Illini Basketball Uniforms

[Fighter of the Nightman]

That’s fair. I’m a big soccer fan, and in that sport the concepts of kit color is more “primary/secondary” than “light at home, dark away”. For example, Real Madrid wears all-white as its primary, while Barcelona wears dark red and navy as their primary. So when they play, no matter where the game is, RM is in white and Barca wears their “blaugrana”.

We’ve also talked about the Bragging Rights game always being some sort of color vs color game (navy vs gold, orange vs black, or orange vs gold), but that’s also a true neutral site game.

Yeah, it's not really that I have these hard and fast rules, it's more that I think throwing it all open to "who really cares, anyway??" is a huge mistake. Regardless of my feelings for either team, I remember thinking that it was cool that it was this exceedingly rare event to see the Dallas Cowboys in navy or LSU in purple because they both wore white at home. If Illinois Basketball had this long-standing tradition where we always wore orange at home AND on the road and it was this special/rare event to ever see our white uniforms because we'd have to be playing at another team that didn't wear white at home ... fine! But the NBA logic seems to be, "We want to sell BOTH colors of jerseys, so we need to wear both at home in front of our fans!" And that is super lame, IMO.

RE: The color rush at neutral site games, I frankly think that should have already been a pretty ironclad tradition in college sports, and I am shocked it isn't. USC/UCLA should not be rare FOR that type of game. I'm not saying I want to sideline white jerseys because I don't, but for absolutely perfect events like Illini/Mizzou in St. Louis, Georgia/Florida in Jacksonville, Oklahoma/Texas in Dallas, etc. where the team colors and the truly neutral location just make WAY too much sense not to do it ... why not color rush??

 

[Fighter of the Nightman]

I feel like there’s probably a perfectly bureaucratic reason for it.

Or some kind of budgeting reason. For example:

A) A redesign costs money and there are other, more pressing items for which the team needs that money. So if it comes down to, "Do you want to spend $100k on new jerseys or on upgrades to the locker room." (Just making something up), I could see jerseys getting deprioritized.

B) Similarly, if the contract with Nike states that they will give us $X millions of dollars per year to use toward apparel or whatever else we want it for (I believe this is how some of the deals work) I could see us using that money elsewhere because Brad or someone thinks the current uniforms are "good enough".

While the decision by Brad or Josh or whomever to continually forgo uniform upgrades seems perplexing from our perspectives, no one is really able to say for sure without knowing the other alternatives or opportunity costs at play.

I'm not saying you're wrong (I obviously have no idea!), but every time I think this could be the answer - and it may partially be the answer - I am sort of shook by two things:

1. Football arguably has way more incentive to dump every penny into NIL and facilities, and we have devoted significant attention toward our uniforms and branding on that front. So, that leaves me to believe it's more of Brad being totally indifferent while Bret seems to care.

2. Programs with objectively less in resources than Illini Basketball like Iowa or programs with AT BEST equal brand recognition like Missouri have recently got either good updates (Iowa) or brand new versions of their missing throwback colors (both), and Nike appeared incredibly responsive.

Even if this sort of bakes into your answer being correct (i.e., your "good enough" comment), I think there simply HAS to be an element where Brad isn't just totally indifferent, he actually thinks the discussion is a waste of time and hence why it hasn't gone anywhere.

... But then I'm also weirded out that we got TWO new throwback uniforms in Underwood's first couple seasons when we were terrible and almost certainly had fewer resources than now!

 

[OrangeBlue98]

I'm not saying you're wrong (I obviously have no idea!), but every time I think this could be the answer - and it may partially be the answer - I am sort of shook by two things:

1. Football arguably has way more incentive to dump every penny into NIL and facilities, and we have devoted significant attention toward our uniforms and branding on that front. So, that leaves me to believe it's more of Brad being totally indifferent while Bret seems to care.

2. Programs with objectively less in resources than Illini Basketball like Iowa or programs with AT BEST equal brand recognition like Missouri have recently got either good updates (Iowa) or brand new versions of their missing throwback colors (both), and Nike appeared incredibly responsive.

Even if this sort of bakes into your answer being correct (i.e., your "good enough" comment), I think there simply HAS to be an element where Brad isn't just totally indifferent, he actually thinks the discussion is a waste of time and hence why it hasn't gone anywhere.

... But then I'm also weirded out that we got TWO new throwback uniforms in Underwood's first couple seasons when we were terrible and almost certainly had fewer resources than now!

Me: “Hey, Coach. You like the Script or the 1989 version better?”

Underwood: (Gives answer.)

Me: “OK, cool. I’ll go to Nike and tell them to make a navy, orange, and white version. Orange letters and white trim on the navy version, white letters and blue trim on the orange version. Thanks, glad you could help!”

That imaginary conversation took longer for me to type than it would take to have in real life.

 

[21ChampaignSt]

I'm not saying you're wrong (I obviously have no idea!), but every time I think this could be the answer - and it may partially be the answer - I am sort of shook by two things:

1. Football arguably has way more incentive to dump every penny into NIL and facilities, and we have devoted significant attention toward our uniforms and branding on that front. So, that leaves me to believe it's more of Brad being totally indifferent while Bret seems to care.

2. Programs with objectively less in resources than Illini Basketball like Iowa or programs with AT BEST equal brand recognition like Missouri have recently got either good updates (Iowa) or brand new versions of their missing throwback colors (both), and Nike appeared incredibly responsive.

Even if this sort of bakes into your answer being correct (i.e., your "good enough" comment), I think there simply HAS to be an element where Brad isn't just totally indifferent, he actually thinks the discussion is a waste of time and hence why it hasn't gone anywhere.

... But then I'm also weirded out that we got TWO new throwback uniforms in Underwood's first couple seasons when we were terrible and almost certainly had fewer resources than now!

For sure...clearly there is some element of BU just not caring about uniforms as much as BB. Which that totally tracks with their personalities lol

IF it is a money thing though, it would just be nice to know what is being prioritized ahead of the uniforms. At least then we could maybe say that we understand even if we don't totally agree.

Same for if it's some kind of contractual thing. I just wish someone would come out and say that.

One thing I noticed though in about 5 minutes of research is that most of these contracts don't appear to be public. Is there a reason for that? Is there a reason that either the University of Nike wouldn't want the conditions of the deal made public? If the university came out and talked about the contract would they be violating some kind of NDA?

I really just have too much faith in JW as a savvy program builder to think this is a blind spot for him and there must be a logical reason for it.

 

[Hessel Blvd]

we need a pink variant to tip the hat to MegaBet...

 

[mattcoldagelli]

I feel like there’s probably a perfectly bureaucratic reason for it.

I am always sympathetic to Hanlon's Razor, but if you were to just assume someone is taking the path of least resistance, shouldn't that dictate that we never see the white or orange rebrand unis again? We've already got plainly superior white and orange uniforms.

Even if the people at DIA were not branding zealots like all of us, someone simply saying "Hey, we need a white, an orange, and a blue. Use the best of what we have for those and then it's on to bigger issues." would get us to a better place than we are in now.

Instead, we seem to be in a limbo where somebody cares juuuuust enough to "save" the Script Whites and Flying Illini throwbacks for "good" games and use the rebrand stuff for "bad" games but not travel the additional logical inch of "if we have a uniform we find ourselves burying on BTN+ games, maybe we should get rid of it."

 

[Toews]

I've said before, but we know for a fact Underwood hated the uniforms we had when he first came (the zig zags). He hated them so much he basically had us wear stock uniforms for a transition season. My guess is he just hates flashy uniforms and besides that doesn't care a ton. Obviously this is contrast to Bielema who cares deeply about uniforms and what he considers the brand of Illinois Football.

 

[altgeld88]

I've said before, but we know for a fact Underwood hated the uniforms we had when he first came (the zig zags). He hated them so much he basically had us wear stock uniforms for a transition season. My guess is he just hates flashy uniforms and besides that doesn't care a ton. Obviously this is contrast to Bielema who cares deeply about uniforms and what he considers the brand of Illinois Football.

Establishment and enforcement of brand consistency isn't simply the job of the AD, it's the job of the university president. And it's important.

My partner and I have strolled around several campuses in the Midwest/Plains since mid-October and she has pointed out branding (in)consistency each time. She noted how solid and consistent the branding is around the Kansas State and (*gag*) Ohio State campuses and what a hot mess it is at e.g. (lol) the University of Cincinnati.

 

[Poe's Law]

Could it be that we are a vocal minority and kids/recruits like that we have our own Nike font, even if we find it 1RR1TAT1NG?

 

[Rebounding Dog]

we need a pink variant to tip the hat to MegaBet...
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[Fighter of the Nightman]

I've said before, but we know for a fact Underwood hated the uniforms we had when he first came (the zig zags). He hated them so much he basically had us wear stock uniforms for a transition season. My guess is he just hates flashy uniforms and besides that doesn't care a ton. Obviously this is contrast to Bielema who cares deeply about uniforms and what he considers the brand of Illinois Football.

The thing about this, though, is that the "stock uniform" placeholder we wore for a transition year literally had more thought and care put into it than the "permanent" one we got! Even if you hate the two-color font (I certainly do), at least the number has an outline, and the striping pattern on the side is in no way any worse than what we ended up getting.

With the plain font, I would argue the current defaults actually look MORE like a stock uniform than that transition year! We pretty much traded a font outline for a neck collar, lol.

Anyway, I did my part this morning. I usually don't answer random phone numbers, but I saw a call from Urbana, IL and thought ... eh, what the hell?? It was an extremely nice young gal asking if we planned to attend another game this year since we went down for the MSU game last year, and she was pleased when we informed her we'd be at the UC tomorrow night. I then asked her if I could submit a kind request to feed up the totem pole, and she was very receptive.

I said every Illini fan and non-Illini fan I know absolutely loves our two throwback basketball uniforms, and I have rarely met anyone who likes our regular basketball jerseys ... so why didn't we just get white/orange/navy in both throwbacks years ago?? It seems like a frustratingly simple solution. Lol, she laughed and said she actually agreed and - while she could not guarantee how far up my request would make it - she would relay it to her boss.

 

[21ChampaignSt]

I am always sympathetic to Hanlon's Razor, but if you were to just assume someone is taking the path of least resistance, shouldn't that dictate that we never see the white or orange rebrand unis again? We've already got plainly superior white and orange uniforms.

Even if the people at DIA were not branding zealots like all of us, someone simply saying "Hey, we need a white, an orange, and a blue. Use the best of what we have for those and then it's on to bigger issues." would get us to a better place than we are in now.

Well, my working theory is that there is some kind of mandate or contractual obligation to use our standard jerseys for at least 51% of our games. Never have we ever wore throwbacks for more than 49% of our games but we've approached 50% multiple times in recent seasons.

Instead, we seem to be in a limbo where somebody cares juuuuust enough to "save" the Script Whites and Flying Illini throwbacks for "good" games and use the rebrand stuff for "bad" games but not travel the additional logical inch of "if we have a uniform we find ourselves burying on BTN+ games, maybe we should get rid of it."

I agree, but if you subscribe to the idea that there's one stubborn, tone deaf individual in charge making (or not making) these decisions, then this made me think that in a sense the throwbacks could be working against us a little bit. "Why do we need new jerseys? We have two great ones already. Is that not good enough for you?"

I'm just throwing out a bunch of theories, none of which I firmly believe in but all of which I feel are at least possible. What I do believe somewhat strongly is that this is more than just a case of someone saying "I like our current jerseys. They're top tier. Getting rid of them would be a mistake." I just have to believe there's more at play. The branding all around the basketball program has shifted heavily toward the script word mark over the last few years, so obviously Brad or someone in charge has more affinity for that than the 1LL1NO1S stuff.

You also can't say Brad has no interest or desire to have nice jerseys when he gave us the script jerseys. (If you believe that Brad is solely in charge of our equipment and uniform decisions which I don't subscribe to but it's possible and obviously he has influence.)

I understand the need to attach a face to the problem so we can direct angst at someone. But until someone comes out and says otherwise, I'm going to continue to believe there are other factors driving this.

 

[IlliniCaboose]

Establishment and enforcement of brand consistency isn't simply the job of the AD, it's the job of the university president. And it's important.

My partner and I have strolled around several campuses in the Midwest/Plains since mid-October and she has pointed out branding (in)consistency each time. She noted how solid and consistent the branding is around the Kansas State and (*gag*) Ohio State campuses and what a hot mess it is at e.g. (lol) the University of Cincinnati.

As someone who worked at a campus retail store for 8 years this always drove me crazy. Every single brand we ordered from used a slightly different shade of orange, absolutely zero consistency and, it appeared to me, zero enforcement from the university to even try to make them use the correct one. I can't tell you how many times I thought that you'd never see this at a Michigan or Wisconsin fan shop, especially one on campus!

 

[GrayGhost77]

The thing about this, though, is that the "stock uniform" placeholder we wore for a transition year literally had more thought and care put into it than the "permanent" one we got! Even if you hate the two-color font (I certainly do), at least the number has an outline, and the striping pattern on the side is in no way any worse than what we ended up getting.

With the plain font, I would argue the current defaults actually look MORE like a stock uniform than that transition year! We pretty much traded a font outline for a neck collar, lol.

Anyway, I did my part this morning. I usually don't answer random phone numbers, but I saw a call from Urbana, IL and thought ... eh, what the hell?? It was an extremely nice young gal asking if we planned to attend another game this year since we went down for the MSU game last year, and she was pleased when we informed her we'd be at the UC tomorrow night. I then asked her if I could submit a kind request to feed up the totem pole, and she was very receptive.

I said every Illini fan and non-Illini fan I know absolutely loves our two throwback basketball uniforms, and I have rarely met anyone who likes our regular basketball jerseys ... so why didn't we just get white/orange/navy in both throwbacks years ago?? It seems like a frustratingly simple solution. Lol, she laughed and said she actually agreed and - while she could not guarantee how far up my request would make it - she would relay it to her boss.

Thanks for doing your part! The uniform police mafia salutes you!

 

[BrownTown]

I'll also use a fresh thread to BEG for the most obvious solution that has been slapping us in the face for years now. Brad, Josh, Nike, insiders, whoever is listening and literally gives ONE passing thought to the basketball uniforms of a storied program like ours, PLEASE give us the two throwbacks in all three colors. It's so obvious that it hurts my brain to consider nobody in charge has considered this, much less thinks it's an inferior option to keeping the 1LL1NO1S rags. I think an ideal scenario would be to have the Flyin' Illini function as our "regular" uniforms and the Script be the "throwback" or special occasion ones. Thus, I think this is the ideal situation:

Home: White Flyin' Illini throwback that we wore during the Groce years and replaced with the current orange one.
View attachment 44642

Away: Navy Flyin' Illini uniform used in the early 1980s rather than the mid- to late 1980s (i.e., orange font instead of the white that the Flyin' Illini team wore)
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Alternate: Current orange Flyin' Illini throwback
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Throwback Home: Current white Script throwback.
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Throwback Away: Navy version of the Script throwback ... not sure if we ever had this or not, but I like the white font and orange outline for this specific style to match the striping like it does on the other colors.
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Throwback Alternate: Orange version of the Script throwback. An actual picture of these jerseys exists and has been posted here before.
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In this scenario, with all six uniforms being absolute gems in their own ways, you can actually start to reserve the Script ones for ACTUAL special occasions, rather than the totally random usage we get from our uniforms today. A general pattern I would like might look something like this:

White Flyin' Illini - Worn for a majority of home games and early-round postseason games where we are a heavy favorite (e.g., our first BTT game or the First Round of the NCAAT).
Navy Flyin' Illini - Worn for road games however often we choose but probably utilized more for opponents with red as their colors (e.g., at Indiana or Wisconsin).
Orange Flyin' Illini - Worn for road games however often we choose and probably utilized more for opponents with colors that contrast well with orange (e.g., at Michigan or Iowa). Also worn for home games on certain occasions, including our Hail to the Orange Out game.
White Script - Worn for "big home games" or neutral site postseason games where we are the higher seed.
Navy Script - Worn for 1-2 "big road games" per year, maybe our go-to uniform for these big "away neutral" games like UConn at MSG or Tennessee in Nashville.
Orange Script - Worn for a few "big games" at home or away per year, no set pattern. HOWEVER, this should be our Braggin' Rights uniform every single year with no exceptions, and Missouri should always wear gold to create a "color rush" setup like UCLA/USC!

For fun, an example of my personal usage for this year's schedule might be:

White Flyin' Illini vs. Jackson State
White Flyin' Illini vs. FGCU
White Script vs. #10 Texas Tech ... First big home game.
White Flyin' Illini vs. Colgate
White Flyin' Illini vs. #15 Alabama in Chicago, IL ... Emphasizing that it is OUR home game.
White Flyin' Illini vs. LIU
White Flyin' Illini vs. UTRGV
Navy Script vs. #4 UConn in New York, NY ... "Big 'road' game"
Navy Script vs. #18 Tennessee in Nashville, TN ... Same as UConn game, plus navy contrasts well with Tennessee.
Navy Flyin' Illini at Ohio State
White Flyin' Illini vs. Nebraska
Orange Script vs. Missouri in St. Louis, MO ... Braggin' Rights tradition.
White Flyin' Illini vs. Southern
Orange Flyin' Illini vs. Penn State in Philadelphia, PA
White Flyin' Illini vs. Rutgers
Orange Script at Iowa ... We should do way more as a program to promote this as our clear #1 rivalry rather than Northwestern, so bust out the "big game" jersey.
Orange Flyin' Illini at Northwestern
White Flyin' Illini vs. Minnesota
White Flyin' Illini vs. Maryland
Orange Flyin' Illini at #1 Purdue ... Big game, yes, but we're on a winning streak in the orange Flyin' Illini set!
White Flyin' Illini vs. Washington
Navy Flyin' Illini at Nebraska
Orange Script at #22 Michigan State
White Flyin' Illini vs. #24 Wisconsin
White Flyin' Illini vs. Indiana
Navy Flyin' Illini at USC
Orange Flyin' Illini at #12 UCLA
Orange Flyin' Illini vs. #7 Michigan ... Hail to the Orange Out game
White Flyin' Illini vs. Oregon
Navy Flyin' Illini at Maryland

The fact that the 'Fighting Illini' jerseys exist as a throwback and not our everyday wear is just....mind boggling.

I'm also incredibly partial to the blue Illinois alternate of the early 90s but I'm not sure how you could tailor that large neck 'V' and extended arm cutouts into a modern design. --Though I'd love the attempt--

 

[redwingillini11]

I am willing to speculate that two things have likely happened.

First, I think somebody must be telling the DIA / basketball program that beloved throwbacks have to be alternates. Look at the NFL: how many teams have throwbacks that are universally considered better than the standards? I count the Patriots, Dolphins, Buccaneers, Eagles, Commanders, Falcons, Jaguars, Titans, Broncos, Seahawks, and maybe the Vikings. If it were as simple as "make the favored throwback the standard kit", we would see more such adoption in the NFL. There has to be some "uniform theory" being pushed, maybe by Nike, maybe other marketing/branding professionals, that have told Illinois you can't make the throwbacks standard. Maybe it's a money thing. Maybe it's a "if you use it too much it is no longer special" theory. Maybe they want you to buy the standard jerseys, AND then also get hyped to buy throwbacks, instead of just buying a "throwback-standard" jersey and calling it a day. Well, I doubt anyone is going out of their way to get the standard set. I think the boots on the ground all agree this theory just shouldn't apply to Illinois basketball. But I think these professionals just get an idea stuck in their head and can't be convinced that they may be wrong.

Second, I have to imagine that they have looked at updating the standard set at least once, and you can imagine it very possible that Brad took a look at the proposed new look and said "no, this is stupid. what we have is better than this. why would we change?" And then things have been stuck ever since. His K.I.S.S. approach to removing the zig zags indicates to me he just wants something simple and no nonsense. But Brad, just throw us this bone!

Alternatively, based upon the insane decision to not have a 2005 throwback last season, maybe we just aren't good at this basketball uniform game. Thank goodness Bielema has had opinions and has implemented them.

 

[Fighter of the Nightman]

I am willing to speculate that two things have likely happened.

First, I think somebody must be telling the DIA / basketball program that beloved throwbacks have to be alternates. Look at the NFL: how many teams have throwbacks that are universally considered better than the standards? I count the Patriots, Dolphins, Buccaneers, Eagles, Commanders, Falcons, Jaguars, Titans, Broncos, Seahawks, and maybe the Vikings. If it were as simple as "make the favored throwback the standard kit", we would see more such adoption in the NFL. There has to be some "uniform theory" being pushed, maybe by Nike, maybe other marketing/branding professionals, that have told Illinois you can't make the throwbacks standard. Maybe it's a money thing. Maybe it's a "if you use it too much it is no longer special" theory. Maybe they want you to buy the standard jerseys, AND then also get hyped to buy throwbacks, instead of just buying a "throwback-standard" jersey and calling it a day. Well, I doubt anyone is going out of their way to get the standard set. I think the boots on the ground all agree this theory just shouldn't apply to Illinois basketball. But I think these professionals just get an idea stuck in their head and can't be convinced that they may be wrong.

Second, I have to imagine that they have looked at updating the standard set at least once, and you can imagine it very possible that Brad took a look at the proposed new look and said "no, this is stupid. what we have is better than this. why would we change?" And then things have been stuck ever since. His K.I.S.S. approach to removing the zig zags indicates to me he just wants something simple and no nonsense. But Brad, just throw us this bone!

Alternatively, based upon the insane decision to not have a 2005 throwback last season, maybe we just aren't good at this basketball uniform game. Thank goodness Bielema has had opinions and has implemented them.

I think these are good theories, and I'm only adding bored devil's advocate conversation. Here are my issues with these hypothetical people (NOT you, haha) with these presumed theories.

1. What's annoying to me is that it seems totally lost on the DIA/Nike/Brad/whomever that UPDATED throwbacks can be our regular jerseys. As I've posted ad nauseum, Duke/Kansas/Indiana/UCLA/etc. change their uniforms regularly, and they don't have the same uniforms as years ago ... so their default uniforms really AREN'T throwbacks. They're just updated versions of a consistent brand/look. And what infuriatingly blows my mind is that that is what our throwbacks already are!! The orange Flyin' Illini uniform we wore in 1989 does not look like the one we wore for a game in 2005, and neither look like the current set! Not only have we updated the lettering, but even the striping patterns have changed each time. If we want "special throwbacks" we only wear regularly, then toss in a 2005 era or even one from another decade. The Script and Flyin' Illini should NOT be used in that capacity, they should be the defaults that we aren't worried about wearing too often or whatever.

2. I agree we clearly appear inept at this college hoops uniform game, but I'm just bewildered that we got both the orange Flyin' Illini AND the white Script throwbacks during Brad's tenure AND when we were way worse/presumably less of a priority for Nike! I just can't imagine a scenario where Nike proactively approached the DIA in 2017 or 2018 and was like, "Will you PLEASE let us give you some super cool throwbacks for your 14-18 basketball team??" It would be one thing if we had just had the same throwbacks forever, and Brad never gave a crap and neither did Nike. However, it is mind boggling that SOMEONE cared enough to give us two elite throwbacks at a time when we were at our worst, and literally no one in power gives a flying crap now.

 

[Fighter of the Nightman]

It won't happen, but I hold out a fool's hope since both Iowa and Purdue got surprise additional throwbacks midseason this year with absolutely no warning. So ... here's my naive wish for tonight.

 

[GiorgiSaidAmazing12Times]

It won't happen, but I hold out a fool's hope since both Iowa and Purdue got surprise additional throwbacks midseason this year with absolutely no warning. So ... here's my naive wish for tonight.

I vote we gather a contingent of fans at tonight's game and show Josh Whitman this thread

 

[redwingillini11]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1991922078052696161

 

[redwingillini11]

Immediate speculation: Are we getting blue and orange script jerseys with the script becoming our new base set?

It’s maybe not crazy to think that they used up the old standard sets that they had during the early season blah games and now as the season is really starting to take off we get the new look unveiled.

 

[Fighter of the Nightman]

Immediate speculation: Are we getting blue and orange script jerseys with the script becoming our new base set?

It’s maybe not crazy to think that they used up the old standard sets that they had during the early season blah games and now as the season is really starting to take off we get the new look unveiled.

Based on the (admittedly hard to see!) colors in that video and the clear hint at the Script, I am going to optimistically predict that we will be rocking this at MSG next week!

 

[21ChampaignSt]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1991922078052696161

Whaaaaat

 

[Fighter of the Nightman]

Based on the (admittedly hard to see!) colors in that video and the clear hint at the Script, I am going to optimistically predict that we will be rocking this at MSG next week!

Somewhat related side note, I find it interesting how while we very clearly have updated the orange Flyin' Illini template multiple times over the years, with the current set having noticeably different letter proportions and even an entirely different striping pattern...

^^^ Actual 1989 version.

^^^ Very similar but switched the inner striping from B/O/B to O/B/O ... also maybe made the number font wider?

^^^ Made significant changes to the letter sizing but also completely replaced the striping pattern. Overall, the striping got a bit more complex, but the most noticeable change is getting rid of the bold white stripe separating the orange jersey from the white side part.


... it's interesting that we literally made ZERO changes to the 1970s Script design other than having a more modern / better jersey material:

If it ain't broke, don't fix it, I guess! Guessing the orange Script uniform (if we are lucky enough to get that!!) would look nearly identical to the one worn in the late 1970s. It sucks the picture is so grainy, but this was the best in-game photo I could find (from a YouTube video, lol).

 

[Fighter of the Nightman]

Also, if we are lucky enough to get the Script uniform in orange, I will echo my plea to make Braggin' Rights a color rush game EVERY single year. It helps add to the tradition, and it emphasizes that unlike Alabama hosting us in Birmingham or us hosting Alabama in Chicago, Braggin' Rights is a TRUE neutral site. These should be the Braggin' Rights uniforms every year, no exceptions!