In the 125 years of Penn State football, only two things have never changed: the number of players on the field during a game and no names on the uniforms.

The stipulation that teams were to field 11 players was one of the rules of college football crafted by the legendary Walter Camp in 1880, seven years before Penn State's first team ran onto the field in Lewisburg, Pa., on Nov. 12, 1887. Numbers and names on uniforms came decades later.

Every other aspect of Penn State's uniforms has changed often in the intervening years, starting with the original pink and black colors of that pioneering team, right up to the new, revised style of the jersey the 2011 team will debut at its first game Labor Day weekend.

For the first time in 31 years, the Nittany Lion jerseys will no longer have any striping on the sleeves and collar. Eliminating the stripes may not seem significant to the majority of fans, who might not have even noticed the changes if they had not been highly promoted by the Penn State athletic department and hyped by the media. But this is just the latest tweaking of the Penn State uniforms that are famous in college football for their plain and simple look. It's a seemingly imperceptible alteration of the jersey but a major milestone in the historical transition of the Penn State uniform from gaudy pink jerseys and small black caps with tassels to unpretentious blue or white jerseys and white helmets.

The "jersey" the 1887 squad wore was similar to the one designed in 1877 by Princeton football player L.P. Smock, who is recognized as the creator of the first football uniform. The jersey was really a tightly laced canvas jacket. The Penn State players ordered their pink jackets from a State College tailor and had him add the initials PSC FB (for Penn State College Foot-Ball) in black across the chest. The players also purchased Canton flannel pants and long black stockings. As for shoes, it's difficult to tell what they wore based on the team photo and from another action photo taken during the late 1890s of a practice at Old Beaver Field. However, the shoes appear to be either black or a dark brown, probably typical of those worn for outdoor activities in that era.

Later, the players would deny they chose pink uniforms, claiming the color was really cerise - a deep, purplish red - that faded to pink in the sunlight and after being washed several times. But pink was a popular color at the time. The new monthly student newspaper, The Free Lance, reported in its October issue, a few weeks before that first game at Bucknell, that the student body had recently voted unanimously to adopt dark pink and black as the college colors.

Furthermore, in March 1888, The Free Lance noted that the school baseball team would have new uniforms consisting of "a cap of the college colors, a black jersey, a pink belt, white pants and black stockings." With exposure to sunlight and soap suds, the pink faded to white, and the black color took on a blue tint. In March 1890, the college colors were officially changed to blue and white, but the disconcerting pink and black legacy lives on.

Seven years later, Leroy Scholl, a bruising 6-foot, 193-pound left tackle from Williamsport with the unusual nickname of Henny, introduced the first helmet in his second season. Scholl, who sometimes used a blackjack in games, is one of the most fascinating characters in Penn State's football history. Because of the loose eligibility rules of that generation, Henny became the school's all-time winningest football letterman, playing six years from 1896-1901

It's not known if Scholl had seen the leather helmet worn the previous year by Lafayette's George Barclay, who is credited with inventing the sport's first piece of protective headgear in 1896. Scholl's helmet was an old brown derby. He simply cut off the brim and stuffed padding inside the hat. When his teammates saw his "helmet," some of them went to a local shoemaker and asked him to make one for them. The shoemaker sewed two leather pads on the top of the derby to protect the ears and then added straps to the protectors so the players could tie them together under their chins.

In the years that followed, better-made leather helmets began appearing, although some players declined to wear them. It was not until 1939 that the NCAA required all players to wear helmets. By that season, the basic football helmet was a sturdy, tight-fitting piece of heavy leather headgear that protected everything but the face. Nose guards and face masks did not come into vogue until the 1950s, although in previous decades there were isolated appearances of homemade nose guards and face masks - such as the heavy, metal nose guard worn by 1922 All-America guard Joe Bedenk, which resembled the mask of the infamous movie villain Hannibal Lecter.

Another milestone in Penn State's uniform legacy had been reached two years earlier, in 1937, when the brown leather helmets that had been in use for more than 30 years were dumped in favor of white- or cream-colored helmets, which had been used occasionally in previous years.

The plastic helmet of today was originally designed in 1939 by the owners of the Riddell Sports Goods Co. in Chicago. But it wasn't until the late 1940s and early 1950s that leather helmets began to fall into disuse. The last season Penn State used leather helmets was 1948. The next season, the helmet was plastic. And for the first time, the Lion helmet had a blue stripe down the middle - a watershed innovation that has continued without interruption.

The blue stripe on the white pants is another matter. That stripe first appeared in 1951, Rip Engle's second season as head coach. It was Engle's first opportunity to change the uniform, and not only were stripes added to the pants that season, but large blue stripes were added around the arms of the then-long-sleeved white jersey. Yet there were no white stripes on the blue jerseys in 1951.

Here is where the details begin to get complicated. For nearly two decades, there were stripes on the pants, blue jerseys and white jerseys, but the style changed numerous times, sometimes from season to season.

Of course, long before 1951, the jersey and pants worn by Penn State players had changed drastically from the days of blackjack Henny Scholl. One can see the alterations through the years in the black and white photographs of the Penn State yearbook, LaVie. Until the late 1920s, the jerseys and pants were dark-colored with no visible traces of white, and although the jersey may have been blue, it's unlikely the pants were.

The canvas jackets of 1887 morphed into normal sweater-type jerseys without padding in the early1900s and into padded jerseys and pants in the 1920s. The first shoulder pad was produced for football in 1902, but it provided little protection, and true shoulder pads worn under jerseys didn't come along for years. In some of the photos from the early 1920s, the padding at the hips and knees is quite visible in the pants but barely noticeable underneath the jersey. Eventually more specialty padding was added to the uniforms, first as exterior inserts and later as equipment worn underneath the jerseys.

One piece of the uniform seemed to be consistent: the shoes. Shoes from 1920 and 1937 are on display in the Penn State All-Sports Museum, and they are similar in style to the shoes of the modern era. Both shoes are black and were made by the Spalding Sporting Goods Company. The 1920 shoe has wooden cleats and black laces, while the 1937 shoe has rubber cleats and white laces.

A seismic change in Penn State's uniforms occurred in the 1928 season when Hugo Bezdek, the head coach since 1918, added an unusually heavy dose of white to the blue jersey. There was a white stripe of about six inches all around the middle of the jersey - front, side and back - underneath the armpits, and another large white stripe covering the shoulders, stretching from a few inches below one arm to the other arm. He apparently also added a white leather helmet to go with the brown helmet. Bezdek must have angered the fabled Princess Nita-nee - the legendary namesake of the Nittany Lions - because that team had the school's first losing season since 1913, finishing 3-5-1.

The next season, Bezdek's last as coach before he moved full-time to athletic administration, the all-white jersey was introduced as an alternative in some games to the white-striped blue jersey. That was the first time players wore their white jerseys for the yearbook's team photo, and once again Penn State had a winning season (6-3). But the color of the uniforms had nothing to do with the fact that the Lions didn't have another winning season again until 1937; that was a period in which athletics were de-emphasized and scholarships eliminated.

However, it was during this time that the traditional look of Penn State's uniforms took hold. White and blue jerseys and white and dark leather helmets became interchangeable depending on the game, and in 1932 the blue jerseys were used for all home games and white jerseys for away games. But Penn State did not always keep to that home-away standard, and white jerseys for away games did not become the rule in college football until 1983. In 1937, the Penn State uniform took on a new, standardized look with the white- or cream-colored helmet and pants and the blue and white jerseys and black shoes. That has remained the style ever since.

The first year that numbers appeared on jerseys was 1908, based on yearbook photos of the games at Penn and Pitt. That would make sense, since historians credit Pitt and Washington & Jefferson with introducing jersey numbers that season. But the usage of numbers was not consistent at Penn State or throughout college football until 1916, when the NCAA required numbers on the back of jerseys. Twenty-one years later, numbers also were mandated for the front of jerseys. The size of the numbers is now regulated; they must be at least eight inches on the front and 10 inches on the back.

There's no such rule for displaying numbers on jersey sleeves or helmets. However, in 1957 Penn State started using numbers on helmets. They were dropped in 1962, added again in 1966, Paterno's first year as head coach, and then eliminated for good at the end of the 1974 season. Meanwhile, the Lions added large numbers to the sleeves in 1961. Numbers have been on the sleeves ever since, although in various sizes until 1983, when the size was set by the NCAA at four inches.

"We call that the 'TV number,' " Penn State equipment coordinator Brad Caldwell said. "The name goes back to the 1960s when TV was broadcasting more games and it was grainy and hard to see. Many high-profile teams started putting numbers on helmets so the announcers and the people watching could identify the players. Around 1969 or '70, someone in college football - I'm not sure who - decided to move the number to the jersey sleeve, and teams started taking the numbers off the helmets."

By 1975, the Lions' uniforms had evolved into the no-frills ensemble - blue or white jersey, white pants and white helmet - that is now emblematic of Penn State. When the white and blue trim on the sleeves and collar suddenly appeared in 1980, it was not a big deal to fans and media because it was added in a subtle way.

Not even Caldwell knew the details until Guido D'Elia, Penn State's director of communications and branding, approached him late last fall about removing the stripes from the uniforms. Caldwell has been associated with the team since his freshman year of 1983, when he was an assistant manager. Three years later, Caldwell was the head manager of the 1986 national championship team, and he joined the football staff full-time upon graduation. He was promoted to equipment manager in 2001 after Tim Shope retired.

"All I ever knew was the white collar, white trim on the sleeve," Caldwell said. "So I began to look into the history. I called Shope but he couldn't remember. Then a manager from that era who heard we were changing jerseys called me and said he remembered. He said we were switching [manufacturers] to Russell that year, and Russell was having trouble matching the color from the material on the sleeve with the body of the jersey. The color was different, and the blues did not match. Russell called and asked permission to put blue on white and white on blue."

The manager's story jogged Shope's memory. "That's the way it happened," he said. "I went to Joe Paterno and we talked about it, I think with some coaches."

Paterno gave his approval to add the stripes, but he decided to surprise the players and use the new jerseys as a psychological ploy for the big intersectional game at Texas A&M in the second week of the season. So, when the team opened the 1980 season against Colgate, game photos show the players wearing the blue home jerseys from the previous season. The next week at Texas A&M, they were in the new road white jerseys. A person close to the football team at the time who does not want his name used picks up the narrative.

"There was a rumor, gossip that probably came from the managers, that Joe got new uniforms, and he was going to surprise them [in the dressing room] at A&M, that when [the players] came in after warm-ups, they were going to be hanging in their locker. Around that time, some of the players, like Leo Wisnewski and Chet Parlavecchio, had been kidding Joe about how plain the uniforms were. So now the players got fired up. No one knew what [the new uniforms] looked like. Everybody's thinking 'We're going to have names on the jerseys and be fancy and all that.'

"And the team goes out to A&M, went out on the field, warmed up, came in, saw the [white away game] jerseys, and the reaction was underwhelming. There was this little blue trim on the neck and the sleeve and that was it. It just made everybody laugh because you could hardly notice it. But to Joe that was a major [move]. He had just fancied them up."

Paterno's ploy worked, as Penn State won, 25-9. There's a photo from that A&M game on the front page of the Alumni Association's weekly Football Letter that clearly shows the blue stripe on the sleeve of the white jerseys worn by defensive linemen Frank Case, Pete Kugler and Larry Kubin, but not the stripe at the neck.

"The trim was only a quarter-inch wide," Caldwell said. "Back then, a lot of guys used big [protective] neck rolls, and the rolls laid over the collar trim and you didn't really see the trim. Sometimes, you couldn't see the sleeve trim because the guys would take and roll their jersey sleeves up and tuck them underneath with tape. You really couldn't see the stripe very well, and nobody really noticed."

Yet, in other photos from 1980 and subsequent years, the trim on the jerseys is quite noticeable, especially the white on the blue sleeves. Although the trim continued to expand over the years - with a big white collar, nicknamed the "halo" in 1993 - it probably wasn't until Nike's trademark swoosh was placed on the chest of the jerseys in 1994 that the uniforms became the topic of so much banter.

"In 1988, we changed to a different company, Champion, and their trim was a half-inch wide on the collar and sleeve," Caldwell said. "Then in 1993, we go with Nike, the first year they made apparel, and their trim is one inch wide, and now we have this big, gaudy halo." The NCAA has since decreed that "a border [or stripe] not more than 1 inch wide around the collar and cuffs" is permitted on jerseys.

Then there is the manufacturer's trademark. The Nike swoosh, which appeared inside a box in 1993, could not be seen because Nike had followed the style of the previous Russell and Champion jerseys and not placed the trademark on the chest. Russell's "R" insignia had been on a tag down low, and Champion's "C" symbol was on the lower sleeve but very small, like the first Nike box trademark.

"When the Nike swoosh without the box went on the chest in 1994, it became a controversy," Caldwell said with a laugh. "People said Nike was defacing the jersey, but they didn't realize the other companies had put their trademark on the jerseys. Nike just strategically placed it where you see it the most. What I remember most is [sportscaster] Keith Jackson's comment on television. They were talking about corporate sponsorships taking over the bowl games and some of the schools, and Jackson said something like 'Who ever dreamed that Penn State would have that check on their jersey? That's like the Mona Lisa having a moustache.'"

The NCAA now prohibits jersey trademarks from exceeding 2.25 inches, and that rule also applies to other apparel, such as "warm-ups, socks, headbands, T-shirts, wristbands, visors, hats or gloves."

The swoosh has had company on Penn State jerseys at every postseason bowl game since the 1999 Alamo Bowl, when contractual obligations forced teams to use the bowl sponsor's official patch, too. That logo, like other insignias representing schools, conferences and even the American flag, "must not exceed 16 square inches" according to the NCAA.

Paterno may not like the Nike swoosh or bowl logos desecrating the purity of Penn State's uniform, but he has become accustomed to it. Which brings us back to this year's trimless jerseys. D'Elia had wanted to get rid of the trim almost from the day he became the team's director of communications and branding in 2004.

"It all started when I visited Nike back then and told them we didn't like the stripes," D'Elia recalled. "They were trying to get us to go with more upgrades, more accents, and we told them we wanted to shorten the collar and sleeve stripes because it keeps getting bigger every year. I asked Joe, and he said if it was up to him he would get rid of both the stripes."

Nike had problems eliminating the stripes because of fabric- and color-matching problems. So the idea was dropped and the stripes were kept. When D'Elia learned last year that Nike had resolved the fabric problem, he approved the elimination of the stripes altogether.

"Nike has 60 or 70 schools with that same offsetting trim," D'Elia said, "and we're not like everyone else. The fact that we don't have trim where everyone else does explains our brand even better. We're simple, we're bold. Our play [on the field] speaks for itself. It doesn't have to be the jersey."