If you ask most Earthquakes fans what color they associate with the team, they’ll tell you it’s blue. That was the dominant hue in the club’s uniforms from 2000 to 2005. The image of Jeff Agoos twice lifting the MLS Cup in a blue shirt with black piping is one that we all remember fondly.
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There have also been other colors associated with the team. We’ll discount the bizarre uniforms of the Clash years right away, even though the team’s name really made sense when you saw the white, celery green, red, forest green, black, and sky blue on the shirts they wore — talk about clashing colors! No, the other color associated with the Earthquakes came right at the beginning in 1974, when Milan Mandaric founded the side as an expansion team in the old NASL. It was red — red shirts, red shorts, and red socks.
As the first professional sports team in San Jose, the Earthquakes were readily embraced by the local community. Playing in San Jose State University’s Spartan Stadium, the fledgling Earthquakes averaged 16,576, leading the league in attendance and setting a new record in the process. Striker Paul Child won the Golden Boot with 15 goals and six assists that year. It was a great start all the way around.
[inline_node:10190]In subsequent years, some of the most famous names in world soccer wore the red of the Earthquakes. Dutchman Guus Hiddink played for San Jose in 1980, and has since gone on to a remarkable career as a manager. He won the European Cup with PSV Eindhoven in 1988 and has also helmed Real Madrid and Chelsea. On an international level, he has coached both Holland and South Korea to the World Cup semifinals and currently manages Turkey.
Jimmy “Jinky” Johnstone, a European Cup winner as part of Celtic’s “Lisbon Lions” team in 1967, and voted that side’s best ever player in 2002, donned Earthquakes red in 1975. A statue of him was erected outside Celtic Park in 2008.
The best player to wear those red shirts, though, was Best — literally. George Best, the former Manchester United star whom Pelé himself once called, “the greatest footballer in the world,” wore the red of the Quakes in 1980 and 1981. Best scored the greatest goal of his career here, and the team honored him this year by renaming one of the entrances to Buck Shaw Stadium the “George Best Gate.”
There are still a lot of people in the stands at Buck Shaw Stadium who recall the adventures of those red-clad Earthquakes. Mike Turco, a long-time Season Ticket Holder who also served the local soccer community as one of the founders of Soccer Silicon Valley, remembers watching those teams as a kid.
“Growing up in the South Bay, the thing that always struck me about the Quakes was their connection to the kids in the community,” Turco said. “My friends and I used to ride our bikes to player appearances and win tickets, soccer balls, merchandise, or whatever they were giving away. In fact, I remember taking a free kick into the hatchback of a VW at a car dealership in Sunnyvale and winning an autographed ball.”
Those old-school shirts mean a lot to Turco as well. “For me, the red jerseys are a reminder of the accessibility of professional soccer players in the US and their ability to be tangible role models for kids. It's unique in professional sports.”
So, while the current era of Earthquakes is through-and-through blue, their heritage is bright red.
Honor our past. Be our future.
