Illinois Football Uniforms

#102      
From the equipment manager video that showed the process, these are helmets that have been worn before (makes me think the standard orange helmets) which have all been painted blue.

It was a quick turnaround to get it done specifically for the bowl game and opponent.

So I am assuming they will be returned to their normal orange color on a standard timeline during the winter and we will rarely see them again.
if we play really well and win, I’m gonna guess we get a repeat of them next September
 
#103      
I think wearing the navy helmet against Northwestern would work for me, especially when played in Chicago.
Ok…… hear me out……. What if we went with the Bears color scheme…… with the Bears “C” on the helmet for “Champaign”?

This would ONLY be against Northwestern and refute the whole “Chicago’s Team” thing.

I already said it was a bad idea, so that argument is off the table. 🤣
 
#106      
This really does show the advantage of having two strong colors in your color scheme. When playing a school who only has orange as a “strong color” (I.e. not white), we can pivot and wear navy to stand out more against orange.
 
#107      
This really does show the advantage of having two strong colors in your color scheme. When playing a school who only has orange as a “strong color” (I.e. not white), we can pivot and wear navy to stand out more against orange.
Exactly, and this is why certain 1LL1NO1S-based uniforms are so, so lame … e.g., our Lovie Era white football uniforms and the current default white and orange set for hoops (though I’m hopeful they’re history now…).

What I mean is we should never have a uniform that only truly features white and orange or white and navy. Any time we use white, it should be accompanied by both prominent colors. The plain orange font on a white uniform with no navy outline looks SO bad and incomplete.
 
#108      
crazy how the shorter uprights make the field goal target seem wider
If I’m remembering correctly, the NCAA goal posts used to be wider (like the width in high school). I think it was the late 1990s when the NCAA adopted the width of NFL goalposts.
i just looked it up . they went to pro width in 1991 . I totally forgot that
Yeah... thought the same thing and confirmed it. This is an interesting Substack piece (below) on goal posts with an Illini tie-in. Also, I was a little kid when the H-posts were still stationed on the goal line, which was crazy and resulted in nasty collisions. Lol at the photo of Kezar Satdium in SF with two sets of goal posts. BTW, that stadium is still there (though rebuilt on a smaller scale). Rode my bike around the track 30 years ago.

In the end, the NCAA increased the goal post width to 23 feet 9 inches in 1959 and kept that standard until 1991, when they returned to the 18 feet 6-inch goal posts as extra point and field goal accuracy rates skyrocketed.

 
#109      
Yeah... thought the same thing and confirmed it. This is an interesting Substack piece (below) on goal posts with an Illini tie-in. Also, I was a little kid when the H-posts were still stationed on the goal line, which was crazy and resulted in nasty collisions. Lol at the photo of Kezar Satdium in SF with two sets of goal posts. BTW, that stadium is still there (though rebuilt on a smaller scale). Rode my bike around the track 30 years ago.

In the end, the NCAA increased the goal post width to 23 feet 9 inches in 1959 and kept that standard until 1991, when they returned to the 18 feet 6-inch goal posts as extra point and field goal accuracy rates skyrocketed.

Did anyone else play table football (with the little triangle paper ‘football’)?

I remember playing as a kid and you had to agree beforehand if you were playing college goalposts (index fingers touching and thumbs up) or pro goalposts (thumbs touching and index fingers up).

Good memories.
 
#112      
Illini fans wear mostly orange for the vast majority of games. I hope we are trying to spread this message a bit more widespread than the end of a Werner post! It should be posted by our official football account daily.
Unfortunately, as we've seen in the past when Illinois has called for an "Orange Out" at Memorial Stadium during cooler weather, you won't get a common color look when people are wearing jackets that, mostly, aren't Illini colors. With the projected high temperature of 36 DegF in Nashville on Tuesday we'll see the most common color of winter coats as the Illini fan side color scheme.
 
#113      
Unfortunately, as we've seen in the past when Illinois has called for an "Orange Out" at Memorial Stadium during cooler weather, you won't get a common color look when people are wearing jackets that, mostly, aren't Illini colors. With the projected high temperature of 36 DegF in Nashville on Tuesday we'll see the most common color of winter coats as the Illini fan side color scheme.
I'll be wearing blue under my black coat
 
#114      
Did anyone else play table football (with the little triangle paper ‘football’)?

I remember playing as a kid and you had to agree beforehand if you were playing college goalposts (index fingers touching and thumbs up) or pro goalposts (thumbs touching and index fingers up).

Good memories.
My dude... I never would have remembered that detail but now that you mentioned it I do, c. early '70s. Loved the triangle field goal kicking. I made some killer goalposts using my Tinkertoy set.

For those younger than, say, 50 it's hard to understand how crazy football was with the posts on the goal line, even after they went to the single-post Y configuration. Video below for some Yakety Sax-accompanied footage. I lived in Canada for a while; the CFL there still has the posts on the goal line. Back in the day when I'd watch the CFL on TV I saw some WRs and DBs get absolutely drilled occasionally.

 
#115      
So is anyone going to mention that the color of blue (navy or whatever) on this helmet is not the same as the blue on the rest of our uniform? They certainly mention this (in the past) when it is orange uniforms and orange helmets..
 
#119      
Some random uniform thoughts.

1. I don't care if this helmet is worked into the rotation or if it remains a super rare/special one we only bust out for things like this. I will say, however, that I think it should only be matched with navy or white pants. Nothing more than personal preference here, but I hate the look where the darker primary color is used for the helmet and the lighter one is used for the pants ... I think only the opposite works aesthetically. This obviously excludes accent colors like white and only includes two "bold" colors.

To use an Illini example, O/W/B would look awesome, but I think B/W/O would look bad. If we want the navy helmet on the road, you gotta to go with B/W/B.

2. I was totally onboard with never wearing anything but an orange helmet, but that ship has obviously somewhat sailed, lol. Given that, I would TOTALLY support getting to see this bad boy next year ... now that "only orange" isn't a strict rule, this is just objectively an awesome look.

Script v3 (White).png

I could totally be swayed to switch things around like having navy font with an orange outline or using a navy facemask, but this is the only picture I had, lol.

3. It seems obvious that Bret feels that two of our three 3-stripe patterns must match. With all navy and all orange, all three obviously match. With our O/W/W or O/B/B looks, the jersey and pants match. With O/W/O and O/B/O (and B/W/B if it ever happens now), the helmet pattern matches the pants. I find it highly unlikely that we will ever see the combos that use three different versions of the 3-stripe pattern in one uniform, which unfortunately includes the classic #BPOTR look of O/W/B (B/W/B helmet stripe, B/O/B jersey stripe and O/W/O pants stripe). :cry:

4. Lastly, it is kind of interesting to see our uniform combos laid out in chronological order since we got the new uniforms. Skipping the helmets just to show a more apples-to-apples trend.

BASE
O/B/O
vxxxx
O/B/B vxxxx
O/O/O vxxxx
O/W/O vxxxx
O/W/W vxxxx


2023
O/B/O
vs. Toledo
O/W/W at Kansas
O/B/O vs. Penn State (Orange Out ... uniforms weren't ready yet, lol)
O/B/B vs. FAU
O/W/W at Purdue
O/B/B vs. Nebraska
O/W/W at Maryland
O/B/O vs. Wisconsin (Homecoming)
O/W/W at Minnesota
O/O/O vs. Indiana (Veterans Day)
O/W/W at Iowa
O/B/O vs. Northwestern

2024
O/B/O
vs. Eastern Illinois
O/O/O vs. Kansas (Orange Out)
O/B/O vs. Central Michigan (Homecoming)
O/W/O at Nebraska
O/W/O at Penn State
O/B/B vs. Purdue
N/A vs. Michigan (Grange Era Throwbacks)
O/W/W at Oregon
O/O/O vs. Minnesota (Veterans Day)
O/B/O vs. Michigan State
O/W/O at Rutgers
O/W/O vs. Northwestern (Wrigley Field - Chicago, IL)
O/B/O vs. South Carolina (Citrus Bowl - Orlando, FL)

2025
O/B/O
vs. Western Illinois
O/W/O at Duke
O/B/O vs. Western Michigan
O/W/O at Indiana
O/B/O vs. USC (Homecoming)
O/W/O at Purdue
O/O/O vs. Ohio State (Orange Out)
O/W/W at Washington
O/B/O vs. Rutgers
O/B/O vs. Maryland (Veterans Day)
O/W/O at Wisconsin
O/B/O vs. Northwestern
B/B/B vs. Tennessee (Music City Bowl - Nashville, TN)

The fall from grace of the O/W/W look has been awesome for me personally, lol ... I hate it.
 
#120      
Did anyone else play table football (with the little triangle paper ‘football’)?

I remember playing as a kid and you had to agree beforehand if you were playing college goalposts (index fingers touching and thumbs up) or pro goalposts (thumbs touching and index fingers up).

Good memories.
Played it in grade school on winter days when we couldn't go out for recession. As you said, good memories.
 
#121      
Some random uniform thoughts.

1. I don't care if this helmet is worked into the rotation or if it remains a super rare/special one we only bust out for things like this. I will say, however, that I think it should only be matched with navy or white pants. Nothing more than personal preference here, but I hate the look where the darker primary color is used for the helmet and the lighter one is used for the pants ... I think only the opposite works aesthetically. This obviously excludes accent colors like white and only includes two "bold" colors.

To use an Illini example, O/W/B would look awesome, but I think B/W/O would look bad. If we want the navy helmet on the road, you gotta to go with B/W/B.

2. I was totally onboard with never wearing anything but an orange helmet, but that ship has obviously somewhat sailed, lol. Given that, I would TOTALLY support getting to see this bad boy next year ... now that "only orange" isn't a strict rule, this is just objectively an awesome look.

View attachment 45940
I could totally be swayed to switch things around like having navy font with an orange outline or using a navy facemask, but this is the only picture I had, lol.

3. It seems obvious that Bret feels that two of our three 3-stripe patterns must match. With all navy and all orange, all three obviously match. With our O/W/W or O/B/B looks, the jersey and pants match. With O/W/O and O/B/O (and B/W/B if it ever happens now), the helmet pattern matches the pants. I find it highly unlikely that we will ever see the combos that use three different versions of the 3-stripe pattern in one uniform, which unfortunately includes the classic #BPOTR look of O/W/B (B/W/B helmet stripe, B/O/B jersey stripe and O/W/O pants stripe). :cry:

4. Lastly, it is kind of interesting to see our uniform combos laid out in chronological order since we got the new uniforms. Skipping the helmets just to show a more apples-to-apples trend.

BASE
O/B/O
vxxxx
O/B/B vxxxx
O/O/O vxxxx
O/W/O vxxxx
O/W/W vxxxx


2023
O/B/O
vs. Toledo
O/W/W at Kansas
O/B/O vs. Penn State (Orange Out ... uniforms weren't ready yet, lol)
O/B/B vs. FAU
O/W/W at Purdue
O/B/B vs. Nebraska
O/W/W at Maryland
O/B/O vs. Wisconsin (Homecoming)
O/W/W at Minnesota
O/O/O vs. Indiana (Veterans Day)
O/W/W at Iowa
O/B/O vs. Northwestern

2024
O/B/O
vs. Eastern Illinois
O/O/O vs. Kansas (Orange Out)
O/B/O vs. Central Michigan (Homecoming)
O/W/O at Nebraska
O/W/O at Penn State
O/B/B vs. Purdue
N/A vs. Michigan (Grange Era Throwbacks)
O/W/W at Oregon
O/O/O vs. Minnesota (Veterans Day)
O/B/O vs. Michigan State
O/W/O at Rutgers
O/W/O vs. Northwestern (Wrigley Field - Chicago, IL)
O/B/O vs. South Carolina (Citrus Bowl - Orlando, FL)

2025
O/B/O
vs. Western Illinois
O/W/O at Duke
O/B/O vs. Western Michigan
O/W/O at Indiana
O/B/O vs. USC (Homecoming)
O/W/O at Purdue
O/O/O vs. Ohio State (Orange Out)
O/W/W at Washington
O/B/O vs. Rutgers
O/B/O vs. Maryland (Veterans Day)
O/W/O at Wisconsin
O/B/O vs. Northwestern
B/B/B vs. Tennessee (Music City Bowl - Nashville, TN)

The fall from grace of the O/W/W look has been awesome for me personally, lol ... I hate it.
FotN ladies and gentlemen. Nobody does it better.
 
#122      
Exactly, and this is why certain 1LL1NO1S-based uniforms are so, so lame … e.g., our Lovie Era white football uniforms and the current default white and orange set for hoops (though I’m hopeful they’re history now…).

What I mean is we should never have a uniform that only truly features white and orange or white and navy. Any time we use white, it should be accompanied by both prominent colors. The plain orange font on a white uniform with no navy outline looks SO bad and incomplete.
Disappointed Debbie Downer GIF by Team Coco
 
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