Back in Black... but literally? Trippi chimes in.

Last week I saw something on the Intertubes about Georgia wearing black jerseys for the 1943 Rose Bowl.

Yes, Georgia once played in the Rose Bowl. Beat UCLA 9-0 to cap a National Championship season.

But then I saw Dan Magill, who knows everything worth knowing about University of Georgia athletics, quoted as saying he didn't think the team had worn black jerseys as far back as the 1940s.

Now these pictures have surfaced, courtesy of David Ching and one of his readers. That's Frank Sinkwich, Flatfoot Frankie, Frankie the Fireball, Georgia's first Heisman winner... in a black jersey.

Of course, as Ching notes, there's no way to know from the picture whether the team wore those jerseys in a game or if Sinkwich donned the jersey for the photo.

So I called Charley Trippi, who starred in the 1942 backfield with Sinkwich, then went to World War II, then came home and led the Dawgs to an 11-0 season in 1946. He played in that Rose Bowl and lives in Athens.

"I don't remember ever wearing the black jersey. ..." Trippi said. "To my knowledge we always wore red jerseys and silver britches."

That includes the Rose Bowl, Trippi said. As for the picture of Sinkwich:

"It could have been his freshman year (when Trippi was still in high school)," Trippi said. "I'm not sure. Or maybe he did it for a picture."

The mystery continues.