Quinn from Milwaukee
I discovered the recent color change that was made to the 1923-26 uniforms and the slightly older color change made to the 1929-30 uniforms. While you did a deep dive into this a little bit ago, I was wondering what were the sources that were found in order to come to the conclusion of the current understanding of the colors? Was it mostly orthochromatic analysis, or uniform descriptions or references in the Press-Gazette? Also, even though there isn't a lot known or recorded about the 1922 uniforms, what is your best guess on what most of the players were wearing? Was it a majority of uniforms similar to the blank navy blue uniforms of 1919-20 or an even mix of whatever the players had personally?
First, I think your question begs for background for those who might not be as familiar with this subject as you are. Two, for me to detail the research that went into those decisions is going to make for a painstaking Q&A.
So beware.
As for background, sometime around 2000, Maple Leaf Productions, a Canadian company, created a poster of what it claimed was a uniform history of the Green Bay Packers and sold a framed wall hanging of it. Later, NFL Films produced a two-minute video in conjunction with the Pro Football Hall of Fame, again, claiming it was chronicling the team's uniform history.
The video included interviews with Joe Horrigan, then vice president of communications/exhibits at the Hall of Fame; Scott Sillcox, president of Maple Leaf; and Michael MacCambridge, author of America's Game.
In 2002, the Packers also included the uniform history in their media guide for the first time and continued doing so through 2015.
Unfortunately and at the expense of Packers history, either the colored sketches or the descriptions of past uniforms produced by Maple Leaf were essentially incorrect for every uniform prior to 1950. And then not all the details post-1950 were accurate, either, although that's a subject for another day.
How and why the Pro Football Hall of Fame and NFL Films bought into the product without confirming the accuracy of Maple Leaf's work is puzzling.
One would think they would have at least verified the information through sources in Green Bay and/or by researching past issues of the Green Bay Press-Gazette, which arguably covered its local team and maybe all of pro football more thoroughly than any other newspaper in the country into the 1940s, if not beyond. But because that wasn't done, most of the information on the poster was incorrect and most of what was said in the NFL Films video was untrue.
Let me first assure you that the changes made from the Maple Leaf poster to what's now included in the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame uniform display was validated by extensive research and multiple sources. Before spelling all of that out, it should be noted that Brent Hensel, Packers curator, created the exhibit and provided input that he had gathered separately.
Now, to your question.
The first uniform in the display that covers the upper walls and serves as a centerpiece of the Packers Hall of Fame is a plain, navy-blue jersey that was worn by the Packers in 1919. That uniform predated the Packers' admittance into what is now the NFL and was not included on the Maple Leaf poster.
But it's a good starting point in reference to Packers history because it debunks the claim made in the NFL Films video that Curly Lambeau copied Notre Dame's blue and gold colors when he and George Whitney Calhoun organized the Packers in 1919.
There was no gold on the Packers' original uniforms. And it's all but a certainty that there was no gold on any of their uniforms until their fifth year of existence.
It's clear from the 1919 and 1920 black-and-white team pictures that the jerseys consisted of one color. As for other details, the Press-Gazette reported in 1920 that the Packers' sweaters – as they were called then – were blue and included a large Council Brand emblem. Regretfully, I'm not aware of any picture that exists of what would have been the Packers' first logo.
The Packers' sponsor in 1919 and '20, their sandlot years, was the Indian Packing Co., and Council Meats was its most popular brand.
The first uniform in the Maple Leaf poster was the 1921 jersey with "ACME PACKERS" in large letters emblazoned across the front. The Maple Leaf poster showed a blue uniform with gold lettering.
The jersey from that year in the Packers Hall of Fame is navy blue with white lettering, not gold.
Admittedly, I could not find any documentation anywhere of the color of the lettering, despite countless hours of research. Thus, in this case, we relied solely on experts, but experts far more qualified than the ones in the NFL Films video.
Hensel went with the recommendation of Hank Derleth, who started working in the sports uniform field in 1963 with SandKnit and continued his business association with the Packers with his own company, Ripon Athletic.
It's hard to imagine that there is a more qualified historian on football uniforms anywhere in the country than Derleth, who also has a football background. He was an end on Wisconsin's 1959 Big Ten champions and co-captain of the 1960 Badgers.
Furthermore, before being hired by SandKnit, he took graduate courses in the early 1960s at Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science. Those courses included yarn manufacturing, fabric analysis, knitting technology and textile quality control.
Derleth told Hensel that he believed gold-colored lettering would have been much rarer than white back in the early 1920s based on what he learned at SandKnit, a sporting goods apparel company founded in 1921 that had a collection of historical uniforms dating to that period.
Derleth also believed the sharp contrast between the jersey's light and dark colors in the 1921 picture was further evidence that the "ACME PACKING" lettering was white. "It wouldn't be so clear and crisp in the contrast of the colors (if it was gold or yellow)," Derleth told me in 2025.
Bill Kapinski, a historical photo expert based in Appleton, Wis., agreed. "The letters on the jerseys are very light," he said. "If they were yellow or gold they would be much darker."
Beyond that, Horrigan obviously didn't know the history behind the Packers' ties to Acme Packing, when he talked about its sponsorship in the video. One reason why only a handful of players were wearing jerseys with the Acme lettering when the 1921 team photo was taken was because the company was no longer sponsoring the team.
Moreover, once the Packers started playing against other professional teams that season, they were constantly upgrading their roster and replacing the local players who were on the team when Acme sponsored the uniforms.
The Packers cut ties with Acme, which purchased Indian Packing only nine months earlier, no later than one league game into the 1921 season. At that point, Acme was more than $68 million in debt in today's money.
Maple Leaf also claimed the Packers wore the Acme jerseys again in 1922. There was no team picture taken of that year's Packers – still the only time it has happened in team history – to confirm or disprove that claim. But the private Green Bay Football Club that ran the franchise in 1922 did everything it could to dissociate itself from Acme because of how many local people got ripped off buying what became worthless stock almost overnight.
Maple Leaf's description of the Packers' 1923-24 uniform read: "Plain gold jersey with nine thin navy-blue stripes on each sleeve, gold leggings, dark gold pants." In the Packers Hall of Fame display, the colors are reversed.
In this case, the documented evidence supporting the color reversal started with a Press-Gazette announcement, when the Packers unveiled the uniforms between games of a local baseball doubleheader. "The Bay eleven resplendent in their new jerseys, dark blue with gold-striped arms, made an imposing appearance," the newspaper reported on Sept. 17, 1923.
Contrary to what was suggested in the NFL Films video, it wasn't until that season that the unofficial nickname "Big Bay Blues" was used more frequently in the Press-Gazette. It's hard to imagine that the reference to "Big Bay Blues" would have caught on if the jerseys were gold with blue stripes.
Here's also where Kapinski's expertise and historical references provided the burden of proof regarding the two types of black-and-white film of the day: Orthochromatic, the oldest of the two and the most predominant in the 1920s, and Panchromatic, which didn't come into more widespread use until after 1926.
"Orthochromatic film was sensitive to blue," explained Kapinski. "So if something is blue, it tended to overexpose and turn out very light … and yellows would appear much darker. In Ortho film blues usually come out a lighter shade of grey, and yellows usually a little darker shade of grey."
Thus, in the case of the 1923 jersey that was shot with black-and-white film, Kapinski said, "The yellow/gold would appear darker and the blue would be lighter."
The same principle would have held true for the 1927-28 jersey colors that were described but not pictured in Maple Leaf's uniform history. Although the bars and/or stripes on the front of the jerseys looked lighter in the 1928 team picture than the base color of the jerseys, those jerseys were blue and the trimmings gold.
Again, one of the other considerations that supported that conclusion was the Press-Gazette's continued reference to the "Big Bay Blues."
That all changed in 1929. No longer were the Packers the "Big Bay Blues," because they were wearing yellow or gold jerseys.
In Maple Leaf's sketch of the 1929 and '30 jersey, the body was blue with a small gold circle at about chest level with a blue number inside it. Today, in the Packers Hall of Fame uniform display, the body of that jersey is yellow or gold with a small blue circle and gold number inside it.
The Ortho/Panchromatic theorem still applied to the 1929 black-and-white team photo. Then in 1930 there was a color team photo taken that provided indisputable proof the jersey was yellow/gold with a blue background in the circle.
The picture was taken by The Milwaukee Journal, a pioneer in publishing color photography, and appeared in its Oct. 12, 1930, edition.
The Journal started publishing color photography in 1927 with pictures that were limited, at first, to scenery "or shots of people able to hold a pose while the slow color film was exposed," according to Robert Wells' book, "The Milwaukee Journal: 1882-1982 – An Informal Chronicle of its First 100 Years."
Over the following decade the Journal published other color team photos of the Packers, but the 1930 shot was the first that I've found in my research. And reproduction of it can be found on page 127, Volume I, of “The Greatest Story in Sports: Green Bay Packers 1919-2019.”
What's more, numerous newspaper references could be found supporting the fact that the Packers wore yellow/gold rather blue jerseys when they won their first two NFL championships in 1929 and '30.
"The Packers will have new jerseys this season, with a color scheme of blue trimming on a gold background instead of blue background with gold trimming of last year," the Press-Gazette reported on July 24, 1929. On Sept. 12, 1929, the Press-Gazette again reported: "New uniforms have been secured for the players. The color scheme of last year has been reversed and the players will wear gold jerseys with blue numerals."
In its Sept. 23, 1929, game story about Green Bay's 9-0 victory over the Dayton Triangles, the Press-Gazette described the Packers as "the golden-jerseyed Bays." On Oct. 14, 1929, the newspaper included a note about how the game won by the Packers over the Frankford Yellow Jackets had to be stopped for a time in the first quarter because the two teams' jerseys were similar in color and causing issues on pass plays.
When the Packers beat the New York Giants, 20-6, at the Polo Grounds on Nov. 24, 1929, in what's still one of the biggest victories in their history, sportswriter Westbrook Pegler wrote how when the Packers made their only substitution with a minute to go, the replacement for Packers' right guard Jim Bowdoin looked totally out of place. "This was a Mr. (Paul) Minick," wrote Pegler. "His yellow shirt was so fresh and bright by contrast with the mucky, soggy clothing of his colleagues…"
In 1930, when the Packers fell to the Giants in New York, The New York Times made reference in its game story to the Packers' "yellow-jerseyed" battlement. And two weeks later, when the Packers tied the Portsmouth Spartans in that Ohio city to clinch a share of their second straight NFL championship, the Press-Gazette reported the players celebrated along their bench by tossing their "yellow sweaters" high in the air.
In its text about the Packers' uniforms from 1931-33, Maple Leaf included a sentence about the Packers adding "large, white numerals on the chest" in 1934. There were no numbers showing in the 1934 black-and-white team photo.
The 1931 jerseys were a dark, plain, navy-blue, as described by Maple Leaf, and can be seen in another Journal color team picture, also on page 127 of "The Greatest Story."
The Maple Leaf text stated the Packers introduced green jerseys in 1935 and wore them again in 1936. It added that the Packers started the 1935 season with a plain, dark green jersey and then switched to green-vested shirts with bright gold sleeves.
In the Journal's 1935 color, team picture, published on Dec. 8, the Packers were wearing their green-vested jerseys with gold sleeves. Also, Maple Leaf's reference to switching uniforms is dubious at the least. A little more than two weeks before the opener, the Press-Gazette reported the Packers got a look at their new uniforms.
"The jerseys are old gold on arms and shoulders, with a body of Kelly green, and old gold numerals fore and aft" was how the newspaper described them.
The next block of Maple Leaf text covered the years 1937-49 and showed a blue jersey with gold trim covering the shoulder-pad area. No question, the Packers wore such a jersey during that time period. However, the years in Maple Leaf's text were incorrect.
There's convincing evidence that from 1937-39, the Packers' uniforms were myrtle green with gold trim covering the shoulder-pad area. As an aside, according to AI, "myrtle green is a deep, rich, dark-teal green with strong blue undertones."
Here were various newspaper references to those jerseys over those three seasons.
On March 18, 1937, the Press-Gazette ran a picture of Lambeau holding up one of the Packers' new jerseys to be worn in the College All-Star Game and also, according to the caption, during the regular season. The jersey was described as having a "myrtle green body" with gold letters.
On May 31, 1937, the Press-Gazette repeated that Green Bay would be wearing "the Packer green and gold armour next fall."
On July 8, 1937, the Press-Gazette ran a black-and-white photo of future Pro Football Hall of Famer Clarke Hinkle modeling "the latest style" of the Packers' uniform. The caption read: "The new Packer jersey is of myrtle green, with knit sleeves and jockey satin about the body." It added: "The shoulders and numerals are gold."
There also were other references in the Press-Gazette to the Packers wearing green and gold in 1937 on May 11, Aug. 16 and Aug. 27. Also on Aug. 16, the Milwaukee Sentinel noted that the Packers had purchased new myrtle green jerseys with gold letters and stripes.
That said, both the Press-Gazette and Journal reported that just days before the Sept. 1 College All-Star Game, the Packers ordered an inexpensive lightweight jersey to wear during that game if necessary.
"Because of the probability that the game will be played under record heat conditions, the Packers yesterday placed a special order with Wilson Brothers for a new set of lightweight green jerseys, which they will use for the second half at Soldier Field," the Press-Gazette reported on Aug. 31, 1937.
A year later, the Packers unveiled a new white jersey in their eighth game at Cleveland. "Football fans here blinked Sunday afternoon when a team in white shirts appeared on the field," the Journal noted in a brief sidebar to its Oct. 31, 1938, game story. "Discarding their traditional green jerseys, the Packers appeared in complete new outfits. Coach Curly Lambeau said they may wear them the rest of the season."
The Packers crushed the Cleveland Rams, 35-7, that day. As it turned out, the Packers played against the Chicago Bears at Wrigley Field the next Sunday, and the Bears wore white, so the Packers wore their dark jerseys again. Then they wore white for their final two regular-season games at Detroit and at the New York Giants.
However, after losing to the Giants, 15-3, on Nov. 20, the Packers went back to their dark jerseys when they faced the Giants again on Dec. 10 in the NFL Championship Game in New York, when they lost again, 23-17.
The Dec. 9, 1939, Press-Gazette also made reference to the Packers wearing green and gold.
During that time period, the Maple Leaf uniform history included photos of two "alternate," white jerseys. But it listed 1939 as the first year the Packers wore them – not 1938 – and included two pictures of white jerseys: one with a gold number, the other with a green number.
Here again, there was a contradiction. A Nov. 15, 1938, Press-Gazette clipping said the Packers' new white jerseys were adorned with "black numbers and trimmings."
Admittedly, I have yet to find a color picture of the 1937-39 myrtle green jerseys. But from 1938-40, the Packers reported to the NFL that they had switched their team colors from navy blue to myrtle green and gold.
Also, in an interview for the 1983 documentary, "The Grandstand Franchise," produced by the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Hinkle, who played for the Packers from 1932-41, told the interviewer, that the team wore green and gold for the last six seasons of his career.
Based on the full transcript of Hinkle's interview, the interviewer seemed surprised at that answer and responded, "They went to the green and gold while you were there?" Hinkle answered, "Oh sure. From '36, '37, '38, '39, '40 and '41."
That interview was conducted roughly 40 years after Hinkle retired and, thus, he might have been slightly off on his years. In truth, the string would have started in 1935, not '36, if he was counting the green vested jerseys.
Jumping ahead, there's also convincing evidence that the Packers purchased blue uniforms with gold trim over the shoulder pads as early as 1940. Essentially, they were a replica of the 1937-39 myrtle green and gold jerseys.
In its Sept. 17, 1940 edition, the Press-Gazette ran a picture of Hinkle, modeling what it described as "the new official uniform" of the Packers. The caption's description of the uniform read as follows: "The shirt is of navy blue trimmed in gold."
Moreover, the New York Sunday News ran color photos on Nov. 23, 1941, of Packers stars Cecil Isbell and Don Hutson, wearing blue and gold jerseys. The News credited the photos to Warnecke and Cranston, a pioneering color photography team, according to AI. Curiously, Isbell was wearing No. 66, rather than 17, his actual number; and Hutson was wearing No. 3 rather than 14. Still, the photos appeared to be legit.
Then again, it can't be ruled out that Hinkle was correct in stating the Packers also wore green and gold – at least on occasion – in 1940 and '41. On June 1, 1940, the Milwaukee Sentinel reported the Packers "have ordered navy blue and gold uniforms this fall in addition to their traditional myrtle green outfit."
Also, in 1941 and through the decade, the Packers listed their team colors with the NFL as navy blue, green and gold.
On Jan. 25, 1947, the Press-Gazette reported that Lambeau had purchased at the NFL winter meetings new nylon jerseys that would have gold as the predominant color and weigh substantially less than the recent blue and gold jerseys.
"The jersey, pants and helmets will be gold and numerals will be in blue," the paper stated. In November of that season, the Press-Gazette reported that the Packers possessed both gold jerseys with blue numbers, as well as blue jerseys with gold numbers.
Without color photos from each and every game from 1937-49 – Maple Leaf's timeframe in its uniform history – there's no way of knowing how often the Packers wore their various versions of dark uniforms with gold over the shoulder pads. But the evidence shows that Maple Leaf's text for that period was at least partially incorrect and almost certainly entirely incorrect for the 1937-39 seasons.
Hopefully, that answered your question. But also keep in mind researching history is never ending. So this might not be the end of the story.
I'd also note that in the NFL Films video MacCambridge spoke about the Packers' G, seemingly not knowing that the original football-shaped G of 1961 was changed to the current oval G in 1970, although I've recently discovered that statement now requires an asterisk.
Kurt Rozek, a reader, sent me a 1972 game photo, where defenders Dave Robinson and Willie Buchanon were standing side-by-side. Robinson, then a 10-year veteran at a time when players wore the same helmet year after year, had the old G on his; while Buchanon, a rookie in 1972, was wearing the new G.
As for your question, what would I guess the 1922 Packers' jerseys looked like?
Plain blue. And for the returnees who had signed during the 1921 season and never got an Acme jersey, they maybe wore their same plain blue jersey again in '22. After all, the private Green Bay Football Club with Lambeau as president that ran the team that year was underfunded from the start and deep in debt by the end of that season.
Ross from Seattle
I saw some interesting items for sale online and was wondering what your thoughts were? One was a 1935 Green Bay Packers, Wadhams Oil "Sports Report" Yearbook & Schedule. I've seen other things from Wadhams Oil before but never a yearbook type thing like this. There were also two Hagemeister Park postcards that I thought were kind of fun.
I'm not a memorabilia expert, but those items were also valuable research tools, so I'll share my thoughts.
In January 1935, the Packers were reorganized as The Green Bay Packers, Inc., after being in receivership for 17 months, resulting from a lawsuit. And in that sale, it was mostly large companies that purchased the 484 total shares of stock that sold for $25 per share.
Wadhams Oil was one of the 114 shareholders. It originally purchased 10 shares. Wadhams also sponsored the Packers' radio broadcasts. And John Moffett, manager of the Green Bay branch of Wadhams Oil, was elected to the new 20-man Packers board of directors.
So Wadhams was a generous supporter of the Packers, and the Wadhams Oil Sports Report looked to me very much like a game program from that season or the team's publicity booklet, other than the letter that went with it from the company's advertising manager. Thus, I checked with Katie Foust, archivist at Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame, Inc. It has that Wadhams report, as well as game programs from that year in its collection.
She responded: "It is an exact copy of the home game program as far as photos and bios go. The only differences are the page numbering, and the league schedule is on the last page in the Wadhams booklet (page 8) and it is on page 5 in the game program. All the pages are the same, there just aren't any pages full of local ads!"
As for the postcards, the one of the Hagemeister Park racetrack is insightful, if for no other reason than the scenery it shows of the track's background. Hagemeister Park was where the Packers' home field was located from 1919-22, although the racetrack was demolished in 1908. It was a half-mile track used for sulky racing.
The other postcard is of the Hagemeister Park Clubhouse, not the Hagemeister Park Pavilion, as named in the card's caption. Both buildings were still there when the Packers were organized in 1919. The clubhouse was a social center for fans; the pavilion, later renamed the armory, was a training quarters for the Packers – and also their first indoor practice facility – until it was destroyed by fire on Christmas morning 1926.
