NCAA - Clemson University and University of South Carolina

Clemson U. and U. of South Carolina to Unveil New Football Uniforms

Fashion Statements

Clemson, USC have top-secret uniform changes in works

BY LARRY WILLIAMS Of The Post and Courier Staff

At Jewelry Warehouse in Columbia, Bryan Harmon can only guess what South Carolina's football team is going to wear this fall.

"I have no clue," said Harmon, manager of the store's collegiate division. "I have to order all three colors just to make sure I have one of them right."

At Mr. Knickerbocker in Clemson, David Spearman wouldn't be surprised if Tigers head coach Tommy Bowden dressed his team in rugby uniforms for its season opener against Wake Forest.

"If he wins ballgames, I don't care what he does -- as long as it's not garnet or black," said Spearman, president of the family-owned store.

Bowden and South Carolina coach Lou Holtz don't have much in common, but they do share an affinity for fashion statements. Holtz is believed to be switching the Gamecocks' dominant color from garnet to black, while Bowden hasn't ruled out making some surprising tweaks to the Tigers' uniforms this season.

This much is certain: Both coaches would rather discuss their playbooks than reveal how their teams will dress in 2004. This not-so-weighty issue has captured the imagination and speculation of fans who have nothing better to do during the long summer months before the season begins.

THE CAROLINA CHAMELEONS

Traditionally, South Carolina's coaches have presided over more makeovers than the popular show "Trading Spaces." In 1983, Joe Morrison overhauled his team's uniforms by incorporating more black and shifting the helmets from white to garnet.

Morrison couldn't seem to make up his mind what his team would wear during his six-year career, changing schemes seemingly by the week before his death in 1989.

Sparky Woods took over and adopted a more basic look, using garnet as the primary color before eventually going back to black. Brad Scott changed to garnet in 1994, but he also succumbed to the urge to use more black before his firing in 1998.

"Almost every coach comes in and changes it two or three times before he leaves," Harmon said.

Then came Holtz, who brought back white helmets and kept the black jerseys before going to garnet jerseys in 2000. Garnet worked for a while, as the Gamecocks rebounded from an 0-11 season in 1999 by winning 17 games in two years.

That mojo seemed to wear off in 2002 and 2003, when South Carolina posted back-to-back 5-7 seasons. Now, speculation has Holtz going back to black jerseys and adding black helmets.

But don't bother asking those who would seem to be in the know. The teams' choice of attire for this season is shrouded in secrecy that suggests national security is at stake.

"You've got to talk to Coach Holtz about that," said Chris Matlock, the Gamecocks' equipment manager. "Everybody is making a big deal out of them, but I don't know what's going on."

DON'T ASK, DON'T TOUCH

There have been fewer changes over the years at Clemson, where orange has typically been the predominant color. Coach Ken Hatfield outfitted his players in purple jerseys for two games in 1991, and the color didn't return until Bowden used it in three games during his third year (2001).

The Tigers broke out purple jerseys for the first time under Bowden last year against Georgia Tech and Duke, and Bowden recently hinted more purple could be ahead. Clemson's official colors are burnt orange and Northwestern purple, and Bowden sees no problem with incorporating more of the latter.

Bowden has a history of being creative with uniform design. In 1998, his last year at Tulane, his team wore black pants for the first time in the program's history.

"Purple is a school color, and I don't know of a school in the country that doesn't have their school colors in their uniforms," he said. "I wouldn't want to be the first."

Bowden recently met with a Nike representative to discuss plans for uniforms in 2005. He said it's possible the changes will make Clemson's uniform resemble those of the Miami Hurricanes and the NFL's Denver Broncos.

"The dominant color will always be orange," he said. "Every school has a dominant color, and ours is orange. We play six home games, and for four or five of them the dominant color needs to be orange."

Bowden said last year that a nine-win season would give him some freedom to make stylistic changes. But he knows some things are sacred at Clemson.

"Don't touch the helmet, don't touch the hill and don't touch the rock," Bowden said.

The white Tiger paw on the orange helmet has been synonymous with Clemson since 1970, when the school paid an advertising firm to help change its image. Tigers players have run down the hill at Death Valley before games since 1942, and they have rubbed Howard's Rock at the top of the hill since 1966.

SEEKING AN IDENTITY

Tampering with tradition is more accepted at South Carolina than at Clemson. Tom Price, a former Gamecocks sports information director who now serves as the athletics department historian, said the football program's inability to settle on a uniform scheme exemplifies the team's perpetual search for an identity.

"Changing every year or two, you don't know what team is out there," Price said. "If they change it again now, that would be just another change. It wouldn't establish a tradition. They don't really have a tradition."

For traditional college football powers such as Alabama, Penn State, Oklahoma and Nebraska, uniforms have remained mostly the same for decades and minor tweaks are often met with skepticism.

"Penn State has got the ugliest, plainest uniforms," Price said, "but everybody knows that's Penn State when they're out there."

At South Carolina, where the football has seldom surpassed mediocre, there is always hope a new look will lead to new results.

Price said changing uniforms is "an ego thing with head coaches more than anything else."

"He is seeking an identity, I guess," Price said of Holtz, who has a 27-32 record in five seasons with the Gamecocks. "It seems to me his name would be enough of an identity, but I don't know."

SOLID PURPLE?

Bowden's interest in purple seems to contradict the message that comes from his administration's "Solid Orange" campaign, which stresses the importance of wearing orange.

"The university says solid orange and wants to promote solid orange, then the football team does things to the contrary and wears purple jerseys," said Spearman of Mr. Knickerbocker's. "Clemson people bleed orange. We don't bleed purple."

Phillips, who strongly believes exclusive use of the color orange is tied to the identity and self- image of the athletics department, said he is OK with the football team wearing a little purple every now and then.

"I'm not against it, so long that we maintain our basic traditions of what we're about," he said. "Our kids, for whatever reason, like purple. I'll admit that. You're not going to come out in purple every game, but I think Tommy does believe there are times when you put a little more purple on. But orange is still the dominant color."

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