THE THIRTIES - HOW MANY CUBS JERSEYS?
THE THIRTIES - HOW MANY CUBS JERSEYS?
From 1930-1936, the Cubs experimented with a series of alternate cubs jersey designs for both home and road. The 1930-31 home alternates revived pin stripes and another variation of the C-UBS emblem on the front. The 1932-33 alternates continued to pin striping but in place of the usual insignia on the jersey a slanted script treatment of CUBS was displayed in navy and red. The red wishbone C on the cap was replaced by a white fancy capital C. The alternate road counterpart for these years had a slanted script CHICAGO across the chest and a smaller script CUBS on the left sleeve (once again the full team name spelled out). The 1934 home alternates used a refreshing new version of the team insignia on the left breast — the larger red & navy C embodied a serif style and the bearcub figure inside the C had abandoned the bat and assumed a pitcher’s windup motion (or is it a gesture of triumph?). The same style C appeared in red with a white outline on the navy blue cap. The 1935-36 alternate road cubs jersey displayed CHICAGO across the chest in straight horizontal fancy capital letters (not the usual “arc” alignment).
For the 1937 season, Mr. Wrigley decided it was time for a totally new image for the Cub cubs jerseys. He delegated his own corporate design staff for the project and they responded with some novel ideas. Most importantly, the standard navy blue was replaced by a brighter “electric” blue. The new jerseys abandoned the buttoned front in favor of a ZIPPER — an idea that caught on quickly with other clubs and remained popular for over 2 decades. Instead of the usual thin beads of embroidered piping, thick striping of solid blue or red (on the road) was incorporated around the neck and parallel to the zipper as well as on the sleeve ends and trouser sides. The 3 red stripes on the stocking were lowered closer to the ankle for more visibility. On the home cubs jersey, the original version of the CUBS emblem (with a circular C) was resurrected from the distant past — except this time the C was solid red with a blue outline. On the traveling grays, the striping trim was RED and did not follow down the zipper line. The name CHICAGO was re-done in solid blue plain block capitals and was underlined with an arc of red striping. Except for the change in shade of blue, the cap theme stayed the same — a red C (not “wishbone” at first) on a solid blue cap. As if to “finish off” the new design idea for 1938, a shoulder stripe was added on both home and road suits. Also, the “wishbone” style C was restored on the cap. Despite hard times, the thirties were exciting years for Cub fans — 3 pennants, but no cigar!