The sights were decades in the making.

They came with a wave of memories. They signified a remembrance of tradition. They marked a return to a bygone time.

The Marquette men’s basketball players’ first steps out of the tunnel and onto the Al McGuire Court donning exact gold replica jerseys from the 2007 season simultaneously returned every nook and cranny of Fiserv Forum to those days, the ones before it existed. A day when the Dogg Haus resided at 17th and Wells. When McCormick Hall stood tall. When home was the Bradley Center.

Those same sights embodied another stitch in the fabric of a program who boasts a proud history of storied, unique uniforms.

First came the bumblebees and with it, the 1970 NIT banner. Then came the untucked jerseys, concocted by fashion design major and rafters-dweller Bo Ellis, and the 1977 NCAA tournament championship. There were also the tiger stripes, the turquoise road unis and the George Thompson circle and racing stripe kits. And now, an evocation: the program’s first true replica jersey since the 1990s.

But most of all, the sights of Wednesday night’s throwback game represented a year-plus process in which an amalgam of people came together to bring to fruition the “throwback.”

The first hurdle to clear involved broad discussions about uniforms with the Air Jordan brand, which were handled primarily by deputy athletic director Mike Broeker. Once making the jersey became a realistic possibility, they connected with head coach Shaka Smart on the idea who was immediately on board.

Then they brought it to the desk of assistant athletics director for men’s basketball Ben Retzlaff — the same person behind the new court design unveiled last season — who promptly hopped into the driver’s seat on the project and really got the ball rolling. Retzlaff played such a hands-on role in making Wednesday night happen that he actually used his physical hands to draw up replica mock-ups.

“Got out the old fashioned ruler for some of it,” he said.

Because of the sheer size of the schools the Jordan brand works with, Retzlaff said a lot of onus is put on the individual schools to do the designing.

“But what was so cool, what they’re doing now, is just giving that opportunity to those schools [to make throwbacks],” he said. “So it’s a place like Marquette, where uniforms mean so much that you can take initiative and be like, ‘Hey, we want to bring something back,’ and had that opportunity to do so.”

After that it was time to get the players involved so they could give their input on how the new jersey would take shape.

“We’ve given our guys the chance — the older players — to participate in, what different jerseys do we want to break out each year?” Smart said. “So last year, (seniors) Kam (Jones), Stevie (Mitchell) and (David Joplin) were involved in the planning of what we wanted to do a little bit differently this year.”

After enough progress had been made, and all signals were go, Sand-Knit by Ripon Athletic — a company which manufactures professional teams’ jerseys (like the Green Bay Packers), and where Al McGuire was once an executive — helped with some of the finer details of the jersey’s creation. Retzlaff made multiple trips to their building in Berlin, Wisconsin, and his first time there he was quickly reminded of the connection between McGuire and the company.

“I was meeting with (founder) Hank (Derleth),” Retzlaff said. “He’s like, ‘Al used to take his motorcycle up those same back roads.'”

Then enough time had passed and enough progress had been made come the program’s preseason trip in October to Lake Geneva that Retzlaff and Smart created a presentation for the players that walked them through the history of the program and all its sartorial glamour.

“We just kind of walked through all those different phases of Marquette basketball, all the way back to some of the original jerseys with the iconic slant font through the untucked-s, bumblebees,” Retzlaff said. “We actually had them there laying out on the floor.”

Smart has always been someone to care about Marquette’s past.

“We’re grateful to be at Marquette,” Smart said. “We’re grateful to get a chance to put on the Marquette uniform. And there’s been obviously many, many iterations of that uniform. That gold jersey right there that we wore tonight, it’s one of the most special Marquette uniforms that’s ever been worn.

“There was a ton of winning done in that uniform. There was a ton of blood, sweat and tears that went into the transition to the Big East, the success created by guys like Wes (Matthews), like Jerel (McNeal), like Dominic James, like Jimmy (Butler), like Jae (Crowder). And those teams, that was Marquette toughness…

“But we’re old school, man. We’re trying to do it the old fashioned way, where putting that jersey on every day and what it says on the front is still really, really meaningful. And I think we have a group of guys in our locker room that feel that way.”

To add more weight to the presentation, the team brought in national champion Ulice Payne for a firsthand recounting of the most iconic season of Marquette history.

“It’s amazing to have that there, and just to hear about his experiences,” first-year Damarius Owens said.

After all that — the Jordan talks, connecting with Smart, Retzlaff’s mock-ups, the players’ feedback, Sand-Knit’s collaboration, the history lesson — the jerseys weren’t an if, but a when. And the program got an answer for when that would be just a week ago. 

“They come in pieces, and then getting other people involved,” Retzlaff said. “So you get some of it from Jordan, and then you involve Sand-Knit to help with some other things too. So, I mean, finalized and ready to be worn, probably a week ago.”

The program then teased the throwbacks’ return Monday, officially announced it Tuesday and wore it Wednesday in what is the first, but not the last, time this season. 

“These were made with the intent to be worn again, and we’ll continue to be fluid with that,” Retzlaff said. “But like I said, with them being made, it was that they’re going to get back into the rotation, and this isn’t a one-off.”

With all the sights and nostalgia of Wednesday came the obvious question: what is Marquette going to do next?

Well, given that some of the program’s most recognizable uniforms have been banned by the NCAA and thus require a one-time waiver to be worn again, it’s not as simple as making another replica. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t another new jersey the blue & gold faithful can’t look forward to.

“We got one more that we’ll be unveiling for you later in the year,” Smart teased.

On that, Retzlaff dropped maybe an even bigger nugget.

“Coach prioritizes the players. This is our players,” he said, “and this would be no different to maybe involve them in some of it as well.”

Talk about a sight.

This article was written by Jack Albright. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @JackAlbrightMU.