Today's Tidbit... When Football Officials Wore White Shirts

May 17, 2022

Before football officials settled on wearing the zebra shirts we know and love, they tried various types of gear. During the 1920s and 1930s, many officials wore white shirts and pants, making it difficult to distinguish officials from players when teams began wearing white jerseys. (Image shows the 1932 Cincinnati-Miami game.)

For more on the evolution of officials’ uniforms, check out the links below.

Football Archaeology

How Football's Zebras Got Their Stripes

It is easy to see football today and think the game’s evolutionary path was inevitable, but there is nothing pre-ordained about today’s game. Football might have taken any number of alternative paths, and often did, though many of those twists and turns are forgotten today. Consider that American football was played on a field with a 55-yard line and no end zones until 1912. Only the tweaking of the rules of the recently allowed forward pass led to the adding of end zones and the elimination of the 55-yard line. Likewise, the first wearing of numbered jerseys came in 1905 when rivals Drake and Iowa State met. Drake wore numbers between 1 and 25; the Cyclones wore 26 to 50. As numbered jerseys became popular, players were not numbered by position. Even when the NCAA mandated that player numbers correspond to their position, there were multiple systems proposed, including alphanumeric combinations tried by a handful of schools…

4 years ago · Timothy P. Brown

Football Archaeology

More Alternatives to Zebra Shirts

Each week, schools across the nation excitedly announce the unique combination of colors and styles their teams will wear that weekend. Yet, despite the hype, the never-ending variety all starts to look the same. The weekly new duds, you might say, have jumped the proverbial duck. Conversely, the other guys on football fields – the officials- show up game after game in the same black-and-white striped shirts to unerringly make their calls…

4 years ago · Timothy P. Brown

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Football Archaeology

Today's Tidbit... When Football Officials Wore White Shirts

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