The Odds of Numbered Socks
Football players were first numbered only on the scorecard, not their jerseys. Numbers on the back of jerseys arrived in 1905, and numbers on the front came in the late 1920s. That seemed good enough for most fans, but the National Photographers Association's request that sports teams add player numbers in additional locations on the uniform led to the development of TV numbers.
In 1957, the National Association of Conference Commissioners recommended that teams wear helmet numbers, which led to most college teams wearing helmet numbers for the next decade. During the same period, the NFL and AFL added team logos. Teams variously added small TV numbers to the front or back of the helmet, to jersey shoulders and sleeves, and to players' pants.
However, TV numbers did not end there; several teams added them to players' socks. There are two kinds of numbered socks: knitted and hand-lettered, the latter used chiefly for matching pairs during the laundering process.
I had not considered numbered socks until I stumbled across the newspaper image below of the 1961 Poplar Bluffs, Missouri football team. The Poplar Bluff Mules received permission to use the Baltimore Colts logo on their helmet and added knitted-in numbers to the socks.
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