The McCaffery era is an age of novelty, complete with a new coaching staff, new recruits, and transfer athletes who will debut at the Palestra this season. The Quakers’ primary uniforms will reflect the same spirit of change.
With a solid red or white coloring and an arching “Pennsylvania” text across the front, these iconic jerseys evoke a feeling of sophistication and timelessness for Penn men’s basketball. The sleek red and blue striping paired with the bold numbering merges old school tradition with modern confidence that the Quakers can capitalize on for a winning season.
“I think it’s a great-looking jersey,” coach Fran McCaffery said. “Something that we always expect is that we’re going to show up in a classy uniform. I think it’s an example of the history of this program [that] makes the building and the program special.”
The jerseys’ vintage look accompanies Penn men’s basketball’s historic legacy. The Quakers donned similar jerseys in 1979, when they went on a Final Four run and earned an Ivy League title with coach Bob Weinhauer at the helm.
The 1979 team not only topped the Ancient Eight, but also led the Big Five for the seventh time in 10 years. While not many were impressed with Penn’s eighth Ivy League championship in 10 years, no one could have predicted its journey to the top of the NCAA. As the ninth-seeded team in the East, Penn defeated teams like North Carolina — the East’s top seed — and St. John’s, which was coached by NBA Hall of Fame New York Nets coach Lou Carnesecca.
The victory run came to an end in the national semifinal, when the Quakers took on Magic Johnson and his Michigan State national champion team. Weinhauer even told Penn Athletics in 2004 that if the entire team had guarded Johnson, the results would have been the same. Nevertheless, with numerous titles won and dominant teams toppled, the 1979 Quakers and their legacy wearing these threads will never be forgotten.
“When you walk through the main doors of the Hutchinson Gymnasium [towards the Palestra], you can see the big Final Four exhibit. There’s that iconic photo of four players all wearing the old ‘Pennsylvania’ jersey, [so] when you put [the jersey] on, you feel the history. You feel excited [about] how many games have been won in a jersey like that,” junior forward Augustus Gerhart said.
Returning to this style is symbolic of Penn’s deep-rooted ties to the Keystone State as its only Ivy League representative and the custodian of the tradition of playing in the Cathedral of College Basketball.
RELATED:
“I’m born and raised in Pennsylvania,” Gerhart said. “Playing for Penn is really special. … [Philadelphia is] such a storied city to play basketball [in], and so many great players have grown up in this state. To be a part of that, touching that energy, is really special.”
Like Gerhart, the Penn men’s basketball team will carry the weight of history on its shoulders when it takes to the court this season — a feeling senior guard/forward Ethan Roberts described as “unexplainable.”
Although McCaffery himself watched from the bench when the 1979 team rose to the Final Four due to transfer regulations, he nonetheless will bring the victorious spirit of the team to the 2025-26 season. In the following three seasons of his Penn career, McCaffery was a star point guard, leading the Ivy League in assists and steals during his senior year and helping Penn win the Ivy title all three years.
The last time the Quakers sported a solid red version of these jerseys was in 2019, to celebrate the 1979 Final Four team’s 40th anniversary. They went on to sweep the Big Five after an eight-point win over Saint Joseph’s, with program legend AJ Brodeur notching a 20-point performance that night.
Thus, with McCaffery in control, all-star transfers on the sidelines, and monumental history on their chests, the players of Penn men’s basketball has every necessary feature for a standout 2025-26 season to debut the McCaffery era.
RELATED:
