Florence Griffith-Joyner

Wheat Hotchkiss

The Flo-Jo uniforms have returned this season to rave reviews. The Pacers are 4-0 so far when donning the iconic jerseys the team wore regularly from 1990-97.

For fans, the uniforms hearken back to the halcyon days at the height of the Reggie Miller era, so it’s especially exciting to see George Hill, David West, and Roy Hibbert carrying on that legacy.

But those jerseys would have never existed if not for the creative vision of USA track & field star Florence Griffith-Joyner, who designed the uniforms in the late ‘80s.

On Sunday, the Pacers will put on their Flo-Jo jerseys for the fifth and final time at home this season (they’ll wear them once more on April 8 in New York). As they go for another win in the Flo-Jo’s, the Pacers will welcome a very special guest to Bankers Life Fieldhouse as Mary Joyner, Flo-Jo’s daughter, will attend the game and sing the national anthem.

Mary Joyner comes from the first family of American track & field. Her father, Al Joyner, won the gold medal in the triple jump at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. Her mother won three gold medals in 1988 in Seoul. Her aunt, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, won two gold medals in Seoul and another in 1992 in Barcelona.

Of course, when an American Olympic athlete receives a gold medal, the stadium speakers blare the Star-Spangled Banner. That part of the ceremony was particularly moving for Griffith-Joyner.

“The national anthem meant so much to my mother,” Mary said.

Mary Joyner has a different passion than her parents, one that the national anthem helped inspire. When she was just two years old, Mary learned what she used to call her Mom’s “Olympic song,” sparking a lifelong love of music. Rather than push her to follow in her parent’s footsteps, Joyner’s family encouraged her to follow her dreams.

Her mother, who passed away in 1998 when Mary was just seven years old, also had talent that extended beyond the athletics arena.

Florence Griffith-Joyner always had an eye for fashion. Mary remembers spending hours on end with her mother in her arts and crafts room. Not only did Flo-Jo design the Pacers' uniforms, she designed and sewed herself Mary’s leotards for gymnastics competitions.

But for all her talents, there was one gift that she never possessed.

“I got told that my mother said that if she could do one thing  – because she was so multi-talented – it would definitely be singing,” Mary Joyner said. “So it’s amazing that I got the gift that she didn’t have.”

As she grew older, Joyner began to realize the gift she possessed. At first, singing was a very personal and private thing.

“When I was going through a tough time in my life, basically I would always go to my keyboard or piano and just start playing my heart out,” Joyner recalled. “I started writing songs as a form of therapy.”

Later, she began to branch out. She sang in choir in high school, where she realized that she wanted to pursue singing full-time. She appeared on America’s Got Talent in 2012, where she wowed the judges with her rendition of Sara Bareilles’ “Gravity.”

But the song that’s always had a special meaning to Joyner is the national anthem. She got the opportunity to perform the song in the track & field stadium at the 2012 US Olympic Trials.

“That was a very big moment for me,” Joyner recalled.

On Sunday, Joyner will get to perform the anthem once again in another special venue. It wasn’t until a few years ago that Joyner found out that her mother had helped design uniforms for the Pacers. Her father dug up her mother’s old sketches and designs and showed them to her daughter, who was blown away.

“It’s great because her work lives on,” Mary Joyner said. “I know she put her passion and her heart into the design. Out of all those uniforms, I love her designs because they actually fit in this generation as well. I believe her designs are timeless. I just know she would be so happy and so proud of her work being re-recognized.”

Come Sunday night, The Fieldhouse will surely be rocking. The Pacers’ playoff push is heating up and Sunday’s game against Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavs could go a long way in determining whether the Blue & Gold get into the postseason for the fifth straight year.

Having Flo-Jo’s daughter in the building to help kick off the festivities should make the atmosphere even more exciting.

“For me to be singing the national anthem at a Pacers game while the team wears those uniforms, it’s such an honor,” Joyner said. "...This is like a dream come true.”

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National Anthem Has Special Meaning to Mary Joyner, Flo-Jo's Daughter

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Whether they are the best-looking uniforms the Pacers have ever worn is a matter of opinion. What's certain is that they are the most distinctive, and bring out the best story.

Just mention “the Flo-Jo's,” and veteran Pacers fans immediately recall the uniforms worn from the 1990-91 through the 1996-97 seasons. Unique in their design, material and conception, they hold a special place in the hearts of many fans, particularly those who were at an impressionable age during that span. No other team can claim a design anything like them, or a designer like the one who created them.

RELATED: Pacers to Wear Iconic “Flo-Jo” Jerseys for 2015 Hardwood Classic Nights »

The story behind the uniforms begins in 1989, when the worlds of Florence Griffith Joyner and the Pacers were merged by mutual interest. She was one of the world's most famous and glamorous athletes, just one year removed from winning gold medals in 100- and 200-meter sprints and the 4x100 relay in the Seoul Olympics. She owned world records in the two sprints that still stand today. The one for the 100-meter sprint was set at the Olympic Trials at the IUPUI stadium in Indianapolis.

Widely known as Flo-Jo, she was as famous for her striking appearance as her speed. She designed her own racing uniforms and warmups, sometimes wearing a “one-legged” one-piece suit that covered one leg all the way to the ankle, and completed her signature look with details such as extraordinarily long, colorfully-painted fingernails, fastidious makeup and long, flowing hair.

She retired after the Olympics, and announced a desire to become a fashion designer. The Pacers, meanwhile, were seeking a new identity. The team had finished 28-54 record in the 1988-89 season, one that had been ruptured by major trades (that would work out well in the long run) and an early-season coaching change. Heading into a new decade, with a frustrated fan base but a core of promising players that included Chuck Person, Reggie Miller, Rik Smits and Detlef Schrempf, it was the perfect time for re-branding.

Enter Rebecca Polihronis, an unpaid intern in the Pacers' front office. Having read about Griffith Joyner's designs on a career in fashion in a Sports Illustrated article, she created a photo montage of the star's various looks and introduced the idea of her designing Pacers uniforms to the front office. It was run up the chain of command and approved, as part of a makeover project.

The logo that had been used since the franchise's birth in 1967, with a three-fingered left hand resting on what looked like a tennis ball, was scrapped in favor of a more modern design. The colors were altered, too, most notably with the royal blue of the past giving way to a darker hue. The gold became … well, golder.

And, most notably, Flo-Jo was turned loose on the uniforms. She appeared for a press conference in a meeting room in the Pacers offices at Market Square Arena on June 29, 1989, where she told reporters she had already sketched out 13 possibilities, but planned nothing as revolutionary as what she had worn at track meets.

“The first reaction of a lot of people is that it will be bizarre,” she said. “They might be a little hesitant about it. But it won't be something really outrageous. I wouldn't design something like that for basketball players. No. 1, they wouldn't wear it.

“No one-leggers or lace,” she added, smiling.

“We made an agreement that what looks good on Florence won't necessarily look good on Greg Dreiling and LaSalle Thompson,” general manager Donnie Walsh said.

The chosen submission was unique, and not only for its design. It also introduced a V-neck jersey, longer shorts, and a more comfortable stretch fabric. It looked like nothing before it, and like nothing that has come along since. It had flair, but, as Griffith Joyner had promised, was in no way outrageous. It was formally introduced to the public on Jan. 23, 1990 – a photo of the uniform appeared on the front page of the USA Today sports section the following day, in the lower left corner – and was put into play the following season.

PHOTO GALLERY: First Look at the New Flo-Jo Jerseys »

The new look met with positive reviews from fans and players alike. Person said at the time he liked the darker tone, deeming the previous blue “a slower-looking color.” His teammates liked it, too, although their opinions might have been colored by their opinion of the designer.

“The guys were enthusiastic about it because it was Flo-Jo,” recalled Kathy Jordan, the Pacers' director of community relations at the time. “She was beautiful. And she was the sweetest person. She was as sweet as she could be. All the guys were falling over themselves.”

The uniform would become ingrained in the minds of fans who recall the teams of the early- to mid-Nineties as a symbol of the Pacers' breakout from a decade of struggle for relevancy. It was the uniform they wore when they extended Boston to the full five games of a first-round playoff series in 1991, and the one worn by Miller when he produced those now-legendary moments in playoff games in Madison Square Garden against the Knicks – the 25-point fourth quarter bombing raid in 1994 that was punctuated by choke signs to Spike Lee, and the miraculous eight-points-in-8.9-seconds flurry in 1995.

PHOTO GALLERY: Reggie Miller in the Flo-Jo Jersey »

The Pacers made two trips to the Eastern Conference Finals in the uniforms, easily the highlights of the franchise's NBA history to that point. When the world outside of Indianapolis discovered the Pacers, the Flo-Jo's helped make a favorable first impression.

Time marched on, though. Polihronis a native of Lowell, Ind., graduated from IU in 1990 and went on to become the community relations director for the Chicago Cubs. After seven seasons in the Flo-Jo's, the Pacers switched to pin-striped uniforms coinciding with Larry Bird's arrival as coach to start the 1997-98 season. It was a less distinctive look – it had been popularized by the Yankees in baseball, and the Orlando Magic had been wearing similar uniforms for a few years – but it was the uniform the Pacers wore in their only NBA Finals appearance in 2000. Perhaps for that reason, Miller considers it his favorite, followed by the Flo-Jo's.

Person, who's now an assistant coach at his alma mater, Auburn, favors the Flo-Jo. He has his full uniform framed and displayed on his wall at home, along with Miller's pinstriped Pacers jersey and the Spurs jersey of his San Antonio teammate, David Robinson.

“I loved them,” Person recalled by telephone. “The shorts were longer, for one thing. And the celebrity that Flo-Jo brought with it was exciting for a team that was trying to develop a winning culture.”

Griffith Joyner died in her sleep of an epileptic seizure in September of 1998, at age 38. She is best-remembered for her sprinting career, of course, but her role as the designing woman for the Pacers represented one of her greatest off-track accomplishments. It expanded her boundaries and brought recognition in a new field, while helping bring a modern identity to the Pacers.

Florence Griffith‑Joyner

National Anthem Has Special Meaning to Mary Joyner, Flo-Jo's Daughter

The Story Behind the Flo-Jo's