ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – The University of Central Florida on Tuesday unveiled its out-of-this-world uniform design for this year’s Space Game against Temple University.
Presented by Orlando Health Jewett Orthopedic institute, the 2022 UCF Football Space Uniforms honor the university’s ties to NASA and prolong a tradition began in 2017. Still undefeated after five Space Games, the Knights will try to stay on top Thursday, with their new uniforms full of Easter eggs, symbolism, callbacks to previous achievements and a dark side, more literal than not.
[TRENDING: Win four 3-day park hopper passes to Walt Disney World | Become a News 6 Insider]
Dubbed “Mission VI: Into the Darkness,” the uniforms feature the “darkest shade of black ever worn in program history,” according to the team’s exposure site. Players’ helmets will also be black “to emphasize the vase void of deep space,” the website states, adorned with a UCF logo that transitions from a reflective star pattern to Canaveral Blue in color.
Each uniform will have a unique collection of mission patches as well, starting with the main “Mission VI” patch with references to the exoplanet candidates UCF 1.01 and UCF 1.02, discovered by UCF Graduate Student Kevin Stevenson in 2012, according to the UCF Exoplanets Group.
Six stars represent the six games, and further mission patch decals will be added to players’ helmets depending on how many previous Space Game missions they have under their belt.
The Spitzer Telescope used by Stevenson to discover UCF 1.01 and UCF 1.02 is referenced throughout the uniforms, from its solar panels on players’ pants to an on-the-nose depiction of the unit itself right on the mission patch.
Team members also will once again go by “Citronauts,” brandishing “SPACE U” in bold above custom jersey numbers with lining that UCF said illustrate “the transit method for detecting an exoplanet.”
For your own “Mission VI” gear, UCF offers space swag through FloGrown and the university bookstore.
The sixth annual Space Game is set to begin at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 13, at FBC Mortgage Stadium.
Learn more at UCF Athletics.
You can listen to every episode of Florida’s Fourth Estate in the media player below: