NCAA/fb>Helmet History « billsportsmaps.com

September 7, 2011

NCAA Division I FBS: Pac-12 Conference, 2011 season – attendance map (2010 figures) / Plus modern-era helmet history chart of Pac-12 teams / Plus maps of each of the two Pac-12 football divisions: the North Division and the South Division.

Filed under: NCAA Gridiron Football,NCAA/fb>Helmet History,NCAA/fb-Pac 10 & Pac-12 — admin @ 9:16 pm

Pac-12 Attendance map (2010 figures)

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This post has 5 gifs. The first gif, which you can see by clicking on the image above, is an attendance map of Pac-12 football teams, using 2010 home average attendances. Locations of the teams’ home stadiums are shown. Each team’s helmet (current home-uniform or base-uniform helmet) is shown, and is sized to reflect 2010 average attendance – the higher the average attendance, the larger the helmet. For gate figures, I used info from this pdf (from NCAA.com) – pdf, 2010 NCAA Division I FBS Attendance. The list in the upper-middle of the map page shows the teams’ 2010 average attendances, as well as percent-change from the 2009 season. Below that is a list of all-time titles for the Conference (PCC/AAWU/Pac-8/Pac-10/Pac-12, from 1916 to 2010). Years spent in the conference by each team is also noted. At the bottom, I have included the titles won from the 2 new teams’ previous conferences (Colorado coming over from the Big 12 Conference, and Utah coming over from the Mountain West Conference).
A brief history of the Pac-12 Conference and it’s previous permutations can be found 4 paragraphs down.
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The second gif (click on image below) is a chart of the modern-era helmet histories of the 12 teams in the Pac-12. By “modern-era” I mean the era of plastic composite football helmets, which began from the time right after World War II to the mid-1950s. During this 1946-to-circa-1955 time period, some college football programs took longer than others to stop using the decidedly less-safe leather helmets. I am pretty sure this chart is not 100% comprehensive, because I suspect a couple teams (Arizona and Oregon State) had earlier helmet designs at the start of the plastic composite helmet era (circa 1950-59), but I could not find confirmation of that. I pinned down helmet designs, helmet design changes, and dates the helmet designs were used mainly through two excellent sites – The Helmet Project (at National Champs.net), and the brilliant Helmet Hut.com. I can’t thank the people who run these sites enough. I don’t know the Helmet Hut guys’ names, but the Helmet Project site is the work of Charles Arey, so thanks very much, Charles.

One new aspect of the layout of the helmet history chart – the current [2011] helmet(s) of each Pac-12 team can be found in the gray-shaded section at the far right of the chart page. First, the large illustrations of each team’s primary helmet are displayed (these illustrations are from the excellent site called MG’s Helmets). Then there are small side-view & front-views of all the teams’ current helmets shown (these illustrations are from each team’s Wikipedia page [which, in their original form include the full uniforms], and were drawn by Wikipedia-user Kevin W). {All of Kevin W.’s college football teams’ uniforms illustrations can be found at a spot in Wikipedia, here}. So thanks very much to MG down there in Birmingham, AL; and thanks to Kevin W.
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A brief history of the college football conference now known as the Pac-12

The conference that is now named the Pacific-12 (Pac-12) was formed in 1959. It’s roots are in the Pacific Coast Conference, which began play for football in 1916, and existed from 1915 to 1959. Founding schools in the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) were California (of Berkeley, CA), Washington (of Seattle, WA), Oregon (of Salem, OR), and Oregon State (of Corvallis, OR). The following year, 1917, Washington State (of Pullman, WA) joined. Stanford (of Palo Alto, CA) joined the next year, 1918. In 1922, the conference expanded to 8 teams with the addition of Southern California [ie, USC] (of Los Angeles, CA), and Idaho (of Moscow, ID). Montana (of Missoula, MT) joined in 1924. The PCC swelled to 10 teams when UCLA (of Los Angeles, CA) joined in 1928. Montana left the PCC in 1950, to join the Mountain States Conference. The dominant schools in Pacific Coast Conference football were the four California schools. UCLA won 12 Conference titles, both USC and California won 11 titles, and Stanford won 8 titles. The 6 other schools won a total of 14 titles, with the highest being Oregon with 5 titles. The two Rocky Mountain schools, Idaho and Montana, never won a football title.

The divide between the 4 California schools and the other 6 schools was also evident in another way. Many university leaders in the California schools considered the Northwest schools academically inferior, and advocated a split to form a separate California conference, for schools that held a higher standard of the student athlete.

So it is ironic that the split-up of the Pacific Coast Conference came about after a scandal involving illegal payments to players on the UCLA and USC teams. UCLA officials and coaches eventually admitted to widespread payments to players, and in turn blew the whistle on phony USC programs that paid players. 3 of the 4 California schools (but not Stanford), as well as Washington, were eventually implicated in the pay-for-play scandal, and the PCC disbanded in 1959.

In July, 1959, the Athletic Association of Western Universities was formed, comprising California, Stanford, UCLA, USC, and Washington. This in spite of the fact that many at Stanford had wanted UCLA to be expelled for their part in the pay-for-play/ slush fund scandal. For it’s first few years, 1960-’62, the AAWU was popularly known as the Big Five. The Northwest schools were initially blocked from joining, but Washington State was able to join in 1962, and it became known as the Big Six. Oregon and Oregon State were finally able to join in 1964. Idaho was never invited, and stayed independent until joining the Big Sky Conference in 1963.

In 1968, the AAWU changed it’s name to the Pacific 8 Conference, aka the Pac-8.
In 1978, the conference added two schools from the Western Athletic conference: Arizona State (Tempe, AZ), and Arizona (Tuscon, AZ), and changed it’s name to the Pacific-10 Conference, aka the Pac-10.

In 2011, the conference added two schools, one who left the the Big 12 Conference – Colorado (Boulder, CO); and one who left the Mountain West Conference – Utah (Salt Lake City, UT). The conference changed it’s name to the Pacific-12 Conference, aka the Pac-12. The football conference branch of the larger all-sports Pac-12 changed the structure of it’s competition by instituting a 2-division format (North and South Division), with a Pac-12 football championship final to be played each December (at the home field of the divisional finalist with the best record).
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The 3rd gif and the 4th gif show the new breakdown of teams by division in Pac-12 football (North Division and South Division).

The crucial detail is that all 4 California teams – 2 in the North Division (Cal and Stanford) and 2 in the South Division (UCLA and Southern Cal) – will be playing each other every season. That and other details concerning the new divisional structure are shown in the center of both divisional maps here via a screenshot I took from en.wikipedia’s page on the subject {the link for that page is at the very bottom of this post}.
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Below is the 5th gif, the 2011 Maryland Terrapins’ new alternate helmet and new alternate uniforms -

From HuffingtonPost.com, from 5 September 2011,’University Of Maryland Football Uniforms By Under Armour Create Buzz On Twitter (PHOTOS/TWEETS)‘.
http://www.nationalchamps.net/Helmet_Project/
From PalmBeachPost.com, ‘Maryland Terrapins’ new uniforms elicit a storm of fashion criticism‘. [Note: you can also see the new alternate helmets and new alternate uniforms of Georgia and Boise State at this link.]
From Washingtonpost.com, ‘University of Maryland football defeats Miami in season opener [w/ gallery]‘.
From SBnation.com/NCAA-football, ‘PHOTO: Maryland’s New Helmets…‘.
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Credits for Pac-12 Helmet History Chart -
Thanks to http://www.sports-logos-screensavers.com/NationalCollegiateAthleticsAssociation.html .
Thanks to Helmet Hut/College helmets.
Thanks to the Helmet Project page at http://nationalchamps.net/Helmet_Project/pac10.htm
Thanks to MG’s Helmets, for current [2011] Pac 12 football helmets.
Thanks to jennypenny1 at this address at E-Bay – http://stores.ebay.com/The-Football-Helmet-Store/NCAA-Game-Used-Helmets-/_i.html?rt=nc&_fsub=289111719&_sid=877628519&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14.l1513&_pgn=2
Thanks to Amazon.com for the photo of the circa 1960 Oregon State helmet.
Thanks to MonsterMarketplace.com for the Cal 1987-2007 helmet photo, here.
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Credits for Pac-12 Attendance Map (2010 figures) -
Thanks to these sites for the helmet photos…
Arizona new white helmet (white, with asymmetrical red/white/navy stripes, and with white face mask), from the Arizona Wildcats official site’s gallery page, here.
Arizona State new home helmet (sunflower yellow, new pitchfork logo, with maroon face mask), from an article at the EastValleyTribune.com site, here.
Cal helmet from Fathead.com, here.
Colorado helmet from Fan’sEdge.com, here.
Oregon helmet (primary-uniform helmet) from Wallpaperborders.org, here.
Oregon State helmet from SportsBlink.com, here.
Stanford helmet from OmniSports.com [link was broken], here.
UCLA helmet from Fathead.com, here.
USC helmet from SportsCrack.comhere.
Utah helmet from SportsCrack.com, here.
Washington University helmet fromFathead.com, here.
Washington helmet from Fathead.com, here.
Washington State new home helmet (with grey, not maroon, face mask), here [link was broken to Cougars team shop, here].
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Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, ‘2011 Pacific-12 Conference football season‘.
Thanks to NCAA.com, for attendance figures.

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September 2, 2010

NCAA Division I FBS: Big Ten Conference, 2010 season – attendance map (2009 figures), and modern era helmet history chart. Plus maps of the two Big Ten Divisions starting in 2011.

Filed under: NCAA Gridiron Football,NCAA/fb>Helmet History,NCAA/fb-Big Ten — admin @ 4:37 pm

Big Ten reveals divisional breakdown (article from September 2, 2010, from ESPN/College, {here}).
Below are two maps I assembled today, that show the two unnamed divisions in Big Ten football which will be instituted in 2011, when Nebraska makes the Big Ten football conference a 12 team organization. Included are the permanent rivalries [ie, match-ups that will have a game played each season].

Click on each image below to see full map of each future division set-up…

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Here is a list from the standpoint of who filled their stadium the best last season… the accumulated percentage capacities of Big Ten teams from 2009 [with 100% being a sell-out/team played to capacity; and a figure above 100% meaning the team played to capacity plus standing-room-only. (Ranking then listed in context of all 120 teams in FBS - I ; {then average attendance listed; then percent increase or decrease versus 2008 average attendance}).]…
Ohio State – 102.87% capacity (and the 3rd highest average attendance in FBS-I, at 105,261 per game {+0.3% vs. 2008 avg. attendance}).
Michigan – 102.57% capacity (and the highest average attendance in FBS-I, at 108,933 per game {+0.3% vs. 2008 avg. attendance}).
Minnesota – 101.61% capacity (and the 42nd highest average attendance in FBS-I, at 50,805 per game {+1.7% vs. 2008 average attendance}).
Penn State – 99.74% capacity (and the 2nd highest average attendance in FBS-I, at 107,008 per game {-1.1% vs. 2008 average attendance}).
Wisconsin – 99.74% capacity (and the 15th highest average attendance in FBS-I, at 80,109 per game {+1.7 % vs. 2008 average attendance]).
Michigan State – 99.65% capacity (and the 18th highest average attendance in FBS-I, at 74,741 per game {-0.1% vs. 2008 average attendance}).
Iowa – 99.47% capacity (and the 21st highest average attendance in FBS-I, at 70,214 per game {+0.1% vs. 2008 average attendance}).
Illinois – 94.71% capacity (and the 29th highest average attendance in FBS-I, at 59,545 per game {-3.5% vs. 2008 average attendance}).
Indiana – 84.98% capacity (and the 56th highest average attendance in FBS-I, at 41,833 per game {+31.6% vs. 2008 average attendance}).
Purdue – 80.73% capacity (and the 44th highest average attendance in FBS-I, at 50,457 per game {-11.1% vs. 2008 average attendance}).
Northwestern – 51.33% capacity (and the 83rd highest average attendance in FBS-I, at 24,190 per game {-15.4% vs. 2008 average attendance}).

Thanks to the NCAA site, for 2009 attendance figures, ‘NCAA Accumulated Attendances, FBS’ (pdf).
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New Michigan State helmet, here (at Motown Lowdown, a SB Nation blog), featuring a tapered grey stripe at top of helmet, and a slightly darker green helmet color.
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You will notice I placed a small rectangle for the Nebraska Cornhuskers on the main map page. Of course, Nebraska will be joining the Big Ten next season, in 2011, but I figured people would like to see geographically where the Cornhuskers’ home, Lincoln, Nebraska, is located in relation to the other 11 Big Ten teams’ locations.
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On the main map page, the modern-era helmet history of each team is not completely comprehensive, but shown are all major helmet design changes of each Big 10 team from the post-World War II era to the present time (approximately 56 to 64 years). That includes face mask color changes. As usual on these maps and charts, all modern, plastic composite helmet designs of each team in the Conference are shown, and they are arranged chronologically from left to right.

The plastic composite helmets replaced the old leather ones in the years following the end of World War II. By 1949, most NFL teams, and many college teams, had started using the new type of helmets, which had come out of technological innovations made during the WW II era. By the early 1950s, every college team was using the new helmets. Each teams’ helmet history on the chart thus starts when that school started using the safer and shinier new headgear. I made exceptions with Penn State and Michigan, because there was room for a leather helmet there, and I was able to find images of their final leather-helmet era designs. Believe me, if I could, I would have included the leather-helmet histories of all the teams, but sadly that visual history is very hard to unearth and there is no source out there for even incomplete depictions of what teams’ helmets looked like circa, say, 1900, or even 1940 {like the Michigan Wolverines helmets included in this photo from University of Michigan’s Bentley Historical Library site, here. Full article (‘Michigan’s Winged Helmet’, here}. The following link has (and sells) leather helmets of college teams, but some of them are probably not accurate, like the Michigan State helmet. And back then, with some manufacturers, leather helmet colors only came in black or tan, and sometimes if a school wanted their football team to wear helmets in the school colors, they had to paint them themselves. So anyway, at the Past Time Sports site, you can see the old , circa 1930 to 1940s, leather helmet designs of Michigan (top of page); and further down the page teams such as Michigan State, Penn State, Wisconsin, and Ohio State, {click here}. And you can go to MG’s Helmets site for a nice set of pages that shows, year-by-year, the helmet design of the popularly recognized National Champion, here …Note: go to the 11th category on the left-hand sidebar called ‘NCAA National Champs [1936 to present]‘. There you can see the 1936, 1940, and 1941 AP #1 Minnesota Golden Gophers’ maroon leather helmet and the 1942 AP #1 Ohio State Buckeyes’ silver leather helmet with top red stripe.

Thanks to Elite Deals site, where I got most of the current Big Ten helmet photos. I also got a couple photos from Score Here.com.
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Special thanks to the two sites that were instrumental in making this helmet history chart…the brilliant site Helmet Hut. Helmet Hut/College.
And the singular Helmet Project page, which is the only site I can find that has attempted to tackle helmet histories of college football teams (even if it is only from 1960 to the present day)… http://www.nationalchamps.net/Helmet_Project/
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One more thing…the Ohio State buckeye-leaf decals were green in the 1970s, were black around 20 years ago or so, and now are a very dark green (I think). My last post on Big Ten football, in November, 2008 {here} linked to a now-infamous thread on BuckeyePlanet.com {here}, which featured an ex-Buckeye player who showed photos of his helmet (this ex-player is early 1990s Ohio State punter Scott Tema), and provided vociferous arguments for the fact that the buckeye decals have always been black, but some outlets sell fake ones that are green. Well, 25 pages on, and a Slate.com mention later {here…(‘Lunatics Guide to College Football’, by Justin Peters on Aug. 29, 2007 @ Slate.com…see Ohio State/Bizarre fixation)}, the jury was still out but leaning towards dark hunter green, and certainly leaning towards the fact that during the 1970s, at least, the buckeye decals were definitely green. So I decided to use the Ohio State University.edu ‘s entry on the subject {here}. I did find out one thing for certain, though…the leaf decals were being awarded starting in 1967, not 1968, like is popularly believed. 1967 was the last year that Ohio State wore a red helmet. On page 17 of the thread, you can see a photo that proves this {here (halfway down the page)}.

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October 8, 2009

NCAA Division I, Football Bowl Subdivision: The Big 12, with 2008 average attendances, and modern helmet history of each team.

Filed under: NCAA Gridiron Football,NCAA/fb>Helmet History,NCAA/fb-Big 12 — admin @ 10:58 am

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As with the SEC map I posted a couple of weeks ago, the modern helmet history of each team is shown in the teams’ sections on the far right. The images of each team’s helmet start at the post-World War II period, circa 1947 to 1950 or so. This is when the old leather helmets were eventually replaced everywhere by the modern plastic compound helmets. I am not positive, but I think I have every helmet change of the teams in the Big 12, from that post-War period to the present [to 2009]. At the bottom right of each team’s section is that team’s current helmet design [note: Baylor has 2 helmets here because the team has home and road helmets this season.].

Thanks to MG’s Helmets {click here}. This is where I get the illustrations of the current helmet designs.

Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org {click here (set at Big 12 Conference football)}. Thanks to Kansas U. Athletics site/’Evolution of the Jayhawk’ {click here}. Thanks to Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos Page {click here}. Thanks to Helmet Hut site {click here (set at College)}. Thanks to The Helmet Project site {click here}. Thanks to Logo Shak {click here}. Thanks to Helmet History.com {click here (set at College)}. Thanks to glenniz, for the Sooners-wagon-on-dark-red-background image {click here}.

Thanks to The Southwest Conference Helmet History site, which was a real help in nailing down obscure helmet designs and dates for teams like Baylor, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech {click here}.

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September 17, 2009

NCAA Division Division I, Football Bowl Subdivision: The SEC, with 2008 average attendances, and modern helmet history of each team.

Filed under: NCAA Gridiron Football,NCAA/fb>Helmet History,NCAA/fb-SEC — admin @ 3:16 pm

Notes on the map and chart…
Instead of just listing last season’s average attendance for each team, there are now 3 columns…2008 average; Percent Capacity [of stadium]; and Change From 2007 [by percentage]. This list is at the right-hand side of the map. Below that is the list of SEC titles by team, including total seasons played in the SEC. Titles won in other major conferences, for Arkansas (in the defunct Southwest Conference) and South Carolina (in the ACC) are noted at the bottom.

On the far right, in the chart section, each team is listed top to bottom by how they finished in their division in 2008. The bulk of the images in each team’s section are devoted to depicting each teams’ helmet styles, and their changes through the years, starting with the modern helmet’s introduction in the post-war era circa 1946 to 1950 (which is when plastic composite helmets replaced the old leather helmets of the pre-war era). The helmets are chronologically listed from left to right, and top to bottom, for each team. The current helmet design is placed at the bottom right of each team’s section. This is not a comprehensive list, but all major helmet changes and most minor helmet changes are shown, with the following exceptions. The only two logo-based helmets (that I am aware of) which I couldn’t find a suitable image of are the Kentucky Wildcats’ split blue helmet of circa 1963-1968, with the players’ numeral on the left-hand side [which is shown on the chart], and the head of a snarling wildcat on the right-hand side; and the Mississippi State maroon bulldog-head-in-three-quarters-profile helmet of 1963-1965. In the Helmet Project site’s notes on their Southeastern Conference page, there are photos and descriptions of these two helmets {click here, then click on ‘Southeastern’, from the column on the left, then scroll to find the two teams’ sections}. And there are a few helmet designs I have left out of various teams’ sections because they were of a design that had been used previously, or were very slight modifications of logo size or center-stripe.

Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org (click here (’2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season’)}. Thanks to the excellent site Helmet Hut, where you can buy the old helmets, or any custom design {click here}. Thanks to the Helmet Project site at http://www.nationalchamps.net/Helmet_Project/ . This is the only site I can find that actually tries to tackle the helmet histories of NCAA teams, and there are still a good deal of gaps and unknown designs. Thanks to this site, http://helmet-history.com/ , which was a real help in filling in the gaps somewhat.

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