With so many divisions of college football not playing any games this fall, Balladeer’s Blog’s readers have been asking for at least SOME kind of additional pigskin content. In that spirit here’s a look at some of the coolest football helmets from now-defunct college programs.
Enjoy this latest Top 20 List For 2020:
CANISIUS COLLEGE GOLDEN GRIFFINS
Division: NCAA Div 1
Dropped Football: 2002
Comment: “Oh, those Golden Griffins/ Oh, those Golden Griffins” … Remember the Golden Grahams commercial? Oh, forget it.
CAL STATE-NORTHRIDGE MATADORS
Division: NCAA Div 1
Dropped Football: 2001
Comment: The name Matadors is cool if you remind yourself that no bulls were killed during any of this team’s football games.
UNIVERSITY OF EVANSVILLE PURPLE ACES
Division: NCAA Div 1
Dropped Football: 1997
Comment: Purple helmets never fail to catch the eye and there’s a certain Riverboat Gambler feel to the name Purple Aces.
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO CIRCLE CHIKAS
Division: NCAA Div 2
Dropped Football: 1973
Comment: That was certainly a fairly unique helmet logo to go along with the unique name Chikas.
OREGON TECH HUSTLIN’ OWLS
Division: NAIA
Dropped Football: 1992
Comment: Whatever you do, do not play pool with these owls, people! They will hustle you!
BOSTON UNIVERSITY TERRIERS
Division: NCAA Div 1
Dropped Football: 1997
Comment: As always, the dog lover in me just can’t resist a team named after pooches … even though the logo doesn’t show the dog in question.
CONCORDIA COLLEGE HORNETS
Division: USCAA
Dropped Football: 2015
Comment: What a terrible shame to let such kickass helmets go unused now!
FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY STAGS
Division: NCAA Div 1
Dropped Football: 2002
Comment: The Stags hockey team has become THE team to watch at Fairfield in recent years but I still miss their football program.
LA SALLE UNIVERSITY EXPLORERS
Division: NCAA Div 1
Dropped Football: 2007
Comment: Great team name and helmets that were a cool shoutout to the explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle.
NEW JERSEY CITY UNIVERSITY GOTHIC KNIGHTS
Division: NCAA Div 3
Dropped Football: 2003
Comment: You have got to love an unusual team name like Gothic Knights and that was one great logo!
MENLO COLLEGE OAKS
Division: NAIA
Dropped Football: 2014
Comment: The Oaks still shine at basketball and other sports but said goodbye to their football team, unfortunately.
WICHITA STATE SHOCKERS
Division: NCAA Div 1
Dropped Football: 1986
Comment: You may think their name is Shockers as in Wichita Power Company/ Wichita Lineman but actually Shockers is short for Wheatshockers. It’s similar to the way the Trolleydodgers eventually became just the Dodgers.
HASKELL INDIAN NATIONS UNIVERSITY INDIANS
Division: NAIA
Dropped Football: 2014
Comment: There was always something incredibly majestic about these helmets!
HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY FLYING DUTCHMEN
Division: NCAA Div 1
Dropped Football: 2009
Comment: The Flying Dutchmen changed their quirkily enjoyable team name to “the Pride” and ultimately dropped football completely.
IONA COLLEGE GAELS
Division: NCAA Div 1
Dropped Football: 2008
Comment: Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference teams were ditching football almost all at once at the turn of the century.
SAINT PETER’S COLLEGE PEACOCKS
Division: NCAA Div 1
Dropped Football: 2006
Comment: With apologies to Michigan, there is just something very eye-catching about these helmets.
UNIVERSITY OF TAMPA SPARTANS
Division: NCAA Div 2
Dropped Football: 1974
Comment: Maybe I’m alone on this, but I get a real kick out of the highly stylized rendition of the letters “UT” on these lids.
XAVIER UNIVERSITY MUSKETEERS
Division: NCAA Div 1
Dropped Football: 1973
Comment: Musketeers has got to be one of the coolest team names ever, but unfortunately that coolness seldom translated to gridiron success.
UNIVERSITY OF LINDENWOOD AT BELLEVILLE LYNX
Division: NAIA
Dropped Football: 2018
Comment: The Lynx always had a certain panache, as exemplified by their helmets.
URBANA UNIVERSITY BLUE KNIGHTS
Division: NCAA Div 2
Dropped Football: 2020
Comment: After following the Blue Knights from their NAIA years through their move to NCAA Division 2 awhile back, I was sad to see that this entire school – not just the football team – folded.
Helmets courtesy of the Helmet Project.
Balladeer's Blog 
Dang, man, that was a stupendous read! In spite oft he “sad” or regretful that goes with it all, it put me to mind of the “olden days.” Watching television in B&W which was hardly visible sometimes for all the fuzz. Names like Hopalong Cassidy – geeze, I can smell turkey in the oven. Ah yes, football was football then. No hype, no overpaid analysts, you got to watch the bands march at halftime, no mega-million primadonnas… Great reas, man, great read!
Thank you very much! Thanksgiving time football used to be a major event for me and my family, too, until very recent years.
Ah!! 🙂
Thanks!
This is great.
I’ve read that Wichita State was/is exploring a return to playing football.
That will be great if they do.
Pingback: TWENTY COOLEST FOOTBALL HELMETS FROM DEFUNCT COLLEGE PROGRAMS – Sports
Logged.
Wheatshockers is better than just Shockers.
But what can ya do?
Boston U’s helmets were pretty awesome.
I understand.
Purple Aces, mama! Hells yah!
You know it!
Shockers are the best ones!
I see.
I have never understood American football.
I see.
Oh man, I just read your comics post and clicked on ‘cool helmets’ expecting to see awesome Greek or Marvel helmets.
Same planet. Different world.
Ha! Sorry for the confusion. I do have other articles about old Marvel storylines from the Avengers, Defenders, Adam Warlock and others.
Yes, but we want helmets!!! Loki’s comes to mind. Huh. 😉
Ha! Well, I’ll see what I can do!
Orange county college has awesome yet simplistic logo they don’t use on their helmets. Instead opting for Tampa Bay bucs ripoff. Check it out
Thanks for the tip! I didn’t know they had changed their helmet logo. It looks like 2018 is when they made the change and that’s around when I finally stopped covering CCCAA sports because I had to trim down on something, time-commitment wise.
Is anyone here in a position to recommend Nightwear? Thanks x
Great, thanks for sharing this blog post. Really Great.