Throwback Uniforms: Navy Midshipmen (1959)
To honor 50 years at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, Navy wore their 1959 blue and gold jerseys in a game against Western Kentucky on September 26. Members of the 1959 team were honored at halftime while the first 5,000 fans received a commemorative poster. 50 years ago, Navy was one of the top football schools in the nation. Now, the paradigm has shifted so much that Getty Images didn’t even send a photographer for their game against 0-3 WKU.
Nonetheless, the current Midshipmen made the old ones proud, as they won the game: 38-22. But did they win in the uniform department? Find out after the jump.
Fifty years earlier, the Midshipmen opened the stadium with a 29-2 demolition of William & Mary. "It's a tremendous honor to put on the same uniforms that Navy players wore back in '59," linebacker Ross Pospisil said. "It's amazing to think that we are still battling on the same field they did 50 years ago."
It was a smart idea to schedule a cake opponent like Western Kentucky on a day when the old players and boosters were in attendance. The loss was No. 12 in a row for the WKU Hilltoppers, who moved to 0-4 for the first time in 25 years. To be fair, Navy's two losses to this point (against Ohio State and Pittsburgh) were to tough opponents, especially OSU, who they almost beat.
Navy takes a lot of pride in its current stadium, which had cost $3 million to construct -- an unheard of total at the time. In 50 years, the stadium has been the home to two Heisman trophy winners, Roger Staubach and Joe Bellino, and saw Dwight Eisenhower visit it in 1960.
Overall:
I am a big fan of navy blue uniforms, but the jersey just doesn’t utilize the color enough. The dominant color is the tanish-gold, which is kind of dumb when the actual name of the university is “Navy.” Had the helmets been dark blue and matched the color of the shirt, the design would have looked better. It still looks nice, but it’s not as good as it could be.
Final Grades:
Classic Navy home uniform: C
Photos taken by Gail Burton, Associated Press
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