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Familiar (Navy) Flannel
As challenging as 2020 has been for nearly everyone around the globe, the year has brought to the surface and thus provided us with opportunities to acquire some of the most incredible artifacts for the Chevrons and Diamonds Collection. As much as we enjoy sourcing treasures such as original scorecards, programs, type-1 vintage photographs and equipment, the most sought-after items that are truly cause for excitement are service team flannels.
As the temperatures cool and the leaves begin to change now that autumn is upon us, we are still surprised by the slew of jerseys and uniforms that we were able to add to our collection. In what we would consider a “good year” of treasure hunting, we might be able to acquire more than one baseball jersey or uniform. However, amid the viral, economic and political difficulties, we managed to acquire a quartet of vintage flannel baseball jerseys, one of which includes trousers. Before this year, our collection had been dominated by the presence of jerseys made for and used by the U.S. Marine Corps.
With the arrival of Fire Controlman 2/c Gunderson’s USS Phoenix uniform group (see: Remembering Pearl Harbor and the Game) along with the unnamed USS Timbalier jersey (see: Striking the Drum: a Mid-1940s Jersey from the USS Timbalier), our Navy baseball uniform collection doubled. However, 2020 appears to be the year for Navy jerseys as we were able to locate a third flannel.
- The 1943 Pearl Harbor Submarine Base team secured the Hawaiian Leagues title wearing the navy blue ballcap (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).
- This Navy publicity photo was taken in 1944 and used in promotional materials and game programs in the Hawaii Leagues. Mize is shown in his pinstriped Navy home uniform (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).
- In this photo from the estate of Yankees Hall of Fame catcher, Bill Dickey, Mize poses at Furlong Field with other Navy stars from the Major Leagues. Shown, left to right are: George “Skeets” Dickey, Johnny Vander Meer, Pee Wee Reese, Joe Rose, Johnny Mize and Bill Dickey (Mark Southerland Collection).
During World War II, perhaps the most common uniform design aspect for Navy baseball flannels (at least for shore-based teams) was an unembellished flannel (in white, gray or pinstripes) with simple, athletic felt, block letters that simply spelled out “N A V Y” in an arc across the upper chest area. For most of those uniforms, the font used for the athletic felt lettering was slender and lacked serifs or flourish, thus providing a simplistic appearance.
The simple Navy baseball uniform jerseys were used nearly from the beginning of the war, as we have seen with the Navy Pre-Flight schools at the Universities of North Carolina, Iowa, Georgia and St. Mary’s College (in Moraga, California), with serif lettering that included a three-dimensional” appearance with multiple layers of stitched athletic felt. Throughout domestic naval training bases, the lettering on the jerseys often differed. In some instances, script lettering or block lettering with serifs could be seen. On Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands, the uniforms, while maintaining the block letters, deviated from the traditional home-white and away-gray combinations, opting instead for complete pinstriped flannels or with navy blue raglan sleeves with the slender and simple (non-serif) lettering in an arc across the chest.
- 1944 Cloudbusters Coaching Staff (left to right): LT(jg) Tom McConnell, LCDR Glenn Killinger, LT Buddy Hassett, LT Howie Haak. The photo was inscribed and signed by McConnell, Killinger and Hassett for Howie Haak (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).
- Team mates in Boston and in the Navy, Ted Williams (left) and Johnny Pesky (center) were members of the Cloudbusters (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).
- The coaches of the 1944 St. Mary’s Pre-flight varsity baseball team, led by Charlie Gehringer (second from right) as shown in the History St. Mary’s Pre-Flight School book (published 1946).
Since our adventure in military baseball research and collecting commenced more than a decade ago, the search for a Navy-specific jersey or uniform has been ongoing. Our acquisition of a 1943 gray and red Marine uniform drew our attention to seeking other vintage service team jerseys. The closest we came to locating a Navy jersey or uniform occurred towards the end of 2018 when a listing for a gray wool flannel item surfaced at auction. In a departure from the aforementioned more common lettering style, the athletic felt appliques were of the blocked variety with serifs (similar to a bold Times Roman font) which resembled that of the Navy Pre-Flight baseball uniforms but featured a single layer of material. After eight years, a World War II-era Navy jersey had finally arrived.

The 1943 team of Naval Air Station at Corpus Christi, Texas is right up in front in the Naval Air Training Center circuit having taken eight of its first ten games. Pictured are Mascot Roy Brown, front; Ensign Dan Menendez, Ensign Don Watts, Lt.-Comdr. Frank Lane, LTjg Boyd B. SoRelle and Ezra Pat Mac McClothin, first row; Ensign Walt Bietila, Ensign Dave Bechtol, W. J. Goodman, J. Roland and J. Penfold, second row, and Jack Pearson, Dam Mamula, Bob Cowsar, Ed Schueren, Jim Picciano and Pat McCarthy, back row (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).
Unfortunately, due to financial challenges, there was no possibility of acquiring this jersey. We watched the auction all the way to the end. The jersey sold the week before Thanksgiving for well above what we would normally value an unnamed, unidentified one. Rather than to allow this jersey to change hands and be forgotten, we captured the details and added a page to the Chevrons and Diamonds Archive of Military Baseball Uniforms for historical reference. In the near 21 months since this jersey sold, we had yet to find a similar piece.
In a year filled with incredible finds, it is unfathomable that another WWII naval jersey would not only appear in the marketplace but would fall into our hands.

Fresh from the seller, the 1943-44 NAVY jersey is in need of a cleaning, similar to what we did for our USS Timbalier and USS Phoenix flannels (Chevrons and Diamonds Photo).

The front of the jersey shows a lot of pilling that is most-likely due to excessive machine-wash laundering. The athletic felt lettering is arched between the second and third buttons. The upper left extension of the “V” overlays the left soutache on the button placket (Chevrons and Diamonds Photo).
A new listing appeared in an online auction (that included the option to submit an offer) for a WWII-era Navy jersey. This artifact, a gray flannel (away) jersey with blocked serif lettering affixed to the chest, was trimmed in a single, thin line of blue soutache surrounding the sleeve cuff and around the collar, extending down the button placket. What was unique about this jersey was that the soutache on the placket extended down to just above the third button (from the top), stopping well short of what is seen on many jerseys of the period. Another feature that helped in dating the jersey to the early 1940s was the sun collar surrounding the neck. Inside the collar was a simple manufacturer’s label (Lowe & Campbell Athletic Goods) that included the size (42) incorporated into the same tag. Aside from typical staining befitting a used, 75+ year-old textile, the only blemish was a missing button at the bottom of the placket.
- (Chevrons and Diamonds Photo).
- (Chevrons and Diamonds Photo).
- The sleeve soutache encircles the sleeve approximately 1-inch above the edge, corresponding to the hem on the inside edge (Chevrons and Diamonds Photo).
- Sun collars were being phases out of uniforms by the late 1930s and into the early 1940s which helps to date this jersey (Chevrons and Diamonds Photo).
After our submitted offer was accepted and the package arrived a few days later, the familiarity of this particular jersey began to settle in. In 2019, a WWII vintage photo of a Navy baseball team surfaced. The players were seen dressed in their flannel uniforms with a lettering style similar to our recent arrival. Unlike the layered lettering of the Pre-Flight uniforms, the jerseys in the photograph were very similar to that of our new acquisition. Further examination of the photograph revealed subtle differences, such as the soutache around the collar (two lines versus our single line), on the placket (extending down below the belt-line) and the positioning on the sleeve cuffs (at the sleeve’s edge instead of 1” back from the edge).
The team in the aforementioned photo was that of Corpus Christi Naval Air Station in 1943, the roster of which consisted of naval aviation cadets who were predominantly former professional ballplayers. Though it is similar to the Corpus Christi uniform, our jersey did not originate from this team (at least not from 1943), judging by the photograph; but the ambiguous familiarity remained within our memory. This jersey was strangely more familiar to us than we could comprehend.
- Showing the single-layer athletic felt lettering, the end of the button placket soutache and the recessed, four-hole button (Chevrons and Diamonds Photo).
- The back numerals are heavily worn on the edges (Chevrons and Diamonds Photo).
- The rear of the neck opening reveals the 1-inch height of the the sun collar. Note the stain to the lower right (Chevrons and Diamonds Photo).
- This 3/4-perspective offers a view of the jersey’s cut, tail, armpit vent and sleeve length (Chevrons and Diamonds Photo).
As our research continued (including scouring our extensive vintage photograph library), we paused to made a quick check of our military baseball uniform archive only to discover that we had just acquired the very jersey that we were not in position to obtain nearly two years earlier. It seems that when collectors are persistent and patient in their endeavors and interests, missed or lost opportunities sometimes return and artifacts become available once again. While we have yet to uncover a specific unit or team to connect this jersey to, we are confident that with both patience and perseverance we will be able to identify which Navy team used this jersey design.
See Also:
- A Lifetime Collection of Images: Star Baseball Player, Sam Chapman, the Tiburon Terror and Wartime Naval Aviator, part I and part II
- A Diamond for a Midway Hero