For months, Colorado State football fans have been anticipating a change in jerseys.
Now, with the season a mere 15 days away — as CSU and CU kickoff the Rocky Mountain Showdown on Friday, Sept. 2 at 6 p.m. inside New Mile High Stadium — fans get a first look at the jerseys their team will wear in 2016.
The unveil happened Wednesday morning during CSU Rams Live, a video broadcast from football practice at Sonny Lubick Field at Hughes Stadium.
Under Armour redesigned the jerseys but stayed true to form, not going wild, but instead staying more traditional with Colorado State’s 2016 jerseys. The smaller, cleaner lettering on the front of the jersey is a definite upgrade to a more modern look many teams employ these days. As one Rams fan pointed out, they’re similar to the jerseys Michigan State currently wears.
Besides the smaller lettering on the front of the jersey top, there’s also an added Rams horn to the outside shoulders, which is alternate the jersey’s main color (white horns on green jersey, green horns on white jersey). These, too, are not overdone and add a little uniqueness to the look. Also, gold borders the numbers on both the home and away jerseys.
Now, take a look for yourself here:
New @CSUFootball unis! Tune in to the 25:23 mark of #CSURamsLIVE for full reveal! #UniWatch https://t.co/gKv6hpbc7d pic.twitter.com/5m90O5vMkn
— 𝗕𝗲𝗻 𝗔𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿 Ⓐ (@GreenAaker) August 17, 2016
Low quality but something to look at #CSURams pic.twitter.com/9togQjxwIX
— No 3 Putts (@austin__rs) August 17, 2016
As for the helmets, they seem to be left alone, green with the gold ram horns.
Still, under the new deal with Under Armour, the apparel company will design three alternate jerseys to add to the Rams Ag Day “orange out” look which has been used since 2011 to celebrate the history of the team. Before 1957, the school was known as the Colorado Agricultural and Mechanical College (Colorado A&M) with the mascot being the Aggies. Then, they moved to the Aggie-Rams before becoming the Rams in 1959.
In the early 1900s, Colorado A&M’s mascot was a bulldog named Peanuts, who used to eat peanuts from students. But in 1918, he was found — allegedly — poisoned by CU students. In 1919, Harry Hughes listed his six year old son and a bear cub as the team’s mascots. But, for the next 26 years, the school had no mascot, until 1946 when they became the Aggie-Rams thanks to a group of men on campus known as the “Senators.” (This information provided by John Hirn of Aggies to Rams.)
Orange, yellow and green were the team colors for many years, until the predominant colors became green and “gold” (yellow) in the 1960s. The Ram horns returned to helmets in 1973 and remained there since. In 1993, with Sonny Lubick as the team’s head coach, they transitioned to a “Vegas” gold which continues today.