Channeling Our Sports Miracles, or...

"Sport That: Jerseys For Make Benefit the Glorious Nation of the United States."

Over the past couple of weeks, we've seen plenty of team USA uniforms.  Some good, some bad, some whatever.  But I am most interested, specifically, in how a new set of team USA jerseys for our men's national hockey and soccer teams are channeling our sports histories.  Both teams released new jerseys for the events of 2010: the hockey team for the Vancouver Olympics and the soccer team for the World Cup.  More importantly, both jerseys call on our nation's sports histories and focus on a few of its most dramatic moments.

Let's begin with the hockey team, who recently finished second at the the Vancouver Games' Olympic hockey tournament.  A thrilling tournament from start to finish, the players from the USA wore the following series of hockey jerseys, designed by Nike, for the first time in Vancouver.

These offerings replaced the uninspiring U.S. jerseys 

worn in the past couple Olympic tournaments.

Nike designed the jerseys with a retro feel to channel those worn in both the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics as well as the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics.  Both of those hockey teams, of course, won gold. Let's see how they compare.

The gold-winning 1960 Squaw Valley team was picked to finish 5th.  

Some call their victory "The Forgotten Miracle."  

Interestingly, Herb Brooks got cut from this team during tryouts.

In 2010, during the preliminary round victory against Canada.

Very similar design elements, from the diagonal block shadow letters to the crest on the upper left shoulder.  The striping also matches.  These jerseys are pretty close.  Let's check the jerseys from 1980.

The 1980 team was backstopped by Jim Craig.

So, naturally, the media played on the connections to

current US goaltender Ryan Miller.

Some elements are different, like the shade of blue and the color of the letters, but there are a host of similar elements too: the USA is similarly arched, there are stars on the shoulders, and a red stripe at the bottom of the jersey.

The same "retro feel" phenomenon accurately describes the jerseys debuted yesterday by the US men's soccer team.  In a friendly defeat against the Netherlands, the US presented their 1950-World Cup-inspired shirts, featuring a diagonal stripe from right shoulder to left hip.

The US squad before their underwhelming performance against the Dutch.

The 1950 US squad.  Their victory over England is, unfortunately, 
known today as the "Miracle on Grass."

The sash in color.

While it seems almost sash-like, the jersey's diagonal element has a purpose.  It was lifted from the jerseys of the 1950 team that beat England 1-0 in a group stage match.  Just the fourth World Cup ever, the tournament was hosted by Brazil and won by Uruguay.  The US did not progress past the group stage, but their victory over the perennial football power has reverberated throughout history, both at home and abroad.  Coincidentally (or not), in this summer's World Cup, the US will once again face favorites England in the group stage of the tournament.

In sum, my curiosity lies with this national team retro trend and how it embeds current jersey iterations with the hauntings of glorious sports victories past.  Because while, for years, retro jerseys have proliferated throughout sports culture, this seems to be unique - in that these current shirts have something special to them.  It could be weight, in the form of expectation, that delivers an extra sense of pressure when competing for your country.  Or, in the case of traditional underdogs in hockey and soccer, could it be that these jerseys are designed to remind our national athletes of the possibility of accomplishment?  Could it be a reminder of others that have gone before them and overcame the odds?

Seems strange to channel the past without a red stripe.  Hooray revisionism!

Even if these jerseys are nothing more than shirts, if they teams can win (and hockey just missed out), they will surely make benefit at least one group: the glorious corporation of Nike.  Both retro jerseys were designed and produced by the Beaverton, Oregon sports manufacturer and, as such, both jerseys have one glaring foreign element, an almost alien presence among the retro ambience: the ubiquitous Nike Swoosh.