Been doing a bit of research over the off-season - I wasn't a fan in 1990/91, but reading this I didn't know that the shedding of the brown and white that was soon after the 1990 grand final...
PENRITH AT LAST LOOK LIKE REAL PANTHERS - LEAGUE
September 27, 1990 | Sydney Morning Herald, The (Australia)
Author: COL ALLISON
After 23 years, the PenrithPanthers have given their drab brown and white colours the boot to boost the club's share of the $50-million-a-year Rugby League products' merchandising cake.
The team will run on to the field next year wearing black shorts and either a black or white jersey trimmed with red, green and gold.
Though this will drop-kick the unmerciful "Chocolate Soldiers" tag, already some cynics have nicknamed the new-look team the "Licorice Allsorts".
The new colours were unveiled at Penrith Leagues Club yesterday when the media was treated to a parade by surprisingly jovial players, still bruised and battered from last Sunday's battle with the Canberra Raiders.
Showing off their new uniforms and walking-out gear were four Kangaroo tourists-Greg Alexander ("Yeah, I was disappointed with the way the ball bounced on Sunday; it cost us the game"), Brad Fittler, the "terror twins"Mark Geyer and John Cartwright, backed up by Col Bentley and Brad Izzard.
The chief executive of the Penrith Rugby League Club, Roger Cowan, said that few mourned the passing of the brown and white.
It was strange, he said, that Penrith ever played in those unpopular colours. In the second division competition the team wore blue and white, while Cronulla decked out in brown and gold.
But Cronulla got in first and asked for blue for its first grade.
Cowan said the growth of merchandise marketing in the past decade under the Rugby League administration had made the change necessary.
He said: "Because of the unwillingness of manufacturers to develop and market products in the unfashionable brown and white accommodation, Panthers'percentage of the $50 million growth sector was falling behind ... in some products, Panthers' merchandising sold only 30 per cent of figures achieved by other clubs.
"Test marketing of the basic black colour achieved a dramatic reversal of that trend."
If money and marketing were the motives for change, tradition and patriotism were the inspiration of the new team colours.
"Our first principle was to match up with the colour image of black for Panthers," Cowan said. "Then the white of the teeth and red tongue of our ferocious Panther logo was added with the patriotic touch of the green and gold of Australia."
If the blend sounds like the result of a bomb in a Smarties' factory, just about everyone present agreed the result was quite pleasing.
Coach Phil Gould, when asked to comment on the "Licorice Allsorts" remarks, grumbled, "I don't think they'll be mocking us for very long. We're goin' to win next year."
Brad Izzard thought the new colours looked terrific, while Alexander-presented last night with the Panthers' major award for first-grade player of the year-said the new colours would give the team fresh inspiration
Perhaps the ultimate test for the colours was to run them past Panther fan Graham Shirley, who cut short an 18-month European holiday to fly home last Friday to watch the match on TV. "I don't give a bugger if they run out stark naked next year, just as long as they bloody well win," he said.
Caption:
Illus: Chocolate soldiers laid to rest ... Penrith stars John Cartwright, left, Brad Izzard, Brad Fittler, Mark Geyer, Col Bentley and Greg Alexander display the new uniform. Picture by TROY HOWE
----
Found this on a news archive site, but just text - no photo unfortunately.
