What goes around comes around or from long to short to long.

Evolution of Basketball Uniforms

This article has been percolating in my mind for several weeks and the titles have been thoughts like “What Goes Around Comes Around,” or “The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same,” but I settled on the Evolution of Basketball Uniforms.  As you look at basketball uniforms from the early 1900’s when the game really took off to the present, the uniforms for the most part reflected the places where the teams played.  For example, look at the uniforms worn by the early Wingate teams and the other early Montgomery County teams.  They guys look like they are dressed to play football and there was good reason for that type of protection.  At first they needed extra padding because they played outdoors or if they were fortunate enough to have an indoor court, the walls were the out of bounds lines and the bleachers were two feet from the playing floor.  There were posts in the corners or the court and sometimes along the sidelines.  (There were also pot-bellied stoves in the corners to provide the only heat on the cold winter days and nights).

The game was rough in the early days and players got knocked into walls, stages, and the ever-present wooden seats that were right on the floor.  Homer Stonebraker once recalled that he couldn’t even get dressed after one game as he suffered three broken fingers and two broken ribs in one especially rough game.  Leland Olin, in an interview with “Butch” Dale in The Golden Era of Montgomery County Basketball, recalled,

“Fouls were not called as close as they are now, and a player would take a chance of getting back at a player—if he wasn’t in too much foul trouble—by giving him a good elbow or kick when the referee wasn’t looking.  You had to let the fellow know that you were still in the game,” he chuckled.

So the uniforms reflected the place where they games were played.  Teams started out playing outside on the dirt or on cinders as the early Linden teams did and the uniforms had to give the players some protection.  Again, “Butch” Dale reported that the uniforms of those days consisted of the more-or-less standard athletic shorts and a sleeveless shirt which was much like a man’s undershirt, gym shoes, wool stockings, some ankle length and sometime knee length as you can see in the early pictures of the Wingate and New Richmond teams. The pants were below-the-knee baseball or football pants.  Once again Leland Olin recalled with a chuckle that his team of the early 1900’s wanted to switch to the standard basketball shorts, but was talked out of it by Jack Blacker, a fellow member of the team, because he didn’t want all the girls making fun of his bare legs. 

Kobe Bryant must have felt the same way about short shorts.  Last year the Lakers wore retro uniforms in honor of Jerry West when they played they played the Celtics.  Bryant said the shorts made him feel “naked,” and he felt “violated.”  He commented, “I don’t know how it feels to wear a thong, but I imagine it feels something like what we had on the first half.”  Proving that you are what you wear and that clothes make the man, the Celtics beat the Lakers 110-91 with Bryant shooting 6-25 from the field.

The short shorts era changed drastically when the Fab Five came on the scene.  The Fab Five was a nickname given to the 1991 University of Michigan men’s basketball team.  They were considered to be the greatest recruiting class ever.  The class consisted of Jalen Rose, Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson.  Rose, Webber, and Howard all had distinguished NBA careers.  King played for a couple of years and Jackson never made it to the “Big Show.”  None of the five was ever on a team that won an NCAA or NBA championship.  However the Fab Five changed the face and the appearance of basketball forever when they brought a popular “Hip Hop” style to the game complete with trash talk, shaved heads and most importantly, longer, baggier pants.  It was the longer, baggier pants that set the style for the present basketball uniform.  Oddly enough, without the shaved heads, they looked like the Wingate Spartans of 1913 and 1914.   I guess it's true that “whatever goes around comes around."

The last item of the uniform obviously was the shoes.  The first athletic shoes were manufactured in the 1890’s and had rubber soles.  They were referred to as plimsolls.   Converse began making basketball shoes in 1908. (Remember the Chuck Taylor All-Stars made of canvas?)  My first pair of Chuck Taylor All-Stars was black and cost $7.50.  When the coach said that were going to wear white Converse basketball shoes my senior year; I was appalled.  Why would any self-respecting basketball player wear anything but black Chuck Taylor All-Stars?  I also wore a pair of U.S. Keds that year.  (white of course)  Converse dominated the basketball shoe market until the 1960’s.  Nike came along in 1972 and the race was on.  Reebok and Adidas also got into the shoe business about that time, but everyone wanted Nike after Michael Jordan put his stamp on the Air Jordan line in 1985.  The first Air Jordan cost the princely sum of $79.98 which is a real bargain compared to this year’s model at $230.00 if you are fortunate enough to get a pair in time for basketball season.

Well, that concludes the evolution of the basketball uniform from shirt to shoes.  Of course I have left out head bands and sweat bands for the wrists and barely mentioned the shooting sleeve so popular today.  I guess the modern players have a lot more “swag” than the players of yesterday did. Also the game of today bears little resemblance to the game of yesterday, but that is another story.