The Bucs are set to celebrate their 50th season in 2025, and there’s undoubtedly going to be a variety of ways the team will honor its history leading up to the fall and throughout the season itself.
As the franchise honors its roots, could we see the return of the original uniform the team donned in 1976?
White/Creamsicle version of Bucs’ 50th season logo (h/t SportsLogos.net)
Andrew Lind over at SportsLogos.net recently caught on to this possibility, which came about thanks to a since-deleted Instagram post from Allan Peters, who designed the Bucs’ 50th season logo.
The Bucs unveiled the red and pewter version of that logo in a hype video following Super Bowl LIX in February, but an alternate throwback version of the logo was captured before it was deleted from Instagram, and with it, there was a white jersey that featured creamsicle numbers and a red trim.
As Lind points out, that version of the old white jersey was only worn during Tampa Bay’s inaugural 1976 season, so it would be rather fitting to see it return as the franchise celebrates 50 years.
Following the 1976 season, the team switched to a white jersey with red numbers that had an orange outline. That was the only white jersey the Bucs ever wore with the creamsicle pants, so if the original white jersey does make a comeback in 2025, the team would likely still wear the white throwback pants it has been wearing for the creamsicle games in 2023 and 2024.
Would The Original White Jersey Replace The Bucs’ Pewter Alternate?
Bucs WR Mike Evans – Photo by: USA Today
As Lind writes, it’s been five years since the Bucs revamped their uniform set, as they did so in 2020. Because it’s been five years, Lind pointed out that the team would be able to ditch its all-pewter look. Pewter Report recently wrote about Bucs fans’ desire to see the pewter jerseys again after the team didn’t wear them at all in 2024.
In fact, the team only broke out the all-pewter look once per year from 2021-2023 after wearing it three times in 2020. Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds suggested in a recent Bucs Mailbag that the pewter jerseys have been de-emphasized as an alternate in favor of the recently reintroduced creamsicle throwbacks.
Lind took it a step further in his story, suggesting that the pewter jerseys could have been phased out to usher in this white throwback jersey. Here’s more:
“Teams are only permitted to have four jerseys at their disposal, and since the Buccaneers are required to keep the home version of their creamsicle throwback uniforms for at least three more seasons, this is the only path for them to add a white road version.”
So, could the Bucs be out on the pewter alternates, leaving them with red, white, creamsicle and white throwbacks as their four jerseys?
Would The Bucs Wear Their White Throwbacks On The Road?
Former Bucs QB Steve Spurrier – Photo by: USA Today
If the Bucs are set to unveil a white version of their throwbacks, would they be doing so for a road game in 2025? While they certainly could wear them away from Raymond James Stadium and it would set up the possibility for some awesome throwback-on-throwback matchups, the team very well could wear the all-white throwback look for a home game as part of the celebration of its 50th season.
When these jerseys were in existence for the inaugural 1976 season, the Bucs wore them for every game, going with an all-white look throughout the whole regular season. The team infamously went 0-14 that season, but history is history and if Tampa Bay wants to honor its first-ever team at one of its eight home games, that would obviously fit well with the theme of the season.
With the popularity of the creamsicle look and the success (in a commercial sense) of the two creamsicle games in the last two seasons, the Bucs could realistically go all-in and do two throwback games at home to celebrate their 50th season, with one game featuring the original white jerseys to commemorate the inaugural season and the other game being set aside for the orange jerseys.
This becomes an even more realistic idea when you consider how much the team likes to wear white jerseys at home early in the season. The Bucs haven’t been breaking out the red jerseys at home until December in recent years, and it’s not a stretch to believe the commitment to wearing white on the hotter early-season days is perhaps why the all-pewter look has gone by the wayside, too.
Maybe the Bucs believe a white throwback can break things up and give the fans some variation (and nostalgia) to enjoy as the franchise honors its humble roots.
What do you think, Pewter People? Would you like to see two throwback games as part of the Bucs’ 50th season in 2025?