The Uniform History Project: 1960's

The Other 6 Seconds?

It's said that the average male thinks about sex every 7 seconds. Cole Jones spends the other 6 seconds thinking about his beloved Dallas Stars.Cole moved to the DFW Metroplex in 1991, as an elementary school student. A few years after that, the Minnesota North Stars decided to join him in the Lone Star State, and it was the beginning of a love affair that has lasted for over 16 years and counting.

Syndication

Written by Cole Jones

Saturday, 20 June 2009 12:10

The project begins with the shortest decade in team history... not because they're like Iggy Pop and simply don't remember any of it, but because they didn't begin play until the latter part of the decade, in 1967.

I'll begin with the uniforms that the Minnesota North Stars wore in their first games, and close it out with the Seals.

The above jersey was the original Minnesota North Stars home jersey, but it only lasted a short time. As you can see, this uniform is the only uniform in Stars history that features a drawstring collar. It didn't even last the entire season, as midway into the year, they ditched the tie-up, and went with a standard V-neck, as seen below.

This variation of the sweater was also short lived, as they would continue to tweak their look in the early years. They wore this uniform from midway through the 1967-68 season until the end of the year.

This white sweater was worn as the original road uniform of the team. It would be worn throughout the entire 1967-68 season (never had a drawstring, V-neck the whole time) until the start of the 1969-70 campaign, when they would make a slight change.

Starting with their second season in the league, and lasting until 1975, the North Stars wore this version of their inaugural uniform, with contrasting white shoulders being the only noticeable change to the look.

In the final North Stars uniform tweaking of the decade, Minnesota altered the sleeve striping of their white uniform, and replaced the lower green cuffs with more natural looking white cuffs. This alteration was part of the uniform from 1969 until 1972.
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While the North Stars were busying tweaking their appearance in the early years, the Seals were at least as busy.

Also sporting the familiar green that our franchise has become known for, the Seals opened play under the moniker of the California Seals. This name lasted about as long as the Stars drawstring sweaters, as on December 8 1967, they retired this logo, and their team name, and rebranded as the Oakland Seals.

Here is the white version of the short-lived California Seals uniform, before having the crest changed to represent the new team name.

After their name change in the middle of their inaugural season, the Seals uniforms remained intact. The only change was in the primary logo crest on the uniform, which replaced the C behind the seal with an O for Oakland. This uniform was worn from December of 1967 until the end of the 1968-69 season.

This white uniform was worn from December 1967 until a team identity overhaul in 1970. Just like the matching home jersey above it, the only change made was the closing of the circle behind the seal... that is a seal, right? And people thought the picasoyote was abstract?

In the final uniform alteration for the Seals franchise in the decade, Oakland decided to follow the lead of the North Stars and turn their green shoulders white. In addition to the contrasting shoulders, they decided to alter their uniform striping to make an already busy uniform even more seizure-inducing.
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Since I promised unworn/rejected/obscure uniforms to be uncovered in this project, I'm proud to show you the first of the bunch. In my research, I found an image of the Seals from before their inaugural season, wearing what appears to be a prototype uniform.

This mystery uniform features the California Seals crest under an arched wordmark of SEALS, reminiscent of the current Vancouver Canucks look. It's difficult to tell from the discolored photo, but it appears as though the uniform included a second set of pants for the green uniform. Green pants on the white, and blue pants on the green. This is suprisingly a relatively rare occurance in hockey uniforms.