Last week I saw this jersey in a local craigslist ad. Immediately it was obvious that the “BL IRONMEN” text was affixed to the back sloppy. Still wasn’t too much so I purchased this and a PBJUNKIES jersey.
The seller, Gary, remembers being given this jersey over a decade ago at SC Village. During the time he was paintballing with a celebrity paintball team whose members included Will Smith. Gary shot a Spyder and Tippmann but “never upgraded to an Angel or Autococker.” Unfortunately, Gary did not remember the name of his team.
I had wondered if the numbering would be poorly affixed, indicating this could be an iron on kit from 32 Degrees that someone styled after the Ironmen. Apart from the slightly crooked lettering I did not see other signs the “BL IRONMEN” lettering was home done.
Bob Long separated from the core Ironmen group after the 1996 ESPN tournament and after posting this photo on instagram, Roddy (Rowdy) MacDonald, who played for Bob Long’s Ironmen, posted that this jersey would have been “2000 on for sure. Not earlier.”
After looking up 888 Paintball catalogs online I came across scans from the 2001 catalog which featured this jersey as the lowest end 32 Degrees option.
Find that image in this post on mcb at http://www.mcarterbrown.com/forums/dead-zone/7492-old-magazine-scans-19.html
I then looked at Warpig photo galleries for the Ironmen wearing this style jersey, and although they did wear 32 Degrees around that time I did not see them wearing this style. If this was a Bob Long Ironmen Jersey it was likely a practice or loaner jersey given to guesting players to wear.
One neat detail on this jersey is that the bottoms of the “2s” have small 32 Degrees logos on them.
Find other misc jerseys for sale at http://www.baccipaintball.com/gear/clothing/jerseys.html