Love it or hate it? Temple City and Alhambra’s new look.

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There was a time when Alhambra’s uniform consisted of solid gold helmets. When I went there, the idea was that the uniforms would resemble Notre Dame’s uniforms, except instead of the iconic “ND” on the sleeve we had a solid “A” for Alhambra. It’s also the reason why our fight song was Notre Dame’s Victory March. The home jersey was dark/navy blue with gold pants and the road uniforms were white. Last year, Alhambra added what to me looks like a generic-looking scriptive Moors. Personally, I would have perferred for them to remain solid gold, but if they were going to make a change why not embrace the unique mascot and go with this logo:

It’s the same logo Alhambra’s baseball team uses on its baseball hats. I remember a while back when I was in high school reading an issue of Sports Illustrated, and on it featured a small section devoted to the most unique high school mascots. Alhambra made the list, and I was proud that our mascot had an actual meaning and it wasn’t just some generic mascot like the Bears or Tigers. (If you didn’t know, The Alhambra — a palace and fortress complex located in the Province of Granada, Spain — was constructed during the mid-14th century by the Moorish rulers of the Emirate of Granada in al-Andalus. I remember one time as a freshman our marching band took part in a parade in San Diego and someone asked, “You guys are from Alhambra?” and we said, yes. Then they asked, “You guys came all the way over here from Spain?” Hilarious.)

Anyway, from what I heard the helmets went from gold to blue this season in an effort to save money from having to add a coat of gold paint on the base helmet, which is the blue helmet you see this season. So that’s that.

There was a time when Temple City would look forward to its first win of the season, because if I’m correct that meant adding horns to the helmet. There was some controversy a few years ago when Anthony White, then the head coach, added the horns right right away, straying from tradition.

As you can see, this year’s helmets have “TC” on them, which I think actually looks pretty cool, and I really like the old school-looking jerseys with numbers on the sleeves. I think old school TC fans can live with the jersey, but I’m not so sure about the helmets since they probably grew up with the horns. So have at it and vote.

TEMPLE CITY’S HOME UNIFORM AND ALHAMBRA’S ROAD UNIFORM FROM LAST YEAR

  • Bob Anon

    I don’t like the new TC helmet at all (the uniforms not so much, either).

  • sorry

    Alhambra used to have great Notre Dame style uniforms
    during the Ruedaflores era. I remember way back when the Hart bros were playing w the solid gold helmets w the grey face masks. The new look, new era I guess…
    To be honest, they look like the Alhambra T-birds uniforms now. Just my opinion.

  • GloucesterCoach

    Definitely don’t like the TC Helmet. The Ram horns are a huge tradition, that should not have been changed.

    As far as the Alhambra uniforms, I agree with you as well. Definitely miss the Notre Dame look.

  • Your Mom

    The horns are classic and I even wore them when we had gold helmets with green horns and the next season we switched to green helmets with gold horns (Back to Back RHL) but in the 70s when TC won all those CIF championships in a row and won 70 something games in a row (record then) they wore the TC emblem…. Stop Hating

  • http://www.insidesocal.com/paspreps/2011/09/post-21.html paul

    i also like the Alhambra Thunderbirds uniforms this year, they are for the 50th anniversary of the program, and im a Rebel coach, lol

  • needisaymoors?

    Love it “new look” Moors. Not just a basic script, they incorporated the semetar on the script ending “genius”.
    Just the fact Coach Lou is open on change is a good thing, Businesses, Athletic Teams, do all the time. And as we all know in business change is sometimes needed to meet client demands. Keep up the hard work Moors, wish you all a great season.

  • 6power

    On the frosh and JV levels, the TC kids would bring the horn decals home – it was always a ceremony of sorts putting them on the helmet so they were straight and looked right. Other times kids would group up sprawled on the grass and put them on together. Someone would always cover an ear hole or end up 2 inches into the facemask and need to ask for another set of horns. There was ritual involved and it was part of the tie between players from different seasons and decades…and definitely brought a surge of life instilling teamwork early in the season. Yeah…I liked the horns – hope they return.

    Coach White and staff rewarded the horns on a individual basis based on coachs’ review of player effort. Sounded good, but the idea fizzled and some starters had horns, some did not and the whole distribution was a distraction and anti-team building. In football sometimes the littlest things matter and teenagers react strangely when things turn out differently than planned. Tradition, organization and focus are part of any winning football program over time.

    Guess I like tradition. Moors don’t even look like Alhambra anymore.

  • Moors Black Defense

    I am not really liking the new Alhambra look. They added so much to the uniform. A stripe down the center of the helment, a logo on the sides of the helmet, the helmet is painted blue, the Arizona ‘A’ on the sleeve, the number on the shoulder, and dark blue pants. Why did they change the uniform so much? The uniforms looked a whole lot better when we had the Norte Dame style uniforms. I personally didn’t like it when we started with the blue pants and the skulls/football stickers on the helmet in the 2000 season. Oh well….good luck Moors, I will still root for you guys regardless of the uniform style.

  • Moors Black Defense

    Oh and to the writer of the story, I remember that Sports Illustrated story as well and I thought it was really cool that our school made that list.

  • Rizball

    Its not the color of the helmet, it’s the guy in the helmet… When I played both AHS and TC wore yellow helmets