The Uniform History Project: Introduction

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 10:41

Today is the official beginning of the presentation of The Other 6 Seconds' Uniform History Project. As I said in the introductory posting on this blog, this has been a long time coming. Ever since I was a child, I've been interested in sports uniforms. Hockey itself is the most intriguing form of entertainment that I've found, with the struggles of good versus evil, with heroes and villains. Every game is a battle, and every season is a war. Your uniform is an integral part of this dynamic. It's how one tells the good guys from the bad guys, and it displays the colors that the fans live and die by.

While uniform designs may seem trivial to some fans, I feel they are an important part of a team's identity. It is with this mentality that I hope to proceed with this project. Every once in a while, I'll post a new blog to knock out another section until it is completed. I've also added a new sidebar for the project to help keep things organized. I've put a lot of thought into this, and I think the best way to organize it is by decade. Whenever I get one decade completed and organized, I'll put it up for you all to see... starting with the inaugural season in 1967 until present day.

While this project is largely about uniforms and uniform design, history also plays a large role in my opinion. I'm going to do my best to keep it both educational and interesting, in hopes that I can help my fellow Dallas fans better appreciate the roots of our great franchise. This includes not only the uniforms of the Dallas Stars and Minnesota North Stars, but also the less obvious Oakland Seals, California Golden Seals, and Cleveland Barons. If the kids out there ever wondered what was up with that red Barons jersey in their NHL09 game, and why it was part of the Dallas Stars uniform selection, I hope this project can help explain. In fact, before I get started, I'll briefly explain the connection between the Dallas Stars and the Seals/Barons franchise.

In 1967, the NHL doubled in size from the long-standing Original 6 franchises to include franchises in Minnesota, Oakland, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia. All of these franchises are still in their original cities, with the exception of the first 2. The Oakland franchise was originally known as the California Seals for a short time, then settling on the name Oakland Seals for a few years, before ultimately becoming the California Golden Seals in the 70's. The Minnesota franchise was obviously our beloved North Stars, now Dallas Stars. The Seals franchise was the least successful of the expansion teams, and seemed to struggle financially and competitively right out of the gate in 1967. By 1976, the franchise was on the brink of collapse, and was relocated to the Buckeye State, and rebranded as the Cleveland Barons. Rather than act as a fresh start for the franchise, it merely stretched their resources even thinner, as they struggled to fill their arena to even half capacity. At this point, majority owner Melvin Swig sold his interests in the team to minority owner, and Cleveland native, George Gund and his brother Gordon.

At this point, the Minnesota franchise was also financially troubled, and the Gund brothers were interested in selling the Barons and purchasing the North Stars. When the Gunds struggled to find a suitable offer to sell the Barons, they approached the NHL about a possible merger of the franchises. On June 14, 1978, the league granted approval for the North Stars to absorb the Cleveland franchise, under the ownership of the Gund brothers. The Gunds would retain ownership of the Stars franchise until 1990. By this point, the North Stars were struggling to stay relevant in a region of the country that was, at the time, more passionate about high school, college, and youth hockey than the National Hockey League. As attendance continued to dwindle, the Gunds attempted to relocate the franchise back to the California bay area, where the Seals/Barons franchise originated. The NHL refused any such plan, but allowed a compromised solution to relocation. The NHL allowed the Gunds to own the new San Jose Sharks expansion team, and take some of the assets of the team with them to California, under the condition that the Minnesota North Stars would continue operating in their original location. The league held a dispersal draft to decide which players the Sharks franchise would be allowed to obtain from Minnesota. The list was highlighted by names such as Brian Hayward, Doug Zmolek, Link Gaetz, Rob Zettler, Arturs Irbe, and Shane Churla (who thankful for Stars fans was quickly traded back to Minnesota for Kelly Kisio). To help fill the holes in the roster made by the Sharks selections, both the Stars and the Sharks were allowed to take part in the 1991 NHL Expansion draft. The Stars added notable players such as Dave Babych and Rob Ramage in the Expansion draft. A neat little bit of trivia for all Stars fans out there is that the final pick of the expansion draft was none other than aging Canadiens legend Guy LaFleur, taken from the Quebec Nordiques... however he retired that summer without ever having played a game for the Stars franchise. In the aftermath of the Gunds/North Stars split and Sharks expansion, Norm Green gained control of the Stars franchise. He would succeed where the Gunds failed in his attempt to relocate the franchise, as the Minnesota North Stars would become the Dallas Stars at the begin of the 1993-94 season.

With all of the above information in mind, this project will include every uniform ever worn by the Minnesota North Stars, California Seals, Oakland Seals, California Golden Seals, Cleveland Barons, or Dallas Stars in a National Hockey League match.. and a few that were designed, but never actually worn, that you may not have ever seen before. There will be no San Jose Sharks uniforms, however, because I refuse to accept them as a part of this franchise's legacy. In the eyes of Cole Jones, the Sharks are but a mere teal-colored teratoma that the Stars had removed from their collective backside in 1991.
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Running list of special thanks:
Huge thanks to Donovan Moore from the ColorWerx Blog. He supplied me with just the right color codes to replicate what was worn on the ice each year by the Stars franchise. Turns out my original guess at the yellow was pretty dead on accurate... but my green was WAY off.

Thanks Fred Teigen, a loyal North Stars fan that sent me an email after I posted the 1980's uniforms to inform me that the number font I was using wasn't entirely accurate. A few glances at some old photos proved that he was blatantly correct. I quickly removed the extra serifs, and tipped my hat to him for his keen eye.

Thanks to Chris Creamer from Sportslogos.net, for not only supplying me with some base logos to work with, but also for taking notice of my project and using my graphics in his collection... and allowing me to spam his forums just a little bit from time to time.

Thanks to Roger Clemente, from the Creamer forums. Without his uniform template as a base to work from, this project would have taken considerably longer to complete.

Thanks to ESPN's Paul Lukas from Uniwatch Blog, for his multiple shout-outs and plugs he's given this project and my site. I can always tell when he's posted a link to my blog, because my traffic increases about ten-fold for the day.

Special thanks also goes out to the PuckDrawn blog for their mention of this project as well.

Huge thanks to both DropThePucks.com and The Hockey Uniform Database for their research and collections that were invaluable to the creation of this project.

Finally, thanks to VintageMinnesotaHockey.com for their knowledge of the team's history, and contributions of unworn uniforms.