The Best (And Worst) UTEP Football Uniforms We’ve Seen

In spirit of UTEP equipment releasing their new football uniforms in the coming days, it’s a good time to relive the past uniforms and see what the best Orange and Blue gear was. From the grueling '60s, to the beautiful '80s helmets, to now, UTEP football has had some sweet uniforms and some not-so-great looks.

The Upcoming Uniforms

This was the initial tweet from UTEP equipment to tease their newest batch of uniforms. Fans were concerned initially about the different shades of orange, but UTEP equipment reassured it would be a single orange.

Earlier last week, they teased this:

UTEP’s uniforms seem to be having three separate uniform color combinations, sort of like last season where they wore all white, an orange combo and a matte navy blue selection. The staff will be releasing the official uniforms on Wednesday.

Let’s Forget the ‘60s

Texas Western (at the time) used some Kansas City Chiefs-looking uniforms in the 1960s. These uniforms didn’t even look orange from the photo above. They appear red-orange at best. Why haven’t we seen these uniforms resurface at any point? Probably because the grotesque red is nowhere near the university’s colors.

Disco Died, So Let These Bury With It (‘70s)

Remember when the Miners spent an abysmal decade of the ‘70s, going 23-87? If you lived through the ‘70s as a Miner football fan, I have the utmost respect for you. You stuck by your team through its worst times, with its lone winning season being in 1970, when UTEP went 6-4.

Not to mention, Miner fans had to endure some gross uniforms. The helmet spelled “UT” on its side in navy blue with a single white stripe. The jerseys themselves weren’t awful, but look plain and tacky. 

Retro ‘80s Miners

The Paydirt Pete logo from the 1980s was simply hilarious and still remains a fan favorite. The Disney-looking Paydirt Pete logo was on every helmet for the Miners in the ‘80s, which involved years of resurgence for the team. UTEP was coincidently coached by former Athletic Director Bob Stull during the ‘80s, who helped turn them into a respectable group.
These uniforms were special because of the true orange colors on the jerseys contrasted by the baby blue color, which was later replaced by true navy blue. The all white jerseys with a hint of orange and blue, accompanied by the hilarious logo made for a great combo.

In 2014, UTEP brought the jerseys back to commemorate their centennial year, which they wore throughout the season and gave the uniform combo a modern look.

Not Stuck in the ‘90s

If you’re a fan of the Miners’ pickaxe, you might think of the new age UTEP axe. You might not want to remember the ‘90s UTEP football helmet pickaxe, which looked like a poorly drawn clip art version of a pickaxe. The ‘90s at UTEP were all about basketball, which is understandable to see the UTEP football uniforms take the back seat. Under head coaches David Lee and Charlie Bailey, the Miners didn’t put together a winning season throughout the ‘90s (28-84).

The Price Was Right (2000s)

Under head coach Mike Price, the program not only saw a revitalization, but also some good uniform combinations. During this period, UTEP truly mixed orange, blue and white, mixing their top with bottoms almost each game. This was also the period where UTEP utilized the pickaxe in the “T”, which is close to the logo that we know nowadays.

Stormtrooper White

Last year the Miners debuted a brilliant stormtrooper white that looked as good as any Miner uniform has been. It was a pure white uniform with blue streaks and a nice navy blue gradient touch. The sole pickaxe helmet was icing on the cake.

Refreshing Matte Blue

Going with the stormtrooper all white uniforms came the clean matte blue uniforms. UTEP football hadn’t debuted a true navy blue uniform color with a soft matte helmet like this in year’s past, but these are key uniforms to note. They had a really fine touch with the orange around the arms as well.

The Miners were 0-12 in 2017, but were 2-0 in new uniforms.