Wednesday, September 19, 2012

1958 Packers -- no gold in the uniform

This is the only color photo I've seen of the Packers in their 1958 home uniform: White helmets, blue jerseys and white pants. I know the image is small, but it's definitely what was then called "new City Stadium" and would have to be either 1957, the year the stadium opened, or 1958, since Vince Lombardi introduced the green and gold as we've known them ever since in 1959.

UPDATE: I have operated on the presumption that this photo is from early in the 1958 season, perhaps the Sept. 28 game against the Bears or the Oct. 5 game against the Lions. But this week I found a uniform reference in Chuck Johnson's story on the Packers-Lions game, which ended tied 13-13, in the Oct. 6, 1958 Milwaukee Journal:

"One needed a program to tell the two teams apart. Detroit wore white uniforms and Green Bay, green. Otherwise they looked very similar."

Since we know that the Lions wore silver helmets and pants, home and away, from the mid-'50s onward, we can presume Johnson means jerseys when he says "uniforms." But finding this reference is an eye-opener, since it supports the conclusion of the outstanding Gridiron Uniform Database regarding the Packers' 1958 uniforms.

I'm standing by my conclusion that those are blue jerseys, while accepting the possibility the Packers wore green jerseys and blue jerseys with the white helmets and pants in 1958.

The green jerseys, apparently not worn during 1957, could have been left over from 1956. The photo below of Tobin Rote is from 1956, his last with the Packers and the Packers' last at City Stadium I.