This Team May Never Show Its True Colors

There is a color controversy involving Oregon, and this one has nothing to do with the color of money. It’s about the color of the school’s football uniforms.

The Ducks, thanks to Nike’s design team, have an array of nine different looks. For their season opener at Mississippi State, they wore yellow uniforms with green trim.

“Ear wax” was how one letter writer to the Portland Oregonian described the shade of yellow. “Smoker’s teeth,” said another.

For their game at Arizona on Saturday night, the Ducks sported all-white uniforms, with a small green “OREGON” printed on the shoulders. It was a lot easier on the eyes.

*

Trivia time: What team won its first five World Series appearances?

*

A different view: Bill Moos, Oregon’s athletic director, told Blaine Newnham of the Seattle Times: “Our uniforms have been showcased in Sports Illustrated and whether the response is positive or negative, it’s about Oregon football.”

*

A different world: Oregon has not always been among the nouveau riche. The Ducks had three decades of bad football, 1960-90.

Former athletic director Bill Byrne, who is now at Texas A&M;, remembers those pre-Nike days.

“In the 1980s,” he told the Eugene Register-Guard, “I personally went around to hotels begging for used towels so we wouldn’t have to buy new ones for the athletes to use.”

*

Color commentators: One thing that added color to the Oregon sideline Saturday night was TBS reporter Craig Sager, wearing a Hawaiian shirt. And when he removed the shirt, underneath was a yellow Oregon jersey with green trim.

Sager is known for his colorful attire. Of Sager’s outfit Saturday night, TBS studio host Ernie Johnson said, “Sager is setting the standard in sideline wear.”

Johnson’s new sidekick, Brian Bosworth, said it better: “He looks like he fell in a bucket of paint.”

*

Descriptive: Bosworth, who played at Oklahoma, once summed up his dislike for Texas by saying, “I don’t like the color orange. It reminds me of puke.”

*

Clocking Clarett: CBS reported on “The NFL Today” Sunday that Maurice Clarett’s attorney had faxed a letter to the NFL requesting a change in draft eligibility rules so Clarett could enter the NFL draft.

“He’s probably going to be allowed to play in the NFL,” Boomer Esiason said. “After one hit from Ray Lewis, he’s going to wish he would have stayed at Ohio State.”

*

Trivia answer: The Boston Red Sox won in 1903, 1912, 1915, 1916 and 1918. They haven’t won a World Series since.

*

And finally: In the HBO documentary “Curse of the Bambino,” Boston comedian Lenny Clarke recalls what he did when Bill Buckner’s error at first base in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series denied the Red Sox once again.

“I just turned to the bartender and said, ‘Give me everything on the top shelf and put it in a big glass.’ ”

*

Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.