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.
FYI, Jim Lohr, the Popular Bluffs coach who stands on the left above, was drafted by the Colts out of Southwest Missouri in 1956, but an injury in training camp ended this NFL hopes. He later coached Southeast Missouri for a dozen years.
I couldn't find another football team that used numbered socks besides the laundry variety, but I'm sure they exist.
Numbered socks found their way into the uniforms of other sports, including their use by some soccer teams today. At least two basketball team numbered their socks as well. The 1962 Seattle University team sported them, as did the 1969 North Carolina team.
I don’t care for numbered socks. Those who wear them look like zeroes, but who am I to judge?
Let me know if you are aware of football teams that digitized their socks in the past.
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Well, these numbered socks are better (or at least less obtrusive) than the vertically striped socks worn by the Denver Broncos in 1960, the first year of the AFL.
Not only were Carolina's socks numbered, they had home and road versions, and they were stirrups! Check out the 11/18/2021 edition of the Uni-Watch blog to see pics from Paul's visit to the Carolina Basketball Museum.