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In sport, particularlyteam sports, theplayer name, often referred to as theuniform name,squad name,jersey name,shirt name is the name worn on a player's uniform.
Originally the number worn on a player's uniform was used to identify and distinguish each players (and sometimes others, such as coaches andofficials) from others wearing the same or similar uniforms.
Generally, a surname is used, but a nickname is also common. The name is typically displayed on the rear of thejersey, often accompanied by the number. Name printing is also used from asports marketing point, such as to promote the player to fans and jersey sales.
In association football, the first record of numbered jerseys date back to 1911, with Australian teams Sydney Leichardt and HMS Powerful being the first to use squad numbers on their backs.[1] The1950 FIFA World Cup was the firstFIFA competition to see squad numbers for all players,[2] but persistent numbers would not be issued until the1954 World Cup, where each man in a country's 22-man squad wore a specific number from 1 to 22 for the duration of the tournament.
In the 1970s, the U.S.-basedNorth American Soccer League experimented with printing players' names on their shirts and allocating each player a squad number rather than simply numbering the 11 players starting a game from 1 to 11, but these ideas did not catch on at the time in other countries.[3]
On 22 August 1979, during a1979–80 Coppa Italia game againstAC Milan, Italian teamMonza displayed the players' names above the numbers on the back, a novelty at the time dubbed "all'Americana" (American style); the Italian Football Federation did not approve of the change and fined the club.[4] Shortly after, AC Milan themselves added names to players' shirts in 1980. The names were removed in 1981 and for many years they would not be adopted by any other team in Italy.[5]
In1994 FIFA World Cup, FIFA made changes to the jersey, adding squad numbers to the front in addition to the back and adding player names to the back of the jerseys for the first time. These modifications were implemented to make it easier for television and radio broadcasters to identify players.[6] In theNorth American Soccer League of the 1970s,UEFA Euro 1992,1992 Olympic Football and1993–94 FA Premier League, names on jerseys were also used, but after1994 FIFA World Cup, they became more commonly used in various football competitions worldwide.
InMajor League Baseball,uniform numbers were not introduced until 1929 by theNew York Yankees andCleveland Indians;[7] names on uniforms were introduced in 1960 by theBill Veeck ofChicago White Sox.[8]
Despite introducing numbers to professional baseball, however, the current Yankees uniform do not have player names printing because of team tradition and philosophy, arguing that baseball is a team sport and not having player names emphasizes the value the importance of teamwork and unity over individual stardom.[9]
TheNBA team jerseys have the player's last name on the back of the jersey. In men's and women'scollege basketball, teams have the option to use player's last name and jersey number on the back or just the jersey number on the back of the player's jersey. Inhigh school basketball, typically only the jersey number is used on the back of the player's jersey, but names are legal according toNFHS rules.
In 2019 jersey names were authorized for the first time inTest cricket. They were first seen used in the2019 Ashes series.[10]
Also most leagues and international games use first names of the player, as it is easy to distinguish between the players.
Ingridiron football, which includesAmerican football andCanadian football, names on jerseys are used frequently and are mandatory in current professional play. Incollege football andhigh school football, where team rosters are often in excess of 100 players, there may be multiple players with the sameuniform number; player names help with disambiguation between the players. Some schools may choose not to print player names on uniforms either for financial or philosophical reasons;Penn State,[11]Notre Dame, andUSC are examples of the latter.[12] Army's football team uses "ARMY" with the jersey number on the back of the jerseys instead of the player's last name.
Theoriginal 2001 incarnation of the XFL infamously allowed players to replace their surnames with a nickname of their choosing; the most well-known of these wasRod Smart who chose to put the phrase "He Hate Me" on his uniform.[13] In 2018, players atTemple were allowed to replace their surnames with their Twitter account handles for their annualspring game as a promotional stunt.[14]
At the start of the1977–78 season, theNational Hockey League (NHL) placed into effect a rule that also required players' sweaters to display the names of the players wearing them in addition to theirnumber, butToronto Maple Leafs ownerHarold Ballard initially refused to follow the new rule, fearing that he would not be able to sell programs at his team's games.
The NHL responded by threatening to levy a fine on the team in February 1978, so Ballard complied by making the letters the same color as the background they were on, which for the team's road jerseys was blue. The NHL threatened further sanctions, and despite playing more than one game with their "unreadable" sweaters, Ballard's Maple Leafs finally complied in earnest by making the blue jerseys' letters white.[15]
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