0303 - Peter Capolino
Peter Capolino is the founder and former owner of the Mitchell & Ness Nostalgia Co. in Philadelphia. During our conversation, he referenced a handful of things and people upon which you may want to do more research. Consider this page to be your “liner notes” for the episode so you can follow along.
Me and Peter Capolino after recording our interview at his home in Philadelphia
Sisto Capolino
Peter’s father, Sisto Capolino, was born in Formia, Italy. He came to America and started working at Mitchell & Ness in 1919.
By 1952, he bought the company, which he owned and operated until his death in 1978.
Here he is stringing a tennis racket by hand.
Wooden Shafted Golf Clubs
Charles M. Ness was from a golfing town in Scotland. He linked up with Frank P. Mitchell in 1904 to create a partnership called Mitchell & Ness.
They had separate shops until 1911, with the Mitchell part being a tennis company, and the Ness part being a golf company.
From 1904 until 1929, Mitchell & Ness actually manufactured golf clubs, and they are in the registry of wooden shafted golf club makers.
Bill Tilden
Bill Tilden was the world No. 1 amateur for six consecutive years, from 1920 to 1925, and was ranked as the world No. 1 professional by Ray Bowers in 1931 and 1932 and Ellsworth Vines in 1933.
He won 14 Major singles titles, including 10 Grand Slam events, one World Hard Court Championships and three professional majors.
He was the first American man to win Wimbledon, taking the title in 1920. He also won a joint-record seven U.S. Championships titles.
Mitchell & Ness strung all of his rackets.
Local Baseball Uniforms
Mr. Mitchell began making uniforms for local baseball teams around 1925. Here is an example of an early label you might find inside a M&N uniform.
1939 Philadelphia Athletics
Some of the earliest uniforms Peter remembers Mitchell & Ness making for a major professional sports team were made for the 1939 Philadelphia Athletics. They made the Athletics uniforms until 1954.
M&N also made the Phillies’ uniforms from about 1942-1945.
Fred Schubach
Fred Schubach was the equipment manager for the Philadelphia Eagles and Baltimore Colts.
Here, Chuck Bednarik of the Eagles hands his jersey and shoes to Schubach after the December 16, 1962, game.
1960 NFL Championship Game
Before the 1960 NFL Championship Game, Peter helped Freddie Schubach put the facemasks on the Eagles’ helmets in the locker room. That game is one of the lasting memories of Peter’s youth, and helped solidify his love of sports.
Here, Philadelphia’s Chuck Bednarik, center, with Green Bay’s Paul Hornung, left, and Jim Taylor after the Eagles’ 17-13 victory over the Packers in the N.F.L. championship game on Dec. 26, 1960, at Franklin Field. Notice the face mask on Bednarik’s helmet. Peter can tell you everything about it.
Sport Magazine
Launched in September of 1946, Sport Magazine pioneered the generous use of color photography – it carried eight full-color plates in its first edition. Ted Williams was featured on the August, 1947 cover, seen here.
Peter would cut out the color photos from each issue and glue them into scrapbooks he would make as a child. Little did he know, he was doing research and creating an archive that would help him years later.
Peter’s Family
Peter with his family, age 8
Military
Peter graduated from Susquehanna University in 1967, then went to Officer Candidate School and became an Army Engineer Officer in the Corps of Engineers, graduating as a Second Lieutenant.
Luckily, Peter got sent to Korea instead of Vietnam, so he spent 13 months in the DMZ in 1968 and 1969.
Tennis
Peter’s true love is tennis. To this day, he still has the Tennis Channel on TV. Here he is with Björn Borg.
Joanne Graham
When Peter moved the store to 13th and Walnut, it was just him, his wife, Fran, and their friend Joanne Graham working there.
Here is Joanne in 1987, wearing Peter’s 1949 Philadelphia Athletics jacket.
1972 Miami Dolphins
The undefeated 1972 Dolphins had Bob Griese at quarterback, Larry Csonka and Mercury Morris at running back and Paul Warfield at receiver. But the defense, with virtually unknown players, was also crucial to their championship run. The No-Name Defense held opponents to 11 points per game during the season.
The ‘72 Dolphins also had aqua blue uniforms made by the Russell Corporation which Peter and his employee, Mike Robinson, knocked off. The ease with which they could do it thanks to their knowledge and access, and the success those jerseys had in the store, led M&N to start creating retail versions of every NFL team’s uniform.
City of Brotherly Love Softball League
Peter came up with the name and created the logo for the City of Brotherly Love Softball League, a gay league in Philadelphia, and had a very meaningful relationship with the players and the league over the years.
Bob Skinner
The first real, game worn uniform Peter remembers someone bringing into the shop for him to try to fix was the vest of Pittsburgh Pirates OF/1B Bob Skinner.
The early days saw Peter repairing lots of Pittsburgh Pirates uniforms, and lots of St. Louis Browns uniforms.
Attention To Detail
The Pittsburgh Pirates didn’t put numbers on the front of their jerseys until 1962. An authentic Roberto Clemente uniform from before that time wouldn’t have his number on the front, whereas an authentic Willie Stargell uniform would have his number, since his career started in 1962.
Mitchell & Ness Nostalgia Co.
Peter created this separate company to hold all of the licenses with the different leagues. It was completely different from Mitchell & Ness because the leagues wanted people to be buying from a company who had wholesale distribution.
Mitchell & Ness Nostalgia Co. was the wholesale branch that held the licensing rights, manufactured all of the clothing, and sold it to other stores all over the country.
Richie Ashburn
When Peter started making throwback jerseys, first he made those of the players he loved growing up. As a kid from Philadelphia, Richie Ashburn was at the top of the list for Peter.
Henry Aaron Zipper Front Jersey
Sometimes, you can’t trust the memory of the players implicitly. Henry Aaron swore up and down that he never wore a jersey with a zipper front, but Peter knew he had.
Here is a photo of him wearing his 1954 Braves uniform, with a zipper front and center. A game-worn jersey sold at auction in 2011.
Paul Pogharian
Peter would send Paul to the Philadelphia Public Library to help him do research when they were trying to figure out the actual colors of garments that were only photographed in black and white.
Paul was the heart and soul of what Peter meant Mitchell & Ness to be.
1937 Brooklyn Dodgers
Believe it or not, there was one year when the Dodgers wore green, not blue. It was 1937, and while no color photographs appear of the players or coaches wearing these uniforms, artifacts have surfaced in recent years which prove they existed, in addition to newspaper articles of the day.
The green uniforms only lasted one year, and by 1938 the team was back to Dodger Blue.
Peter enlisted the help of many friends and employees to look in newspapers for any mention of uniform colors by the sportswriters of the day. People like Bill Lipinski and Bob Downs would look in the microfiche to see what they could find.
Generally, the day before opening day, the day of opening day, and/or the day after opening day of a new season would be where the journalists would mention any changes to the color schemes or designs of the uniforms for the local teams.
Marc Okkonen
One of the most underrated writers and researchers in baseball history, Marc Okkonen spent years creating a database for every uniform change in the history of Major League Baseball for every team.
1917 White Sox World Series Uniforms
Arguably the most beautiful uniform in the history of sports, the 1917 Chicago White Sox uniforms that the team only wore during the World Series that year proved to be one of the hardest uniforms for Peter to recreate.
1951 New York Yankees
It was hard for Mitchell & Ness to come up with different Yankees jerseys to continue to reproduce since they never changed the way their uniform looked. But with patches for specific years, like this 1951 patch for the American League’s Golden Anniversary, Peter was able to get creative.
The Origin Of The Cardinals’ Emblem
One of Peter’s favorite stories is how the Cardinals originally decided what to put on the front of their uniforms.
Miss Allie May Schmidt decorated the table for a meeting of the Men’s Fellowship organization at which Branch Rickey (who was, at the time, the Vice President of the Cardinals) was going to be speaking.
She looked out the window for some inspiration, saw a couple cardinal birds perched on a branch, and thought that would look pretty on the table. That’s how she decorated it, Branch Rickey loved it, and the next season, the Cardinals uniforms had a couple red birds perched on a bat.
R. J. Liebe Athletic Lettering Company
The Liebe Company has done most of the lettering on all baseball jerseys from the 1920s up until the present day. All of the Rawlings, Wilson, and Goodman uniforms.
They possess all of the paper patterns, all of the research, and all of the history of everything they ever did.
1956 St. Louis Cardinals Jerseys
The fans hated the fact that the team got rid of the birds perched on the bat for the 1956 season, so these only lasted one year. By 1957, the familiar look was back.
Tail Feather Variations
There is a slight difference between the 1964 Cardinals uniforms and the 1967 Cardinals uniforms. Can you spot it?
1939 Baseball Centennial Patch
Every team in Major League Baseball wore these patches on their sleeves during the 1939 season.
Since the St. Louis Browns already had a patch on their left sleeve, they wore this one on their right sleeve. Every other team in MLB wore it on their left.
Jackie Robinson
Peter proudly showing off the 1955 Jackie Robinson Brooklyn Dodgers uniform he finally landed on making.
Bill Russell
Peter felt that the players should be known for their achievements. He had little history write ups in his catalogs to help educate potential customers.
Andy Hyman
Andy owned and operated Distant Replays in Atlanta, which became integral in the explosion of popularity for Mitchell & Ness, and throwback uniforms at large.
HERE is a great old interview he did with Paul Lukas at Uni Watch back in December of 2008.
DMC
Darryl McDaniels of Run-DMC and Peter go way back because of a shared love of music. But not the type of music you’d expect.
OutKast
Big Boi and Andre 3000 of OutKast rocking sports uniforms all the way back in 1993
Fran Deitrich
Peter’s wife, Fran, was a silent partner in every respect of the word. She went to art school and had no formal training in running a sporting goods store, but she figured everything out and made it work, allowing Mitchell & Ness to succeed in ways it never would have been able to without her.
Dale Murphy
Peter was surprised that Black rappers would want to wear the jersey of a white baseball player, not considering that if they were from Atlanta, the Braves were their team regardless of color.
Here, Big Boi is wearing the powder blue Dale Murphy throwback in Outkast’s 1999 “Skew It on the Bar-B” music video.
Peter’s Mission Statement
If Peter wanted to do one thing with Mitchell & Ness, it was “To accurately recreate the history of sports through the evolution of the uniform.”
I’d say it was a job well done.
Reuben “Big Rube” Harley
Big Rube was Peter’s product placement guy from 2001 to 2006, helping Mitchell & Ness apparel find its way onto concert stages, music videos, and red carpets.
Fat Joe
Peter had to stretch the rules of jersey making for Fat Joe, but they formed a bond that was well worth breaking a couple rules.
Allen Iverson
Allen Iverson was good friends with Fat Joe, and became good friends with Peter.
AI is wearing a custom Mitchell & Ness creation on this now-iconic SLAM Magazine cover from March of 1999.
Kobe Bryant
Another interesting magazine cover featuring an NBA superstar in a Mitchell & Ness creation is this one from August of 2002, featuring Kobe Bryant wearing his dad’s 76ers jersey.
"I felt like I would be giving my father the respect that he deserves for raising me and for encouraging me to be the best that I can be in the game of basketball and also showing some love to my old hometown."
2002 NBA Playoffs
En route to his third consecutive NBA championship, Kobe Bryant broke out a number of Mitchell & Ness jerseys from the best players across all of sports history during the 2002 Playoffs.
He was one of the best players on the planet, but still showing his respect for the greatness which came before him. Not to mention seriously increasing the brand awareness of M&N.
Girls, Girls, Girls
Jay-Z wore a super obscure jersey in the video for Girls, Girls, Girls. No team name. No name on the back. Just a maroon shirt with a white 33 on it.
It became, by far, Mitchell & Ness’ best selling jersey of all time.
Sammy Baugh
That obscure maroon jersey from Jay-Z’s music video was the 1947 uniform Sammy Baugh wore while playing football for Washington’s NFL franchise.
Peter felt great that he could help out an NFL legend with some pretty massive royalty checks late in his life.
Here is Peter with Philadelphia’s adopted son, Sylvester Stallone, who is wearing the Baugh jersey.
Lance Alworth
In 11 pro seasons, Lance Alworth caught 542 passes for 10,266 yards, an 18.9-yard average and 85 touchdowns. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1978.
But there are a ton of guys in the Hall of Fame who have been all but forgotten. Lance Alworth’s legacy lives on thanks to Mitchell & Ness immortalizing his jersey.
Biz Markie
Biz Markie DJing at the Mitchell & Ness flagship store on April 10, 2012.
Satin Uniforms
Several teams that had installed lights in their stadiums also outfitted their players in satin jerseys, pants, and caps with the hope that fans could see them better. These satin uniforms made their first appearance in the mid-1930s but became more popular with teams, especially the Dodgers, during the 1940s.
Peter has made so many jerseys over the years that he couldn’t think of a single one he wanted to make, but never got around to making.
Mickey Mantle
One of the top selling jerseys in the history of Mitchell & Ness was Mickey’s famous number 7. I’ve got one in my own collection.
Willie Mays
Despite the fact that Willie Mays thought no one would want to buy his authentic wool flannel jerseys and requested that his be made into double-knits, Willie’s jersey was another all-time top seller for Mitchell & Ness.
Ron Jaworski
Of course Peter liked making Ron Jaworski’s jersey… he was an Eagle!
Tommy McDonald
Tommy McDonald was Peter’s all-time favorite player “because we were the same size.”
“We Don’t Want To Meet You”
“Who is this Fran Deitrich who signs all our checks? We want to meet HER!”
1917 White Sox
An absolutely classic uniform, it always struck me as odd that Mitchell & Ness stopped producing these. Did MLB ask them to stop because they didn’t want the association with the 1919 Black Sox team, whose uniforms were almost identical? Peter tells us in the interview.
“Everybody Needed Michael Jordan Jerseys”
More than you would ever know, Mr. Capolino…
“None Of It’s My Blood…”
The easiest way for Peter to recreate jerseys was for him to have an actual original on hand so he could inspect it and take notes. Dave “The Hammer” Schultz brought in his blood-stained Philadelphia Flyers jersey.
1913 Philadelphia Athletics
Now that Peter can relax a little in retirement, he has turned his focus toward making authentic baseball sweaters with the help of his friend, Norma.
1907-08 Chicago Cubs
Norma knits all of the sweaters by hand, and they are of an unbelievable quality.
1901 Baltimore Orioles
Of course, with Peter doing the research for them, they are also unbelievably accurate.
National Sporting Goods Association Hall of Fame
Peter was inducted into the National Sporting Goods Association Hall Of Fame in 2020, which came as a surprise to him but was something he was incredibly grateful for.
Here he is with Committee chairman Ken Meehan, of Dunham Sports, and Hall of Famer Stan Jurga.
Legacy
Peter feels like his true legacy is the family of employees and volunteers who have been connected through Mitchell & Ness over the course of his career.
Here is his team some time around 1994 or 1995, wearing a variety of Dodgers jerseys ranging from 1890 through 1965.
1950 Phillies Jacket
Worn here by his wife, Fran, in 1987, one of Peter’s regrets is that he didn’t hold on to at least one of the 1950 Philadelphia Phillies jackets he made.
What Peter’s Up To Now That He’s “Retired”
- Making sweaters with Norma
- Informally working with Jerry Cohen at Ebbets Field Flannels
- Consulting with Team Pro Standard
Shoeless Joe Jackson
This photo shows Joe wearing his Savannah Indians sweater in 1909. Joe led his team in hits, doubles, triples, and home runs that season, and won the batting title for the entire South Atlantic League by batting .358 in 118 games.
My Michael Jordan jersey collection, featuring literally dozens of Mitchell & Ness pieces, thanks to Peter.
Steven Dilger
Thanks to Steven for connecting me with Peter so we could make this interview happen!
Baseball Centennial Patch
Lou Gehrig in his final season, 1939, during which every team wore the patch you see here on their uniform sleeves.
Thanks to Todd Radom’s article about the patch, I was ready to answer Peter’s test during our interview.
Beyond Blessed
This picture says it all.
1958 Topps Card #487
Nostalgia is a strange thing. It’s what makes this relatively common Mickey Mantle card one of Bob Costas’ prized possessions.
1312 Arch Street
The Mitchell & Ness store opened by Peter’s father, Sisto, in 1945.
Black And White Photos
It can be very hard to determine the colors of artifacts when all you have to go off of are black and white photos.
Differing Shades
Even when you find a newspaper article describing a color, sometimes you still have to make a guess because “navy blue” isn’t always the exact same.
Check out this photo of Ty Cobb and Shoeless Joe Jackson taken in September of 1913. Cobb’s navy blue Detroit Tigers hat and socks are significantly darker than Jackson’s navy blue Cleveland Naps hat and socks, yet in a newspaper, they would both be called “navy blue.”
1909 Savannah Indians
Mike Miller found this old Savannah Indians pennant, which confirmed our suspicions that their team color was maroon.
It made it possible for Peter and I to recreate the sweater Joe wore that season.
Joe’s Sweater
Very cool, but black and white
My Sweater
VERY cool, and in color, thanks to Peter and Norma
First Attempt
Trying to get the colors exactly right was a challenge. Our first attempt, as you can see, the red was a little too bright, and the gray wasn’t quite dark enough.
Of the three choices for the buttons, the Bone button seemed to be the obvious winner.
Custom Font
The attention to detail to make sure every single aspect of the lettering was right, every single aspect of the knit pattern… everything! That’s what makes these sweaters so unbelievably cool (and so costly).
Peter’s Current Obsession
These sweaters are so cool. This is a replica of a sweater Jim Thorpe wore with the Carlisle Indians.
Savannah Valet Service
After Joe’s MLB career came to an end, he and Katie moved back to Savannah, Georgia full time and opened a dry cleaning business called Savannah Valet Service. It was very successful, with multiple locations and 20 employees.
They operated it until Joe’s mom got sick in Greenville, South Carolina in 1932, at which point they sold everything down in Georgia and moved back home to SC until they each passed away.
Ray Schalk
Although he was on the Chicago White Sox during the 1919 World Series, he wasn’t one of the 8 Men Out. He’s actually a member of the National Baseball Hall Of Fame, where his 1917 World Series uniform is stored in their archives.
Notice the wear on the S-O-X logo on the chest, compared to the vibrant colors of the sleeve patch. That’s because Schalk was a catcher, and his chest protector rubbed up against the S-O-X logo all series long, dulling the colors.
Impressive Rolodex
Peter is friends with some pretty amazing people. Their relationships have lasted this long because it’s been about more than just business. It’s about a mutual respect and appreciation for the passion the other person has for what they do, even if it’s not something the other would normally enjoy or care about.
Lower Merion
Kobe Bryant’s high school jersey from Lower Merion is probably the most famous high school uniform of any basketball player of all time.
Peter’s Legacy
Maybe the real treasure was the friends we made along the way…
1948 Birmingham Black Barons Jersey
My most recent purchase from Ebbets Field Flannels is this 1948 Birmingham Black Barons road uniform
Rickwood Field
The oldest ballpark in America, Rickwood Field opened in 1910. On June 20, 2024, the San Francisco Giants will play the St. Louis Cardinals in a regular season game there to honor the Negro Leagues.
1948 Birmingham Black Barons
Can you see him? The greatest ballplayer of all time? He’s in this picture.