These are the jerseys of the Hamilton Flying Wildcats and they have an important story to tell.

The Wildcats were formed in 1941 after the city's first football club, the Tigers, folded - a substantial portion of its roster had gone to serve in the Second World War. The team's name paid homage to the fact so many of its players were members of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

In 1943, with head coach Brian Timmis and star quarterback Joe (King) Krol, the Flying Wildcats won their one and only Grey Cup.

Seventy years after that victory (the team would drop the "Flying" portion of its nickname after the war ended and they merged with the restored Tigers franchise in 1950 to form the modern-day Tiger-Cats) the current version of that historic club will once again don their red jerseys for next Saturday's game against the B.C. Lions.

The Tiger-Cats, like many sports franchises with a long and proud history, have done the retro jersey thing before. But director of retail operations Greg Dunnett, who worked with the league's apparel partner Reebok for 18 months on the new jersey, says this project took on a special meaning.

"We'd done the '60s and '70s and our current jerseys take us back to the traditional look of the Tiger-Cats, " Dunnett said. "But the Flying Wildcats are a really cool story and this is a great way to get it out there."

Dunnett and his staff scoured the team's archives and the Canadian Football Hall of Fame looking for a colour photograph of the jerseys before finally getting their hands on the genuine article - a game-worn jersey from 1943. But the design presented another challenge: blue and white stripes on the shoulders.

That colour is synonymous with the archrival Toronto Argonauts and test marketing revealed with a select group of Ticat fans revealed that was a non-starter.

"Everyone's reaction to having blue in our jerseys - despite the fact that it would have been true to the original - wouldn't fly with our fan base, " said Dunnett. "They said it was blasphemous."

The stripes were changed from blue and white to the more acceptable black and white.

The Ticat players will wear their all-white helmets in practice this week, then don the full uniform for next Saturday's home game against the Lions at the University of Guelph. The colour scheme will also match the red-and-black checkered end zones of Alumni Stadium, something Dunnett called "a happy coincidence."

The jerseys will be auctioned on the CFL website at http://auctions.cfl.ca around Thanksgiving.