St. Louis Cardinals Caps History
1928-34
Pinstripes are dropped, piping remains. Home caps are white, road grey.
Rawlings
1936-39
Single red piping changes to double red. Home caps are white, road caps grey.
Rawlings
1940
The logo is added to the caps which turn blue. The 1940 road cap had "ST.L" across in block for part of the year. It might have been worn at home too.
This is a famous cap given by Manager Bill Southworth to his son who wore it in battle in WWII.
1941
ST.L cap dropped. New cap has a cardinal logo (note - it's NOT standing on a bat which throwback capmakers invented in the 1980's).
Spalding
1942-43
Cardinal logo dropped, St.L returns. It's now embroidered rather than sewn-on felt.
Rawlings
1944-50
Embroidered logos have a slightly different shape.
Horace Partridge
Rawlings
Coane
Coane supplied caps in the late 1940's. The Dodgers were another customer.
This is Eddie Stankey's 1949 or 50 cap. The L has a more upright bottom flare. Seems like there were several makes of caps with slightly different logos late 40's-early 50's.
Tim McAuliffe
Rawlings
1951
Cap is navy blue.
Rawlings
1952-55
Caps return to red visors.
Rawlings
From spring 1953, these caps all have different logos, the middle is McAuliffe, Rawlings on the right, not sure about the large thin logo on the left, Coane maybe?
Tim McAuliffe/KM Pro
Used in-season? Not sure
Rawlings
1956-62
Caps go all-navy and the logo gets a white outline.
Rawlings
1963
In 1963 the logo changes slightly as Harry Walker caps appear. The bottom tips of the "S" and "L" are smaller.
Harry Walker
1964
1964. The red cap debuts at home. Until late in the season the logo is blue with white trim. The navy cap is worn on the road.
Harry Walker
The logo on home caps changes to white late in the year.
New Era
Harry Walker
1965-68
Navy cap is retired. Red worn home and road.
New Era
1969-70
Some players like Joe Torre become early adopters of grey undervisors.
New Era
1971
With new jerseys, a new cap by KM Pro. It's the same McAuliffe logo used in the 50's.
KM Pro
1972-75
Back to New Era caps and logo. I dont't see KM Pro after 1972.
New Era
1976
Pillbox cap worn for some home games for the 1976 bicentennial.
New Era
Pillbox caps had both green and grey underbrims, like the regular caps.
1977
New Era
1978-91
By 1978, all caps have grey undervisors.
New Era
1992
The navy road cap returns. The undervisor is green. MLB logos are glued on back of caps in 1992, then embroidered later on that year.
New Era
1993-97
Sports Specialties
Sports Specialties caps are used around 1993. Undervisors turn grey.
Raised embroidery appears in 1996.
New Era
1998-99
Alternate cap debuts. The 1998 version has a red beak; The 1999 version did too, even though the birds on the jersey had their beaks return to yellow.
New Era
2000-06
Bird's beak on alternate cap changes to yellow.
New Era
2007-present
Caps go polyester with black undervisors.
In 2013 the red cap begins to be used on the road as well, more often than the navy.
