Oakland Athletics / A's Uniform History 1968-1986
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Oakland landed a young competitive team when Charles Finley moved the Kansas City Athletics in 1968. The jerseys were colorful and the team went on to win 3 straight World Series titles in 1972-74.
Oakland Athletics
1968
Tim McAuliffe
The Athletics proudly display the new city name in crazy Old English. Green mist shirt becomes the road jersey in 1968, relegating gold to alternate status.
1969
McAuliffe Uniform
The logo returns to the traditional "A", front numbers are added, and the double lettering outline changes to single outline. Road jersey returns to gold, mist green is once again the alternate. The green accent and cap color returns to a lighter shade.
MLB 100th anniversary patch worn in 1969.
Oakland A's
1970-71
McAuliffe Uniform
Charles Finley changes the name to "A's". The apostrophe "s" is added to jerseys and caps. Names on back added.
Two different jerseys in order to show NOB.
In 1971 caps get gold visors and buttons.
1972
McAuliffe Uniform
The A's adopt double knits. Gold is the main jersey worn home and road. Green is the alternate, but worn mostly on the road. White is the Sunday home jersey. Front numbers were added AFTER the All Star game and have a stylized font that is different from the back numbers. The cap logo, which was different than the jersey logo, is changed during the season (maybe for the World Series) to be tall and blocky and more closely match the jersey logo - although it appears most players continued wearing the older cap.
1973-80
The logo is redesigned, becoming sleeker and regaining a second serif, ala 1963, 1961 and 1951-54. Front numbers are dropped. Lettering on yellow jerseys inverts to green with white trim. With the A's being a cash strapped team, some 1972 single-serif A's style white and green jerseys (without front numbers) were still being used in regular and playoff games as late as 1974. However the 1972 gold jerseys could not be reused as the logo and numbers had changed from white to green.
McAuliffe Uniform
Stall & Dean made jerseys under their McAuliffe Uniform label - I guess they ran out of McAuliffe Uniform tags, since this one has a Stall & Dean tag.
By 1974, and through 1979, the McAuliffe tags have a blue border. In the 1980's, Stall & Dean made "McAuliffe" replicas sold to the public. So if you see a 1974-79 jersey and the McAuliffe tag has no blue border, it's a 1980's made replica.
American Bicentennial sleeve patch worn in 1976.
1981
White becomes the main home jersey, gold an occasional alternate. A new gold jersey with "Oakland" across the front becomes the road jersey. The kelly green jersey is dropped. With the Haas family now owning the team, they start to use many different jersey manufacturers.
Wilson
McAuliffe Uniform
Rawlings
Rawlings gold road jerseys have green sleeve stripes of equal thickness vs. the thicker middle stripe on McAuliffe jerseys, and a different number font. Both McAuliffe and Rawlings were used, pictures exist where some players wear the thin middle stripe, others the thicker stripe.
1982
Colors change to darker forest green and yellow gold. Sleeve stripes change from five-ring to three-ring. A new white button-down jersey with piping becomes the home jersey. A new grey "OAKLAND" pullover is the road jersey. Gold "A's" and green "A's" pullovers are alternates.
Note - The A's wore the old kelly green & gold style for 1982 spring training before switching to forest green for the regular season. McAuliffe Uniform made (at least some) 1982 tagged A's jerseys that the team wore, along with 1981 and older kelly green & gold jerseys, in 1982 spring training. DESPITE WHAT YOU MIGHT READ FROM OTHER SOURCES, NO McAuliffe jerseys, or any five-ring sleeve styles, were worn after 1981 except in spring training.
Medalist Sand-Knit
Wilson
Medalist Sand-Knit
Rawlings
The gold jersey was rarely worn, and I can only find one photo of it here...
...and interestingly the one jersey pic that I have is tagged 1983 (although the cuff is not visible in the photo it's 3 ring green-gold-green). Of course, game used 1983 jerseys wound up with "OAKLAND" across the chest instead, so perhaps this was made for 1983 but dropped in favor of the "OAKLAND" style. Anyone have this one? Let me know. And no, it is DEFINITELY NOT the BP jersey.
1983-84
"OAKLAND" replaces "A's" on the alternate gold and green pullovers.
Wilson
Medalist Sand-Knit
Rawlings
Wilson
Anyone have a 1984 white or grey jersey?
Rawlings
1985-86
A new white pullover home jersey is introduced, the button-down white is dropped along with the grey jersey. Green becomes the main road jersey, with gold the alternate.
Rawlings
