Names on the back of the jersey

[BelgradeBobcat]

Most Big Sky teams do it these days. Pretty much all mid-majors and high majors do it. Why don't we? Let's look a little more big time...even if we're not.

Discuss...

[BStinsMSU]

You might as well. I understand if a coach has an old school deal about playing for the team or whatever.. but Sprinkle doesn’t seem to be that type. I say do it. Those kids work their tails off just to even get to sign to play with us, they deserve it as far as I’m concerned.

[MSU01]

Is this even a sport-by-sport decision or has the entire Athletics Department chosen not to use names? Right now no MSU sports teams have names on the jerseys and haven't for a while.

I disagree somewhat that most Big Sky teams use names...from memory watching the tournament ISU, Idaho, UM, Portland State, MSU, and Sac State all didn't use names on the men's side. UNC, SUU, Weber, NAU, and EWU did have names on the jerseys.

[tetoncat]

Get playing time and perform fans will know your name. It gets announced in arena, stadium, on TV. That is more recognition than on jersey.

[Bobcat4Ever]

I love having names during March Madness. Much easier to identify players you may have heard about, or remember standouts from game-to-game. Thank goodness the announcers don’t say 14 in to 27 with three assists, kicks out to 3 for a long two, and one. Names, please. With NIL maybe teams will have to pay players to put their names on their jerseys.

[Ilikecats]

I love having names during March Madness. Much easier to identify players you may have heard about, or remember standouts from game-to-game. Thank goodness the announcers don’t say 14 in to 27 with three assists, kicks out to 3 for a long two, and one. Names, please. With NIL maybe teams will have to pay players to put their names on their jerseys.

Nothing wrong with putting names on the jersey…….. we need to change with the times. Doesn’t hurt the game to be able to identify players.

[BelgradeBobcat]

It's really not a huge deal, but to me it signals small time, low budget.

It's understandable in football with multiple jersey options, and the huge number of players. I'm sure other factors mean more in recruiting, but the impact is not zero on recruiting in my estimation.

[coloradocat]

I wonder if the growth of the transfer portal makes it more or less likely that we start adding names to jerseys. I can see it being more likely because without them we do look a little like a small time school but it also costs money which we might not want to throw away on guys that could leave after a year or two. It's likely a small price to pay in basketball but I don't see it happening in football (which is my preference anyway).

[RickRund]

Football would have been great. Then maybe they would have learned to spelled Troy Andersen correctly.

[El Profesor]

This thread gives me the perfect opportunity to vent one of my admittedly obsessive-compulsive, don't-sweat-the-small-stuff type of complaints.

Jerseys should reflect players' *last* names, as should box scores, on-screen graphics, announcers' references, etc. For example, Ken Griffey, Jr.'s jersey should just say "Griffey". This Duke player who's on TV right now, Moore, Jr., should have the name "Moore" on his jersey. Robert Griffin III's football jersey should simply say "Griffin". And so on.

Only when two (or more) players have the same last name should the jerseys require anything more than the last name. If a team has two Smiths ... say, Bruce and Rod ... the players' two jerseys would then display "B.Smith" and "R.Smith".

On the note of my likely-lost-cause campaign, I was so disappointed the other night when two announcers of a Round-of-32 men's game were totally overboard in verbally describing the players as follows: "Jones the Third needs to play better; otherwise, Shanahan Junior should be inserted at shooting guard instead". The announcers were over the *top* in making sure to include the suffixes as part of players' last names.

Think about this: If you ask Jones III what his last name is, he'd say 'Jones', not 'Jones III'. If you ask Shanahan Jr. what his last name is, he'd say 'Shanahan', not 'Shanahan Jr.'. Aargh!

I realize that my complaint is trivial. But, nobody can say that it's wrong. I'll be delighted if even a couple of readers decide, "You know? He's right. I've never thought about this before."

Thanks for letting me vent in this public forum! Go 'Cats!

[BelgradeBobcat]

Football would have been great. Then maybe they would have learned to spelled Troy Andersen correctly.

That’s not an insignificant observation.

[nevadacat]

This thread gives me the perfect opportunity to vent one of my admittedly obsessive-compulsive, don't-sweat-the-small-stuff type of complaints.

Jerseys should reflect players' *last* names, as should box scores, on-screen graphics, announcers' references, etc. For example, Ken Griffey, Jr.'s jersey should just say "Griffey". This Duke player who's on TV right now, Moore, Jr., should have the name "Moore" on his jersey. Robert Griffin III's football jersey should simply say "Griffin". And so on.

Only when two (or more) players have the same last name should the jerseys require anything more than the last name. If a team has two Smiths ... say, Bruce and Rod ... the players' two jerseys would then display "B.Smith" and "R.Smith".

On the note of my likely-lost-cause campaign, I was so disappointed the other night when two announcers of a Round-of-32 men's game were totally overboard in verbally describing the players as follows: "Jones the Third needs to play better; otherwise, Shanahan Junior should be inserted at shooting guard instead". The announcers were over the *top* in making sure to include the suffixes as part of players' last names.

Think about this: If you ask Jones III what his last name is, he'd say 'Jones', not 'Jones III'. If you ask Shanahan Jr. what his last name is, he'd say 'Shanahan', not 'Shanahan Jr.'. Aargh!

I realize that my complaint is trivial. But, nobody can say that it's wrong. I'll be delighted if even a couple of readers decide, "You know? He's right. I've never thought about this before."

Thanks for letting me vent in this public forum! Go 'Cats!

You are spot on!

[SACCAT]

This thread gives me the perfect opportunity to vent one of my admittedly obsessive-compulsive, don't-sweat-the-small-stuff type of complaints.

Jerseys should reflect players' *last* names, as should box scores, on-screen graphics, announcers' references, etc. For example, Ken Griffey, Jr.'s jersey should just say "Griffey". This Duke player who's on TV right now, Moore, Jr., should have the name "Moore" on his jersey. Robert Griffin III's football jersey should simply say "Griffin". And so on.

Only when two (or more) players have the same last name should the jerseys require anything more than the last name. If a team has two Smiths ... say, Bruce and Rod ... the players' two jerseys would then display "B.Smith" and "R.Smith".

On the note of my likely-lost-cause campaign, I was so disappointed the other night when two announcers of a Round-of-32 men's game were totally overboard in verbally describing the players as follows: "Jones the Third needs to play better; otherwise, Shanahan Junior should be inserted at shooting guard instead". The announcers were over the *top* in making sure to include the suffixes as part of players' last names.

Think about this: If you ask Jones III what his last name is, he'd say 'Jones', not 'Jones III'. If you ask Shanahan Jr. what his last name is, he'd say 'Shanahan', not 'Shanahan Jr.'. Aargh!

I realize that my complaint is trivial. But, nobody can say that it's wrong. I'll be delighted if even a couple of readers decide, "You know? He's right. I've never thought about this before."

Thanks for letting me vent in this public forum! Go 'Cats!

I always ask the players how they want me to say their names. If they want JR, or III in there, then I make sure I say it.

[John K]

This thread gives me the perfect opportunity to vent one of my admittedly obsessive-compulsive, don't-sweat-the-small-stuff type of complaints.

Jerseys should reflect players' *last* names, as should box scores, on-screen graphics, announcers' references, etc. For example, Ken Griffey, Jr.'s jersey should just say "Griffey". This Duke player who's on TV right now, Moore, Jr., should have the name "Moore" on his jersey. Robert Griffin III's football jersey should simply say "Griffin". And so on.

Only when two (or more) players have the same last name should the jerseys require anything more than the last name. If a team has two Smiths ... say, Bruce and Rod ... the players' two jerseys would then display "B.Smith" and "R.Smith".

On the note of my likely-lost-cause campaign, I was so disappointed the other night when two announcers of a Round-of-32 men's game were totally overboard in verbally describing the players as follows: "Jones the Third needs to play better; otherwise, Shanahan Junior should be inserted at shooting guard instead". The announcers were over the *top* in making sure to include the suffixes as part of players' last names.

Think about this: If you ask Jones III what his last name is, he'd say 'Jones', not 'Jones III'. If you ask Shanahan Jr. what his last name is, he'd say 'Shanahan', not 'Shanahan Jr.'. Aargh!

I realize that my complaint is trivial. But, nobody can say that it's wrong. I'll be delighted if even a couple of readers decide, "You know? He's right. I've never thought about this before."

Thanks for letting me vent in this public forum! Go 'Cats!

Thank you!! That has always been a major pet peeve of mine. A suffix is not part of his surname, so there is no reason whatsoever to add it to anyone's name on a jersey. You pointed out Ken Griffey Jr. as one example, but I don't believe he added "Jr." to his name, until his dad joined the Mariners for a season or two late in his career. In that case, it made sense, as it was the only way to differentiate between the two of them. I do sorta blame him though, because it seems like that's when the trend first started. It really drives me crazy when some teams who have players with the same last name won't add the first initial to the uniforms, and yet they will add the suffixes. That makes absolutely no sense. I'm a bit OCD too (not that there's anything wrong with that...haha), so I realize this probably bothers me more than most people, but it's good to know I'm not the only one who is so aggravated by it.

[AFCAT]

Doesn't matter to me but I've never had a problem identifying Bobcat players.

[MSU01]

Uh oh, MSU just signed Darius Brown II. After reading a couple comments on this thread I hope they don't do names on the jerseys now!

[Catbasketball20]

How it was under Brian Fish was until we won the big sky title, we didn't get our names on the back of our jersey's. Could be the same Under Coach Sprinkle so we'll see this year!

[MSU01]

How it was under Brian Fish was until we won the big sky title, we didn't get our names on the back of our jersey's. Could be the same Under Coach Sprinkle so we'll see this year!

Really? From what I recall they did have names on the jerseys when Fish was here, and they certainly didn't win any Big Sky titles while he was coach.

[imacat]

This is what I remember about names on the jerseys. Jeff Choate had them removed in football because he wanted to emphasize team, not individuals. It was symbolic and meant to send a message.

The other sports must have liked the idea and followed suit. I don’t know how or why it was done across the board.

[Catbasketball20]

How it was under Brian Fish was until we won the big sky title, we didn't get our names on the back of our jersey's. Could be the same Under Coach Sprinkle so we'll see this year!

Really? From what I recall they did have names on the jerseys when Fish was here, and they certainly didn't win any Big Sky titles while he was coach.

Nope. We had a Bobcat there. His philosophy was "we have to earn the right to have our names there by winning first." You are correct though, certainly didn't do any winning