[majik]

That would be stupid bringing the St. Louis colors with them...knowing they will change soon why would anyone buy transitional stuff? Did anyone see the jerseys at the rally in front of the Coliseum? They weren't that God awful Georgia/St. Louis gold

[Gareth]

I agree. They will sell much more merchandise if they change the look.

[kayfabe]

Here's your complete history of Rams unis, courtesy of this morning's ESPN Uni Watch's Friday Flashback...

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/14565 ... s-st-louis

Paul Lukas

With the St. Louis Rams moving back to Los Angeles, there's been a flurry of speculation as to whether the relocation will be accompanied by a uniform redesign. (We've even issued our own "Redesign the Rams" challenge.) That makes this a good time to take a Friday Flashback look at some of the key moments in Rams uniform history.

One of those is also a key moment in football history, period. That came in 1948, after the Rams' second season of their first stint in L.A. Halfback Fred Gehrke, who had studied art at the University of Utah, convinced coach Bob Snyder and owner Dan Reeves to let him paint ram horns on the team's headgear -- the first graphic ever to appear on an NFL helmet (further info here).



How has the Rams' look evolved since then? Here's a selected timeline featuring some of the team's more notable uniform designs -- some positive, some negative:

1949: For one season, the Rams experiment with a new color scheme, eliminating blue and adding red. The results look a lot like another L.A.-based team -- the USC Trojans:



1950: The Rams go back to blue and yellow. They will retain this color scheme for 14 seasons:



1953: The Rams enhance their uniform numbers with white outlining -- a sharp look that gives them the boldest uni numbers in the NFL:



1958: The Rams keep their blue/yellow color scheme but abandon their yellow jerseys, switching to white jerseys for road games. They won't wear yellow jerseys again until 1994 (as part of the NFL's 75th anniversary throwback series) and again in 2015 (as part of the league's Thursday night "Color Rush" promotion):



1964: The Rams abandon yellow entirely and switch to a simple blue-white color scheme, which they will maintain for nine seasons. For the first eight of those seasons, they choose to wear their white jerseys at home. Since they also wear white for most road games (due to most other teams choosing to wear their colored jerseys at home), the team's predominant look during this period is white over white, with the blue jerseys being worn only occasionally:



1973: Yellow is restored to the team's color scheme and is added to all parts of the uniform -- the helmet, the jersey, the pants and even the socks. In a clever touch, the horns on the helmet are echoed by a new set of horns on the shoulders and sleeves. The team also goes back to wearing blue jerseys for most home games. Aside from a few minor tweaks involving shoe colors and sock stripes, this remains the team's basic look for the rest of its time in Los Angeles:



1973-1984: Defensive end Jack Youngblood and linebacker Jim Youngblood (who, contrary to common belief, are not related) both play for the Rams. Since they have the same surname and the same first initial, they wear their full names on their jerseys. And since "Youngblood" has so many letters, their names are in the unusual double-decker format:



1983-1987: Running back Eric Dickerson establishes a distinctive signature style while playing for the Rams, becoming known for his goggles, his white neck roll and his Vettex mouth guard:



1995: The Rams move from L.A. to St. Louis and leave their uniforms unchanged except for a patch commemorating their first season in their new home:



2000: One season after winning Super Bowl XXXIV, the Rams get a makeover. Their shade of blue changes from royal to navy, and the yellow changes to gold. With NFL sleeves getting shorter, the shoulder horns are scrapped, and some unfortunate side panels are added to the jerseys. The new pants, interestingly, are solid gold with no striping -- an NFL rarity. The new look works well enough with the white jersey, but the blue jersey looks too drab:



2003: Blue pants -- this time with striping -- are added to the mix for a handful of road games. They lack the elegance of the gold pants:



2005: The full disaster potential of the blue pants is realized as the Rams go mono-blue for the first time in franchise history for a Week 11 game against the Cardinals. They reprise the look six weeks later and go on to feature it at least once (and often a lot more than once) in nine of the next 10 seasons, speeding their transition from one of the league's better-looking teams to one of its worst-looking.



2012: With Nike taking over the NFL's uniform contract, the Rams adopt one of sportswear giant's signature design accents: a contrasting collar panel that looks a bit like Eric Dickerson's old neck roll (or, as some fans quickly dub it, the "toilet seat collar"). Oddly, this design element is also included on the team's throwbacks despite being historically inaccurate. Meanwhile, the gold pants, which have been worn less and less, are officially mothballed.



And that pretty much brings us up to date, at least in terms of the major developments. If you want to see even more details, including a look at what the franchise wore when it was located in Cleveland back in the 1930s and '40s, check out the excellent Gridiron Uniform Database, where you can see the team's entire uniform history at a glance.

As for what the Rams will wear for their return to L.A., that remains to be seen. But if you have a good design idea for them, let's see it.

Would you like to nominate a uniform or team to be showcased in a future Friday Flashback installment? Send your suggestions to [email protected].

Paul Lukas wonders if any of the participants in our Rams redesign challenge will dare to tinker with the team's iconic helmet design. If you liked this column, you'll probably like his Uni Watch Blog, plus you can follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Want to learn about his Uni Watch Membership Program, be added to his mailing list so you'll always know when a new column has been posted or just ask him a question? Contact him at [email protected].

[RamsFanSince82]

Hopefully, they don't wait until 19' to change them.

[ramsman34]

Soooo, we are keeping the current unis for the next 3 seasons with possibly some new throwbacks from what I have read. Then all new (old?) in 2019?

Hmmmm, makes some sense I guess.

[aeneas1]

https://twitter.com/THEREAL_DV/status/688123121908371456

Hopefully, they don't wait until 19' to change them.

just hope the rams resist giving nike full reign of a new uni look, the thought of nike coming up with some sort of jeston futuristic looking nonsense that they think matches the new stadium makes me a bit nervous...

that said, even tho i typically prefer the classic nfl looking uniforms, especially when it comes to the rams, i really liked the job nike did for seattle, i think their uniforms are great, head and shoulders above their original look, and i like the subtle feather pattern that runs down the middle of their helmets, maybe a subtle horn texture in the same vein might look sharp on a new rams helmet makeover...

[Hacksaw]

Bummer. Was hoping to lose those drab StL colors of GF's year one. At least they look better outdoors.

BTW nice post Kayfabe..

[TomSlick]

I'd be for that. Ties a lot to late 50s early 60s.

Just PLEASE no black. No trendy designs. Classic is what we need.

Steelers, Packers, Cowboys, Bears, Raiders, Chiefs, Giants, Vikings have all stayed with their long standing designs with minor changes.

Heck, Jets even got smart and went back to uni/helmet of 60s.

When he mentioned the term 'marketing to millennials' I got nervous.

I like the wide horns. Finally, a beastly looking RAM helmet.

"Marketing to millennials"...yeah, that sounds like a smoldering pile of manure. They gonna put smart phones on the uniforms? Sheesh, just give me so old time RAM success in old time looking uniforms. Spare me the cutesy marketing crud.

[Hacksaw]

Where did you find that mock Stranger?
That is incredible how it is the old blue and white and the blue and yellow gold looks combined. The blue is different than the Royal blue so it somewhat ties in the StL blueberry look too. (<< I could live with out that part.) The best part, as Tom mentioned, is the wider horns not to mention the wider pants stripes. That goes back to the 50's. I like it.

Now how do we get rocking the traditional royal blue and canary yellow golds in 2016?

[Stranger]

I searched Google Images on "old rams uniform". Took me a while to locate it. I saved it onto my hard drive. But I don't know what web site it came from - I just grabbed the images, which included this one as well...