Despite being nearly a decade and a half since the winged helmet was adorned with these appendages, the topic of the helmet stickers, decals, or “achievement awards” still comes up on occasion.
Despite some claims that Woody Hayes started the tradition in Columbus, this is not so. Bo Schembechler actually launched this tradition in the mid-1960s at Miami of Ohio. He used little hatchets. He continued the tradition at Michigan when he joined the Wolverines.
Here’s a look at Don Moorhead‘s “Riddell TK-2 impregnated sunflower gold-colored shell” helmet compliments of umichfootball.com:
Nice pass Don, here’s another lemon for you
Moeller continued the tradition but Lloyd nixed it. Why did they stop? No, I don’t think it was “Just to keep a clean look” as asked by mgoblog user Casa Grande. It’s also not true that Carr thought the decals were “lame” as I’ve seen on a message board or two. More likely is that Carr dropped the stickers to take the emphasis off of individual achievement and onto the team concept.
Related: No, I’m not going into an investigation on who originally owned this helmet. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Garland Rivers.
Also Related: Looks like the Buckeye Blog ‘Eleven Warriors‘ has pimped my eBay Watch idea. It’ll be a regular feature on the site. He did give proper credit and offered a kind compliment…so I’m not sure whether to punch the guy or hug him.
4 Comments
Chris @ 11W
Definitely love the ebay idea and thought there were enough Buckeye items to poach it. As for the hug or punch – how bout neither? Let’s keep this a friendly rivalry, but not too friendly!
Regarding the stickers, I love the Buckeye leaves but I think the UM helmets look better with just the wings.
DMJ
Harbaugh will bring back the Wolverine reward stickers…Have you looked at Stanfords helmets lately?
Greg from MVictors
Good question for the potential press conference – \”any Michigan traditions you\’d like to bring back: helmet stickers, #1 jersey, tear away jerseys (lol)\”
said
put the stickers back there not gay guys the sticker add more intrest and makes it look nice plus carr is not the coach and bo is better and i hope hoke will be the man to take us to the bcs championship go blue screw osu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!