To wipe the gradients off their basketball uniforms, Arizona Wildcats turned back to 1988

It just took them a while to get there.

The push for the new uniforms Arizona revealed Wednesday, which pay tribute to the program’s first Final Four team in 1988, actually began not long after the Wildcats debuted a series of uniforms featuring color gradients in 2016.

Equipment manager Brian Brigger said some UA players liked the gradients, but they never really caught on with fans. The staff of then-coach Sean Miller started looking instead to the past.

“We started this way back in 2018, sent ideas to Nike and they started the process,” Brigger said. “But it was kind of delayed. Some people on the uniform side started working more with the NBA and then the pandemic hit. That was the big thing.”

So the years passed, and so did the coaches. Miller was out in April 2021, and Tommy Lloyd picked up the project upon his hiring later that month. But instead of moving away from the retro idea, Lloyd added yet another element: The Lute Olson-era “Arizona cactus” logo was sewn into the front center of the waistband on the new uniform shorts.

“That was Coach Tommy Lloyd,” Brigger said. “He wanted the cactus logo, and that’s where we found a place for it.”

The new-old uniforms feature the word “Arizona” in a vertically arched font across the chest, absent the pointed fonts of the old jerseys. The shorts feature a large “Block A” on one side and the more vertically stretched “CATS” logo horizontally on the other side.

Nike also kicked in its own contribution to the past. Brigger said Nike came up with the idea to stitch the gold name “LUTE” into the inside of the lower back, though the word cannot be seen on the outside.

“It’s a classic look,” Brigger said. “It kind of resembles 1988 with a little flair from the present.”

The Wildcats unveiled navy and white versions of the new uniforms. They will also wear a red version this season, though Brigger said it has not arrived yet.

The white uniform has navy lettering with red trim and mostly red piping around the sleeve and neck cutouts. The blue uniform has white lettering with red outline and white piping, suggesting that the red uniform will likely have white lettering with a blue outline and white piping.

Although the font is similar to that the Wildcats wore in 1987-88, the red-navy striping is also reminiscent of Gonzaga, where Lloyd spent 20 seasons as an assistant coach before becoming the Wildcats’ head coach.

UA basketball legends Steve Kerr and Sean Elliott, who both starred for the 1987-88 Wildcats, raved about the jerseys during a video of the Wildcats’ roster reveal.

“Oh yeah... old school,” Kerr said. “I remember the first time I put on an Arizona jersey, I was so blown away.”

Both Kerr and Elliott also alluded to the Wildcats’ strong fan support, which reached new levels that year.

“You’re going to ask players who played in that era and they’re gonna tell you the same thing — that we have a lot of pride in wearing that jersey,” Elliott said. “The entire city was behind us and that’s the best part of Arizona basketball.”

Fans can visit ArizonaWildcats.com to sign up for alerts that will be sent when the uniforms are available for sale.