When you picture a hockey jersey, you probably picture a big sweater with shoulder numbers, big numbers on the back, and one name in block letters. That’s why it always seems strange when you see names that deviate from the norm. But, the norm isn’t as normal as you think.
That’s why this week I’m looking at all the weirder namebar configurations we’ve seen on hockey jerseys over the years.
Hockey's strangest nAMEBARS
Today, hockey fans know that each player has their last name stitched across the back of their jersey. But, did you know that there was one team who took it a step further and stitched FULL names onto their tarps?
That team was the 1973-74 Edmonton Oilers. Not only did players have their first and last names scrawled across their backs, but it was also written in a font similar to Comic Sans.
Bold? Yes. Beautiful? Perhaps in the eye of the beholder.
That’s the only instance that we know of of a pro team adopting full-names on the namebars of their entire roster’s uniforms. But full names have appeared elsewhere.
From 1978–1984 Don and Dave Maloney both suited up for the New York Rangers. The Rangers needed to distinguish the two brothers to avoid confusing fans, but using first initials was out of the question because Dave and Don both start with the same letter. So they wore their full names on their namebars, which I think was cool because you feel like you know the players a little better.
Not to be outdone, back in 1973 the WHAs’ Houston Aeros had three players with the same last name. To differentiate the three of them, they spelled out their first and last names on their jerseys — father Gordie Howe, and sons Mark Howe and Marty Howe. They did it again with the New England Whalers from 1977 to 1979, and again in ‘79-’80 with the NHL’s Hartford Whalers.
I get not being able to tell the difference between Mark and Marty Howe, but at the time Gordie was an elderly looking man with flowing gray hair. Were people mixing him up with his sons?
The Sutter Brothers had a similar problem. Rich and Ron Sutter found themselves on the same team twice — the first time in 1983 with the Philadelphia Flyers, and then a few years later in St. Louis. And they solved the issue the same way the Rangers did — with full names on their namebars.
These days teams deal with the same name problem with initials, even if they have the same first initial. Here’s what the Staal brothers’ namebars looked like when Eric, Jordan, and Jared all played together in Carolina.
Apparently the Hurricanes weren’t too concerned with distinguishing Jared from Jordan.
It’s not always a family affair, either. Sometimes players have common last names… like Lemieux. So, back in the 1987 Canada Cup, Super Mario wore “M. Lemieux” on his team Canada hockey sweater, while super pest Claude wore “C. Lemieux”. Who knew Lemieux was such a popular name?
And we’re not done with unique jersey punctuation. A few decades ago, a whole generation of feminist Baby Boomer hippies began having babies out of wedlock, meaning that a lot of kids now have hyphenated last names. And that’s wreaking havoc on jersey customizers like myself, who have to meticulously cut and stitch names like Nugent-Hopkins, Smith-Pelly, Ekman-Larson, and Aston-Reese.
As a jersey maker, I’m getting carpal tunnel just reading those names. What happens if Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Oliver Ekman-Larson’s kids get married? Nugent-Hopkins-Ekman-Larson on the back of a jersey?
No room for numbers, just letters!
Just something to think about.
In recent years, the NHL has added an interesting touch by including accents on jersey names.
Peter Stastny and his brothers briefly showcased the proper spelling of their names with carons above the “S” and “T” during the 1981-82 season, but that was a one-season wonder. While these accents have long been common in international play on various European teams, when Lafrenière first suited up for the Rangers, the second-to-last “E” in his name featured a grave accent.
Today, the NHL sees a variety of accents, including umlauts, ring diacritics, and carons (or háčeks).
THE FUTURE OF JERSEY NAMES IS UNWRITTEN
It’s funny how even after 50 years of names on hockey jerseys we’re still running into new problems. And I’ll tell you right now, as hockey becomes more and more widely played across the planet, we’re going to start seeing letters and punctuation that we’ve never seen on jerseys before.
And I’m all for it! I recently saw a Zach Hyman Oilers jersey with his last name written in Hebrew on the back. I think it would be pretty cool to see player’s names written in their native alphabet on the backs of jerseys. Or maybe we could start spelling out nicknames. Remember “He Hate Me”? If he played with his son, like LeBron, would his son be “He Hate Me Jr.”?
These are the things I like to think about, which is why I started this newsletter. If you want more deep dives on hockey jerseys and hockey cultures, subscribe to the 4 Shots with Keener newsletter right here.
See you next Friday!
