The above photo is from this past summer, when the club celebrated the original 1975 Portland Timbers. In it, Tony Betts (who wore the #14 for the club and scored That Goal) is standing behind the seated Willie Anderson (who assisted on That Goal). In Betts’ left hand is an absolute beauty of a kit: Anderson’s long-sleeved #12.

A season later, in 1976, Betts still wore 14, but nobody, not even Anderson, wore 12. That number was shelved until the 1977 NASL season when, once again, Willie Anderson slipped it on for the Green and Gold. And that’s only part of the story.

In this installment of the Season Preview* series of the 2026 campaign through the eyes of its 1976 counterpart, Green Is the Color takes a look back at the stories behind some of the historic Timbers’ kit numbers and looks forward to the upcoming 2026 road kit release.

I absolutely love the Liverpudlian that was our first number 12. This last summer, when the club celebrated the 1975 team, Anderson took up the mic on behalf of Fox 12’s Nick Krupke and took us all into the amazing dynamic prevalent in our first side. At about two and a half minutes into this, Peter Withe hints at Anderson’s 1975 consternation when he received his first Timbers kit, to which Anderson replies, “That’s another story.”

Here’s “another story” then. It starts with the 18th minute of the 1965 FA Charity Shield and runs to the May 16, 1975 visitors locker room at Vancouver’s Empire Stadium. Anderson recounted both the FA Charity Shield match and moment he received his first Green and Gold #12 in Podcast Episode 5. I’ve clipped the audio below, so you can hear straight from Willie, in his voice. I can definitely understand how a player who came from a system where positions (1-11) and substitutes (12+) are strictly numbered by role could have “another story.”

Willie on being the first substitute at Manchester United:

And on his initial frustration at being the first Timbers #12:

Maybe there was something magical in that kit. It only took Willie 9 minutes as a Timber to register the club’s first Cascadia assist:

There’s so much I want to say about Clive Charles, but I also want you to know part of his contributions are featured in an upcoming documentary about his long-time teammate, friend, and ‘brother’ Clyde Best.

I’ve written a lot about Clive in a three-part series on this page, and, as we wait for the release of this year’s kit on February 10, I know, as much as I love it, it won’t usurp The Clive Kit as my favorite. (To be fair, nothing ever will.)

On August 29, 2003, the club retired Charles’ number 3. Thanks to Portland Timbers Fan Page, you can relive the night in photos.

The club has done a few great videos about Clive’s legacy as well:

To learn more about Clive Charles and his relationship with Clyde Best, make sure to follow here and on the Green Is the Color social media handles, as I cover the upcoming Transforming the Beautiful Game: The Clyde Best Story. The movie, which explores the barrier-breaking career of Clyde Best, will show early this summer in Portland. View the trailer below:

Fresh off the club’s MLS Cup championship, the 2016 kits featured the reigning-champion gold star above the crest. Below are three familiar faces and how, according to Jamie Goldberg’s article in The Oregonian, each of these three players ended up with the number they did.

Diego Chará: “When Diego Chará played his first professional game as an 18-year-old in Colombia for Colombian side Deportes Quindío, the club gave him a jersey with No. 21. Since then, he has never changed his number. ‘When it was my first professional game in Colombia, this was my number,’ Chara said. ‘For me, it's a special number.’”

Liam Ridgewell: “Liam Ridgewell always wore the No. 6 during his professional career in England. He likes the No. 6 so much that he has it tattooed on his arm. But when he came to Portland, Darlington Nagbe was wearing No. 6 and Ridgewell didn't want to ask one of the Timbers’ top players to give up his number. Instead, Ridgwell went with No. 24 because 2 + 4 = 6. ‘Six has always been my favorite number, so I would love to have had it,’ Ridgewell said. ‘But one of our better players, who is far better than me, has got it, so that's good enough for me.’”

Ned Grabavoy: “There weren't a ton of numbers to choose from when Grabavoy arrived in Portland this season. He likes wearing No. 11, but that was already taken by Dairon Asprilla. He had also worn No. 12 in the past, but Adam Kwarasey had that number. Grabavoy was No. 20 when he played at Real Salt Lake, but Taylor Peay already wore that jersey. So, Grabavoy decided to go with No. 10 because it is a number traditionally worn by midfielders in soccer. ‘I kind of just picked more of a midfielder number,’ Grabavoy said.”

Even the most Timbers-y of us can be forgiven for not being able to recall, without research, that it was Canadian Danny Lomas who donned the number 36 for the 1976 Green and Gold. Lomas, who made 4 appearances in his lone year with the club, is the one person over the last 51 years of Timbers soccer take to the first-team, regular-season field in such a numbered shirt.

The 1976 roster looks pretty normal in listing the various soccer-specific attributes of a player of the day: Number, name, position, age, height, and weight. But take a look specifically at the left column, and this roster is not the most traditionally numbered, especially for the mid 70s, where NASL teams were of the same generation of player as when a kit number was ‘traditionally’ assigned by position. (See: Willie Anderson)

The reason for this one-season anomaly is really a quite rational one: Nothing against the new players on the second-year side, but there was still some hope several of the players from the 1975 team would again be re-loaned to our favorite American club.

In Podcast Episode 55, then-Director of Public Relations Dennis O’Meara explains:

The club’s new road kit drops a week from Tuesday, according to hints subtle and not-so-much from the Timbers social media accounts and campaign around the release.

Hopefully this Season Preview* will encourage the thought of some personalized Anderson 12, Chará 21, or Charles 3—if not Lomas 36—kits running around our beloved 100-year-old Providence Park in 2026.

And for those of you with your mind made up on Velde 99 on the back, fair enough. Just make sure to be in attendance at the September 9 home match against St. Louis SC to wish Velde, who was born 9/9/99 (see the connection?), a happy birthday.

#RCTID