Imagine a conference room full of city leaders and businessmen feverishly laying out a game plan to land an expansion sports franchise in the mid-1990’s.  Given the era, they probably all have flannel shirts on and just spent ten minutes talking about last night’s episode of Friends, but the crux of the discussion is based on this badass new sports team that’s going to make its home in their fine city. 

They’ve got the financing, they’ve convinced the city to front money for the new stadium, they’ve got a celebrity spokesperson and everything.  What they need now is to debut their new logo and uniforms (okay chronologically it may not work, but just play along).  Here’s how I envision the conversation…

Exec #1 - What about a strong, primary color like red? 
Exec #2 - Nope, too many teams already have laid claim to that – Red Wings, Cardinals, Cornhuskers.  Big time sports institutions. 

Exec #1 - Maybe we go something with attitude like black? 
Exec #2 - Not happening.  Who is going to buy team apparel if the main colors are black? Only concerts t-shirts and Pittsburgh franchises can pull that off.

Exec #1 - What about a green or yellow or something like that? 
Exec #2 – No way, man.  This isn’t a lawn and garden product we’re selling, it’s sports. We need something that will make these jerseys fly off the shelves. 

Exec #1 - I’ve got it, how about we go with something totally hip like teal or purple?
Exec #2 – You’re a freaking genius. 

Now replay that same scenario 12 times over the course of a 10-year period.  Welcome to the Pastel Era of major sports franchises.   

During the decade from 1988 – 1997, the four major sports leagues in America (humor me and include the NHL) added 16 new teams to their leagues in total.  12 of them began with some form of teal or purple as their primary uniform colors.  There hadn’t been that many grown men wearing aqua since the last Richard Simmons Rockin’ Easter Egg hunt (for the record, I just completely made that up).

It started innocently enough in 1988 when the Charlotte Hornets and the Miami Heat were unveiled as the first expansion NBA franchises since the Dallas Mavericks in 1980.  The Heat played it traditional with a red and black theme, while their counterpart decided to go with something a little more extreme – teal jerseys with a purple pinstripe.  Seemed simple enough and it was a perfect match for JR Reid’s white spandex tights.  Little did they know, they were about to set off a barrage of garish uniforms across the sporting world. 

In 1991, the San Jose Sharks followed suit, bursting on to the scene with their ferocious logo of a shark biting through a hockey stick, made that much more ferocious by the fact that it was plastered on a teal sweater.

Two years later in 1993, the sports world was hit with a pastel bomb as five teams entered the realm of professional athletics sporting the newest fad colors. 

Major League Baseball introduced the Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies, the latter being the first of this era to go primarily with purple. 

The NFL brought us the Jaguars and the Panthers starting the much-anticipated debate between which was the more intimidating aqua/teal colored member of the big cat family.   And the NHL decided to name a franchise after a fictional youth team featured in a Disney movie starring Emilio Estevez. 

Truthfully, no one was surprised when the Mighty Ducks unveiled their team colors. 

It had become clear that this color scheme was taking over the world.  Bloods briefly changed from red to teal, Crips from blue to purple.  Zubaz was cranking out animal printed pants in the new color by the millions.  Even teams with a hundred years tradition in the same uniforms were tempted to dabble in the phenomenon. 

By 1995, the NBA wanted back in on the trend they created seven years earlier, only this time, they were set to take on not just the US, but the entire continent.  Enter the Toronto Raptors with their purple Jurassic Park-inspired logo and the Vancouver Grizzlies who were finally able to satisfy the millions of basketball fans who longed to see Bryant Reeves in a shade of blue that better accentuated his buzzcut. 

The following year, the NFL allowed Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell to turn in his brown and orange colors for the shiny, new purple, black and gold of the Baltimore Ravens. 

In 1997, the MLB debuted the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, making the league a perfect four-for-four in teal/purple expansion teams in the 90’s.   The Devil Rays colorful logo finally allowed the world to see Jose Canseco sport every color in the pastel rainbow. 

In a little under a decade, major professional sports had introduced 12 new teams with the roughly the same color scheme.  Only a scant few – the Tampa Bay Lightning, Ottawa Senators, Florida Panthers, Orlando Magic and Minnesota Timberwolves – were formed during that span that avoided jumping on the flamboyantly painted bandwagon. 

Much like Reebok Pumps and other strange fads before it, as quickly as it exploded through the sports landscape, it faded away. 

Since 1997, no new teams have chosen to go down that path.  The NHL has introduced three new teams and two others have been relocated with new names/jerseys, all teal free.  The NFL re-established the Cleveland Browns, MLB turned the Expos into the Washington Nationals and the NBA welcomed the Charlotte Bobcats back into the city where the phenomenon began, only this time they went with red. 

Several of the original Teal Bunch have since changed their looks, with the Devil Rays, D-Backs, Mighty Ducks, Hornets and Raptors all making significant-to-subtle changes away from their gaudy roots. 

The stretch was to sports uniforms what the decade of the 80’s was to Hair Metal bands.  It came on like a freight train and ultimately fizzled out, going the way of stone washed jeans and Monster Ballads.  Thankfully, we appear to have permanently moved past the trend, no doubt saving sports fans millions of dollars that would have been spent replacing mangled plasma TV’s that weren’t able to withstand the barrage of bright colors had it continued. 

And for those who are disappointed that the Pastel Era has come to a close, look on the positive side – you can probably get a Big Country Grizzlies jersey for super cheap on eBay.   

JSF Weekly is written by Josh Bacott. He always preferred lime green to teal.  E-mail him at josh@joesportsfan.com