Best uniforms in Illinois? - for fun
- Thread starter Brett.Williams
- Start date
The Black Helmets and Blue stripes on the arms of the Hilltopper arms were atrocious and were representative of a very tumultuous time for the institution and its collective heritage.
As they owned the building and grounds where JCA would be located, the Nuns feared that their St. Francis Academy would be overrun by “men” and male leadership. The then Bishop (a Detroit native) and his Auxiliary Bishop (who had an emotionally vested interest in another area Catholic High School) urged the Nuns to pursue establishing a “new” school and extinguish all that had been Joliet Catholic High School. Frankly, I do not recall what some of the proposed “new” school names were but remember vividly that the new nickname of the Royals and Detroit Lions colors were to be, and with all of that bundled up they were all conspiring to start a “new” tradition. En masse Hilltopper students and Alumni revolted vigorously. As money does talk, the Nuns acquiesced and the choice for a name became Joliet Catholic Academy and the boys were allowed to remain as the Hilltoppers. Black Helmets & Blue Stripes were a battle lost in war that was won. NOTE: At the dedication of the practice fields in the mid-1990s that North of a million dollars went into transforming open fields, the aforementioned Auxiliary Bishop who was invited to provide an invocation elected to wear Green vestments and the intended subtilty was not lost on the Hilltopper faithful.
As side note on the Hilltopper uniforms, throughout the late 1960s through the 1980s the Hilltopper jerseys were a Brown & White version of the Green Bay Packers jerseys. Gordie Gillespie’s brother Earl was a beloved and broadcasting legend in Wisconsin https://www.wisconsinbroadcastingmuseum.org/hall-of-fame/earl-gillespie/ which gave Gordie some back channel connections to the Lombardi era Packers. Hilltopper players were told that the team colors were Brown & White and the Gold accent strips on the arms were because Gold was the color of champions.
That is a true story.
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As a very unbiased observer on the field, and one that went to a HS barely thought of on this board, St. Rita's blue home jerseys pop really well.
Are those made out of cotton?The baseball team is not doing too bad either:
My favs, in no order...
- Breese Mater Dei - The Navy/Powder Blue/Navy set...
- Quincy Senorita High - The classic white on royal on white with the big blue Q on the helmet.
- Anything ESL wears is pretty cool. I'll second that after seeing someone post it.
- Mt. Sterling (Brown County) green on white... The helmets really make the look.
- Geneseo's Green Bay Packers knock off set
- Carrollton
- Mendon-Unity, "The U" logo in maroon and baby blue. It's a cool look.
- New Berlin's "Pretzel" helmets. Woo! Pretzel Pride baby!
- Bill-ville's (Williamsville) Purple on purple with the yellow and white accents and stripes.
- Piasa SW (sp?) I believe that's the name of the school. Anywho, coolest shade of green in the state. Green on green, green on black. It's a super cool look.
- Macomb Bombers. Idk if they still have that plane on the helmet like they did during the Kelly Sears days, but if they do that's awesome. Cool orange/black uni's with neat helmets.
- Mattoon Green Wave. Think Univ of Notre Dame green alt kit. And the school nickname is also cool. It's a nod to their corn. Can't knock it!
- Decatur Eisenhower's grey on grey with the black helmets, yellow socks and numbers. Badass kits.
Quincy University uses brown, yellow, white. They have zero state titles and zero national titles. But their uni's look good!
Wyoming Cowboys is a nice rendition of Brown and Yellow too. Very underrated uniforms just because they aren't in the national spotlight.
Since this thread has come back to life, I had to take the liberty of adding one more bit of information. Gordie Gillespie gave everyone of the Assistant Coaches that joined his staff a copy of Run To Daylight Amazon product ASIN 1476767173 and without having to say anything more, those coaches read and learned to live the lessons within this masterpiece. Its basis is that this game is all about sound fundamentals for which there is no short cut. If any of you want a truly classic football book to read, pick up a used copy and you will likely learn a thing or two.
