However, the North Carolina Tar Heels went on national television Thursday night wearing dark blue uniforms that, besides being ugly, hid what is arguably the most recognizable color in college athletics.
There is a reason North Carolina merchandise is annually among the best-selling college apparel in the country and it's not because the football team wears navy. Most of it is because of the basketball team but it's also because Carolina blue is distinctive.
Admittedly, there's not a great football tradition at North Carolina unless you're measuring success by seven and eight-win seasons. But if you're trying to build something, be who you are. You're North Carolina. Wear Carolina blue.
I know wearing alternative uniforms boosts sales and it probably makes Nike happy. The players like it, I've been told. The head coach isn't fond of Carolina blue, either, I've heard.
If you want to wear dark blue, go to Virginia.
The Masters isn't going to award an orange jacket next year. The Kentucky Derby isn't going to lay a blanket of mums on the winner next spring. Duke isn't going to start wearing light blue.
But North Carolina now wears navy blue. That's for the blazers the frat boys wear to games.
-- Ron Green Jr.
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89 comments:
It looked like they were wearing Duke Blue to me
Then look closer next time. Duke wears royal blue, not navy.
It's just their alternate jersey bone head. Get over it and get a life!
In the end they still lost, so it's still Tarheel football...
They looked terrible, and they got worse as the game went on.
Wait, am I still talking about the uniforms?
Alternate jerseys are supposed to take a secondary color and make it primary. What UNC did makes no sense. Why not wear all black next time? Or even more appropriate, all pink?
Are you kidding? An article about how pretty their uniforms are? Seriously, stick to stats and figures. Leave the personal opinions and fashion comments at home
Navy blue IS an alternative color on UNC jerseys and always has been. They didn't pull this out of the air.
Ron Green - if you knew anything about sports, teams have different uniforms. Carolina has 6 different combinations and this is one of them. This is why you will always be a small time writer with a small time mind. With all the sports that went on last night, you are focusing on this? Please do us a favor and stop writing.
At least they weren't wearing pink. I saw the MLB teams wearing that color about a month ago to promote breast cancer awareness, which I am all for, but I just think sports should be left to sports and not promotion of agenda's or fashion statements.
I hate those uniforms.
They seriously need to lose that dark blue color and go back to Carolina Blue.
Anonymous @ 10:37am,
This is a blog, not an official news article; so the author is intitled to the subjects he wants to discuss and the opinion he feels about them. He's right too, Navy Blue isn't Carolina Blue and they are ugly.
For your sake I hope you never write about uniforms again. Clearly you are dated on this one...those were the best looking uniforms in the NCAA.
It doesn't matter what color they were wearing last night. They need to worry more about the way they played the game. Win first, then make fashion statements.
All other sports teams at UNC have been wearing dark blue uniforms for years besides the basketball teams. I like them they just didnt help them win!!! Come on Tarheels get it together
Ron Green Jr. is absoloutely worthless. Please take note Observer.
I'm a Carolina alum and the uniforms last night sickened me. They were ridiculous and only topped by the pathetic football. It's a sign of a crumbling program where you trot out some new color scheme. We are blue and white, carolina blue. You don't see great football programs toying with school colors. I've had it and this was the final straw.
Navy has not "always" been used as a secondary color by UNC's sports teams. That's ridiculous. But I think it may be an indication of the understandable shame they feel in having to wear such a pansy shade of light blue.
Shut up Ron, nothing wrong with them jerseys...obviously you know nothing about carolina tarheels...stupid
Great insight from the game. Why don't you write about real problems, like quarterback play or coaching, instead of wardrobes?
Probably some bastard republican made a decision to pretend to be more like Duke. God almighty when will you right winged fools get it?
These G.D. uniforms look like those racist Duke ones. It is an abortion to allow these students to betray the Carolina blue they have worn forever.
I hate these trashy uniforms! Anyone who thinks this is ok is nothing but south Charlotte redneck trash. Figures.
Maybe they were throwback uniforms from the days of Charlie "Choo-Choo" Justice?
This writer is absolutely correct. To hell with all of you who think it's ok to wear DUKE blue. That damn coach should be fired anyway. Who gives a damn if he doesn't like the SCHOOL COLORS!
10:37 and 10:42, get a clue. Are you even a Carolina alum? Or are you one of those insecure guys who thinks Carolina blue isn't "manly" enough and so you'd rather wear a color that hasn't been seen in 60 years and no one associates with UNC.
We should always wear Carolina blue. Win or lose it's our color and it has been so since the University's founding and the formation of the Di-Phi Society.
If you're not an alum, well, we don't care what you think.
Duke Blue is historically navy. Lately, they mostly wear black.
Kentucky wears royal blue.
I understand why the article was written. UNC is one of the iconic NCAA athletic programs, and their marketing brings in a massive amount of money to the school. I don't think it was wise of the school to use alternate colors on their first Thursday night nationally televised game. It should have been a showcase of Carolina Blue!!!!
Dark blue, light blue -- wouldn't have mattered. They still would have lost. Oh, and I would argue that Carolina Blue is NOT the most recognizable color in college athletics.
Doesn't matter if they even where a uniform!
Tarheel football SUCKS no mattter!
Bill at 10:54-as an alum, I cannot believe you write that this program is "crumbling". we crumbled several years ago and Butch is rebuilding us. if this is your attitude towards rebuilding the program and this is your "final straw", then good riddance.
I think the uni's looked great - better than that girly man light blue...
dya says - get rid of the navy blue....this is tarheel country and light blue was, is, always has been Carolina's color. I guess somebody is making money off the new uniforms. We need to put some of that money into hiring a new coach. Davis is out of time. How many days till basketball starts??
Doesn't matter if they even where a uniform!
Tarheel football SUCKS no mattter!
-You can always tell those who didn't go to Carolina by their bad grammar and use of exclamation points.
"I think the uni's looked great - better than that girly man light blue..."
Thanks, insecure little boy. I'm guessing you're not an alum and therefore we don't care what you think.
The Navy Jersey looked good. It as the pants that made it ridiculous. White pants would have made it look sweet.
They didn't wear what the rest of the country calls "powder blue' or "baby blue" because they've finally realized how gaaay they look in powder blue.... not that there is anything wrong with that.
The Oilers/Titans did away with it years ago, and UNC has finally wised up too. No football team looks intimidating is gaaay colors.
If you knew anything about sports then you know that players like the fact the "darker" colors make the team seem intimidating...
Is this article serious? We all make mistakes in our job. Ron please learn from this one and write about sports next time. If I wanted to hear some whining I would take a toy away from my 2 year old.
You must be blind if you can't tell that Dook and Kentucky wear the same shade of blue (royal, that is).
Figures that some sorry bastard from Charlotte would result to gay bashing by using the comment 'gaaaaay colors'. Guess it would have been better just to wear a son of a bitching rebel flag and maybe that would make you feel better. Gay bashing and racism definitely go hand in hand in this sorry ass town. May God have mercy on your living damn soul.
Excellent article! Agreed, the gay basher should go back to his Klan meeting at Southpark.
Butch was rebuilding, now he is failing. And, rednecks, it is Tar Heel, two words, not Tarheel.
"If you knew anything about sports then you know that players like the fact the "darker" colors make the team seem intimidating..."
"They didn't wear what the rest of the country calls "powder blue' or "baby blue" because they've finally realized how gaaay they look in powder blue.... not that there is anything wrong with that.
The Oilers/Titans did away with it years ago, and UNC has finally wised up too. No football team looks intimidating is gaaay colors."
Gosh, wonder what Michigan State thought about that last April?
The pathetic sexual insecurity of some poorly-educated straight guys is just laugh-out-loud funny. No wonder you guys get fewer college degrees and make less and less money.
The uni's looked great. Everytime I see that jersey I remember the pictures of Choo-Choo Justice rumbling through Kenan in navy.
I'm not saying people who think UNC should only wear Carolina Blue are ignorant . . . they're saying it for me.
Now if we could just finish like Choo-Choo
ron what the hell are you talking about? you must not watch much football. alternate uniforms are worn in all sports, all the time. get over it, and get a new job. loser
The color was awesome if you didn't like that color blue your un american...
The story may not have been something I would've expected, but it was well written and I totally agree.
The school colors are Carolina Blue and white, not navy blue.
These uniforms are crap.
Hey, I'm not a gay basher. I said "not that there is anything wrong with that". It was a Seinfeld play people, get over your liberal tree hugging selves.
I agree! The navy blue has got to go.
"The color was awesome if you didn't like that color blue your un american..."
How stupid is this? It's not a question of whether anyone liked the color. It's not Carolina's color.
From your run-on sentence fragment, inevitable use of the adjective "awesome" and misspelling of "you're" and "un-American" I conclude that you don't even have a high school diploma, let alone a college degree. Thanks for your incredibly valuable opinion.
Ron: you wrote THE STORY of the game - as an alum I was horrified to see a stadium full of True Blue fans and field littered with players in uniforms that ARE NOT UNC's colors. It's not so much the dark blue that bothered me. It's the flagrant lack of respect for tradition and the apparent belief that it's THE COLOR, not the ATHLETE that intimidates ( or doesn't) on the field. I'm proud to be a UNC-CH alum, but I'm not proud of their performance on the field last night or their choice not to wear Carolina Blue for a nationally televised game. Shame on whomever was responsible for this happening.
you guys are crazy if you don't thing "carolina" blue is ugly too, only color that looks good is Charlotte Green.
And before anyone says i'm too dumb to go to chapel hill, i went to Charlotte for the engineering, which your liberal hippie school doesnt have.
"Liberal", "Tree Huggers". You're damned right. Would rather be either than a gay bashing redneck Charlotte dweller. Nothing here but George Bush loving racist pigs. I hope you burn in hell just like George Bush!
You are a gay basher your sorry bastard. No one gives a damn about a Sinefeld tv show. Just keep your hating self down in Ballantyne and breed more hate. One day someone is going to bust your bubble.
Wow, the tarhole fans are SENSITIVE today! (Hee Hee)
Don't get mad and lash out at others. Afterall, you all decided to sell your souls to Butch Davis so that you could be a "power". How's that working out so far?
It's not working worth a damn, obviously. We hate any man that would try and change the school colors to Duke blue. It's blasphemous.
I am not one to usually judge group from what people say on message boards, but the Carolina fans on this topic have shown themselves to be arrogant pricks. Realistically, it is an interesting topic. UNC made a drastic change by not using their tradition colors. I personally don't think it is a significant deal one way or another.
It really doesn't matter what the football team wears. The only reason Carolina plays football is to get to their basketball season.
Who cares what color u wore... You are not a very good football team and lost to a very average team. Go NOLES!!!
Ryan, I have read every word on this blog, and your comments have made an emphatic point. Carolina fans and alumni are arrogant pricks. All anyone has to do is critize the Tar Heels and they show their true colors. The color of the teams uniform is the only thing that was commented on in the article. If you don't know the definition of arrogance, look it up in the dictionary. Its not a good trait to have.
Real Men Wear Red
It is obvious that Carolina-CH envies Duke. However, I personally see nothing wrong with a football team that plays like girls wearing sissy blue.
Carolina Blue?
More like Carolina Blew.
Dark colors are supposed to hide the ball better and give the offense an advantage. It didn't work. When you look at the stadium filled with blue, is sure ain't dark blue! Pansy Blue? UNC has more national champions every year than anyone else in the ACC or SEC, so, to quote Tyler, "You can call me a lot of things, but you still have to call me champion." (Just not in American Football,yet.)
Bottom line - the tarheels lost, choked again. Seminole uniforms sure looked great in the 2nd half.
What a stupid article. The jerseys had nothing to do with how awful the Heels played yesterday, and it isn't even that ugly to begin with. (Also, for those who may not know, Navy Blue has become somewhat of a secondary color for UNC in the past few years, there is slight usage of the color in the away basketball Jerseys, and on many UNC shirts.)I can understand that it definitely isn't a color that defines UNC Sporting teams, but nonetheless it is an alternate, so live with it. A lot of you are getting very worked up about this stuff, and maybe that's why many people can't stand tar heel fans. You need to be more focused on the fact that you are 0-3 in conference right now, and going up against VT next week for a potential 0-4 start. That's all that really matters in the end, we need to work on being able to finish big games like the one against FSU.
Uniforms are terrible. The team is terrible. The coaches are terrible. Butch Davis is the most overrated coach in sports. Football should not be played in Chapel Hill.
All dark blue uniforms looked great. Game sucked.
As the old adage goes, when you look like a ball player, you feel like a ball player. The navy uniforms were simply used to pump up the players, the fans and to seem intimidating to the opponent. No, this doesn't always work. Butch Davis is still team-building. Rome wasn't built in a day. Give the man a break for trying something new and shaking things up. There has been talk of all navy uniforms for over a year now. This shouldn't be news.
Good call on the PINK anonymous. That's more fitting of the school in Orange County.
The dark blue was very bad decision. Go back to lite blue
Last night the whole stadium was filled with fans dressed in Carolina blue - as in "the sky is Carolina blue" light blue - and I watch a self-absorbed overpaid coach put my Heels in that tacky accent might-as-well-be-Duke-blue color scheme. My blood bleeds Carolina blue, not any complimentary Nike-approved shade, as have alums for scores of years before and after the not-soon-enough-ending Butch Davis era at Chapel Hill...
And I suppose the mostly black uniforms that Duke basketball wears occasionally aren't worthy of your ire?
Listen to all you tarhole fans crying and sniveling.If the heels would have won,you would think butch davis was a genius like ND when they wear green(which they usually wear against usc and lose anyway)and would be begging for them in the "big" games to come.It wasn't the uniforms that stunk,it was/is tarheel football.Everything was set for you......alums on the sidelines,first time thursday night football,new uni's,a packed house....everything,and your team choked.You blew a 17-6 lead at halftime,and then a 24-6 lead on national tv.HAHAHAHAHA....THAT MY FRIENDS,says it all about your program!!!!
WOW. Still in shock this team was ranked just a few weeks ago.
Keep that ACC cellar warm, Heels!
By the way, BOTH of your shades of blue suck!!!
I don't care if the Heels wear lavender (just about as sissy a color as that baby blue), they need to win ONE ACC game.
A bowl is completely out of reach.
Wow! There are some serious haters on this thread. I always laugh when you haters talk about Tar Heel fans waiting for basketball season. As if basketball is an inferior sport to football. Yet all of you seem to disappear once the round ball is tipped off.
As far as football goes, yes Carolina does have a long way to go before being recognized as a National contender. No question about that. But we all also know it scares the hell out of all you haters to think we will get there.
Now on to the uniforms last night. To state that wearing anything other than the traditional Carolina blue is blasphemy, where were all you people when the baseball team was wearing black with Carolina blue letters in the College World Series? As previously mentioned, what about the uniforms they wore back in Choo Choo's days? What about all of the merchandise sold that have dark blue on it with the Heels logos?
This is an absurd blog.
It doesn't matter what color these faggots wear to Raleigh.. it's gonna be an ass kicking!!
GO TO HELL CAROLINA! GO STATE!
I agree with Ron Green. Get rid of those dook-looking uniforms. Navy isn't anywhere close to Carolina blue. The sky is not navy blue.
Ronny
They WERE wearing Carolina blue: the helmets, numerals and the trim on the jerseys and pants. When I was in school in the 70's, the UNC football letter jackets were always navy blue or black. I like the uniforms: a classy and understated use of Carolina blue....UNC 74
Va Tech beats UNC team wearing baby pink 31-9.
To all the folks saying its ok..
what in the world would happen if Roy put colors on his basketball team?
They wore them last year against Rutgers too, guess they dont learn from their mistakes..
Duke 4-3 (2-1)
UVA 3-4 (2-1)
UNC 4-3 (0-3)
More gay bashing comments. I hope you rot in the pits of hell along with the rest of the republican bastards.
This is NOT the Caolina way!
Football continues to be an embarassment at this great university. Let's just get through this and look forward to what we're known for - women's soccer.
its a shame that it takes a "fashion" article to get this many responses from the tarhole crowd.
UNC has a football team?
I don't know who authorized Butch Davis to don navy blue, instead of Carolina's traditional Carolina blue and white; but the result spoke for itself.
The hapless 'Heels were humiliated at Home,on National TV, by Bobby Bowden's (currently) less than stellar Seminoles.
Maybe Butch would be happier coaching someplace where Navy blue is truly a school color--like UConn.--At least Carolina won that one, a few weeks ago.
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