New York Rangers fashion dos and don’ts

The snow squalls that turned parts of the Tri-State area into life-sized snow globes last weekend had me scurrying for one of my New York Rangers jerseys. The excitement of seeing snow and wearing a hockey sweater in May snowballed into an internal debate: Which Rangers shirt is my favorite? And which would be the first I’d burn if my house lost its gas heat?

The New York Rangers have worn many different jerseys in their storied history. My favorite (and the one I grabbed the other day, when a scrap between Mother Nature’s cold winds and Lake Ontario’s warmer waters resulted in heavy snow squalls) is a replica of the home blues of 1951 through 1963.

The beauty of this jersey is its uncluttered and classy design — all blue with bright white and red trim, a lace tie under the chin, R-A-N-G-E-R-S spelled diagonally down the front and drop-shadowed numbering on the back. Best of all, there’s no player name on the back or numbers on the sleeves.

If I was NHL Commissioner names would not appear on any jersey (though I’d allow numbers on the sleeves). Hockey is a team game. Even superstars need a strong supporting cast to win the Stanley Cup – and even then that’s not always enough.

You may not be a fan of the New York Yankees or the Philadelphia Flyers’ teams of the 1970s, and that’s fine, but you have to respect each’s “you play for the crest on the front, not the name on the back” motto.

For what it’s worth, the late Harold Ballard felt the same way (well, kind of).

The eccentric former owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs protested when the NHL made names mandatory on all jerseys starting in 1977 to help broadcasters identify members of the visiting clubs.

But unlike the Yankees and those early Flyers, his motive for resisting adding names was purely financial (as were most of his decisions regarding the Leafs). Ballard worried that program sales at Maple Leaf Gardens would plummet if names were on sweaters.

Facing a $5,000 fine from the league he “adhered” to the league’s order (technically) by putting white-lettered names on the team’s white sweaters and blue-collared ones on their blue duds, making them unreadable. That forced to the league to change the wording of the rule to say names must be in a color opposite to the color of the jersey, to which the Leafs complied.According to nhluniforms.com the New York Americans used names in 1926 but it wasn’t popular and was quickly abandoned. Until 1977, home teams could wear names at their discretion and road clubs could sport them with permission from their hosts.

In 1970, the Rangers were one of the first teams to add names, putting them on their whites (but not their blues until 1977). They added numbers to the sleeves in 1963. Initially, the numerals were in generic font (red with white trim on the blues, and blue without trim on the whites) until the 1978-79 campaign.