The Auburn Uniform Database is dedicated to documenting the historic aesthetics of Auburn University Athletics.
New Baseball & Softball Uniform Additions
After revealing new uniform sets two years ago, Auburn Baseball and Softball will be adding new elements into the rotation for the 2020 season.
The Auburn Baseball program will be sporting new pinstripe jerseys this upcoming season. The biggest difference is the addition of orange trim to the AU logo and player numbers. Numbers have also been added to the front of the jersey.
For the first time in the Butch Thompson era, player names will appear on the back of the jerseys. Auburn baseball last wore nameplates under Sonny Golloway, with the practice ending following the 2015 season.
Under Golloway, the nameplates weren’t present on every jersey. Of the seven tops worn, three went without NOBs – the grey, white, and throwbacks. It is yet to be seen how the new nameplate program will be utilized on the rest of Auburn’s current jerseys.
The previous nameplates were rendered in a vertically arched manner, whereas the new nameplates are straight and level – a somewhat rare occurrence for baseball jerseys.
Auburn’s baseball uniform history is still incomplete on this site as resources for older games are difficult to find. Per the current status of that research, Auburn first wore pinstriped uniforms in 2004 as provided by Russell Athletics. A memorial black patch was added to the sleeves following W. James Samford’s passing in December 2003. The team’s stadium, Samford Stadium, was named in his honor.
As per to the photos collected, Auburn didn’t wear pinstripes again until 2013 when Under Armour provided the same “Yankees style” design. The Tigers wore both uniforms exclusively with a navy hat and white AU logo until 2019. Last year, Auburn paired three different caps with the pinstripe uniforms, including the St. Patrick’s Day green lids and the camouflage hats.
Here’s the ever-so-handy side-by-side look at all the changes made to the pinstripe tops:
Another older Auburn uniform element is planned to be resurrected this season as well. The white-crowned ball caps last worn in 2013 under John Pawlowski’s leadership will apparently be paired with the pinstripe uniforms. All white used to be the go-to Sunday combination under Pawlowski. The Tigers also had white batting helmets to match the caps during this time.
Auburn will be adding another new hat, one featuring a beloved Tiger logo.
The “Sailor Aubie” logo will reportedly be worn this season, marking it’s debut on an Auburn athletic uniform. Although the design is not unique to Auburn, fans have always enjoyed the look and have thoroughly enjoyed it’s return to vintage clothing items.
You can view Auburn baseball’s uniform history here.
Auburn Softball has not showcased any new uniforms at this point, but the team’s fall photo shoot did reveal the newest addition to the wardrobe – new socks.
(image via Carlee McCondichie)
Last year, Auburn debuted new navy socks with Northwestern stripes for the opening game of the Texas A&M series. The new hosiery created a striking new look for the Tigers, an improvement over the simple navy or white socks worn. Auburn wore the new navy-striped socks with three different combinations last year.
Fast forward to mid-November 2019 as the Auburn Softball players are sharing images from their annual photo-shoot. The striped navy socks were still in rotation, but a new white colorway was also being shown off.
In year’s past, Auburn has found favor with wearing the blue jerseys and pants with white belts and socks. It’s often the most worn combo on the season. As per the recent photo-shoots, it appears the new striped socks will be worn with the combination.
Auburn had gone with un-striped socks during the Clint Meyers tenure and has stuck with them in the early years of Micky Dean. During the 2012 and 2013 seasons, the Tigers often wore striped navy stirrups. The last time Auburn wore any striped socks prior to last year was in 2003.
White socks with stripes aren’t anything new for Auburn Athletics. In 2013, Auburn basketball had a similar design available for players to chose. The John Mengelt-era teams also wore similarly striped socks. Football also wore socks with the Northwestern stripes during the 1970s.
You can view Auburn softball’s uniform history here.
Enjoy learning about Auburn uniforms? Want to see more like this? Be sure to follow the Auburn Uniform Database, like the AUD Facebook page, Instagram page, and follow me on Twitter for even more uniform news. You can also purchase your favorite team’s merchandise through Fanatics, with a portion of your sale going to support this website.
Featured images via Alyssa Rivera and Jack Owen
Softball Debuts New Uniforms
New uniforms are big news nowadays, especially with a growing community that cares what players are wearing on the field. In a world of ever-changing, always-new uniforms, Auburn is still much more conservative than other programs. Even though the football uniforms will probably never drastically change, other Auburn Athletic uniforms will. Recently, Auburn baseball revealed new threads. Today, it’s the softball team’s turn.
The Auburn Softball season began this week, and the Tigers are sporting a new arsenal of uniforms. Leaks began to surface only a few weeks ago, and no official images were released showcasing the new threads. Outside of a few Instagram photos, the season opener was the first time the uniforms were shown off.
Three of the four new jerseys, and two of the three new pants were revealed over the course of the opening weekend, in which Auburn played six games. Another set of doubleheaders scheduled for Sunday was canceled due to weather. The Tigers will have white, blue, orange, and grey jerseys to mix and match with white, blue, and grey pants. That alone creates an opportunity for twelve different combinations. But knowing how this program has changed belt colors and socks, that number can increase dramatically. Throw in the annual pink game for good measure.
Senior Victoria Draper is the only player to wear the SEC Graduate patch early this season. (image via Cat Wofford, Auburn Athletics)
The jerseys are more similar across the board than they have been in the program’s history. Each set features simple double striping around the sleeves and down the pants leg. All the jerseys carry the arching Copperplate “Auburn” wordmark. Previously, one jersey had “Tigers” on the chest, and that is long gone. The Auburn Softball program was the only athletics program at Auburn to highlight the school nickname for many years. 2002 was actually the last time the softball team did not wear a jersey with Tigers on the chest. Only last year did the men’s basketball team join that list in recent years. Baseball also sported the Tigers name on their jerseys in the early 2000s, the latest being in 2006, right before the transition from Russell to Under Armour.
The grey uniforms also return to a more traditional, lighter shade of grey after the previous set was a much darker, charcoal shade. It looks nearly white when in the right lighting. The original change coincided with the reveal of a very dark grey uniform for the Arizona Diamondbacks, which is now rumored to have influenced multiple MLB teams to adopt the darker road uniforms. All the differences between the current uniforms and the last set can be found here.
The striping chosen for this new set works really well. It’s a really nice, classic look for a program that, besides maybe one or two sets, hasn’t had that traditional look. The design looks incredibly clean on the field, even if it isn’t very visible at times. The stripes are rather thin, which makes it tough to make out from a distance. Overall, I am a fan of these uniforms. I just wish the Tigers wordmark had been retained in some fashion.
Tannon Snow shows off the new grey uniforms. (image via Julie Bennett, al.com)
The first two years that this design was used, the team made two trips to the Women’s College World Series (although the orange jerseys were never worn in Oklahoma). Those two trips to Oklahoma City were made across the life of two entirely different sets of uniforms. Looking back, it nearly matches the changes made for football after the 2010 season – make some changes after seeing success. Uniforms are ordered so far in advance, and designs created even earlier, that it is nothing more than coincidence, especially at Auburn.It is interesting to see a new set of uniforms relatively soon after the previous set was first worn. The now-old set was first worn full time in 2016, but the design was first used the year prior. The orange jerseys were a surprise reveal in the second game of the season, and was a drastic change from the rest of the uniforms worn during the season. They were worn for nineteen games during the 2015 season. That design was soon implemented across the entire uniform set, with a new blue, orange, and grey set being ordered.
One thing to keep an eye on the rest of this season is which batting helmet is worn. Last year, Auburn began the season with a new matte blue and orange helmet. Some time around mid-season, the team changed the facemask from orange to blue. Due to the matte finish, the coloring of the helmet never seemed to completely match the jerseys, especially the orange on the helmet shell.
Come the SEC Tournament, Auburn made another surprise and revealed a shinny white helmet with blue details. The new shells really popped and looked like they were here to stay. Once the fall games began and, in-turn, the 2018 season, the white helmets were nowhere to be found. It wasn’t until an Instagram post that the white helmets were seen again. I think it’s very possible that Auburn switches between the two helmets throughout the season. If so, that just further expands the number of possible uniform combinations.
The orange-over-blue combination lives on with the new softball uniforms. (image via Dakota Sumpter, Auburn Athletics)
Under Armour is set to become the official uniform manufacturer for the MLB in 2019. There is much speculation as to what the Baltimore-based company will change when they take over. In the last month, Auburn baseball and softball have each revealed new uniforms. There weren’t many, if any, changes in the uniforms themselves, which seems a little odd. I personally thought that Under Armour would use the years prior to their contract taking over to experiment with their uniforms on the collegiate level. Most of the details of the jerseys and pants are the same as the last sets. Except for one small detail.
For years, the manufacturer logo on the MLB uniforms was placed on the left sleeve of the jerseys, and above the back left pocket on the pants. Collegiate uniforms have the logos placed, mostly, on the chest, similar to football. Under Armour has typically placed their logos above the pants pocket and on the chest. When Softball broke out their previous uniform set, the logo on the pants was moved to the belt loop on the back of the pants. But with the new uniforms for baseball and softball, that logo has moved once again, now appearing on the front of the pants, on the left hip side. Which is, again, similar to football. Under Armour is expected to have massively outbid Nike and Majestic for the MLB contract, with a premium being paid to move the manufacturer logo to the front chest of the jerseys. Could the new hip placement of the logo be a little bit of a precursor to the MLB’s uniforms? It’s quite possible.
**Update** Well, it turns out there was another uniform that was a well kept secret (for me at least).
Pinstripes everywhere! (image via @AuburnEquip)
On the midweek game of the season, Auburn traveled south to face the Troy Trojans. For the game, the Tigers broke out a fifth new uniform – an all pinstripe set. This marks the first time Auburn has worn a pinstripe uniform and is one of the few true pinstripe uniforms in NCAA softball (as in, they don’t have any extra features on top of the stripes).
Some background information is warranted here. In 2015, a photo leaked of an Auburn Softball player wearing a pinstripe uniform in the team clubhouse. The uniform was incredibly similar to what the baseball team wears. Just recently, actually, I learned that Softball actually borrowed that uniform from the baseball team. I personally thought nothing was to come out of this development. Pinstripes weren’t worn for the seasons following the image being snapped. I believed it to be an opportunity to test out the look and determine if the team wanted to move forward with it.
Then comes Valentine’s Day 2018. The Auburn Equipment Twitter accounts posts a photo showcasing the brand new uniforms (and with the white helmets, as speculated above). The new set is designed to match the rest of the new uniforms, so it’s a little different than the baseball style originally tested out. Softball’s pinstripes showcase more color, which works really nice. Baseball wears zero orange when wearing their “Yankee pinstripes.”
Auburn Softball was picked to finish sixth out of fourteen teams in the SEC. Many eyes will be on this team to see how the new roster and coaching staff will perform. They can also keep their eyes on the nice new uniforms the team will be wearing.
You can view the history of Auburn Softball uniforms here.
Enjoy uniforms and want to see more like this? Be sure to follow the Auburn Uniform Database, like the AUD Facebook page, Instagram page, and follow me on Twitter for even more uniform news. Also, you can support this site by purchasing AUD t-shirts and other merchandise. You can also purchase your favorite team’s merchandise through Fanatics, with a portion of your sale going to support this website.
New Batting Helmets for Baseball and Softball
One team is looking to defend it’s conference championship and run to the final game of the season. The other is looking to fight out of the bottom of the conference. Auburn Softball started the new season last week with a win over #1 Oklahoma. Auburn Baseball’s year begins this weekend, as the young team looks to gain some needed experience. Two teams on rather different paths, but each sporting some new looks to the new year.
Courtney Shea sports the new softball batting helmets vs BYU in Mexico (photo via Ryan Greenwod)
The 2017 season was expected to be rather uneventful in regards to uniforms for Auburn’s two stick-and-ball sports. Softball received a full wardrobe of new uniforms last season, and, after breaking out some new alternates last year, there’s some rumbling that Baseball could see their own upgrades for next year.
The uneventful-ness of the season ended rather abruptly on the first day of the Softball season. With the Softball team out of the country, playing their first four games in Mexico, the Baseball team hosted a viewing party on their brand new scoreboard while having their own practice. With Auburn being the designated away team in their opening day matchup against defending champion Oklahoma, we got to see the Tigers bat first. And that’s when the new additions to the team’s aesthetic look was revealed.
Having previously worn plain matte blue batting helmets, the new bright orange-detailed helmets were extremely prominent. The new helmets once again feature the matte blue shell (which looks a bit brighter this year) with matte orange details on the bill and around the ventilation areas, as well as on the facemask. Auburn used to be rather simple with the design on the back of the helmet, having just an American flag and the player number last season. The new helmets more so resemble a football helmet, adding a SEC decal and having the Demarini logo (the helmet manufacturer) bold in orange rather than tone-on-tone as in the past.
Since Myers took over previous to the 2014 season, Auburn has now worn three different batting helmets. Well, one helmet had two different decals. Myers’ first year and a half saw the team wear a matte blue lid with a white outline of the AU logo. About halfway through the 2015 season, the decal changed over to an orange AU logo with a white outline, making the logo much more prominent. The year before the coaching change, Auburn actually wore two different batting helmets – one featured a white lid with a blue bill and AU logo outlined, the other a blue lid that fades to orange, again with an outlined AU logo. Here’s a look at the last few Auburn softball batting helmets, including a look at the pride stickers used back in 2012:
While sitting at Plainsman Park on Thursday watching baseball practice and the softball game, a new batting helmet was brought out for a little while. The new baseball helmets simply added an orange decal to the bill, but the additions proves worthwhile. The helmets mimic the orange-billed hat that the team wears with the majority of the available uniforms. The previous design – blue without the orange bill decal – will be worn when the Tigers wear the pinstripe uniforms. The baseball team has stuck with the same batting helmet design for the better part of a decade now, so the addition of the bill-decal is one of the bigger changes in recent years.
I personally don’t think we’re going to be seeing much more uniform worthy news out of these two programs this year. Again, softball just recently got four new sets, and baseball is set for some new threads in the coming years.
Regardless, you can be sure that any news will be covered here and on my Twitter account. For all your Auburn uniform news, be sure to follow the Auburn Uniform Database, like the AUD Facebook page, and follow me on Twitter for even more uniform news. Also, you can support this site by purchasing AUD t-shirts and other merchandise.
New Auburn Softball Uniforms
The Auburn Softball season has thankfully started back up. As the Tigers begin their #RoadToOKC campaign, the team will be sporting some new uniforms. Let’s take a detailed look at each of the new uniforms.
(image via Zach Bland, Auburn Athletics)
All of the uniforms now match the design of the orange uniforms that debuted last year. Each features sublimated tiger stripes within the chest wordmark, the player number, and contrasting color fields around the sleeves and collar. The uniforms have also moved from featuring double outlines around the wordmark and numbers to the single outlines common throughout the rest of Auburn’s team uniforms (excluding football, of course). The team also received new sets of game pants, with these featuring a thicker stripe down the legs than the previous sets. Also, the new pants have the Under Armour logo on the belt tunnel on the rather, rather than above the back pocket.
Thursday night against Appalachian State was the opening game and the Tigers wore their new white uniforms. These new white tops replace a set that were the only uniforms at Auburn to sport “Tigers” on the chest.
(image via Dakota Sumpter, Auburn Athletics)
Day two, the opening day for softball’s Plainsman Invitational, saw Auburn sporting their orange tops from last year, but this time with a new set of blue pants. Last year’s pair featured a white stripe down the side; the new pants showcase an orange stripe.
Saturday saw the Tigers playing a double header in their new grey uniforms. These new grey alternates are significantly darker than the old set, even darker when seen in person. As the old white “Tiger” tops were replaced, the new grey uniforms will own the title of the only Auburn uniform to sponsor the University’s athletic nickname. With these new grey tops featuring blue wordmarks and numbers with an orange outline, the orange tends to appear a bit neon-ish, similar to the different shade of orange the basketball team wore last year with the tiger stripe alternates. The Under Armour logo on the chest really showcases how odd the orange fits in with the darker grey.
(image via Dakota Sumpter, Auburn Athletics)
The Sunday finale of the first Invitational of the season saw Auburn sporting their new blue tops. The only jersey to sport orange tiger stripe fields rather than blue, these tops really popped against the white pants. Oddly enough, the team wore the old white pants Sunday, rather than the new ones that they broke out Thursday night. As noted above, the Under Armour logo is above the pocket rather than on the belt tunnel.
One small detail that might be over looked by the casual observer is the new SEC patch on the left sleeve. Previous seasons saw the Tigers wearing a blue patch with a white outline, the same patch the basketball team wore. The new jerseys sport a blue patch with an orange outline, the same patch worn by the football team (and what the basketball team, and I think all other teams, have switched to now). The new patch hasn’t been added to the orange tops, as they still sport the old SEC patch.
Personally, I like this new set. I’m glad that the team kept “Tigers” in some fashion, as Auburn has really neglected using the nickname on athletic uniforms in recent years. I really like the previous grey set, and I’m glad the new uniforms aren’t as dark as previously thought, but I think they’re still a bit too dark. The lettering and numbering gets a bit lost being navy and the orange appearing neon bother me a bit, but I can live with it. I;m having a hard time choosing between the white and blue tops as my favorite. I’m currently leaning towards the blue jerseys, for the orange fields really pop and look fantastic on the diamond.
(image via Kamp Fender, Eagle Eye News)
Here’s the softball uniform tracker after the first week of play.
The Tigers travel to Clearwater, Fla, to compete in the UCF-hosted Michele Smith PCF Invitational. Auburn will play Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Featured image via Kamp Fender, Eagle Eye News
2015 WCWS Uniform Recap
The latest edition of the Women’s College World Series has wrapped up, and congratulations to Florida for winning it all for the second straight year.
I was lucky enough to make the trip to Oklahoma City to follow the first ever appearance by the Auburn Tigers. After watching many games in person at the stadium, and the rest of the games at home, I got to see many different uniforms hit the field at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium. Here, you’ll get a look at each uniform worn by each of the eight teams.
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| All photos and logos are owned by their respective parties. |
When it comes to both the baseball and softball World Series tournaments hosted by the NCAA, each team selects two jerseys (a colored and a white top), and the NCAA applies the Series patch onto the shoulder that faces the camera when each player is at bat. For instance, a right-handed batter has the Series patch on the left shoulder, and vice versa.
The top seed Florida Gators traveled with enough jerseys, pants, and stirrups to wear a different combination in five of their six games in Oklahoma City. Game one against Tennessee saw an all white uniform, script Gators on the chest, and orange Northwestern stripes on blue stirrups. The second game for the Gators was against LSU and Florida showcased their “anthracite” alternates, with orange and blue Chicago Bears striped stirrups over white sanitary socks. When Florida faced Auburn in the semi-finals, the Gators trotted out in their white tops, this time paired with blue pants and orange stirrups with blue and white Northwestern stripes, reminiscent of the football team’s orange tops. The win over Auburn sent the Gators to the Finals, which will be covered later.
The number two seed Oregon Ducks only played two games, losing to UCLA on day one, and Alabama two days later. For the UCLA game, the Ducks wore white uniforms with candy apple green sleeves and collar inserts on the tops, white pants with green stripes, and green socks with yellow accents. The sleeves also feature Puddles, one of the best logos ever. The second game against Alabama, Oregon wore black tops with green accents and a large yellow O logo on the chest, black pants with green stripes, and yellow socks. Oregon received these black uniforms back around senior day. The patch on the left sleeve is to commemorate the final game at Howe Field.
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| Photo By Andrew Bruckse/Tennessee Athletics |
Third seeded Michigan started their tournament run by facing off against Alabama, a game in which they wore white jerseys with blue and yellow shoulder yokes, blue pants with white and yellow stripes, and sansabelt stripes. One of my favorite uniform tidbits of this tournament was Michigan’s socks that featured the M logo on either side. They wore this same uniform against LSU in the semi-finals. The only other uniform combination the Wolverines wore was a blue top with yellow-blue-yellow striping across the sleeve cuffs and collar. They wore white pants with blue piping and sansabelts. The 2005 National Championship team from Michigan wore a very similar design. This uniform was worn against UCLA on day two. Both of these designs were worn in the Finals, which, again, will be covered in a bit.
The Auburn Tigers made history this year in many ways, including making their first appearance in the WCWS and earning this first win in Oklahoma City in program history. The 4th seeded team opened up against LSU, wearing their all white uniforms paired with blue socks. The Tigers also wore the all white combo against UCLA in their third game of the tournament. For games two and four against Tennessee and Florida, respectively, Auburn wore their blue tops over grey pants with blue socks.
| Photo by Zach Bland/Auburn Athletics |
LSU, the fifth seed, wore their all-purple uniforms in their first game against Auburn. The purple tops featured white shoulder panels and abdomen stripes. They also wore white stirrups with purple ribbon stripes over white sanitary socks. LSU’s second game, versus Florida, saw the Tigers wearing an all white combination with purple collar stripes, abdomen and pant stripes. Included with this combo were purple stirrups with white Northwestern stripes.The odd thing about LSU’s white pants are the purple sports on the back of the knee, which makes it look like the stirrups are extended up the back of the pants leg. The Tigers knocked out Alabama in their third game of the tournament, this time wearing white tops with purple sleeves and collar inserts, purple pants and white stirrups with purple Northwestern stripes. The Tigers face Michigan wearing their yellow tops with purple side panels and white and purple collar stripes, white pants with purple stripes, and purple socks.
Alabama came into Oklahoma City seeded sixth. Their first game they saw Michigan, and wore red pullover tops with a white A logo, white pants with red hip stripes, and red socks. They wore these uniforms against LSU in their third game of the Series. Their second game against Oregon featured the team wearing all white uniforms with a red Bama script across the chest, plain white pants, and red socks.
| Photo By Andrew Bruckse/Tennessee Athletics |
UCLA, the seventh seeded team, faced Oregon late on day one after a lengthy weather delay. The Bruins came out to the field wearing their all dark blue adidas template uniform that consisted of BRUINS across the chest with the UCLA script logo sublimated underneath, matching blue pants, with a lighter Bruin blue used as accents and stirrups on top of dark blue sanis.
In their second game, the Bruins faced off against Michigan, in which they wore an all white uniform with Bruin blue shoulder panel inserts, white pants with blue piping and blue sansabelts, and white stirrups with blue ribbon striping on top of white sanis. The Bruins also wore their dark blue uniforms in the game against Auburn.
Tennessee came into the WCWS as the number eight seed, so they faced Florida in the opening game. For that game, Tennessee wore their orange tops with white panel inserts and script Tennessee, white pants with double orange striping that matches the football uniforms, and orange socks. In their second game, this time against Auburn, the Vols wore white tops with orange-white-orange stripes around the sleeves and collars, orange pants with white piping, and white socks.
The Final Series pitted #1 seed Florida versus #3 seed Michigan. Game one saw the Gators wearing their white tops with orange pants, paired with white stirrups that have blue and orange stripes over white sanis. Michigan came in wearing their blue tops and white pants.
Game 2 of the Finals saw Michigan tie up the series 1-1 while wearing their white tops and blue pants, while the Gators wore their orange tops for the first time of the WCWS with blue pants and their orange stirrups.
The final game of the 2014-15 NCAA Softball season saw Florida win their second championship back-to-back. The Gators defeated the Wolverines while wearing their all white uniforms with the blue stirrups. Michigan wore their blue tops with white pants in the loss.
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| Photo from @SEC |
Until next year OKC…
| Photo by Zach Bland/Auburn Athletics |
Shining Bright on the Diamond
It’s been over two months since I’ve written anything new for this site. Although I haven’t written a new piece in a while, I’ve been working on other parts of the site. I recently updated the bowl game designs page, the Jordan-Hare field designs, and added many uniforms to the Basketball Uniforms page.
In the time since I last wrote a piece here – about Auburn basketball’s new uniforms – Auburn baseball and softball have both started their seasons, and in turn, revealed new uniforms. First, let’s take a look at the softball team.
Auburn softball added a new orange jersey to the arsenal this season (photo via Zach Bland, Auburn Athletics)
In only the second game of the season, Auburn revealed a new orange jersey. This new orange top is the first time the softball team has worn an orange jersey since the 2010-11 season, when they dumped them, supposedly because the team didn’t like how they looked. This new orange tops features blue sleeve cuffs (cut off underneath the arm because of the template) and a half collar, reminiscent of Nike’s “toilet bowl” collars many NFL teams wore when the uniform contract changed hands in 2012. Auburn has only paired these new tops with the blue pants, and haven’t worn the blue pants with any other combination either. In an attempt to change things up, the team did switch to orange belts and socks for the second game against Tennessee on April 3. Unfortunately, the Tigers lost 8-6, and we haven’t seen this combo since.
A small detail I love about these new jerseys are within the blue areas. The blue cuffs, collar, and inside the numbers all feature sublimated tiger stripes. When I wrote about the softball team’s uniforms last season, I contacted AD Jay Jacobs in regards to the use of TIGERS on their white uniforms. Jacobs replied with the athletic department attempting to brand and promote “Auburn” over “Tigers,” obviously with many schools nicknamed the Tigers across the country, and with two within the SEC. The white jerseys are the only uniforms worn by Auburn athletes that read TIGERS. And the addition of the tiger striped areas to the softball jerseys, as well as the basketball team wearing the same design with their new uniforms, leads me to believe Auburn and Jacobs have loosened their stance on Auburn over Tigers. Hopefully so.
Auburn baseball also revealed a new jersey. Hard to go wrong with a nice vest. (photo via Kenny Moss, Auburn Athletics)
Over at Plainsman Park, the baseball team revealed their own new jerseys. Well, vests to be correct. For the February 28 matchup against then #10 Oklahoma State, Auburn broke out a fantastic white vest – basically the white jerseys with the sleeves cut off. Personally, I think the design looks much better on the vests than their jersey counterpart. The small quirk about these are with the SEC patch. All of the jerseys feature the SEC patch on the left sleeve. But without sleeves, they had to place the patch on the back of the jersey, above the head spoon piping. Which makes it look a bit cluttered on the back.
Auburn baseball has also added a new camouflage hat. The 2012-13 season saw a hunter-orange version of a camodesigned hat. Last year, the disappeared with the new coach in Sunny Golloway. Well, when Golloway was at Oklahoma, his team wore a camo hat and top. This season’s Capitol City Classic against Alabama in Birmingham saw the return of the camo hat, but this time in a navy blue. (Many people have asked if this hat will be available for sale – J&M has ordered them and they should be available soon)
Trey Wingenter sports the new navy-blue camo hat in a win against Alabama
in Montgomery. (photo via Zach Bland, Auburn Athletics)
Now, don’t ever think these teams are done with new uniform additions. The uniform world is ever changing and growing. That, and this photo of the softball team trying on new pinstripe uniforms was sent to me. Just goes to show this stuff will continue for a while.
War Eagle!
Dissecting Auburn Uniforms: Softball
For the fifth installment of the Dissecting Auburn Uniforms feature, it’s time to give softball some love. Just like baseball, the softball team went under a coaching change during this past offseason. New head Coach Clint Myers (like him already!) was hired away from his alma matter Arizona State. A lot of things change in nearly every sport when a new coaching staff is hired. However, the stick and ball sports of baseball and softball typically have more change than other sports. One thing that baseball/softball coaches have a bit more control over than other sports (say football) is the uniforms.
Just like baseball, the softball team has a good bit of combinations they can wear through out the year. The girls have at least three different tops and three pants – grey, white, and blue. The blue and grey jerseys have “AUBURN” across the chest in white with orange outline and blue with white then orange outlines respectively. Both have numbers with the same outlining, including a front number. Now, the odd thing is that the white tops aren’t like the other two. The white jerseys have “TIGERS” across the chest. Back in the post I had about some baseball uniform news, I wrote about the Auburn Athletic Department was trying to push Auburn over Tigers in nearly every single thing they did. That is the reason the baseball team doesn’t wear “TIGERS” anymore, even though the players wanted to do so. The softball team has worn these same white jerseys since the 2011 season. I emailed Jay Jacobs about this topic and haven’t heard back. Hopefully I can get to the bottom of that soon.
Remember when I said coaching changes typically change the uniforms? Baseball head coach Sunny Golloway makes his team wear stirrups every game, when they rarely wore them before. Softball coach Myers, well, he took the stirrups away. For the 2012-2013 season, the softball team wore stripped stirrups for every game. Sadly, Coach Myers has taken them away. His team didn’t wear them at Arizona State, so he obviously isn’t a fan of them.You’ll notice from these pictures that they still wear high socks and blouse their pants. Why not wear stirrups? I wish I knew that answer. But softball pants are not the same as baseball pants. Baseball pants go all the way to the shoes, so that players must blouse their pants so that the high socks or stirrups show. Softball pants are shorter, just under the knee, and have elastic bands at the bottom (some baseball pants have elastic bands also). Even though stirrups are gone, high cuffed socks are still there.
Alright, back to the uniforms. One thing you’ll notice that is missing from what the girls wear is some orange. There’s not a lot of it on the diamond. Well, they used to have an orange jersey that looked extremely similar to the ones the baseball players used to wear. Apparently the girls didn’t like how they made them look on the diamond, so they dumped then, and haven’t worn them since 2010-2011 season. Other than football, I don’t think there is an Auburn recognized team (not club sports like hockey or lacrosse) that does not wear orange. It’s part of the rotation in basketball, baseball, and other sports. It’s odd that a team from a program that has been working to brand the Orange and Blue and “Auburn” over “Tigers” has done exactly what the Athletic Department has been trying to accomplish over the past few years. The baseball team received a new orange jersey last year (which they wanted to read “Tigers” but were turned down), and got a new grey uniform set this year. So why can’t a little bit more money be spent on the softball program to get them some new jerseys, and to bring them up to date with the current protocol going throughout the rest of the department?
One thing that I’ve noticed looking up pictures for this piece is the batting helmets. Two years ago, the softball team wore glossy batting helmets, with some really cool Eye of the Tiger pride stickers on the back (which I had never seen off the football field). Last year the wore two different matte styled helmets, both consisting of gradient schemes. One helmet is blue on top, with orange on the bottom. The other is white on top, blue on the bill only. For this season, the team only has one helmet so far: a flat matte blue lid with a white AU decal on the front. I’ve liked all these, so it’s hard to say one way or another about the change. As long as it looks good, I’m alright. Will be interesting to see if there is another helmet in the locker room waiting for the future.
Like baseball, the softball team will mix and match their uniforms. And also like baseball, some combinations look better than others. Personally, I’m not a fan at all of the blue on blue look for softball. I think the white on white looks so much better than the white on blue. Honestly, I’m not a fan of the blue pants…Maybe if they brought back the orange tops they would fit in better. The blue on white is a clean look. Blue on grey isn’t a bad look. But I have to say the all white is my favorite look. All grey isn’t too bad either; better than the all blue…That old orange jersey would make for some more interesting combos. Hey Jay Jacobs, let’s make this happen!
To wrap this up, I want to give a kudos to the grounds crew. They spent all offseason and this brutal winter working on the softball field. They replaced the back fencing with a whole new design and everything. The park looks wonderful!
At the time I write this, this team has been playing wonderfully. They are currently on a 10 game winning streak, and could easily continue to stretch that. Twenty-nine of the first thirty-five games of the season are played at home, with Auburn hosting four different tournaments. With lots of games at home and some big name programs coming to town, there is no excuse not to spend a day at the park. Get out there a day or a few, and help these girls get to Oklahoma City!
War Eagle!
