Big 12 Helmet Project, South Division

As a follow up to yesterday's post on the Big 12 North Division helmets, I give the helmets of the Big 12 South. Some schools have very few helmet changes while others have made changes every few years since teams started wearing the "modern" design of helmet. One trend that holds is that the 3 big tradition schools (and no A&M...you're one partial MNC in 1939 doesn't count here) in the conference have the fewest significant helmet changes of any school. OU has 4 different looks (plus the retro game helmet from 2003), Texas also has 4 (plus a 2005 retro, the 100 yrs sticker from 1969, and a 50th anniv Cotton Bowl sticker in 1982), and Nebraska has 6 (excl. the 100 yrs sticker). The teams with arguably the least football success have made the greatest number of helmet changes. Iowa State has 19 different looks (they wore 2 different designs from 83-86 as noted yesterday), Kansas has 18 different designs, and Kansas State has 13 different styles of helmet since the late 1950's.

Without further adieu (and since I want to leave early on Friday)...I give you the helmets of the Big 12 South:

Big 12 Helmet Project, North Division

In case you've never visited the site before, take a few minutes (or hours) to check out The Helmet Project. The site has as complete a history as you will find of helmets for more football teams than you care to know existed. Want to know what the helmet looked like for Marietta College in 1963? No worries...they've got it. For those that love the history of football or just the designs of football helmets...check out The Helmet Project. You won't be disappointed.

So how does that tie in to this post? Well I have a pretty slow day today (bad weather can do that to the steel industry) so I started compiling the current helmets of all Big 12 schools along with my favorite helmet and then a helmet that was unusual in some way to the school. There's Colorado's gold w/ powder blue of the early 80's. In 1983 and 84 (and possibly 85 and 86 too), every player wore the yellow helmet. However, certain players were awarded the same helmet design but with the red and yellow colors inverted from what you see below. That have been cool to see a team playing with multiple helmet designs.

The weather is getting bad out here so I'm going to head home for the day...but here's what I took from the Big 12 North. I'll return tomorrow with the Big 12 South. Remember to click on the pic for a full size image. Enjoy!