Since the 1960s, Nebraska has maintained a very consistent football helmet design. They have always had a very conservative design; They never had a flashy or unusual design, even for a special occasion like a Bowl game. In 1960, Nebraska had a red helmet with a white stripe and the player’s number on the side (ex. 22). In 1961, the Powers seem to have felt that even this design was too colorful and full of action and instead opted for a white helmet with black numbers on the side. Designing a Nebraska football helmet is about as easy as you can get for a football helmet. In 1966, the numbers changed to red and a red vertical stripe appeared on the helmet for the first time. The white background and red stripe have never left the helmet since.
The Red Numbers only lasted one regular season before being dropped altogether. Instead of a player’s number on the side of the helmet, the letters “NU” made their way onto the helmet for the Sugar Bowl in 1967 and stayed for two full seasons. During the third season of this helmet design (1969), a “100” decal appeared on the front of the football helmet. It was in the shape of a soccer ball in blue with white numbers outlined in red. The “100” marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
From 1970 to 1981, the Cornhuskers kept the exact same layout. The helmet had a white background, a vertical red stripe, and an “N” that replaced the word “NU”. This football helmet is very similar to today’s design with one exception. In 1982, the team switched from a basic gray face mask to a red face mask. For nearly 30 years, it has remained the same exact design. The letter “N” is about as easy as you can get. It has no serifs and appears to be the basic Arial big “N” font that you can type in any word processing program. It would probably fit well into the program’s image as a hard-working school in the Midwest, where they like to run the ball in the middle. In many ways, this is the antithesis of some of the flashier designs found at schools like Oregon, Maryland, and Boise State. There is not even a catchy emblem like the Texas Longhorn or the Florida spear. Looking at that football helmet, you can begin to see why the cold weather and rust belt schools in the Big Ten were quick to accept the Cornhuskers for full membership in the conference in 2010.
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