MADISON, Wis. – As his players took to social media in November to debut its black alternative jerseys, head coach Greg Gard felt his phone continue to buzz. On it were text messages from multiple high school recruits commenting on how fresh and eyepopping the University of Wisconsin’s new jerseys looked.

“We’re in a world where image and perspective is important,” Gard said. “(The recruits) were all over it. That’s a piece of it, that’s not the driving piece behind it, but it’s an important piece.”

Wisconsin will have its long-awaited debut of the first black alternative jerseys in program history tonight in its Big Ten conference contest against Penn State (12-5, 3-3), a new look that can hopefully reverse the Badgers’ recent misfortunate of three straight losses.

The good news started trickling out Monday that senior Tyler Wahl returned to practice on a limited basis from the ankle injury he suffered on January 3 against Minnesota. He remains listed as day-to-day.

The return of Wahl would be fitting considering the senior had his hand firmly involved in the design process with Under Armour.

The Badgers have had player-designed alternate jerseys for the last three seasons. One was a cream color with cursive lettering on the front and a red ‘W’ encased in a red circle on the hip. The other was white with UW in large type, but neither strayed far from the traditional color pallet.

Black jerseys were considered taboo by the administration, but the basketball program has successfully lobbied for the university crest above the player’s name on the back of the jersey to be changed to black. That happened during the 2020-21 season in a showing of solidarity with Black and other underrepresented communities on campus. Players also wore a black warmup shirt during the season that had the black W crest on the front and the word unity on the back.

This year’s alternates are an extension of that, as the black uniforms feature gold pinstripes that contain the words "EQUALITY, UNITY, WISCONSIN FORWARD" within the stripes.

“They are super dope,” forward Steven Crowl said. “I love them. I don’t think we’ve ever had a black jersey here, so it’ll be super cool to wear that out there … I’m super excited to wear them and, hopefully, get a win in them.”

UW was supposed to debut the jerseys against Grambling to celebrate the HBCUs, but the game was canceled because of a winter storm. Debuting the jerseys fit in with Wisconsin Athletics’ Week of Service to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. is a fitting substitute.

“I love it, and there’s nothing I don’t like about it,” Gard said. “I think I’ve always tried to allow our players, when alternative uniforms be a possibly and a reality, to design them. We’ve had a variety of ones over the last few years, but to be able to go to a black uniform, I think, is appropriate. Quite frankly, it’s probably overdue.”

“When you can have an appropriate and properly designed uniform that’s correctly used, there’s a lot of good things from it. I don’t see anything negative. I see all positives.”

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