Tradition wins out over checkerboard in Bulldogs’ adidas football uniform reveal

Fresno State had its fun a few months back, middle to late March, a short time after signing a lucrative six-year apparel deal with adidas and with April Fool’s Day rapidly approaching.

The Bulldogs’ new uniforms were receiving more than just a passing interest from Bulldogs’ fans, so Frank Pucher, senior associate athletics director for external relations, sat down with his team and pitched an idea, a prank, and he wanted the absolute worst that they could come up with … just to make sure everyone got it, on April 1.

They came up with a bogus reveal on social media, putting running back Ronnie Rivers in a mock Fresno State uniform with a green jersey and the uniform number 20 set inside a big V, red and white checkerboard pants, a green helmet with a red and white checkerboard stripe down the center, blue gloves and the whole thing, together, worked.

“That was a lot of fun,” Pucher said. ‘It was fun to see just how ugly we could make it, and it was fun to see some of the comments from fans.”

Rivers, who led the Mountain West Conference last season with 16 touchdowns, chimed in as well: “It just had to be #20, huh?” He included an exasperated emoji, its hand slapping its forehead.

If the green jersey wasn’t enough, then the pants were just over-the-top bad, compliments of director of communications Matt Burkholder.

The real deal with adidas

But when it came to the Bulldogs’ new uniforms after 15 years with Nike, the athletics department stuck with Fresno State tradition and didn’t spend much time with an adidas catalog that runs close to 300 pages.

The goal was simply to modernize classic elements of uniforms worn by Lorenzo Neal, David Carr and Logan Mankins, among many others.

The uniforms were unveiled on Monday and the only thing that might throw Fresno State fans is a much deeper shade of red, but the design is clean, as it has been going back to the days under coach Jim Sweeney.

“In terms of its traditional aspect, we were thinking tradition re-imagined or affirmed, whichever way you want to look at it,” Pucher said.

“We know what Fresno State football has always been. We know what Fresno State will always be. It’s an homage to our past, which is what we wanted. This is who we are. That was our goal – reaffirming that tradition and what we are, the Valley that we represent, but modernizing it.”

The Bulldogs will have jerseys and pants in red, navy blue and white with Fresno State across the chest.

They will have two helmets – red and white – keeping the script Bulldogs on the side that was favored by former coach Jeff Tedford, which could be also swapped out for the bulldog logo.

The pages of options for jersey sleeves and shoulders or different designs on pants, just wasn’t Fresno State.

“Outside of this most recent version from Nike, if you look at the history, maybe certain years they had a stripe down the side, but otherwise it has been pretty consistent,” Pucher said.

“If you look at 2005 and the team that played USC or the David Carr years, or any of those years, it was a solid pant. That was our goal. That to us was important.”

All of the Bulldogs’ 21 sports programs will be outfitted in adidas uniforms with consistent fonts and colors when they get back on the field, diamond or in the pool, which has not been the case the past few years.

Both are critically important to the athletics brand, as is a contract with adidas that has an average annual value of $1.275 million and includes several performance bonuses.

The deal is worth more than double Fresno State’s deal with Nike, taking the Bulldogs from the bottom half of the Mountain West Conference to the top half.

This story was originally published August 3, 2020 at 11:55 AM.