Aldyr Schlee, who designed the Brazilian soccer team’s iconic jersey, dies at 83

Aldyr Schlee, a professor who designed the Brazilian soccer team’s iconic jersey, died Thursday at a hospital in Pelotas, Brazil, according to news reports. He was 83.

Sandra E GarciaThe New York Times
Published : 19 Nov 2018, 06:16 AM
Updated : 19 Nov 2018, 06:16 AM

The Associated Press, which reported Schlee’s death, said he had skin cancer.

Schlee was a professor for 30 years at the Federal University of Pelotas, and an award-winning journalist and author, the Agencia Brasil website reported, but he was best known for his design of the Brazilian soccer team’s jersey.

In 1950, Uruguay beat Brazil in the World Cup, which was hosted in Rio de Janeiro that year. Brazilians considered the loss to be the worst soccer defeat in their history. The losing team was dressed in an all-white uniform and after the loss, it wanted a more patriotic look.

A newspaper in Rio de Janeiro, Correio da Manhã (The Morning Mail), sponsored a contest in 1953 for the best design for a new uniform. The only requirement was it had to include the colours of the Brazilian flag: blue, green, white and yellow.

Schlee was 19 and working as an illustrator at a newspaper in Pelotas. He was puzzled at the contest requirement.

“No team uses four colours. And the colours in the flag are colours that don’t go well together,” he told Fox News in 2014. “How can you put yellow and white together on a shirt? What you get is the national team colours or the Holy See!”

Schlee won the contest, and what he created was one of the most iconic uniforms in professional sports, said Tom O’Grady, founder and chief creative officer of Gameplan Creative, a branding agency in Chicago.

“It completely changed the game,” he said Sunday. “It is the most popular and most iconic graphic of that sport.” O’Grady has designed jerseys for the New York Knicks, Phoenix Suns, Toronto Raptors and Memphis Grizzlies.

Schlee’s design would not be suggested today because it’s too simple, O’Grady said, adding, “There is more ornamentation on uniforms today.”

The new team colours debuted in March 1954. At the World Cup in 1962, the Brazilian player Pelé raised the jersey’s intrinsic value with his skill and flair, O’Grady said. The team won the World Cup that year and again eight years later.

By 1970, fans did not have to be in the stadium to watch the players or have a radio to listen to announcers celebrate a goal. They could watch on television as Pelé led the team to victory. The team’s yellow jerseys contrasted starkly against the green field and the blue jerseys of the opposing Italian team.

“Once you step on the field and the team starts winning, it freezes it in lock and step,” O’Grady said. “There is such a connection to the jersey and winning now that it almost parks it in eternity.”

Aldyr Garcia Schlee was born Nov 22, 1934, in Jaguarão, Brazil, a municipality that borders Uruguay, the Brazilian news site Globo reported.

Schlee had an intertwined history with Uruguay and Brazil. Though he designed the jersey for Brazil, he rooted for the Uruguayan team.

On Friday, players from Brazil and Uruguay observed a moment of silence for Schlee before a game in London.

Members of the Uruguayan team, in their blue jerseys, stood on the field with members of the Brazilian team who wore the uniforms of canary yellow, ocean blue, Kelly green and stark white that Schlee had designed.

© 2018 New York Times News Service