Worst Uniforms of All-Time

I've waited this long for it, but a conversation at work today brought a topic that bothers me every Sunday back to the forefront.  I'm, of course, talking about the Jacksonville Jaguars' uniforms.  Seriously, who told them those helmets were a good idea?  Did anybody seriously think they looked good?  The Jaguars far-and-away have the worst current uniforms in sports, and it's not even really close.  In fact, Jacksonville's right up there in worst uniforms of all-time territory.

There are plenty of other current uniforms that I have my problems with (the Seahawks, the Nets, the Marlins, the Wizards), as well as some combinations and color schemes that I simply don't understand (when the Browns wear all brown, the Texas Rangers not being able to decide if their color is red or blue, all the Spanish jerseys that simply add "Los" in front of the team name), but the Jaguars take the cake.  And it's not even close.  Jacksonville's current look is right up there with these other doozies for the worst uniforms in the history of professional sports.


1980-88 Los Angeles Kings: The Kings have had some pretty bad uniforms in their history, mostly stemming from their decision to piggyback on the Lakers' purple and gold for so long.  These were the worst, though.  Fortunately, they finally changed their primary color to black just before Wayne Gretzky arrived, so The Great One was never subjected to having to wear these.

1978-85 Vancouver Canucks: Like the Kings, the Vancouver Canucks are notorious for having some pretty bad jerseys throughout their history, so there were plenty here to choose from.  But nothing was worse than the "Flying V" design from 1978-85.  It took until the turn of the century for them to finally ditch the brown, yellow and orange color scheme.

 

1972-74 San Diego Padres: While we're talking hideous brown and yellow uniforms, I give you the San Diego Padres.  Once again, we have plenty of options.  This team thought this color scheme worked for waaaaaaaaaaay too long.  But I think the "winner" here has to be the days where they rocked all yellow with the brown and yellow hat.  The only difference between the home and away uniforms was that the road ones said "San Diego" instead of "Padres."

 

 

1975-86 Houston Astros: Who can ever forget the Astros' orange rainbow, complete with ridiculous orange hats.  I give 'em credit.  They stuck with these as the home unis for a decade, and these are the first uniforms people think of when they think of the Houston Astros.

 

 

1977-82 Chicago White Sox: Another team famous for its historically bad uniform choices is the Chicago White Sox, which seems almost inconceivable these days (their current design, which they've used for 20 years, is very solid).  I don't think there's any doubt that the shorts and whatever's going on with that collar leave this late-70s look in a class by itself.

 

 

2004-11 Toronto Blue Jays: Where do I start with how terrible these jerseys were?  A team called the "Blue" Jays was using black as its primary color.  Then there are the gray/silver/slate/whatever color that is hats they wore before realizing those were even uglier than the black ones.  Fortunately, they got the picture and made a major upgrade last season.

 

 

1991-94 Philadelphia 76ers: If you're name is the 76ers, why do you refer to yourselves exclusively as the "Sixers" on your uniforms?  Anyway, the Sixers have had a number of different jerseys throughout their history, some good, some not so good.  This one falls into the "not so good" category.

 

 

1994-2003 Cleveland Cavaliers: With the exception of the LeBron Era-present, the Cavs haven't had the best uniforms.  Case-in-point, the Shawn Kemp Era.  Not exactly sure what they were going for, but whatever it was, it didn't work.  That light blue is enough to give you a headache, I'm not exactly sure why that orange line is in the middle of the number and words, and I don't understand the logo either.

 



 

2011-Present Washington Wizards: It's not like the Wizards' previous uniforms were good, either, but the current ones don't make any sense.  They went for a "turn back the clock" type thing by going to red, white and blue.  One problem, though.  Their "turn back the clock" is to when the team was referred to as the "Bullets."

 

This is just a small sampling of the bad uniforms throughout history.  I could easily include every NBA All-Star Game jersey, as well as a bunch of others.  I didn't even tackle the NFL (although the "bad" NFL uniforms, like Buccaneer Bruce, are actually pretty awesome).  But, just as a reminder to everybody what inspired today's posting, here's the monstrosity that makes watching the Jacksonville Jaguars that much more painful.