Tom Fitzgerald served as the first captain of the newly minted Nashville Predators in their early seasons.
As the club prepared to unveil it’s very first alternate jersey, Fitzgerald is presumed to have worn this prototype jersey for team photo shoots prior to the puck dropping on the 2001-2002 season.
These prototypes featured very unique lettering and numbering that evoked the sabertooth fangs that are so prominent on the crest of the mustard jerseys. They were done in the same glacial twill as the eventual alternate kits, however they were heavily emphasizing bone white instead of navy blue.
The Nashville Predators in a 2001-2002 team photo where all of the players are wearing this uniquely styled prototype. You can see Fitzgerald’s unique “C”, the unique “A" on Johnson and Ronning, and the unique white numbering style on all of the players pictured.
Ultimately the Preds choose to go in a different direction with the mustard alternates, featuring a more traditional Predators font for the lettering and numbering and reversing the colors so that the numbers were navy blue outlined with white instead of white outlined with navy blue.
The details of why the change was made are currently unknown, but some details about this jersey have emerged thanks to the collector who discovered it originally.
Another team photo from 2001-2002 of the Nashville Predators that shows a little more detail on the lettering and numbering on a variety of players, including Tom Fitzgerald’s captain’s jersey.
Preds and Threads owner Daniel Rogers was the person who originally discovered this jersey on eBay for sale from a thrift shop who had discovered the jersey on a rack in a Salvation Army in Santa Monica, CA.
Most of the information here was uncovered by Daniel and I simply purchased the jersey off of him to keep it in the Preds family.
Comparison of the “C” on Fitzgerald’s jersey in the second team photo and the “C” on the jersey in hand.
Quoting Mr. Rogers directly: “In the game-worn jersey collecting hobby, patch location is one way in which a jersey can be traced to the dates it was used. Here, the location of the body seam on the captain's patch is a dead-on match to the patch on the jersey in my possession.
Without a higher quality original photo, it's difficult to determine the unique stitching signatures that would 100% confirm a match.”
The captain’s “C” does appear to line up, however, and there is some further evidence that this may have been Fitzgerald’s original mustard jersey.
Comparison of the creases or seams in the collar of this Fitzgerald jersey with the one worn in the team photos.
Again quoting Preds and Threads, “Two distinct creases can be found on the collar of Fitzgerald's jersey in the team photo. Consequently, two distinct creases can be seen in roughly the same places on the collar of the jersey in my possession.”
A comparison of the size and tagging on this prototype versus the sizes in Fitzgerald’s typical game worn jerseys.
Regarding the sizing on Fitzgerald’s jerseys, Preds and Threads says: “Not only does the size 54 match other game worn jerseys of Tom Fitzgerald, but also fits the tag design for CCM/Koho on ice jerseys of the era.
Additionally, this kind of tagging will not be found on any retail style of Koho 'Mustard Style' third jersey. Both replica and authentic jerseys will carry a large manufacturer branding tag on the inside of the collar. This jersey was, at the very least, an exact on-ice spec Koho Third Jersey issued to the Nashville Predators for customization and preparation for player use.”
Fitzgerald did wear some size 56 jerseys as well. At least once in the inaugural season and also with the Colorado Avalanche. In general, however, most of his jerseys that I’ve owned or seen in other collections are size 54 and line up with the size of this prototype.
A side-by-side comparison of the Fitzgerald prototype with one of Scott Hartnell’s game worn mustard gamers.
When you put the actual mustard alternates side-by-side with the prototype, you can see that the unique glacial twill customization was present from the very beginning.
The style of the lettering and numbering changed, and the colors ended up reversed, but the team seemed to feel like they had something with the glacial twill and I would have to agree.
With no confirmation from the Predators regarding this prototype and why the changes were made, we are left with what we can glean from photos and comparisons found on posters and the internet.
However, it does seem a certainty that this is indeed one of the original prototypes and it appears to line up quite well with the photos of Fitz and his first mustard jersey from those promotional shots.