Uni-obsessed! Giving the uni history of the teams of the Mountain West -- Air Force Academy

Hey all,

While we're in the off-season, it's nice to know about some different things.  I've decided to take on the grueling task of researching each MWC's team (and future MWC team) uniforms and helmets.  Uniforms are one of the defining characteristics of a team (as well as gameday traditions and mascots), and as someone who takes pride in trying to obtain as many jerseys of my favorite teams as possible and also obsessing on how each team dresses, I think knowing the history of each teams uni and where they're headed is important.  If you have some information that i missed and you would like to share, email me at pontiaka@live.com.  I'm going to make the posts as often as I can.

That being said, lets start at the top of the alphabet!

Air Force Academy, you are now about to become uni-analyzed.

Air Force has to be one of the easiest teams to analyze, on account they've stayed relatively unchanged in uniforms since their beginnings in the 1950's.

Their helmet design has only changed shades of blue (going from darker to lighter through the years) except on special occasions:

Regular helmet design

From the early 90's to 2006, the helmet used a blue, silver, blue stripe:

Their helmet design has changed 3 times on 4 occasions the last 4 years:

the first being the Armed Forces Bowl of 2009:

via militarytimes.com

Twice in 2010, they wore the lightning bolt with the American flag ingrained in it:

The top of the second helmet has a red stripe on the other side to give the red, white and blue patriotic effect

The final helmet that has been used (and my favorite overall Air Force uni thus far) was the Thunderbird helmet:

via t3.gstatic.com

Uni to go with the helmet:

via jaredgallagher.files.wordpress.com

The overall uniforms have changed little as well, however the most drastic changes come in the shoulder pad area.  These have gone from basic stripes:

Air Force uniforms circa 1960

to the 1980's where they had a falcon on their shoulder:

The first appearance of lightning bolts on the jerseys came circa early 1990's but post 1991

From the Copper Bowl 1995:

The pants were solid blue or white until early 2000s where they wear the lightning bolts down the side as we see in their regular uniforms today:

So the big question now is are there going to be any new drastic changes in the future?  If there is, it definitely has not been released yet.  Look for Nike to possibly capitalize on the popularity of the Thunderbirds unis last year.  Outside of that, nothing looks drastic in the foreseeable future.

If you find anything new and interesting on the unis email me as shown above.

Next up: Boise State