PHOTO

 

DESCRIPTION

 

YEARS USED

 

COMMENTS
  Black leather helmet  
1928,
1930-1945
  TCU's predominate leather football helmet look. Dates are uncertain. In 1929, photo evidence shows that TCU wore light colored or white colored leather helmets.
   
   
  Purple helmet, white stripe.  
1946-1953
   A classic helmet design worn by TCU for much of the 1940s and 1950s. Great players such as Jim Swink wore this helmet. Dates are uncertain.
   
   
  Purple helmet, white stripe, gray facemask.  
1954-1957
   Only addition was the facemask.
   
   
  Purple helmet, white stripe, white player numbers on sides, gray facemask.  
1958-1959
   Player numbers were added, which was similar to most other schools at this time.
   
   
  White helmet with black player numbers on sides, gray facemask  
1960-1964
   This is the helmet that TCU wore for most of the 1960s. A very "blah" design overall.
       
  Purple helmet with white stripe, white solid horn frog on sides, gray facemask.  
1965
 This helmet was worn for only one year, but was a vast improvement over the plain white helmets.
         
  Purple shell with white stripe, purple and white "cartoon" hornfrog head outlined in white, gray facemask.  
1966
   Neat idea in incorporating the horn frog on the helmet. The horned frog would finally return in 1998.
       
  Purple shell with white stripe, white cTu on sides (similar to Texas A&M's design), gray facemask.  
1967
   Interesting concept of the TCU lettering on the sides of the helmet. Too bad this was only used one year.
         
  Purple shell with thin white-purple-white stripes, white player numbers on sides, gray facemask.  
1968
   A one year "experiment" before returning to the bland white helmets with purple player numbers.
       
  White shell with purple player block numbers on sides, gray facemask.  
1969-1970
   Very plain look, this helmet was almost an exact copy of the helmet the Frogs wore in the early 1960s, except the number were of a "block" typestyle.
       
  Silver shell with purple stripe and purple staggered "T" "C" "U" in a Times font. Gray facemask.  
1971-1973
   A nice looking helmet, instituted in the first year of coach Jim Pittman, who died tragically in mid-season of 1971 of a heart attack on the sidelines of the Baylor - TCU game in Waco.
           
  Purple shell with white stripe and white staggered "T" "C" "U" in a Times font. Gray facemask.  
1974-1976
   This helmet was an update of the helmet worn by the Frogs from 1971-73. TCU wore this helmet during the tenure of Jim Shoffner, and unfortunately, one of the worst periods of TCU football, with the Frogs winning a total of 2 games in this three year period.
       
  Silver shell with purple TCU on sides, with the T extending out over the CU, gray facemask.  
1977-1980*
   One of TCU's most popular helmet logos began during the tenure of Coach F.A. Dry. This helmet was worn until the Texas Tech game of 1980, at which time the shells were painted purple.
       
  Purple shell with white TCU on sides, with the T extending out over the CU, with a gray facemask.  
1980*
   This helmet was a one week transition helmet, worn during the TCU - Texas Tech game in Ft. Worth. Coach Dry stated at the time that the reason for the change to purple helmets was that all championship TCU teams had worn purple helmets. The gray facemasks were a holdover from the silver helmets, but would shortly be replaced.
         
  Purple shell with white TCU on sides, with the T extending out over the CU, with a white facemask.  
1980-1982*,
1983-1991
 Starting in the Texas game in 1980, TCU "finished" the look of this popular helmet by adding a white facemask. Barring a brief change in 1982, this helmet enjoyed the longest tenure of any TCU helmet; 11 1/2 seasons. Coach Jim Wacker immediately changed back to this look after taking over the TCU helm in 1983.
         
  Purple shell with white player's numbers on sides, white stripe, white facemask.  
1982*
   For some inexplicable reason, Coach F.A. Dry changed to these ugly helmets 2/3 of the way through the 1982 season. They were worn on the road in the Houston game with purple pants, which may have been a one game event.
       
  Purple shell with silver arched TCU on sides, gray facemask.  
1992
   This helmet was worn only during the first year of Coach Pat Sullivan. I consider this a "transition helmet", as it used the previous year's shell with Sullivan's new TCU logo design. Actually, not a bad helmet look.
       
  Silver shell with purple-white-purple stripes, arched TCU in purple outlined in white, and gray facemasks.  
1993-1994
   Evidently the look that Pat Sullivan wanted, this helmet is okay in design. One complaint is that the TCU on the sides is placed too high on the helmet and is way too small.
       
  Silver shell with arched TCU in purple outlined in black on sides with a black facemask.  
1995-1997
   A real puzzler! For some reason TCU decided to trim in black, and incorporated that look into the outlined TCU and the facemask.
       
  Metallic purple shell with TCU in white and gray horned frog outlined in black on sides, with a black facemask.  
1998-Present
   Perhaps the best looking TCU helmet in the modern era was instituted under Coach Dennis Francione. Could be a classic look, with the horned frog added to the side for the first time since the early 1960s. A purple facemask would probably look better (what's with the black fixation?), but overall, a GREAT looking helmet.