As UCF graduates and designated institutional historians within the Knights' athletic staff, Jimmy Skiles and Eric DeSalvo have spent more than their share of time together dreaming up new ways to promote their alma mater.
"We were always looking for things that made UCF unique," says Skiles, associate athletics director for brand advancement.
"A big one for us was the connection to the space program. We just needed a way to recognize it."
So Skiles and DeSalvo (assistant athletics director, #content) came up with a plan, one that had been formulating in the backs of their minds for some time. With the UCF brand evolving with a new football staff and Nike upsizing its relationship with the Knights, it became the perfect storm.
"We always wanted to do something to celebrate the history of UCF and space. It was just waiting for the right time," says Skiles.
To start, Skiles, DeSalvo and the Knights' equipment staff then led by Rich Worner collaborated on a one-sheeter loaded with details designed to "honor our roots and create a unique buzz" with distinctive uniform elements for the 2017 UCF homecoming football game.
The proposed 2017 elements were comparatively conservative in scope—a helmet decal, a uniform patch and back helmet bumpers (designed by former UCF Athletics designer Chris Stoney). The proposal anticipated the potential for 6 million impressions through the uniform unveil, email and social media campaigns, advertising and in-venue promotion.
The new uniform plans quickly gave UCF a reason for a throwback, once-per-year, retro tribute to its early years--the late 1960s when the original unofficial UCF mascot was the Citronaut, a nod to both the Florida citrus industry and to the University's connection with NASA and the space program.
Adds Skiles, "The Citronaut was a really loveable mascot, but we really had not had a good way to use it. We also found out that there was a cult-like following when it came to anything revolving around the space program--and all that helped the concept take off."
In recent years there have been full-blown "Space Game" merchandising lines with jerseys, T-shirts, hats and other items featuring that old-school Citronaut logo that lasted for only one year in 1968-69 when the school was known as Florida Technical University. FTU first partnered with nearby Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Base in 1963, the same year the University was founded.
The one-time-use uniform project has been revenue-neutral—with postgame online auctions generally covering production expenses.
Here's a look at the uniform details over the years:
- 2017—The first "Space Game" featured an authentic-looking mission patch and a helmet stripe with various galactic references representing the Saturn V rocket, which carried the first astronauts to orbit the moon in 1968.
- 2018—A full new uniform combination (it won UNISWAG's Uniform of the Year award) featured the Citronaut, constellation patterns and Canaveral Blue accents on black uniforms. The center helmet stripe and elements of the stacked UCF logo featured blue colors to represent the water and sky at Cape Canaveral. The lower backs of the helmets read "Reach for the Stars."
- 2019—A "Rendezvous With the Stars" theme included helmets that highlighted the dark and light sides of the moon (UNISWAG's Helmet of the Year), constellation numbers on white uniforms, plus an Apollo 11 element on the pants highlighting that 1969 mission.
- 2020—A light pewter jersey combined with black helmets, with the Orion space capsule helmet stripe, a directional guidance flight pattern on the sleeves and two patterns down the legs paying homage to the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico and the circular navigation grid that mimics the university's circular campus.
Now the all-white 2021 version to be worn Friday night against Memphis (7 p.m. ET on ESPN2) commemorates the 40th anniversary of the start of the Space Shuttle program. Each of the 135 shuttle missions is recognized by a square designed to look like one of the thermal protection system tiles and incorporated into the jersey numbers.
The stripe down the middle of the 2021 helmets includes more than 100 names of individuals with UCF connections who have played a role in the Space Shuttle program over the years. Nameplates on the backs of the jerseys read "Citronauts" in all capital letters. Sleeves feature an American flag on one side and a custom mission patch on the other.
Special nods this year go to UCF Athletics #content designers Emma Schneider and Sahid Alpizar for their creative work and Brad Anderson and the equipment staff for activation—all a particular challenge considering the COVID-19 conditions when the design elements were being constructed.
UCF has a long history of connections with the space program:
- UCF was founded to help provide talent to Florida's space industry, and since then faculty and students have worked on many NASA, European Space Agency and commercial space company missions.
- Two astronauts who have flown into space--Fernando "Frank" Caldeiro and Nicole Stott--are UCF alumni.
- More than 25 percent of Kennedy Space Center employees are UCF graduates. KSC is just 35 miles away from the UCF main campus.
- 18 UCF researchers have had asteroids named in their honor
- More than a dozen UCF research projects are related to helping the U.S. return to the moon. They are looking at reducing the harmful effects of lunar dust to protect equipment and astronauts; developing robotics; flying and landing spacecraft; and mining fuel to run it all.
- For NASA's Lucy Mission launch Oct. 16 (NASA gallery), UCF Physics Professor Dan Britt is part of the team leading the mission to explore asteroids near Jupiter--an area believed to still hold material that formed the outer planets.
- Photos from a launch seen over the campus' Reflecting Pond and an Observe the Moon night on campus can be viewed here (first two images of launch, last 10 from moon night).
Annual space uniform unveils have become must-see events, particularly on social media.
Adds UCF football coach Gus Malzahn, "I'm still a little new to this, but recruits like them and our current players think they're great.
"So if our recruits and our players like them, I like them."