“We’re the Red and White from State.” As a student of this university, I take that very seriously.
Now, I am not totally opposed to alternate uniforms. But to me, there are two criteria that alternate uniforms should always follow. First, they should only include team colors. Second, they should follow the same template as the regular uniforms.
That is where my first issue lies: N.C. State’s “blackout” game against Clemson on Jan. 20. The Wolfpack wore black uniforms. No matter how much people want it to be, black is not one of State’s official colors. We’re not the “Red, Black and White from State.”
The blackout is one of those classic college concepts in which the crowd dresses in black to supposedly intimidate the opposing team. I did not attend the Clemson game, but from the look of it, the only people wearing black were the students. And even then, there were pockets of people not wearing the black shirts provided to all students. What’s the point? Uniform junkies call this “black for black’s sake,” or BFBS for short. It’s pretty self-explanatory.
It created an interesting dynamic as the students in black stood with the rest of the customary red-and-white crowd. It looked, for lack of a better term, lame. Perhaps timing was the issue — I didn’t even know it was supposed to be a blackout until the day of the game. That doesn’t change the fact that it looked funky.
Back in December, State played in the Jimmy V Classic, an event named for legendary Wolfpack coach Jim Valvano. The team wore special one-time red uniforms with a net design on the shoulders alluding to the practice of cutting down the nets – which Valvano did in 1983 when the Pack won the national title. Instead of displaying player names on the back, the jerseys featured the famous Valvano phrase “Don’t ever give up.”
I’ll be the first to admit that it was a great concept. I’m all for honoring Jimmy V. But in practice, it just didn’t look very good. The top half of the jerseys looked like a Spiderman outfit. The one redeeming factor, however, was that the words and numbers on the uniforms were reminiscent of the Valvano era.
In State’s Jan. 26 showdown with rival North Carolina, the Pack broke out an all-red look. Not only were the jerseys and pants red, but so were the names, numbers, warm-ups and pretty much every other conceivable component. Most people liked the look, but I did not. With Carolina in its traditional baby blue uniforms, both teams were sporting colored attire.
This was also the case in the Clemson game. To me, that looks tacky, especially in a sport where 99 percent of games are played with one team in white. It looked like a YMCA game.
See, it’s not that these uniforms look particularly bad. It’s just that I’m getting tired of teams needing to wear some type of special uniform every time they have a big game. In my opinion, it strips a team of its identity if it comes out wearing something different every night. Just look at Oregon’s football team. It has 512 possible uniforms combinations. No, that is not an exaggeration. And it sounds awesome — if you’re in middle school.
Nike, which provides many programs with uniforms, has been making special football uniforms for years and giving them to select schools. Now it’s moved on to basketball. Teams such as Carolina, Duke, Gonzaga and others have worn or been scheduled to wear “Nike Elite” uniforms, which are basically the same dumbed-down uniform with differences in color and logo.
Of course, there is a reason for all of this, and you guessed it: money. More uniforms equals more money for whoever provides the school with apparel, and then the school can sell replicas at the bookstore and make money themselves. It’s happening everywhere.
It’s logical, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
When I was growing up, State basketball had two uniforms — white for home games, red for road games. What was wrong with that?
