Please click on the evolution of the 49ers uniform poster above for a close-up version of the poster. The descriptions below give you some insight and background about the uniforms and/or eras depicted in the poster.
Fall 2022: To purchase a reasonably priced 8" x 24" plaqued mounted version of the Seahawks poster that's ready to hang on your wall, please visit Heritage Sports Stuff.
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When the Seattle Seahawks took the field for the first time in 1976, it marked the culmination of an almost 20 year quest for an NFL franchise. In 1957, people in the Pacific Northwest began discussing the possibility of constructing a domed stadium that would assure a major league sports franchise for the city. On June 4, 1974, the NFL awarded its 28th franchise to Seattle to play in the 64,984-seat Kingdome.
On January 3, 1976, Jack Patera, who had been a Minnesota assistant, was named the team's first coach. The Seahawks finished 2-12 in 1976, when they played in the NFC, and 5-9 in 1977, when they moved to the AFC.
The nickname Seahawks was the result of a fan contest that drew 20,365 entries and suggested 1,742 different names. Seahawks was suggested by 151 entrants and judged by the team ownership as the best choice.
This blue jersey has white numbers on the front and sleeves, and has green and white stripes on the sleeves. The helmet, as you can see, carries the Seahawks logo.
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The Seahawks have records of 9-7 in 1978 and 1979, placing them 4th and 3rd place respectively each year. Jack Patera, the Seahawks head coach since the beginning of the franchise, was named the 1979 NFL Coach of the Year.
In their first winning season, the Seahawks were led by QB Jim Zorn, who passed 3283 yards and 15 td’s, as well as RB Sherman Smith who rushed 805 yards.
This white road jersey has put green and blue stripes on the arms, blue numbers on the front and arms, and the neckline is blue. If you look closely, you can see a change in the mask on the helmet. We have added a picture of a neck guard, as many teams wore them for further protection.
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Three consecutive losing seasons to the start of the 1980’s cost Patera his job, but allowed the Nordstrom’s to find the perfect front office combo. Mike McCormack, the Hall of Fame offensive lineman for the Cleveland Browns, filled in as interim coach in 1982 and became team president the next season. McCormack hired chuck Knox, a master of franchise turnarounds. The Seahawks were no longer an expansion team – they were contenders. In nine seasons, Knox guided the Seahawks to an 83-67-0 record.
If you look closely, you will see the change of the mask on the helmet. The jersey doesn’t change much, other than the inverting of the stripes on the pants.
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Three consecutive losing seasons to the start of the 1980’s cost coach Jack Patera his job, but allowed the Nordstrom’s to find the perfect front office combo. Mike McCormack, the Hall of Fame offensive lineman for the Cleveland Browns, filled in as interim coach in 1982 and became team president the following season. McCormack hired Chuck Knox, a master of franchise turnarounds. The Seahawks were no longer an expansion team – they were contenders. In nine seasons, Knox guided the Seahawks to an 83-67-0 record.
In his first season as head coach, Knox led the Seahawks to the AFC championship game. For the first time in its eight-year history, Seattle made the playoffs by earning a wildcard berth. After beating Denver and Miami, they lost to the Los Angeles Raiders, 30-14, in the AFC championship game.
This blue jersey has changed its looks with the addition of the Seahawks logo on the sleeves, and by moving the player numbers to the shoulders. If you look closely, you will notice a change of the mask.
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Chuck Knox and the Seahawks made it to the playoffs again this season with a 12-4 record. Seattle's success came in spite of the absence of ace running back Curt Warner, who led the AFC in rushing as a rookie in 1983 with 1,449 yards. Warner was injured in the first game and missed the rest of the season.
On January 8th, during the AFC Championship Game, the Seahawks were defeated but the Oakland Raiders 30 – 14. The game, played in Los Angeles at Memorial Coliseum, was the first championship game ever for the Seahawks.
This white road jersey has the player numbers on the shoulders, and if you look closely, you will notice the Seahawks logo going around the arms. Note the change of the mask on the helmet.
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After a 9-6 season, coach Chuck Knox led Seattle back to the playoffs, and the teams only AFC West title in 1988. Unfortunately, the Seahawks would lose to the eventual AFC Champion, the Cincinnati Bengals, in the first round of the playoffs.
In September, the NFL Players Association announces that players will be on strike following the weekend’s games.
QB Dave Krieg, who passed for 2131 yards and 23 td’s, led this team on offence, while HB Curt Warner had a great season as rushing 985 yards.
In October, the NFLPA announce that the strike is over, but not in time for the upcoming weekend games.
This blue home jersey hasn’t changed much since the previous years, keeping the player numbers on the shoulders, as well as the logo on the bottom of the sleeves. If you look closely, you can see the change of the mask on the helmet.
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Coach Knox led Seattle back to the playoffs in 1987, and to the team's only AFC West title in 1988 after a 9-7 season record. During the first round of playoffs, they lost to the eventual AFC champion, the Cincinnati Seahawks.
There have been many great Seahawks over the years - HB Curt Warner, QB Dave Krieg to name a few - but none flew higher than wide receiver Steve Largent. When he retired after the 1989 season, he was the NFL's all-time leading receiver and held six NFL records. In 1995 he would become the first Seahawk to be elected to the Hall of Fame.
Ken Behring purchased majority ownership of the club from the Nordstrom family. On February 11, 1989, he would name former Los Angeles Raiders head coach Tom Flores as the team's new president and general manager.
This blue home jersey has the player numbers on the shoulders, and the Seahawks logo on the sleeves. If you look closely, you can see that we have added a picture of a neck guard. This is due to the fact that most teams wore them in this season, for further protection when they got hit. Also note the mask on the helmet has changed.
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The Seahawks have another winning season, with 9 wins and 7 losses. They were led by QB Dave Krieg, who passed for 3194 yards and 15 td’s.
RB Chris Warren, who in his rookie season, only rushed for 11 yards, would eventually be one of the Seahawks record leaders with most yards rushing in his career, with 6,706 yards from 1990-97.
This white road jersey has the player numbers on the shoulders, and the Seahawks logo on the sleeves. If you look closely, you will see the change of the mask of the helmet.
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There have been many great Seahawks over the years - HB Curt Warner, QB Dave Krieg to name a few - but none flew higher than wide receiver Steve Largent. When he retired after the 1989 season, he was the NFL's all-time leading receiver and he held six NFL records. In 1995 he became the first Seahawk to be elected to the Hall of Fame.
Since Tom Flores took over as head coach of the Seahawks in 1992, the team has had a horrible record of 14-34. This season the Seahawks finish with a dismal 6-10 record. In 1995, Dennis Erickson takes over the head coaching position, and the team finds its way back to the win column.
During this season, the NFL and its franchises were showcasing ‘throwback’ jerseys, or replicas of older uniforms to help commemorate the NFL’s 75th anniversary. The 75th anniversary was also commemorated by the diamond patch on the upper left part of the torso - this patch was worn on all 1994 jerseys whether they were "throwback" jerseys or not.
This blue home jersey, which is a replica of the first jersey on the poster, returns the numbers to the arms. The helmet, which has been the same for years, has the Seahawks logo on the side, and if you look closely you can see the change of the mask. You will also see a patch on the left shoulder. This celebrates the 75th anniversary of the NFL.
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The future of the Seahawks in the Pacific Northwest was secured after Paul Allen purchased the team in 1997 and two years later hired Mike Holmgren as their head coach and general manager.
The Seahawks returned to the playoffs for the first time since 1988. QB Jon Kitna passed for 3346 yards and 23 td’s and led the team to a 9-7 record, earning them a berth in the Wild Card game. Playing host to the Miami Dolphins in the 1st round of the playoffs, they lost a close one 20-17.
If you look closely at this jersey, you will note a smaller patch the NFL shield on the jersey’s neckline. Most NFL uniforms added the NFL logo patch to the neck and upper left thigh of the pants beginning in 1991 - an exception being in 1994 when teams occasionally wore "throwback" uniforms celebrating the NFL's 75th anniversary.
This blue jersey moves the player numbers back to the shoulders, wile the Seahawks logo stays on the arms. If you look closely, you will see the change on the mask of the helmet.
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The 1999 season saw the Seahawks hire Mike Holmgren as their new head coach. Holgren led the Seahawks to above-500 records two of his first three seasons (1999 and 2001). This 2000 season would see the Seahawks finish in 4th place in the West with a 6-10 record.
The star of this years team was once again QB Jon Kitna, who passed for 2658 yards and 18 td’s.
If you look closely at this jersey, you will note a smaller patch - the NFL shield - on the jersey’s neckline. Most NFL uniforms added the NFL logo patch to the neck and upper left thigh of the pants beginning in 1991 - an exception being in 1994 when teams occasionally wore "throwback" uniforms celebrating the NFL's 75th anniversary.
If you look closely, you will also notice a patch on the left side of the jersey. This was to celebrate the teams 25th anniversary. The player numbers are situated on the shoulders, as well as the front of this jersey. The Seahawks logo is on the arms, just above the green and yellow stripes. If you look closely, you can see the change of the mask on the helmet.
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Entering his fourth year as Seahawks head coach, Mike Holmgren had some new issues to consider, not the least of which was the newly realigned NFL that saw his team move from the AFC West to the NFC West. The new NFC West division provided the Seahawks with a new set of rivals: The San Francisco 49ers, the St. Louis Rams and the Arizona Cardinals.
Also new to the Seahawks in 2002 was their home stadium. After playing the 2000 and 2001 seasons at the University of Washington’s Husky Stadium, the Seahawks were ready to begin playing in their new home: Seahawks Stadium (now called Qwest Field) immediately beside the Mariners’ Safeco Field. But the happy story ends there. The Seahawks’ first home game was a week two loss 24-13 to the Arizona Cardinals. And the bad karma continued as they dropped 5 of their first 6 games on their way to a 7-9 final record (3-5 at home).
Another new challenge for head coach Paul Holmgren was the starting quarterback position. In a Week-7 game QB Trent Dilfer injured his Achilles on the road against the Dallas Cowboys. The good news was that his backup, Matt Hasselback, came on to lead the Seahawks to a 17-14 victory. Hassleback would play the remainder of the season and the Seahawks finished the season on a strong note winning their final 3 games. Hasselback passed for 3,075 yards and RB Shaun Alexander led the NFC with 18 touchdowns. But as noted earlier the Seahawks finished the season out of the playoffs with a 7-9 record.
To go along with the new division and conference, the new home stadium and the new starting QB, in 2002 the Seahawks introduced a new look for their uniforms - it was the team’s first major uniform change in 26 years.
The uniforms' predominant color is "Seahawks blue" (a somewhat indescribable blue, perhaps “slate” blue) and the jersey is trimmed with navy and bright green. The home jersey actually has two tones of blue: “Seahawks blue” on the torso and Navy blue on the sleeves. The collar and the short sleeve cuffs are both lined with a bright green stripe. Large white numerals trimmed in black are on the front and back, while small “TV” numbers adorn the tops of the shoulders. The team’s nickname is spelled out in white lettering below the “V” of the collar. The pants for the home uniform are white with Navy blue and neon green striping down the side of the leg.
The club's road uniform features a white jersey with Seahawks blue sleeves. At the bottom of the sleeves, we see Navy blue and bright green striping. On the front of the jersey there are large “Seahawks blue” numerals trimmed in black and smaller “TV” numbers, done in the same color scheme, on the tops of the shoulders. The team’s nickname is spelled out in “Seahawks blue” lettering below the “V” of the collar. The pants are blue, with Navy and green striping down the side.
When the Seahawks unveiled their new uniform they had two helmet designs- one in silver and one in “Seahawks blue”. The NFL would not allow the team to use both so they had a choice to make. The Seahawks decided to take a fan poll to determine which helmet the public preferred. The overwhelming majority voted for the blue and from that point on “Seahawks blue” replaced silver as the team’s official helmet color.
If you look closely, you’ll notice an “NFL Equipment” patch on the jersey’s neckline and on the upper left thigh of the pants. This style NFL equipment patch, which is a bit bigger than the size of a golf ball, was added to all NFL team uniforms in 2002 The “NFL Equipment” patch replaced the previous “NFL shield” patch (which was the size of an average postage stamp) that had been worn on uniforms in the same two places (below the “V” of the neckline and on the upper left thigh) almost without exception since the 1991 season.
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Celebrate the Seahawks' uniform history by owning a piece of history:
If you love the Seattle Seahawks and the history of the Seahawks franchise, you might really love to own an original piece of artwork celebrating the team's historic uniforms as seen in the poster at the top of this blog - you can actually own one of those original pieces of art! There are only 15 pieces of original art available for sale, and when these 15 are sold, that's it, they're all sold out.
These original watercolor paintings would make a great gift (birthday gift, anniversary gift, retirement gift, Christmas gift, etc.) for someone you love or even a great gift for yourself (one of these framed pieces would look fantastic in your home or office). Each piece can be bought one of three ways:
1. As unframed art that you could have framed or mounted yourself (the one on the left)
2. Framed in our "Classic" framed version (the middle version)
3. Framed in our "Deluxe" framed version (the version on the right)
If you would like more information about this great artwork including the three ways you could purchase each piece, please visit our Seattle Seahawks YouTube video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ9TNT788Ig or go directly to the artwork website www.heritagesportsart.com/Seattle-Seahawks-c130/ where you can see and purchase the artwork.
And if someone you know loves the history of sports uniforms (but maybe another team) and loves great art, please let them know that we have over 1500 pieces of great original artwork for sale at www.heritagesportsart.com (all NFL teams, all MLB teams, all NHL teams, all CFL teams, select NCAA football teams) or check out each team's video at the Heritage Sports Art YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/user/ssillcox
And please search my blog archive http://heritagejerseys.blogspot.com/ for other blogs on the history of the Seahawks.
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This blog was written by Scott Sillcox and was last updated August 19, 2010. I have tried to ensure the accuracy of the information, but I am human and can make mistakes. If you believe I have made a mistake, please let me know by email at ssillcox@rogers.com !
Many thanks!!!
Scott
Seahawks was suggested by 151 entrants and judged by the team ownership as the best choice. This blue jersey has white numbers on the ... ssweatshirt.blogspot.com
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