Yes, yes, a thousand times YES! I just do not understand why the university has allowed the Athletic Department to hijack our official school color - DUKE BLUE - and turn it into some god-awful gaudy electric Kentucky-wannabe royal blue. Oh wait, of course I understand - the Athletic Department is now the de facto marketing arm of the university. I was around in late 80s and early 90s to see firsthand the effects the men’s basketball team’s success had in solidifying Duke as not just a very good regional school, but as a nationally recognized “elite” university. And that, of course, spurred significant increases in applications/selectivity, alumni donations, and the wildly successful capital campaigns that have fueled so much of the growth in facilities, technology, financial aid, strength/reputation of faculty, etc.
But I still don’t get why the Athletic Department prefers this faux Duke Blue to the actual one. Is it because it shows up more brightly on HDTVs? Because it seemed to me that the color change pretty much coincided with the point when HDTVs became much more affordable & accessible. Is is because the faux blue sells better to the masses, despite the fact that I find it tacky and unflattering to most people? (Which reminds me of another peeve that I’ll mention here but leave the full discussion for another day: why are 95% of the Duke shirt designs so bad, and so “aggressive” - does everything have to feature 4” tall lettering, as if the wearer is screaming their allegiance to Duke?)
Has their ever been any attempt to question why Duke Blue seems to be fading into something that at times seems almost indistinguishable from the seemingly ever-darkening color of that school down 15-501? Any grumbling from the Iron Dukes or any other groups that one would expect to care about traditions? Is there any hope of ever reversing this sickening trend (I truly felt sick to my stomach earlier tonight when I saw the heinous gray/royal/gold unis the team was wearing. They looked as though they’d been washed in polluted water. I’m all for honoring Coach K’s 40th anniversary on the bench but, good grief!, can’t we do it with something that has some class to it?)
One last note in my epic gripe about the laundry: does anyone else from the 80s and possibly early 90s remember the stickers that were distributed by Alumni Affairs that were about 4”x6”, were “true” Duke Blue and read in white letters, “This Is Duke Blue”? Mine seems to have disappeared somewhere along the past four or so decades, but I’d love to get my hands on another one. Maybe I’ll just have to have some made for myself.
And yes, get the hell off of my lawn.
Didn’t like the way the unis looked on the TV machine.
Surely there is a better way to honor Coach K than with these ugly, uninspiring, disappointing threads.
We look like we dug up some old, tarnished UCLA uniforms.
Hard at work making beautiful things.
As I understand it, when Duke signed with Nike, Nike asked if it could make and sell shirts, etc. in two colors -- the traditional Duke Prussian blue and PMS 287. The brighter blue outsold the traditional colors. I like the traditional color because it is more fearsome on the athletic fields and courts. Pantone 287 is too bright and cheerful, especially when grumpy old me is wearing it. But money talks!
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
Thanks for the explanation Sagegrouse, though it only serves to confirm my suspicions that Duke has sold its soul to Nike. I agree that Pantone 287 is too bright and too “peppy” - it cheapens the look of our uniforms and definitely lacks the imposing quality of a darker shade. Even worse, it appears to me that recent uniforms and even the refinished Coach K Court have veered more toward Pantone 286 than 287. I much prefer the “original” Duke Blue, as described in a 1965 memo from the Subcommittee on Academic Gowns to Pres. Knight as “neither royal nor Yale, but Prussian blue" (citation avail upon request). To my eye, Pantone colors 281|C and 288-C match that description much better than 287-C. Of course, there are literally thousands of Pantone colors, so I’m sure one could find a dozen or more equally better suited than Nike Blue. But I know I stand here among only a few like-minded souls yelling into the abyss.
Coach K Court pre- and post-2014
Just had to post this comparison. That’s it, I’m done now.
I'm one of the ones that didn't mind the gray jerseys the other night and, as you've heard on the podcast, I LOVE the blue and white uniforms.
And, for those who have been on Fanatics lately, they've been selling this jersey for a couple months now. I would think we will see this jersey either in NYC for the 2K Classic or on the road at the Breslin Center.
ff_3641705-87850d66c136d61c5ae3alt1_full.jpg
That looks about as good as the black jerseys can get. I enjoy them as an occasional choice for the road. I can't recall who said it, either RJ or Zion, that something like "we wear black on the road because it is a funeral for the other team," but that was such a great quote. I expect that we'll see the black road jerseys a lot this season and for the next few years.
If I had to guess, one of the final 2 jerseys will be a white-out version and then one more all-blue or blue dominant jersey that we'll see at the Empire Classic.
Hopefully Duke will be back to the traditional home whites tonight. I also dislike the grays.
5a, 5c.
But always 9f.
Does anyone know whether the grey unis will be appearing all year or for just a few early season games? I don't mind them being worn at neutral site venues like MSG, but at Cameron the only colors that should be worn are blue and white.
Thanks 86. Thanks. And in my view, if the world-famous Duke basketball team can wear gray "practice jerseys" as game uniforms, we should at least have a Prussian-blue alternative for our football and other teams. Seriously!
On a different topic, it seems odd that so few major college programs have blue as their dominant color. Thinking off-hand, there are the three above, Penn State, Yale (must be mentioned for historical reasons), UNC (yeah, I know, powder blue, but they also have navy blue as an official color). That's five of the teams in the Power Five conferences.
Bunch of P-5 schools have blue and orange -- UVa, Auburn, Florida, Illinois -- or blue and gold -- Notre Dame, Michigan, Cal-Berkeley, UCLA. Ole Miss is "Yale blue and Harvard crimson" I believe.
I am sure there are significant lacunae in my rambling comments.
Last edited by sagegrouse; 11-13-2019 at 01:21 PM. Reason: Clarity, but I'm not sure
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. - Winston Churchill
President of the "Nolan Smith Should Have His Jersey in The Rafters" Club
Downright ugly and painful to watch.