right by the front gate of the base. You may not have had to actually enter the base to get into the stands. They also had other events there too. I'm almost 53 and most of this happened while I was quite young, but I grew up in Barstow and now that I'm older I've been collecting relics from the past. I had honestly forgotten about all of that until seeing this jersey. I've got a couple of jerseys/warmups from the High School, but had never seen anything from the base like this. I think they also had a basketball team, as I remember playing at the base when I was in Jr High, and there were Marines playing a game after us that had uniforms. Wow... alot of memories!"

*The stencil on the back reads, "Special Services MCSC Barstow"

Award Jackets and Matching Caps from the Sears Catalog (1980)

(click on image to embiggen and begin drooling)

Indian Motorcycles racing jersey (1948)

Floyd Emde models a great Indian motorcycle racing jersey after winning the 200 mile race at Daytona Beach Motorcycle races. (1948)



and an awesome home movie from one year later.

Art Somers, Chicago Black Hawks (1930)

from the Library of Congress's American Memory image collection of the Chicago Daily News' photos.

Believe in your team t-shirt (1979)

I very vaguely remember this shirt- wonder if they had the New Jersey Devils in stock? If so, the shirt would read, "If you believe in God, Believe in the Devils"! That's what I call a great "conversation shirt"!

I'm pretty sure Jerry Jones is Lucifer, by the way.

found in Baseball Digest, December 1979

college uniforms from Murad Cigarettes cards

Murad Cigarette cards, 1888-1927 and undated, from Duke University's Emergence of Advertising in America, 1850-1920 digital collection.
These are all badass, but the hockey unis are by far the coolest thing I have seen all day. The toques are incredible!

Stonewall anniversary activist t-shirts

"Men and women marching in the street carrying signs and wearing t-shirts against Anita Bryant."

from the Duke University archive of William Gedney photos

May and Halas Sporting Goods

Amazing tag, cribbed from Uniwatch, my new favorite blog. "About that May & Halas tag, Papa Bear actually ran a team-supply sporting goods store in Chicago. They sold uniforms by Wilson and King-O’Shea, a Wilson subsidiary. The Bears used Wilson or K-OS uniforms right up until the NFL decided to go with a single manufacturer. At one time Halas had his office at the store — in this book, Lamar Hunt mentions that he (Hunt) visited Chicago for a meeting with Halas “at his sporting goods store.”

Now I have to figure out where that was. Another research product. I'm definitely stealing some design elements from this one for my own use.

from this auction I did not win: 1950s Chicago Bears team jacket

Check out this beaut.
I would wear this every single day of my life including 120 degree days here in Phoenix and wear it to bed every night! Can anyone spare $1300?

Sand Knit catalog cover, 1972

Oh man, i wish i could take a peek inside this thing- WAIT: UNIWATCH has a slideshow posted- scroll down!
Sand Knit was the premiere uniform manufacturer for damn near 50 years, serving high schools and professional teams alike.

style study: Motorcycle Girls of Laconia, NH, 1947

"Woman and her daughter sharing interest in motorcycle racing." Their hats say "Motor Maid Betty (L) and Motor Maid Dot! Hell yes!
According to this site: "Dot was a woman before her time. In 1939, following up on the idea formulated by Linda Dugeau, Dot rode all over the United States looking for women who owned and rode their own motorcycles. She found 51 ladies who became the charter members of the Motor Maids of America, now known as the Motor Maids, Inc"
Argyle, giant handmade belt, drinking = a winning combination! The driver is also wearing matching argyle. Looks like a sweater vest with a work shirt underneath.

hubba la hubba la boomski! This is my kind of dame! The goggles tie the whole thing together.

Dee's wayfarers and leather jacket across her lap scream American badass. AMERICAN BADASS!

Babs is the sophisticated lady of this bunch. Her cartridge belt/purse says, "I'm a lady, but I might be packing a side arm".

American servicemen and women returning from WWII established the template for iconic rebellious style. Brando's later portrayal of Johnny in the Wild One certainly aped the pure style established by real rebels like the ones pictured above. Not sure what is going on with those crazy wide belts, but, oh boy, I'm digging them. I especially dig the one with turn signal arrows! From Life Magazine image archives dating to July 1947.

Newest Styles for Men, 1924

Model No. 927. Young men's two button stout model; Model No. 928. Conservative two button stout model.

Dealers in Clothing (1855)

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