If there were ever any teams whose uniforms were more steeped in tradition, they were the Princeton Tigers and the Penn Quakers. Princeton's tiger-striped jerseys have been around for at least a century, and Penn's alternating red-and-navy stripes have roots in the 19th century. (Don't believe me? Look here.)
But after a run of bad seasons in the early 1960s, new coach Bob Odell took tradition and gave it a 50-yard punt. First, the striped jerseys were gone, replaced by plain red shirts with HY-OOGE numbers on the front and back -- a look reminiscent of a certain other Philadelphia team. The blue helmets in use since the 1950s were the next to go, and red helmets with a "P" on the sides -- the Quakers' first use of a helmet logo -- were in.
This overhaul kinda reminds me of the University of Arizona; for years, the Wildcats' primary colors were navy and white with a dash of red, but red has become dominant in recent years while blue is now second (or third?) banana.
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| A 1967 Penn media guide. Is that really Penn? Yup. |
Did Penn's remodeling effort bring wins? Um, no: 4-4-1 in '65, 2-7 in '66. By '67, blue jerseys were back. In '71, red returned -- but so did the stripes.
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| The '65 Penn roads in action at Yale. From the Yale Daily News. |
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