First Player's Jersey That You Owned

[Giff]

I don' t ever remembering having a jersey or a shirtsey. The sport shirts that I wore were the caricature ones like this:

I had that shirt! Baylor great #24 Micheal Williams! Went on a couple dates with my sister in college and I got to see him a couple times when whatever team he was on came through town. Had a pretty decent career in Indiana and Minnesota. Holds the NBA record for most consecutive free throws made. He came to Baylor basketball camp the next summer after he won the championship with Detroit and I got to wear his ring for a few seconds.

[mister d]

I don't think its called a date if you catch a game with your sibling.

[Giff]

I don't think its called a date if you catch a game with your sibling.

It is in the SEC hey-oh!

[Tom 1860]

John Elway.

ffs

[Tom 1860]

Probably a Welsh rugby Jersey, but they didn't have names on the back.

So in all likelihood, it was a Bubba McDowell University of Miami Jersey in 1987 - I think it was a national championship year for them?

[mister d]

If shirtseys were a soccer thing, I'd have ordered a #13 Brighton jersey for my oldest because (as everyone knows) 13 is the Taylor Swift number and she thought it was funny his name was Gross.



(Please no one correct this with the weird and confusing letter its sometimes spelled with.)

[tennbengal]

I grew up poor. Maybe not Navin Johnson poor, but...poor.

In any event, a knockoff Ken Anderson shirsey I think .

First legit jersey?

(checks notes)

Odell Thurman.

Man.

[MaxWebster]

shit - ha i just remembered i was Carlton Fisk #27 for halloween c1978. amazing that somehow my dad scored little me a jersey, they were definitely not widely seen back then.

that's not the interesting part tho

my friend dressed as Jim Rice. let's just say his makeup made it much more...authentic.

...(c'mon it was 1978)...

utterly bizarre but:

Ilkka Sinisalo #23 Philadelphia Flyers.

[GoodKarma]

Odell Thurman.

Man.

Oof…that’s a fun one.

I’m certain my Eddie Brown was a knockoff

My first authentic was Brian Simmons

[Pruitt IV]

When I was 8 or 9, my Grandparents went to Florida and brought me back a Csonka #39 in thick polyester.

First one I got that I wanted was an authentic Borje Salming Leafs shirt that was probably the best Bar Mitzvah gift I got.

[A_B]

There's a greater than 50% chance my Dorsett was just a white mesh shirt with a blue 33 screen printed. I don't recall if it had a name on the back. But it was, to me, Tony Dorsett.

[Steve of phpBB]

It seems that personalized jerseys or shirseys or whatever were much more of a football thing than a baseball thing back then. No?

[sancarlos]

It was either Jimmie Giles or Richard "Batman" Wood.

That's fantastic. This was before like Lee Roy Selmon and Doug Williams came along, right?

No, Lee Roy was the first Buc ever, so he was definitely there already. Doug may or may not have been there yet. Doug is definitely the first Buc QB I can remember, but I don't remember when he arrived.

Fun fact: the Buccaneers’ first starting quarterback was Steve Spurrier.

[The Sybian]

I honestly don't remember having one as a kid...they just weren't a thing back then. I do remember having a totally generic football shirt, with a number, but it wasn't any particular team or player. Mo Lewis was my first authentic jersey. Still wear it to games.

Now that you mention it, my Al Toon was just a Jets-looking jersey with 88 on it. I bought it at Dick's, but I don't think it was an officially licensed NFL jersey. Maybe it was, but it wasn't the player worn jersey and not a great replica.

Back in 2001 when I got into e-Bay I bought a bunch of soccer jerseys. I was so excited to finally be able to watch a lot of soccer and follow the EPL, plus I discovered the authentic jerseys being sold by what I presume were factory workers in China and Thailand for dirt cheap. Pretty sure my first soccer jersey was a black Ruud van Nistelrooy ManU jersey. I tried to remain a neutral watching the EPL, but Arsenal pulled me in. I hated that I owned a ManU jersey. I think I gave that away, haven't seen it in 20 years. I have about 15 soccer jerseys, very rarely wear them anymore. I do like wearing my Pulisic Dortmund shirt though. Black with yellow, it looks so sharp. And I still wear my nameless Arsenal jersey from around 2008-ish. Zumba gave it to me out of guilt when he beat me in a fantasy football championship game by less than a point after they corrected the stats and reduced Adrian Peterson's rushing yards by a few yards.

[Pruitt IV]

Al Toon

He was a fantastic receiver. Kind of like Sterling Sharpe, if he had managed to stay healthy, he'd be in Canton