Oh Honey, No…a Bucky’s 5th Quarter Fashion Blog: University of Louisville

The Big Ten/ACC Challenge is upon us, albeit a little bit later for the Badgers and Cardinals than the other teams. This year, Wisconsin will face off against Louisville in a match up of red and white. I hope you aren’t color blind, because this one could be rough...

Now, let’s take a look at Louisville’s uniforms, to see if they will be challenging to look at...

As a reminder, we will be rating the opposing threads on a scale of oh honey, no, to YAASS QUEEN.

Oh honey, no: Obviously, this is the worst rating. If I must explain this to you, you’re probably wearing socks with sandals right now, or a brown belt with black pants, either way, oh honey, no.

Ewww: Nice try, but no.

Werk it: You brought it.

YAASS QUEEN: Best of the best. Your proverbial milkshake brings all the proverbial boys to the yard.

School: University of Louisville

Mascot: Cardinals

Color Scheme: Black, Red, Yellow and Gray Horse

Official Brand Sponsor: Adidas

Home uniform:

Louisville Courier-Journal-USA TODAY Sports

The Cardinals home uniforms are white, with red and black accents, such as red and black trim around the collar of the uniform and ‘Louisville’ in red across the chest, outlined in black, with red numbers outlined in black.

Each player also has the word ‘unity’ on the back of their uniform under their number. A nice touch by the university during these times of racial inequality.

The shorts of the uniform are white as well, with a black waistband with a red line in the middle. On the left leg of the shorts, the Cardinal logo is visible, facing backward and on the back of the reg leg ‘The Ville’ is printed in white, with red outlining. The coolest part of the uniform though in my opinion is that the Cardinal logo also appears on the right leg with a muted design.

These home uniforms are solid and I am a fan of the font that Louisville has been using for years on its basketball uniforms. Its certainly more appealing than block lettering that is for sure. I would also like to see some trim on the bottom of the shorts, something that maybe matches the waistband, just for a little more contrast.

That being said, you certainly can’t beat red and white in a uniform.

Uniform score:

Werk it

Away uniform:

The Cardinals road uniforms are red, with black and white accents. ‘Louisville’ is inscribed across the chest of the uniform, just as it is on the home uniform. The numbers and letters are white with black outlines.

From what I can tell from what I can see online, it looks as though the road shorts may not feature ‘The Ville’ on them and also do not appear to have the muted Cardinal logo.

I do like this look as well, but like with the home uniform, I think it could use some more trim on the shorts.

Away uniform score:

Werk it

Alternate Uniform:

Louisville usually has a couple of alternate uniforms that they have worn in the past as well, but I cannot see whether or not they will this season, as the school has only released footage of their new home and away uniforms.

However, Louisville’s alternate threads are usual black, or a different spin on their red uniforms.

I hope that if Louisville does wear alternates at some point this season, I hope it isn’t just a black version of their current home and away uniforms.

Adidas has a penchant for releasing special uniforms for the NCAA Tournament, and for other special events. While Adidas has fallen short with these in the past (for reference, the swim trunk look they saddled Wisconsin and all of their other schools with in the NCAA Tournament in 2015), they have come through in the clutch as they did in 2016 with the special Black HIstory Month uniforms.

And just as a reminder of how awesome Wisconsin’s throwbacks were...

Alternate Uniform Scores:

Werk It

Why Your Mascot Sucks

Louisville Courier-Journal-USA TODAY Sports

The Cardinal became the school nickname way back in 1913, because the Northern Cardinal is the state bird of Kentucky.

The school first got a mascot at the request of the school marching band and Dick Dyson was the first student to wear the costume. At that time the costume was made of paper mâché.

‘Louie,’ has gone through a few designs over the years. In the 1980’s it was made of long red fake fur and then in the 1990’s the costume was updated to more closely match the printed logo. He was designed with shoulder pads for a more fit and toned appearance.

The most recent update to Louie, occurred in 2016 and is the current mascot we see today. The update was made to give Louie a more trim figure and a wider smile. The athletic department’s marketing staff headed up the redesign, with the objective of having better line of vision, more flexibility and mobility for the Bird while keeping its iconic look.

If you know anything about me, you know that I hate it when schools with bird nicknames, give their mascots teeth. BIRDS DO NOT HAVE TEETH! Louie is another example of this and he has had them for a while, dating back to the nightmare fuel of a mascot that was the design in the 1980’s (Second from left, above).

That thing has the smile of a sociopath, who wants to reassure you that it won’t kill you, but deep down...you know they’re going to kill you.

Teeth aside, I do prefer the newest design of the Cardinal to the last version. The beak of the previous model makes it look like it is having an allergic reaction to something.

The new design looks more athletic and is more in line with the school logo, so I will give them props for that. With the more athletic and slim design, it does allow for the mascot to do more while entertaining the crowd.

However, I think the biggest improvement in the Louie design is that the newest version wears clothes. There is just something about a naked mascot that is just unsettling to me...