Fashion Forward Football

Here in Oregon, everyone's abuzz about the upcoming BCS Championship Game featuring our very own University of Oregon Ducks. It's the first time the Ducks have played for a national title in football, and that's a big huge deal for those of us who have followed them over the past X decades.


In addition to their dominance on the playing field, the team has garnered national attention for their uniforms, of all things. For the past couple of years Nike has provided an array of uniform options that ensures the players won't have to wear the same outfit twice in the course of the season. Yellow shirts can be worn with green pants and a white helmet as the crowning glory, or they can mix it up with an all-green or all-black option; while sartorially slick, the latter choice has been criticized for including exactly none of the school's colors.


As a historian (and an older fan) my favorite uniform is this throwback style the Ducks wore early in the season. Although there are no fancy wings on the shoulders, these jerseys are a classic green-and-gold reminder of the years at the bottom of the Pac-10 Conference. Good times.

For the national championship game, the #2 Ducks will wear the visitors' uniforms, an all-white ensemble with silver numbers, accented with a silver-grey helmet and bright yellow socks. I am anticipating a beautifully-executed game on the part of the Ducks -- and they're going to look good, too.

Go Ducks!