Logos and Uniforms of The San Francisco 49ers - A More Standard Look (1964-88)

A More Standard Look (1964-88)

The team's colors then changed in 1964. All silver elements were changed to what was called "Forty-Niner Gold;" helmets were gold, with the same striping and logo. New beige-gold pants with a red-white-red tri-stripe in the same style as the helmet were introduced. The scarlet red jerseys kept the traditional three red sleeve stripes, but road jerseys abandoned the previous dual crescent shoulder stripes in favor of three red sleeve stripes (the converse of the home jersey). The red home jerseys had white block numbers, three white parallel stripes on the sleeves, and smaller white block "TV" numbers above these stripes on the upper sleeve, with the color scheme reversed for the white road jersey. The red elliptical helmet logo was made slightly smaller in 1971-72 and received a thicker black border around the oval. From 1964 to 1971, the team's gold pants were unique in that they consisted of two varying colored panels: a more lustrous gold fabric was used on the rear portion of the pants and a lighter-hued, less lustrous beige fabric on the front. This pants design was abandoned from 1972 onwards for a more uniform, subdued beige. On very few occasions from 1971-1973, when traveling to play against teams in warm-weather venues that wore white jerseys at home such as the Los Angeles Rams and New Orleans Saints, the 49ers would don thinner mesh-fabric red jerseys that were missing the usual sleeve stripes and TV numbers. There was also a white version of this warm-weather jersey that was worn on even rarer occasions.

The 1964 uniform's basic design would be worn for practically the next thirty seasons with only some minor changes and adjustments, such as a gradual change over from sans-serif to serifed block numerals from 1970–74 and a switch from thin stripes to a very thick pant striping in 1976 (during which white jerseys were also worn at home for most of that season). The uniform ensemble of red and white jerseys, and beige-gold pants with thick striping would be worn until 1995 (as well as for throwback games from 2002–08). Starting in 1984, there was a change in the numeral font (the number "2" was made a squarer block numeral), along with the gradual narrowing of the jersey striping. For the 1986 season, the 49ers incorporated a special 40th anniversary patch sewn on the pants along the side of the hips.