Auburn Athletics: 1999 vs 2018

The 2017-18 athletic season is being considered one of the best in Auburn’s history. Multiple teams succeeded in conference play, the post season, and breaking records. A common trend was the comparisons to the 1998-99 season, with many of the records broken were originally set at the turn of the century. With all the “Party like 1999” comments, I thought it would be cool to compare the two seasons aesthetically.

How much has Auburn’s look changed in 19 years?

Baseball

2018 saw the Auburn Baseball team led by Butch Thompson grab a Regional victory and a Super Regional appearance, along with the program’s first #1 overall MLB Draft pick in Casey Mize.

The 43-23 Tigers made the historic run while sporting an arsenal of mostly new uniforms. Four new jerseys, three new pants, and a new cap paired well with an older hat and two full uniform sets.

The 1999 Auburn Tigers finished 46-19, falling in the Tallahassee Super Regional.

Even with the 1999 season being one of the best in program history, photos and videos are hard to come by. With the limited resources, we can still piece together the Tigers’ Russell Athletic uniforms. As far as I have been able to research to date, Auburn was a big fan of the white vest jerseys. They paired them with both navy and orange undershirts. A blue jersey was also worn, which featured the old SEC Baseball patch on the left sleeve.

Basketball (Men’s)

Bruce Pearl’s third team at Auburn set the bar high. A 14 game win streak that stretched through the beginning of SEC play had fans filling the Auburn Arena each game. Even with a round ending of the season, the Tigers were able to grab the SEC regular season championship.

Auburn has been wearing a throwback-inspired set of uniforms for a few seasons now, with an alternate thrown in.

The 1998-99 season was a spectacular one for Auburn Basketball. The 29-4 Tigers grabbed the SEC regular season championship and reached the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 round. The team of Chris Porter, Mamadou N’Diaye, Daymeon Fishback, and so many others cemented their legacy in Auburn Basketball history with their performances this season.

That season featured what is probably the fan favorite uniform in Auburn history – the Tiger striped white alternates (Well, one of them). Auburn also had an orange set with an asymmetric design that was rather interesting.

Basketball (Women’s)

Auburn’s 2017-18 campaign was a rough one, especially after making the NCAA Tournament the previous two seasons. Auburn finished the year 14-15 and one-and-done in the SEC Tournament.

The Tigers entered the second season wearing some nicely designed Northwestern striped uniforms. Oddly enough, Auburn shelved the orange set entirely. They did make up for the missing uniform by adding a brand new pink uniform for the Breast Cancer Awareness game.

Auburn saw another historic season during the 1998-99 campaign, with Joe Ciampi’s team reaching the NCAA Second Round and finishing 20-9 overall.

The Tigers’ uniforms were rather simple, with a block wordmark across the chest and blue and orange striping across the trims. The unique piece is the shorts logo, with the AU logo sitting on top a basketball in motion.

(image via 1999 Auburn Glomerata)

Football

Auburn claimed the SEC West title and made another trip to Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game in 2018. The Tigers were able to punch their ticket to the Mercedes-Benz Dome after defeating two #1 teams in three weeks.

Auburn, naturally, hasn’t made many changes to the football uniforms over the last 60 years or so. Minor changes in templates and 3D Bumpers and helmet decals are really the only things of notice.

The 1998 football season was a struggle. The final Terry Bowden-coached season ended with the Tigers finishing 3-8. Tommy Tuberville would be hired following the end of the year.

The uniforms, however, were tweaked. Auburn had been wearing the orange-dropshadow jerseys, but decided to make another change. The Tiger Eyes logo that often splits the fan base was added to the left hip of the pants. This would mark the logo’s only time to ever to be worn on an Auburn football uniform.

Soccer

Having posted two historic seasons in a row and losing much of the experience and talent, the 2017 Auburn Soccer season had a high bar to reach. The Tigers struggled at times, but went on to post an 8-7-5 record and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament before falling to eventual champions Stanford.

Auburn has seen some success when wearing their best kit design in their history. The Northwestern stripe used as a sash works perfectly. The color balance and design is spectacular.

The 1998 season was the final for head coach Bill Wilkins after the Tigers finished 5-12 overall and 2-6 in SEC play.

Auburn’s old kits were much simpler than today’s designs. The tops were collared shirts with only a number (that looks to be poorly screen printed) and the shooting Auburn wordmark on the chest. The mismatched orange shorts featured a large white triangle with only the Fila wordmark placed within. According to the Auburn Soccer media guide, the Tigers also wore a blue jersey with white collars and panels on the sides paired with white shorts. Blue shorts were also in the kit rotation.

Softball

Auburn Softball recently saw the high of the sport making it to the Women’s College World Series two years in a row. Following a coaching change and some controversy, the 2018 season had nothing shy of an uphill battle.

The Tigers wore a whole new set of uniforms during the 2018 season. Five new jerseys (and a pink t-shirt) were mixed and matched with four pairs of pants to create 14 different combinations.

1999 was only the third officially sanctioned softball season for SEC teams after adding the sport in 1997. Media of early Auburn Softball seasons are incredibly difficult to find online. I have only been able to find photographic proof of one uniform from this season.

The one uniform found was an interesting one. Softball teams across the country once wore shorts on the diamond. It was the norm! Auburn joined that trend when they added the sport. The blue shorts featured a white diamond that housed the AU logo.

The jerseys featured a two-button henley collar a large blue outline. The Tigers script on the chest was also sported by the baseball just a few years prior (and possibly in 1999, but without photographic proof, it is tough to tell for sure).

Volleyball

2017 wasn’t too kind for Auburn Volleyball, as the Tigers finished 15-12 and missed post season entirely.

The volleyball team has a really nice set of jerseys with Northwestern stripes on the sleeves. The libero, unfortunately, wore a different style without the stripes. But the powder blue top is a big plus.

1998 was the first season for Kris Grunwald as head coach. His Auburn team finished 22-9.

The team’s uniforms back then were entirely different than today. Long sleeves weren’t part of the design just yet. Instead, Auburn wore sleeveless and collared shirts, with the player number placed on the left chest.

Nearly 20 years and a decent bit of changes. Naturally, templates and trends dominate the differences. Auburn has really embraced the Northwestern Stripes from the football uniforms in recent years. That’s evident by them being placed on six of the teams listed above.

The pre-2000s uniforms, across the board, show not only a different world in uniform tailoring but also Auburn’s mindset on branding. It wasn’t until 2005 that Auburn would introduce a new set of wordmarks and number font – all in Copperplate – right before the change from Russell Athletic to Under Armour. Auburn showcased a wide variety of designs back in 1998 and 1999. Multiple logo designs and applications, wordmark fonts and styles, and even number fonts were used across the different teams.

The modern uniforms, at the very least, do a much better job of creating a cohesive brand, which is the current trend throughout business and sports. Auburn didn’t have much work to do with the 2005 change. The University joined Athletics with retiring the academics-only Samford Hall logo last season.

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