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Written by Cole Jones
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Monday, 02 November 2009 01:00 |
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The Stars began the new millennium celebrating a very memorable win over the Anaheim Mighty Ducks on New Years Eve, as defending Stanley Cup Champions, and with the best player in team history smack-dab in the middle of his prime. They started the decade wearing the new uniforms they debuted after their 1999 Championship, complete with the "Year 2000" patch that was worn by every team that season.
 
The Stars would have another fantastic season in 1999-2000, going all the way back to the Stanley Cup Finals and facing the New Jersey Devils. The Devils would go on to dethrone the Stars in 6 games, with future Dallas Star Jason Arnott scoring the game winning goal and quieting the Reunion Arena faithful. For the 4th Stanley Cup Finals appearance in team history, the Stars added the now common-place Finals patch to their home and road sweaters.
 
Following their loss to New Jersey, the Stars would obviously remove both the 2000 and the Stanley Cup patches, but keep the rest of the uniform largely unchanged for the next few years.
After the tragic news of September 11th, 2001, the Dallas Stars and Texas Rangers decided to host a charity softball game at the Ballpark in Arlington, with proceeds benefiting charities for victims of the attacks. The Dallas Stars took on a team of Texas Rangers alumni, firemen, and police officers. I was lucky enough to attend the game, but for the life of me, I don't recall who won. I believe they settled it with a tie. In the game, the Stars wore black track pants with green mesh baseball jerseys that were auctioned off for charity. The players had their choice of FDNY and NYPD baseball caps to wear.
In 2000-2001, the NHL made a slight change to their league-wide markings, as they secured a contract with CCM/Koho to produce the uniforms for the entire league. Up to that point, the Stars had worn CCM uniforms independently, with other teams wearing their choice of Nike, Bauer, Starter, or ProPlayer. Since CCM/Koho wanted exposure for both of their brands (plus Jofa, another company in the mix), the NHL mandated that all white primary uniforms would feature the CCM logo on the back collar, while all dark or alternate uniforms would have the Koho mark. The officials wore uniforms with Jofa logos.
 
This uniform design would last beyond the purchase of CCM/Koho by Reebok. At the time of the merger, the Reebok logo replaced the CCM/Koho logos on the back collar. Also during their era, the league would switch the designation of home/road uniforms once again, returning the dark colors as home uniforms. Random fact: When the league made that switch, the green star-shaped sweater that we won the Stanley Cup in became the only sweater in team history to be classified as a home jersey, a road jersey, and an alternate jersey at various points in time.
Tragically, in 2003, the Dallas Stars decided to get "creative."
Originally, they designed a new alternate sweater featuring a solid gold torso, with black borders and white and green details. Thankfully, this jersey was shot down for actual game use and was never worn, but surprisingly was sold in mass quantities anyway at the official pro shop. This jersey was never "completed" in terms of design, so I took the liberties of assuming what the socks and fonts would look like. I think I made safe assumptions.
At first, Stars fans celebrated the thought of this uniform never seeing the ice... until they saw the design that won out. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know all about my thoughts on "The Mooterus." If you're a Stars fan with any amount of games under your belt, you know how the entire fanbase feels about that sweater. For those uninformed, this sweater has been dubbed "The Mooterus" due it's apparent designation as a cow's head and it's obviously graphic resemblance to a human female's uterus.
Red began to creep its way into the world of Stars merchandise like a virus. They even sold t-shirts that had the Stars primary logo in red and black. Constantly, you'd hear the PR department talk about how the "Bull merchandise" was selling like hot cakes... but you'd rarely ever see it on the street or at the rink. Fans wrote petitions, websites were launched... Needless to say, it wasn't a popular uniform (though you still see a handful every night at the AAC, for some reason.) After the lock-out had ended, the Stars began using the uniform the minimum amount of games allowed by the league, and quickly threw it to the garbage heap. Fans celebrated. Modano joked about burning all the Moot-Merch at Dallas City Hall.
Speaking of the lockout, the Stars (and the rest of the league) did not have a single game scheduled for an entire season. This didn't keep the Stars off the ice, however. Teaming up with the local Junior hockey team, the Texas Tornado, the two teams hosted their first ever "Pros Vs. Prospects" charity game in Frisco. This game pitted a team of Dallas Stars and NHL alumni against the kids of the Texas Tornado. The "Pros" wore white uniforms, with the "Prospects" in black. Because this was a non-sanctioned NHL game, the only Stars logos involved were on the helmet stickers of the "Pros." It was as close to Dallas Stars hockey as anyone got that season, and was a great success.
 
After the lockout had ended, and the Mooterus had been vanquished, things were back to normal in the land of Stars hockey... until Reebok announced they were toying with the idea of a complete hockey makeover, and introduction of a "uniform system." They decided to make Marty Turco the guinea pig. For one single preseason game against the Colorado Avalanche, Marty wore a tighter fitting green Reebok practice sweater... the forefather of the "RBK Edge" uniform system. These practice uniforms are still in use league wide today. The most noticeable feature of these jerseys is the silver reflective piping going down the sleeves... that's right, the same stuff they put on some kids backpacks, to make sure they don't get run over.
Those uniforms never took off, and when the season began, Turco was wearing his standard Stars sweater, just like the rest of his team. In 2006-2007, the final year of the popular green-star uniform design, the Dallas Stars hosted the NHL All-Star game for their first time. They wore an accompanying patch on both uniforms to signify this historic event.
 
As the 2006-2007 season drew to a close, fans braced themselves for "Uniformageddon." Reebok announced that every single NHL team would be wearing brand new uniforms, with a brand new tighter fit the next season. They called it "RBK Edge." Fan drawn mock-ups were spreading all over the internet, fulfilling the worst nightmares of several fans. Original 6 teams feared for their history. Rumors were spread that every jersey would be tucked in to the oversized pants, and that all sock stripes would be vertical instead of horizontal. When all was said and done, a few teams had greatly improved their looks (Boston, Washington), several teams had ruined their looks (St. Louis, Florida, Colorado), and many teams barely changed a thing (Montreal, New Jersey, Detroit). Overall, the aesthetic changes weren't nearly as drastic as originally feared.
Dallas on the other hand, decided simple was the way to go. Perhaps too simple, to some fans. Possibly fearing a Mooterus-level backlash of being too colorful, the Stars decided to create home uniforms almost entirely devoid of color. Green was relegated to the shoulder logo only, on a solid black sweater with a white and gold arched DALLAS wordmark. A uniform element almost unused in NHL history, yet very popular in college hockey.
Following a trend set all the way back in Minnesota, the Stars chose an away jersey that didn't exactly match their home. Primarily white, and almost entire devoid of black, the Stars road jersey featured the standard Stars primary logo on the chest and green and gold stripes. This uniform also featured numbers on the front, but this time in the upper corner, opposite the captains' letters.
A year later, the Stars would introduce another alternate jersey. Unoffensive, but uninspired, it was basically an uncrested version of the road sweater, with an arched DALLAS wordmark to match the home.
Many expect this uniform to eventually replace the current away jersey, bringing the home and road more in line with one another. I personally hope the current away becomes a basis for a new green home jersey... but who am I? (I hope you're reading, Dallas Stars... make me happy again.)
These uniforms would remain intact until the end of the decade, which at the time of my posting this to The Other 6 Seconds is still 2 months away. I haven't yet decided if I'm going to create a new post for the 2010's in January, or if I'm going to wait until the Stars make a uniform change that makes it necessary. Either way, I truly appreciate all the help and support I've received in this project by everyone who's helped in one way or another. I'd also like to thank you, the reader, for giving my obsession with uniforms and team colors a worthy outlet.
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