Isn’t it amazing how a name or a uniform change can impact the history of a team?

Take hockey, for example. The Toronto Maple Leafs weren’t always known as the Maple Leafs. When the NHL was formed in 1917, they were the Toronto Arenas. A couple years later, they became the Toronto St. Patricks. The name Maple Leafs wasn’t adopted until 1926.

Imagine watching a hockey game, and hearing the fans chant “Go Arenas Go!” or the chant most often directed at Toronto’s NHL team: “Arenas suck!” Maple Leafs is the better name for Toronto’s NHL team.

Saskatchewan Roughrider fans can vouch for the historical impact of a uniform change. The Riders are in their centennial season this year, so for their July 17 game against the Edmonton Eskimos, they donned the black and maroon jerseys that they sported for about 35 years.

The jerseys don’t look bad. They boast a slight semblance to the Calgary Stampeders or the defunct Ottawa Rough Riders. The only downside was that it was hard to detect red numbers on a black jersey.

The maroon helmets were blanked. The famed big “S” logo was nowhere to be seen. The helmets looked like something the NFL’s Cleveland Browns would wear, if the Browns wore maroon instead of brown.

Retro jerseys in any sport usually look good. Yes, some uniforms are duds, and should never be trotted out on nostalgia nights. But these uniforms are usually simple, and in the world of football fashion, simple is usually good.

The coaches made the best fashion statement with red and white checkered pants that were also a throwback to the 1940s. The pants weren’t quite as hip as those of the Norwegian men’s curling team at the Olympics, but I think Ken Miller’s retro pants would be a hot-selling commodity at the Rider Store.

No matter how good the uniforms looked, though, the Riders are the Green and White, and that should never change. Can you imagine substituting “Maroon and Black” for “Green and White” in the Riders theme song? It wouldn’t fit. Yes, lots of words rhyme with black.

But generations have grown up cheering for the Roughriders in their trademarked green and white jerseys, with their big S logo. For most fans, they can’t imagine the team wearing anything else.

Until recently, most fans probably didn’t know that the Riders used to wear jerseys that were maroon and black instead of green and white. And now they know what the Riders would look like if they weren’t wearing the all-too familiar green and white garb.

The uniforms didn’t look bad, but maroon and black Roughrider jerseys are the uniform equivalent to the Toronto Arenas name: it’s not bad, but change was for the better.