Four college basketball teams with ties to the Native American community will wear turquoise jerseys this month to honor Native American Heritage Month.
Florida State, Nevada, Oregon State and New Mexico will don the special Nike jerseys during selected games this month.
Nike N7 uniforms for FSU, Nevada, Oregon State, & New Mexico #NAHM pic.twitter.com/TLoeO08M1r
— Heidi Burgett (@heidiburgett) November 12, 2013
In 2012, Oregon State became the first university to honor Native American Heritage Month with turquoise jerseys. Other schools have since joined the campaign to raise awareness of the benefits of exercise and athletics for Native American youths.
Why turquoise? New Mexico Athletics explained in a press release:
The turquoise color is deeply symbolic of friendship and community in Native American culture, reflecting the support of four schools to elevate the power of sport both inside and outside Native communities.
It’s a fine tribute and a worthy cause. The use of turquoise is appropriate and meaningful. But why do the uniforms have to be so ugly? Look at these things.
It was as if the discussion about how to honor Native American Heritage Month began and ended with, “let’s just make the uniforms all turquoise and call it a day.”
It’s like those military-appreciation uniforms that are all camouflage. It takes literally no thought to come up with those. Isn’t there a distinctive, but more subtle (which is to say, possessing any subtlety at all) way to pay tribute to Native American Heritage Month? Maybe make turquoise lettering or turquoise numbers. There could be turquoise patterning or turquoise piping. I’ll take something — anything — different than making it look like the old uniforms were simply dipped in turquoise dye.
Say what you will about the NFL’s breast cancer awareness campaign, but at least it doesn’t consist of players coming out wearing all-pink uniforms. When you look at an NFL team in October, you look at the players’ wrist bands, towels and cleats and think, “the pink is for breast cancer.” If you catch Florida State’s turquoise game, your first thought won’t be “this is a fitting tribute,” as you should be. Rather, you’ll be thinking, “boy, those uniforms are hideous.”
