While we debate worst franchise and worst name, how about worst uniform in sports?
Baseball:
Of all time: The Houston Astros of the 1970s, with that nasty orange rainbow across their stomachs.
Currently: Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Big ugly fish thing on their shirts and hats, nasty holographic colors. And the initials TB on the hats alludes to a disease.
The Diamondbacks have too many uniforms, that’s for sure. The “Uniforms of the Future” (Mercury Mets, etc.) they had for one day last year (or was it 1998) were totally pathetic and had no business being worn on a playing field.
And get rid of those offensive “Indian heads” please. Yes, the principle includes tomahawks, too. What would happen if a team had other ethnic groups on their hats/jerseys? Use your imagination.
Oh yeah, I’m real tired of the “alternate jersey” most baseball teams are sporting now. For some marketing reason, they’re usually black, so there are times when BOTH teams on the field have black jerseys on. Dumb.
Easy, the ugly, rainbow coloured uniforms worn by the Vacouver Canucks in the late 70’s early 80’s.
Keith
I was thoroughly offended (yes, offended) at the re-vamped N.Y. Islanders jerseys. Thank goodness they’re back to normal.
Remember back in the eighties when the Flyers wore long sweatpants type whatever’s. I think a few other teams did as well. They looked like a bunch of figure skaters with no teeth.
Ah, finally a topic of cosmic importance. My choices are:
MLB: Anaheim Angels (current) way too busy.
San Diego Padres: 1970s - doubleknits all yellow with brown stripes.
Arizona Dimondbacks - discussed above
Houston Astros “rainbow” - discussed above.
My vote goes to the 1970’s Padres as the ugliest
NFL:
Denver Broncos - current.
Arizona Cardinals - throw-back jerseys of several years ago. They should’ve been thrown back all right.
Baltimore Ravens - present
Ugliest: Current Broncos.
NBA:
Cleveland Cavs - 1993-1998. Black, blue and orange, with slash. They looked like a walking bruise.
No one else is even close.
NHL:
Vancouver Canucks - discussed above.
NCAA Hoops
Notre Dame - during Digger Phelps last season they wore “puke green” uniforms in a game against Syracuse, who wore bright orange jerseys. I spent the whole game trying to adjust the color of my TV set.
NCAA Football:
BYU 1999. “Bib” jerseys that have since been outlawed.
My top three ugly uniforms (all sports combined):
Easily the ugliest uniform in history, the Vancouver Canucks V-neck jerseys from the 80’s. Actually, overall I think the Canucks have had the worst history of ugly uniforms.
The Anaheim NHL team that shall not be named has pretty hideous jerseys as well.
The Houston Astros uniforms from the seventies.
Yup, I definitely have to add my vote for Vancouver.
Also, the Clevelend Browns (NFL). They’ve got these nasty turd colored pants with orange jerseys and an orange helmet with no logo. And what the hell is a “Brown” anyway?
Stories vary here in Cleveland as to the origin of the name, but the best guess is that they were named for the first coach, the then already legendary Paul Brown. Makes me glad the first coach wasn’t named Paul Schnickelgruber. Brown had made quite a name for himself coaching in high school, at Ohio State, and at Great Lakes Naval Academy during WWII. The Browns were created in 1946 playing in the rival league, the All-American Football Conference, along with the 49ers.
And yes, their uniforms are ugly. When the original Browns left for Baltimore in 1995, and a “Save the Team” campaign was launched, a friend of mine asked, “Can we save the team, but let the uniforms go?”
Add another vote for the Browns. Orange and brown. Yuck. The only combination as bad that I can think of in the NFL is yellow and green. Green and white, yes. Yellow and red. Cool. Yellow and green? yuck.
The Cleveland Indians, when Boog Powell was managing them, had orange-ish unis that made Boog look like a big tomato.
Also, the Clippers when BIll Walton was just starting, had those light blue unis that looked hideous. In general, most unis of the 80s looked pretty awful when you consider boxers these days are looser 
A few months back ESPN.com did a little special thing on the ten worst unis in this century. Number one was a unitard worn by a woman who . . . let us say the effects of previous pregnancies were not hidden. I don’t think she was a young person.
All time?
If I had gotten drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers back when they had Magenta and Orange uniforms with the pirate wearing the big, plumed hat on the helmet, I’d have stayed in college.
…although, now, if I got drafted by the Bengals…eeyew.
…and how many times I gotta say it: the Tampa Bay Lightning…it must suck to be a sports fan down there…
I’m suprised nobody has mentioned the late 70’s Pirates, with that striped cap that looked like a Kepi. PEEHHEW! And the current Broncos uniforms along with the Browns both bite. I LIKE the uniforms the Ravens wear. It’s destinctive from every other uniform in the NFL. Good looking too.
Yeah I guess… Since we have a team in every major US sport except basketball and the Bucs will probably go to the Super Bowl this year and play in our home stadium (which is the best NFL stadium). Man it sure sucks!
Weirddave,
Yes, unfortunately, I do remember the Chiquita Banana Yellow of the 70s Pirates. Thank god for subdued road uniforms otherwise every Pittsburgh-Houston game back then would look like a technicolor acid trip.
I have never been a big fan of the current New England Patriots uniform. It looks like they are stuck in a USFL time warp.
Also, for a while in the 70s, the Chicago White Sox wore these wide collar jerseys with short pants. They looked like a drunken softball team. Although, in their defense, most of the uniforms in the 70s were butt ugly.
The late 70s Pirates uniforms WERE horrible, no question.
And the lime green jerseys that Orlando team wore in the World League of American football… hilarious.
But the worst uniforms of all time? Bill Veeck came up with these REALLY ugly navy blue uniforms uniforms for the White Sox in the late 70s- and the players had the option to wear SHORTS with them! Ever see a fat guy like Terry Forster or Greg Luzinski in shorts??? You don’t want to! SCARY ugly!
I’ll cast my vote for the old Canucks uniform here while the old L.A. Kings uniform is a close second. Maybe it was and is because I hate them with an unbridled passion.
My favourite uniform would have to be that of the Canadiens.
I didn’t realize there were other professional sports besides hockey…LOL
I remember when the Bengals switched from the boring orange helmets to thier current color scheme some people(including me) thought that those were butt ugly. But as time has passed they have become quite cool. The White Sox uni’s of the 70’s were horrible and I wonder what the person who gave the OK to those Astros uniforms was smoking.
