DUKE	GEORGIA TECH	MIAMI
"Blue Devils"	"Yellow Jackets"	"Hurricanes"
Durham, NC	Atlanta, GA	Coral Gables, FL

NORTH CAROLINA	VIRGINIA	VIRGINIA TECH
"Tar Heels"	"Cavaliers"	"Hokies"
Chapel Hill, NC	Charlottesville, VA	Blacksburg, VA

Comments

Duke will be using a new helmet design in 2008 (shown above).

Historical Helmets

BOSTON COLLEGE

c.1970s	c.1980s - 1990; November 6, 2004	1991 -
	*see note 1 below

I am not aware of Boston College having ever used a logo on the sides of its helmets, and these are the only variations that I know about for BC. I would appreciate information about any other helmet designs BC may have used since 1960 (if there have been any, that is). Gray facemasks were used at least into the 1980 season, but I do not know specifically when the switch to maroon ones was made.

*1 This design was brought back for the November 6, 2004 home game against Rutgers as part of a plan to "wear 'throwback' uniforms dating back to the 1984 season...in recognition of the 20-year anniversary of [the] Cotton Bowl championship team".

CLEMSON

c.early 1960s	1965	1966

1967 - 1968	1976	October 7, 1995; September 7, 1996
		*see note 1 below

1977 -

From at least 1962 through 1964, Clemson used numerals of some unknown dark color on helmets that were otherwise similar to the earliest one shown above. I think these numerals could have been either black, blue, or purple.

In 1970, the "paw print" logo apparently was used on Clemson's football helmets for the first time; the original version was somewhat different in shape than the one presently used, and also considerably larger. A "paw print" logo of the same shape as is presently used was introduced by at least 1974, but it was also much larger during its first year or two of use.

*1 This special design was used for two games, October 7, 1995 vs Georgia, and September 7, 1996 vs Furman, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of intercollegiate football at Clemson. The design was intended to resemble those used by the school's first bowl team, the 1939 team which defeated Boston College in the Cotton Bowl. Thanks to Charles A. for this information.

DUKE

1958 - 1964	1966 - 1969	1965; 1970
	*see note 1 below	*see note 2 below

1971 - 1977	c.1974 - c.1976	1978
	*see note 3 below

1979 - 1980	1981 - 1984	1985 - 1993

1994 - 2003	November 10, 2007	2004 - 2007
	*see note 4 below

2008 -

These are, to the best of my knowledge, all of the different helmet designs used by Duke during the period covered by this web site (1960 to present) with the exception of the 1969 helmet (see note 1 below).

*1 During 1969, the devil head logo was worn on only the right sides of the helmets; on the left side was a version of the "100" logo that many teams used that year. I have no color photographs of Duke's version of the "100" yet, but it appears to be of a dark color with light-colored numerals in the monochrome pictures that I have seen; probably white on blue.

*2 Represented here is the 1965 helmet; the 1970 helmet may have had a very slightly different style of numerals.

*3 The logo on this helmet appears to have been used occasionally during at least the 1974 and 1976 seasons; the plain silver helmet was used for other games through at least 1976.

*4 The decals were removed from Duke's helmets for a home game against Georgia Tech in 2007 in recognition of the 1938 Duke team, which finished its regular season "unbeaten, untied and unscored upon".

FLORIDA STATE

? - 1962; 1964 (some games)	1962	1962

1962	1964	1965

1966 - 1968	1968	1969 (first two games)

1969 (last eight games)	1970	1971 - 1974

1975	1975	1975

1976 -

GEORGIA TECH

c.early 1960s	1965? - 1966	1969 - 1971; September 21, 2006
*see note 1 below	*see note 2 below	*see note 3 below

1967 - 1968; 1972 - 1973	1974 - ?	1984 (most games?)
		*see note 4 below

c.late 1970s -
*see note 5 below

Particularly during the 1960s and early 1970s, Georgia Tech appears to have frequently changed helmet designs, and I suspect that there may have been some years in which both white and gold helmets were used at different times. Other designs may have been used besides the ones shown here.

*1 Plain gold helmets were used in at least 1962 and 1963, and probably earlier. There is a gap in my records for 1964.

*2 Many photographs (but not all) from these two years show small, five-pointed "star" decals on most of the helmets, placed in the area where "primary" helmet decals are usually placed. The photographs that I have seen show up to three stars on a single helmet; when more than one is present, they are arranged in a closely-spaced horizontal row. Since not all players had these "stars", I suspect that they were an "award" decal of some sort, rather than an inherent part of the "helmet design". The stars appear to be gold or yellow in color with dark outlines.

*3 This design was brought back for the 2006 home game against Virginia, during which Georgia Tech wore "uniforms reminiscent of the early 1970s".

*4 It has been reported that plain helmets without "GT" decals were used in most games of the 1984 season, though the decals were in use during at least game #3 against Clemson and game #11 against Georgia.

*5 A switch to dark-colored facemasks was made by at least 1978, but I think it is possible that gray facemasks may have been used again sometime after 1978.

MARYLAND

1963 - 1965	1959 - 1962; 1966	1967
*see note 1 below	*see note 2 below	*see note 3 below

1967	1968	1969

1970	1971	1972 - 1981

1982 - 1990	1991	1992 - 1996

1997 - 2000	2001 -

These are all known helmet variations used by Maryland for the period 1960 to present.

*1 In all the color pictures that I have seen showing this helmet design, the terrapin appears to be primarily yellow, but I think it is possible that a mostly brown or perhaps red version may have also been used briefly (some photographs that I have seen seem to indicate a darker-colored terrapin). It appears that most players wore black numerals on either side of the middle stripes on both the fronts and backs of their helmets during this period.

*2 A slightly different numeral style may have been used in 1966 than was used during the earlier period, and narrow red stripes may have been used between the black and yellow stripes during 1966.

*3 The decal on this helmet represents the Maryland state flag. This design was used in 1967 during at least games number 2, 3, and 7 against Syracuse, N.C. State, and Clemson, respectively. The red helmet with black stripes was used during at least game number 9 against Virginia.

MIAMI

c.1960 - 1964	1965 - 1968	1967; October 29, 2005
*see note 1 below		*see note 2 below

1970	1971	1971
	*see note 3 below

1972 - 1975	1977	1976; 1978 - 1983

1984 -

Like many other colleges, Miami's helmet history during the 1960s appears to be rather complicated, with a number of midseason changes having been made, particularly during the second half of the decade. This is one of those teams for which I suspect a game-by-game analysis would be necessary to identify every design used by the team. At least one single-game design has been identified: for Miami's game against Florida in 1967, the "hurricane warning flag" logo was replaced with a white half-circle containing the text "GET A GATOR" in dark-colored letters; below is a photograph of this design. Additional short-lived designs would not come as a surprise to me.

In 1969, Miami used gold helmets with a logo consisting of a football shape with the number "100" across it, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the first college football game; I do not know what colors were used in Miami's version of this decal, but in black-and-white photographs it appears to have been a dark-colored football shape with a white outline and with white numerals.

*1 White helmets with green numerals MAY also have been used at some time during the early 1960s.

*2 This design was resurrected for a 2005 home game against North Carolina in honor of the 1967 Miami team, which "played a large part in making the 1960s a prosperous decade in UM Football", according to a press release from the university.

*3 This "plain" helmet design was apparently used for just the first couple of games during 1971.

NORTH CAROLINA

1960 - 1962	1963 - 1966	1967 - 1977
		*see note 1 below

1978 only?	1979 only?	c.early 1980s - 1985

1986 - 1987	1995 - 2000	1988 - 1994; 2001 -

*1 Several photographs that I have seen from around the period 1975 to 1977 seem to show UNC using helmet shells of a somewhat darker shade of blue than were used during other years. This seems to be most noticeable in photographs from the 1977 season.

NORTH CAROLINA STATE

1960 - 1962	1964 - 1967	1968 - 1971

1972 - 1977	1978 - 1980	1981 - 1982

1983 - 1985	1986 - 1998	1999

2000 -

VIRGINIA

? - 1967	1967 - c.1975	c.1975 - 1976
*see note 1 below

1977 - 1978	1978 - 1981	1982 - 1983

1984 - 1993	1994 - 2000	2001 -
*see note 2 below

I do not yet have any information about Virginia's helmet designs from the very early 1960s.

*1 This design appears to have been in use at least as early as 1964 and was still being used through at least the first game of the 1967 season against Army. The oval-shaped logo was added by at least the final game of the 1967 season against Maryland.

*2 This helmet design featured a rare even number (2) of stripes, as opposed to the usual 1, 3, or 5 stripes; a navy blue stripe on the left side of center bordered directly against an orange stripe of the same width on the right side.

VIRGINIA TECH

1966 - 1970	1971 - 1973	1974 - 1977

1978 - 1982	1983 - 1986	1987 - 1998

1999 -

This is believed to be a complete set of helmet images for Virginia Tech for the period 1966 to present. In 1960 and 1961, the team used white helmets with a darker stripe and with uniform numerals on the sides; the color of the stripe and numerals is presently unknown, but both were probably maroon. From 1962 through 1965, Virginia Tech wore maroon helmets with light-colored uniform numerals (probably white) on the sides. I would appreciate some color photographs of these early helmets to confirm the colors used on the helmets.

WAKE FOREST

1961 - 1963	1964	1965 - 1968

1969 - 1971	1972	1973
		*see note 1 below

1976 - 1977	1978	1979 - 1986

1987 - 1990	1991 - 1992	1993 - 2000

2001 -

Wake Forest apparently used black helmets around 1960 with light-colored numerals and light-colored stripes; a color photograph of this design would be appreciated.

Wake Forest's 1974 helmets featured an unusual logo which you may see in the photograph below. It has been reported that this design commemorated a visit to Japan by the football team in January 1974 which included "exhibitions" against Japanese teams, as well as a return visit by a Japanese team a few months later. The same logo as was used in 1973 was worn on the right sides of the helmets, but a somewhat different version was used on the left sides - the right half of the football shape contained a red circle against a white background, with the left half retaining the "American flag" motif. This logo is visible on helmets in photographs taken during at least three different games (vs North Carolina, NC State, and Clemson), and is reported to have been used during the entire season. Wake Forest played a game in Japan in 1982 against Clemson which was called the "Mirage Bowl", but this was apparently the only game the team has ever played in Japan (reference: http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/bowls/special_game_results.php?country=Japan), and the 1974 helmet logo was not associated with this game. Below is a close-up picture of the logo in question. I could add this helmet to the site if I knew the color of the outline on the "Japanese half" of the oval shape (so a good color photo is necessary).

In 1975, the football-shaped oval logo was altered again, with this version apparently worn on both sides of the helmet. The 1975 logo (see below) appears to be similar to the 1973 version, but with a large black "W" superimposed upon the football shape. Most photographs that I have seen from 1975 seem to imply that white facemasks were used that year. I would appreciate a copy of this 1975 helmet logo, also.

*1 In every photograph of this helmet that I have, there appears to be some very small text running along the middle white stripe of the logo; the text is not legible in any of these photos.