From late March until today we’ve made our way through 25 uniform concepts for Notre Dame football. Twenty-five! When we started I swore I’d never do a gold jersey concept out of principle. I’d rather see the Irish wear black, gray, or some other non-school color first. Then I saw THIS cover from Sports Illustrated and okay fine I kind of like the way that looks I’m going to try this and see where it goes.

In recent years, gold jerseys have become common for several Notre Dame teams including baseball, lacrosse, hockey, and most famously recently with the men’s basketball team. So, we should probably prepare ourselves for ND Football wearing a gold jersey at some point. Especially since 18 Stripes are such trendsetters!

During the 2003 spring game the Irish (well, half the team) wore an all-gold uniform during the early stages of monochromatic design mania and it’s pound for pound the worst look in school history. Thus, my trepidation.

The above SI cover is from Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, alma mater of numerous Irish players including Dayne Crist and most recently C.J. Sanders. That high school used to have carbon copies of their more popular college brethren but in recent years have decided to branch out into several different looks.

Today’s concept borrows heavily from this look from ND High in western Pennsylvania:

I could write a dissertation on the necessary shade of gold and needless to say it’s the issue when it comes to a jersey on a football field. One of our attempts featured a more olive/brown old gold while the second a more yellow/mustard gold a little more familiar for folks because of the basketball  team. You can see the differences below.

Ultimately, we went with the richer and more vibrant gold. It also ended up looking similar to LSU’s “Gridiron Gold” that they wore during the Leonard Fournette era.