The 1930s and Football’s Ugliest Uniforms

Numerous articles opine about college football's best uniforms, and you can agree or disagree with those lists, but this article is different. It describes and illustrates how college football teams in the 1930s collectively wore the ugliest uniforms in the game's glorious history. The evidence of ugliness is clear, and as Kevin Bacon once said, "These are the facts of the case, and they are undisputed."

On what basis do I make this claim? I have no special training in the arts or design, but I spend my spare time researching and writing about football history, and I illustrate my thoughts with relevant images. To find images showing the nature of play, stadiums and fields, fan behavior, and the equipment worn by players over the years, I spent portions of the last year reviewing the football sections of 3,000+ college yearbooks published between 1900 and 1960. While there are many yearbooks left to review, the process revealed that college football as a whole wore its ugliest uniforms during the Thirties.

Before discussing the 1930s, let's review the uniforms of earlier decades. Football's first uniforms were light jerseys and stocking caps. Those uniforms quickly tore, so players shifted to heavier wool sweaters and pants made of moleskin or canvas dyed in earth tones. Many wore canvas vests over their sweaters or canvas union suits.

The 1878 Harvard football team sports light uniforms appropriate to the slightly-modified form of rugby they played. (Harvard University Archives)