Today's Tidbit... Looking Cool with the Gang

Fred Sington was an All-American tackle at Alabama in 1929 and 1930, finishing his football career in a 24-0 Rose Bowl victory over Washington State. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa, Sington pursued a baseball career, ultimately playing 181 games for the Brooklyn Dodgers and Washington Senators.

Fred Sington during his Alabama playing days. (1931 Alabama Corolla)

Twenty-five years later, Sington was an influential Alabama alum involved in the sporting goods business when he came up with a better idea. Sington recognized that while the chains and down markers of the late 1950s were more visible than earlier generations, they could be hard to spot since players no longer had to sit on the bench when not in the game.

Sington developed his idea into the Sington Spot-Check, that is, oversize vests worn by the assistant linesmen or chain gangs. The vest for the assistant handling the down box had yellow and black stripes, while the vests for those manning the chains had rows of black and yellow diamonds.

The linesmen assistants wear Sington’s vests when LSU visited Alabama in the early 1960s.

An assistant linesman wears Sington’s vest while working a game at Boston College. (1961 Boston College yearbook)

The vests were widely adopted, and similar apparel continues to patrol sidelines today.

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