The Auburn Uniform Database is dedicated to documenting all Auburn athletic uniforms. This entry is part two of a series detailing the history of Auburn’s football uniforms. Be sure to check last week’s first entry, showcasing uniforms from the 1930s.

1940

Auburn’s yearbook showcases a beautiful color image of the uniforms worn at the time. (image via 1941 Glomerata)

Auburn football started the new decade returning to the orange and blue uniforms that were last worn together in 1935.

1941

For the first time in this series, Auburn made no changes with their football uniforms.

1942

No changes.

1943

Auburn, along with the majority of the SEC and other universities, did not field a football team for at least one season during the World War II years.

1944

Auburn returned to the gridiron after fighting in the Second Great War sporting the same uniforms from the last season played.

1945

For the first time this decade, Auburn made adjustments to the football uniforms. The blue pants received a single orange stripe down the leg. New white pants were also added. These are most likely the first white pants worn in team history.

1946

Travis Tidwell runs around end against Clemson (image via 1947 Glomerata)

More changes come to Auburn’s gridiron team, as the team adds their first white helmets to the arsenal. White leather helmets were paired with the blue tops and the new white jerseys which feature orange numbers and blue sleeve stripes. The orange jerseys were worn with the blue leather lids. In fact, the orange jerseys and blue helmet combination was worn strictly for the first five games. Starting with game six against Vanderbilt, Auburn wore the white helmets the rest of the season. The white pants worn in 1945 did not see the field this season.

1947

Auburn began the 1947 season wearing new white jerseys that only had blue numbers. The stripes that the Tigers had worn on at least one jersey since 1934 were now missing.

The stripes reappeared for the final four games. Both white jerseys were worn with new blue pants with a white stripe.

Auburn also moved away from the traditional leather helmets and began wearing hard-shell suspension style helmets. The early seasons of the new helmets didn’t feature facemasks. It looks as though player numbers appeared on the backside of the helmets, a first for Auburn football.

1948

Auburn scores on Georgia in Columbus (image via 1949 Glomerata)

This is the first time we see Auburn resemble the Auburn we all know. New white pants were worn that had a similar striping pattern that donned the Tigers’ pants for decades. The orange jersey from previous seasons doesn’t change, but a new white top is added. The new jersey has a blue/orange/blue stripe pattern, but not the same size as the traditional Northwestern stripes. It’s more reminiscent of the Chicago Bears’ striping through the 1930s.

The white shells are replaced by orange and blue helmets. In this era, teams were allowed to wear different helmets to designated position. For Auburn, the orange helmets were worn by the quarterback, running backs, and wide receivers. The offensive line and defensive players wore the blue lids.

1949

The end of the 1940s was a bit interesting for Auburn’s football uniforms. Most notably, the pants.

Photographs were difficult to fully decipher for this detail, but I’m pretty confident in what is depicted. The pants clearly show a difference in color on the front versus the back in many shots. Other photos show the pants color being a lot more similar. That aside, it wasn’t uncommon for teams to wear pants that appeared two-tone in shade during this era. I do wonder if Auburn was looking to order all orange pants, but either the manufacturers at the time were using different materials for whatever reason, or the coloring faded unevenly in the wash.

Regardless, the pants featured an orange/tan/brownish color with two thin blue stripes. The jerseys feature the same stripes from the previous season, but with a new number font. The orange and blue position-designating helmets return, but possibly with stripes. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why the stripes were worn or not. In fact, both helmets with stripes and without stripes were worn on the field at the same time.

Earl Brown stands with his orange-clad team during the 1942 season image via 1943 Glomerata)

Auburn struggled much of the 1940s, with six losing seasons.  Earl Brown and Carl Boyles both acted as head coach as Auburn played to a 33-47-7 overall record.

Aesthetically, though, Auburn performed a little better as the Tigers started to build a more consistent on-field look. No green jerseys was a positive while two-tone orange/tan pants were the negatives.

Come back next week as we move on to the 1950s. Shug Jordan comes back as head coach and settles a consistency with on-field performance and uniform aesthetics.

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