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- Jun 20, 2014
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I excerpted this from a 9/14/94 Los Angeles Times article. It's a fun explanation of why the Rams switched to blue and white uniforms.
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Who else in the NFL had the audacity to wear yellow jerseys on Sunday? The Rams of 1951 may have looked like banana splits, but with Waterfield and Norm Van Brocklin cranking up 54-14 and 48-21 victories, no one seemed to laugh much.
"I love 'em," says Mickey Dukich, the Rams' director of video operation for the past 39 years. "It was sad to give them up. They were unique, distinctive. Very clean-looking."
The Rams gave them up in 1957 because television, in an ominous sign of things to come, ordered them to.
"The games were broadcast in black and white then," Dukich says, "and the gold came out as gray on TV sets. It conflicted with white jerseys and light blue jerseys, like the ones the Detroit Lions wore. Television wanted more of a contrast."
The Rams switched to blue and white, but "not without a struggle," according to Dukich. "Dan Reeves, who owned the Rams then, told our equipment manager, Bill Granholm, to try to find a gold or a yellow that came across as white, or near it, when it was photographed in black and white.
"Bill went through a lot of different shades, but none of them worked until he found a light-colored yellow with blue on it. We went to the Coliseum one afternoon, he'd model it on the field and I'd shoot it from the top of the stadium. Sure enough, it came out white on the film. We were told we'd be able to use it.
"But then Dan Reeves asked Bill the name of the color. 'Buttercup yellow,' Bill told him.
"That did it. Mr. Reeves said, 'No way, I'm not going to let the reporters know my team plays in buttercup yellow.' It was back to blue and white after that."
The Rams remained in blue and white throughout the '60s and into the '70s, until Carroll Rosenbloom bought the team in 1973.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Who else in the NFL had the audacity to wear yellow jerseys on Sunday? The Rams of 1951 may have looked like banana splits, but with Waterfield and Norm Van Brocklin cranking up 54-14 and 48-21 victories, no one seemed to laugh much.
"I love 'em," says Mickey Dukich, the Rams' director of video operation for the past 39 years. "It was sad to give them up. They were unique, distinctive. Very clean-looking."
The Rams gave them up in 1957 because television, in an ominous sign of things to come, ordered them to.
"The games were broadcast in black and white then," Dukich says, "and the gold came out as gray on TV sets. It conflicted with white jerseys and light blue jerseys, like the ones the Detroit Lions wore. Television wanted more of a contrast."
The Rams switched to blue and white, but "not without a struggle," according to Dukich. "Dan Reeves, who owned the Rams then, told our equipment manager, Bill Granholm, to try to find a gold or a yellow that came across as white, or near it, when it was photographed in black and white.
"Bill went through a lot of different shades, but none of them worked until he found a light-colored yellow with blue on it. We went to the Coliseum one afternoon, he'd model it on the field and I'd shoot it from the top of the stadium. Sure enough, it came out white on the film. We were told we'd be able to use it.
"But then Dan Reeves asked Bill the name of the color. 'Buttercup yellow,' Bill told him.
"That did it. Mr. Reeves said, 'No way, I'm not going to let the reporters know my team plays in buttercup yellow.' It was back to blue and white after that."
