UCF unveiled its long-awaited Mission VI uniforms Tuesday night, boldly going where no college football team has gone before — into the “vast wasteland of deep space.”
This is the inspiration for the color and theme of Into the Darkness. Canaveral’s blue numbers, indicating the transit method for exoplanet detection, and the words “SPACEU” contrast with the black jerseys. The Knights (4-1) — unofficially known as the Citronauts this week — will wear those threads Thursday against Temple (2-3) at 7 p.m.
Head coach Gus Malzahn said he took a look at the uniform over the weekend. Defensive end John Reece Plumlee and defensive lineman Anthony Montalvo just took a photo of the jersey before Tuesday night’s presentation via social media.
“They look good to me,” Malzahn said. “I’m kind of boring and all. So if I like it, it’s probably pretty cool.”
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UCF uniform pants in honor of the Spitzer Space Telescope
Instead of the Citronaut logo on the uniform pants, it’s replaced with a mission patch that includes the Spitzer Space Telescope — used in 2012 to identify the exoplanets UCF 1.01 and 1.02 — and six Polaris stars, one for each game to date.
UCF’s newest helmet is painted anodized black, the darkest shade in program history. The patches will include a stripe, one for each “mission” (space game) the player has participated in, while the composite UCF logo is colored in a gradient style, from black in the upper left corner to Canaveral blue in the lower right corner.
UCF began its Space Games tradition in 2017, acknowledging its Florida Tech roots. The school was founded in 1963 with the mission of providing personnel to support the growing US space program at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
In fact, FBC Mortgage Stadium’s 50-yard line lines up at the same latitude as NASA’s historic Launch Complex 39A. This is the launch pad that sent men to the moon and launched most of the space shuttle missions.
UCF claims to be the best university in the country for placing graduates in jobs in the aerospace industry. As the academic scope expanded beyond the original focus on engineering and technology, the school was renamed the University of Central Florida in 1978.
The Knights — or Citronauts, as they’re known during space games — have a 5-0 all-time record in such events. UCF defeated Temple in a shootout 52-40 during the 2018 tournament en route to its second straight undefeated regular season.