In 2021, the search browser Firefox caught the attention of the world with their logo change. Their previous logo featured a detailed fox encircling a vibrant globe. However, the new logo was stripped down to be almost unrecognizable- the fox now just looked like an orange blob, and the globe was now just a tiny circle. This simplification of the logo sparked outrage across the internet as the logo was picked apart for its minimalist style.
Three years later, in 2024, my favorite football team, the TCU Horned Frogs, announced their uniforms would be changed for the upcoming season. From 2019-2023, the Frogs donned my favorite uniforms of all time every Saturday. They featured a wide variety of purple, black, silver, and white, and featured detailed spikes around the collar to symbolize horned frogs. But now, these uniforms were being replaced.
Sam Jones ’28 first alerted me to the TCU social media post, saying “they look so bad.” Nervously, I opened the image on my phone.
The damage was worse than I ever could have imagined. Gone were the spiked collars, gone were the helmets with large chrome logos. The new uniforms had no detail whatsoever. They looked like practice uniforms. Just like the Firefox logo, they were stripped of all life and all personality for no reason whatsoever. Nothing new was added. Only detail was removed.
Now I often find myself reflecting back to the good old days, both with the uniforms the team wears and the team itself. Three years ago, TCU was in the national championship. We were the scrappy underdogs, and in the words of quarterback Andy Dalton, winning “for the little guys everywhere.” Since then, we haven’t even made the conference championship.
To sum it all up, we’re missing the little things… just like the new uniforms.
As evidence, let’s take a look at two of my favorite uniforms from the 2019-2023 era. The first is the black-black-purple combo (I will describe uniforms in the color-color-color format, with the first color representing the helmet, the second representing the jersey, and the third representing the pants). TCU’s black helmets from this age are still my favorite helmets of all time. The helmet’s logo is a large outline of the TCU Horned Frog in silver chrome, and it stands out against the black helmet. Silver is also featured on the block jersey in the numbers, and just like on the helmet, the silver stands out. Now, this is where the spiked collar comes in. The collar and spikes are TCU’s vibrant purple, breaking up the otherwise monotone colors of the jersey and helmet. Finally, the pants are the same vibrant purple, bringing even more color to these uniforms.
The black helmet and jersey accomplish the goal of a dark uniform, but there is still plenty that stands out so it isn’t dull and uninteresting. The main thing is that purple collar, which adds color to the top half of the uniform, as well as the purple pants. The one last small touch is the large silver frog on the helmet, which adds so much personality to this uniform.
My second favorite from 2019-2023 is the black-white-black combo, which I have heard called the “oreo” uniforms because the colors match those of oreo cookies. These are the uniforms we wore in the national championship game and while I like these uniforms, I actually disagree with this choice because I feel like we needed more purple to represent our primary color. That being said, there is still a nice touch of color on these uniforms- the purple color and spikes on the white uniform pop, adding color to the otherwise black uniform.
My third favorite is the black-purple-purple combo. We very rarely use a uniform with purple jerseys and shorts, so I am always happy to see it. Purple is our main color for a reason, so I always love when it is the main color on our uniforms. Combining that with that great black helmet makes an overall great uniform.
Now, let’s look at all of these uniforms in the 2024-2025 versions.
First, the black-black-purple combo. This is still one of our best combos, but it is still significantly worse than its 2019-2023 counterpart. The black helmet with the large chrome frog was changed to just feature a small TCU logo, which doesn’t stand out nearly as much. Speaking of standing out, without the purple collar, the black jersey doesn’t have that pop of color. The purple pants try to save it, but it still can’t do enough.
Next, the oreo uniforms. As I already said, the black helmet is much worse. Then with the white jersey and black pants, there isn’t a single pop of color. The only tiny bit of color is the numbers on the white jersey, but a tiny speck of color can’t carry a whole uniform.
Lastly, the black-purple-purple combo. This uniform would look much worse without that old black helmet, but we actually haven’t got to see this one in the 2024-2025 style. It feels like we never wear the best combos anymore.
As you can see all of my favorite uniforms from the 2019-2023 era got worse. This modernization that is taking over the college football uniform world right now is turning uniforms to slop; Missouri switching their main logo from the tiger to the “M,” Iowa State donning black and white uniforms without a single bit of color. For both the Firefox logo and college football uniforms, we need to ditch these “clean” and “modern” looks and go back to the detailed, colorful versions.
