Paul Hornung rookie jersey up for auction suggests Green Bay Packers wore black and gold | Feat. expertise of UWGB Alumnus Tony Giese | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

GREEN BAY – Since the Green Bay Packers were founded in 1919, their team colors have always been accepted as fact.

Navy blue and gold. White and gold. Green and white. Green and gold.

Nowhere in the Packers’ history book does it say they were black and gold, a look made popular in the NFL by the Pittsburgh Steelers.

But history might have to be corrected, all because of a Paul Hornung 1957 game-worn rookie jersey up for bid Saturday in Heritage Auctions’ Winter Platinum Night Sports Auction.

It was photo-matched to a November game that year against the New York Giants, and after examining the jersey up close, Heritage and a photo-match company are confident it is crafted from black durene and not navy.

It was discovered only because of the heavy loss of the number on the back of Hornung’s jersey, which revealed the jet-black color that was not faded like the rest of the jersey.

The style was used in competition between 1954 and 1957.

“It was kind of an urban legend of did they wear black, did they wear midnight navy?” said Heritage consignment director and longtime Packers collector Tony Giese, a Wisconsin native who graduated from Coleman High School in 1995 and the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay in 2000. “There were never photos that you could say that is 100 percent black, that is 100 percent midnight navy. Nobody could really tell from the photos that were provided from that time period.

“The thing that really switched this whole thing was when you could peel away a little bit of the 5 (on the Hornung) jersey, and you can see it is definitely black. Without that, I don’t know if we could really definitively say it was black or if it was navy. … When the jersey faded, it did give the appearance that it might have been grayish or a little bit of blue in it.”

If that number on the back of the jersey wasn’t missing, and the jersey wasn’t photo-matched, it might be a lot more difficult to convince doubters, although some longtime Packers fans and collectors might still insist it’s blue.

Black or midnight blue?

In February 2019, Heritage auctioned a 1957 Jim Ringo jersey that could not be confirmed to be black and gold because both the numbers on the front and back of the jersey were still intact.

“What we initially thought detracted from the jersey with the number being missing turned out to be a huge positive and something that literally could rewrite the history books of Packers folklore,” Giese said. “In the 1940s, they wore a darker blue, more a midnight navy and yellow. This (Hornung jersey) was just discovered in the last three months, probably. I saw photos of it initially, and then somebody brought it to me at a show to look at.

“For me, this is such cool information that you can kind of answer a question a lot of football historians and collectors have really been asking about for a long time. Any time you can do that, it’s a positive.”

Giese said examining the jersey in hand makes it very evident it is black and that anybody who sees it in person will agree.

Sports Investors Authentication, which photo-matched the Hornung jersey, wrote in its description that the jersey is a long-sleeve black durene pullover.

Cliff Christl, the Packers’ team historian, was asked about the assertion that the jersey color is black and gold.

He wasn’t prepared to say either way.

“I’m not sure,” Christl said. “I’ve gone through 1957 microfilm and have not found a description of their uniform colors. Back then, if the Packers purchased new uniforms, (Green Bay Press-Gazette sports editor) Art Daley or sometimes (Press-Gazette sports reporter) Lee Remmel, would describe them at some point before the season started. If I’ve searched thoroughly enough and they didn’t do it in ’57, I can only guess as to why. Maybe with the Packers moving into a new stadium that got overlooked.”

Paul Hornung jersey hits record price

The Hornung jersey has set an auction record for a Packers game-worn jersey. The bid is at $91,500 — it includes the buyer’s premium — with a couple of days remaining.

A Hornung jersey from the early 1960s was auctioned for $84,000 in August 2017. A Don Hutson jersey likely worn sometime in the 1940s sold for $80,662.50 in August 2011.

The Hornung jersey being auctioned Saturday was not only photo-matched to the 1957 contest against the Giants — he rushed for 112 yards in that game — but to a 1959 intersquad game, several 1961 practices and newspaper photos and an undated practice photo as late as 1964. There appears to be a potential match to Hornung’s 1959 Topps football card.

“It’s going to be a six-figure jersey,” Giese said. “It’s a rookie jersey of one of the most notable guys ever. Especially because it’s so early in his career. If it was just a regular guy, it might be a $5,000, $7,000 jersey. But because it’s Hornung, and it’s fresh to the hobby and photo-matched, it’s huge. There are a lot of people who saw this style and still weren’t sure the Packers wore it because they can’t fathom that the Packers were actually this color. Black and gold.

“Without a photo-match, you’d still have your doubters. But there is a definitive photo-match, which is like a fingerprint that proves Hornung wore this jersey in game play. That’s the key in this whole equation.”

For more images of the jersey click on the link below:

GRB: Paul Hornung rookie jersey up for auction suggests Green Bay Packers wore black and gold