Throwback uniforms are one-time or limited-time variations on a sports team's uniforms styled to resemble uniforms from that team's past. First promoted in baseball in the 1980s, they have proven popular in all major pro and college sports in the USA, not only with fans, but with the teams' marketing and merchandising departments.
Throwbacks were first popularized in Major League Baseball, where teams not only wore renditions of their past styles, but also tributes to defunct minor league and Negro League baseball teams as well. Often, the games where teams will wear throwbacks are promoted as "Turn Back The Clock Nights".
Throwbacks were introduced in the NFL in their 75th anniversary season in 1995. Most teams wore throwbacks for at least one week, and some teams wore theirs throughout the season. The San Fransisco 49ers wore replicas of their 1949 uniforms in their Super Bowl XXIX victory.
The New York Jets' replicas of their 1968 uniforms proved so popular with their fans, that the team returned to wearing them full time soon afterwards. Throwbacks still make occasional appearances, especially on Thanksgiving day games where all teams playing wear vintage styled uniforms.
Throwbacks also make occasional appearances in college football games and in the National Basketball Association as well.
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