Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

Former Green Bay Phoenix head coach Tod Kowalczyk (hereon referred to as ‘poor mans coach k’ with no capitalization or punctuation) made waves a few years ago – seriously, people threw up from motion sickness – by putting his Phoenix in black alternate uniforms for several games in the season, including a road game at Milwaukee.

This year, Green Bay’s Brian Wardle (hereon referred to as Brian Wardle, as he is a good guy) is bringing back the black jerseys in an effort to “Black Out Cancer.”  The initiative is co-sponsored by Bellin Health and Broadway Automotive.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a wonderful way to raise money for cancer awareness and financial need for cancer patients and their families.  I just have a couple questions.

Does the color “black” really make you feel good about cancer? – In America, the color black is significance to death. As a kid, my mother spent much of my childhood working on the HOT unit at Children’s Hospital as an RN working with children suffering from cancer.  Kids from across the country would come to our Children’s Hospital for cancer treatment.  My brother, sister and I would play a part, spending time hanging out with the siblings of cancer patients who were also far from home.  That said, death was common, and I have been to many funerals in my life.  Let me tell you, no one was wearing white at any of those funerals.  Black is the color that evokes thoughts of death, which is why I was confused by its use.

The other question is this: why black uniforms at home, and why against Milwaukee?

The retro jerseys are so plain, and the black alternates reek of imitation.

There are ten universities in the Horizon League.  Only one of them counts Black as one of its school colors, and I’m proud to say that’s OUR color.  So why would Green Bay want to play the game in black against us?  Because, they like the color black.  It looks good. We know this, because we wear it.  Our blood runs black and gold, so no Panthers need convincing that black is a good color.

It just makes me think that Green Bay is playing the same card that the poor mans coach k played so many years ago – they’re trying to be the “bad boys” of Horizon League basketball.

Sorry, Detroit is the bad boys.  And Black is our color.  You guys are the Christmas Color school.  Own it.  Get jolly against cancer next time.

The great thing is that they’re likely going to encourage Green Bay fans to wear black.  So let’s just enjoy the black Phoenix unis and the gold Panther unis.  The Resch Center will look pretty nice completely in Black and Gold!

If you’re at the Resch Center at least 20 minutes before game time, you stand a pretty good chance at snagging one of the 1,000 Alec Brown bobbleheads available at the door.   Let’s hope they come with velcro attached to the bottom, because a stiff breeze might knock them over.