I went to school during the Zook years, so I saw the orange helmet with blue outlined Illinois the whole time, but I gotta admit that I am a fan of the white helmet with the orange Block I.
Worst to First: Illinois Football Helmets
We rank every Illinois Football helmet from Worst to First.www.thechampaignroom.com
Frankly (and I may be in the minority here) I would love to go asymmetrical and half the script “ILLINOIS” on one side of the helmet, and a Block I on the other. Doubtful they go that route but would be fun and unique.
In my mind, the only argument against the white helmets is that it's "not us" or "too many other schools do it" or "we have two real colors, we should use them," etc. And that is a perfectly good argument, to be fair. However ... both the white helmet with the orange block I and the white helmet with the script mock-up on the previous page objectively look pretty slick, haha.
The simple blue outline on the numbers makes such a huge difference, in a positive way.In my mind, the only argument against the white helmets is that it's "not us" or "too many other schools do it" or "we have two real colors, we should use them," etc. And that is a perfectly good argument, to be fair. However ... both the white helmet with the orange block I and the white helmet with the script mock-up on the previous page objectively look pretty slick, haha.
FWIW, I we wore W/W/B uniforms in Iowa City one year, and all of my Iowa friends remarked how cool they thought our jerseys were when we were watching the game:
It makes me a little uncomfortable how you put the emphasis on "very" old for something pre-1990's.^ I tried to edit my post but I couldn't, so sorry for posting back to back. We've all discussed this before, but our main issue RE: football uniforms (IMO at least) is that we have no modern history of sustained success to give our program the kind of "stickiness" for fan pride/attachment to tradition that others have. So, we have older fans who remember the "glory days" of the pre-1990s and prefer those uniforms (which are now VERY old and remembered by very few fans because we didn't keep them!), and we have new fans who have seen tons of different uniforms and a ton of heartbreak, misery and futility in each. Lol.
Alabama and Penn State have objectively boring uniforms that absolutely nobody in the United States would appreciate if they hadn't won SO many games over the years so as to develop huge and passionate fan bases and played in tons of meaningful, nationally televised games of huge importance. No 'Bama or PSU fans are clamoring for new uniforms because their tradition is actually cool and something to be proud of ... Illinois, in the era where college football has been on TV and accessible to a national audience at a large scale, simply does not have that.
So, I feel like our dilemma has always been to "reinvent classic" or simply try to "look cool." Again, JMO, but this helmet is frickin' cool:
However, there is literally not history or tradition behind it, and (on a fairly related note) it doesn't exactly scream "that's Illinois on the TV there" to anyone. Conversely, the slant ILLINOIS is fairly "traditional" (at least as far as the modern era goes), but most objective observers I know think that helmet sucks, lol. I am hoping our new jerseys can sort of thread the needle as far as being stylish and making us look cool out there while also establishing (or reestablishing) a clear "look" for Illinois football that we do not stray from too often in the future.
Haha, I meant more in the minds of recruits.It makes me a little uncomfortable how you put the emphasis on "very" old for something pre-1990's.
Now I have to go take a nap.
To them, I (aged 31) am irrelevantly old!
Damn that's gorgeous.^ I tried to edit my post but I couldn't, so sorry for posting back to back. We've all discussed this before, but our main issue RE: football uniforms (IMO at least) is that we have no modern history of sustained success to give our program the kind of "stickiness" for fan pride/attachment to tradition that others have. So, we have older fans who remember the "glory days" of the pre-1990s and prefer those uniforms (which are now VERY old and remembered by very few fans because we didn't keep them!), and we have new fans who have seen tons of different uniforms and a ton of heartbreak, misery and futility in each. Lol.
Alabama and Penn State have objectively boring uniforms that absolutely nobody in the United States would appreciate if they hadn't won SO many games over the years so as to develop huge and passionate fan bases and played in tons of meaningful, nationally televised games of huge importance. No 'Bama or PSU fans are clamoring for new uniforms because their tradition is actually cool and something to be proud of ... Illinois, in the era where college football has been on TV and accessible to a national audience at a large scale, simply does not have that.
So, I feel like our dilemma has always been to "reinvent classic" or simply try to "look cool." Again, JMO, but this helmet is frickin' cool:
However, there is literally no history or tradition behind it, and (on a fairly related note) it doesn't exactly scream "that's Illinois on the TV there" to anyone. Conversely, the slant ILLINOIS is fairly "traditional" (at least as far as the modern era goes), but most objective observers I know think that helmet sucks, lol. I am hoping our new jerseys can sort of thread the needle as far as being stylish and making us look cool out there while also establishing (or reestablishing) a clear "look" for Illinois football that we do not stray from too often in the future.
Not sure why there is a real interest in new uniforms. You must have loved The Lovie Era-new uniforms every day. I like Bielema's idea- simple and traditional.
I think it’d be very easy to update our current “traditional” uniforms to look better. Literally keeping everything the same but changing the numbers to block letter font and adding a white outline would be great.
Outline the letters - definitely. Script on the helmets, not in a billion million years!
? The uniforms they’ve worn under Bielema are lovie’s.
Certain combos of the initial rebrand uniforms were beautiful, including that one.In my mind, the only argument against the white helmets is that it's "not us" or "too many other schools do it" or "we have two real colors, we should use them," etc. And that is a perfectly good argument, to be fair. However ... both the white helmet with the orange block I and the white helmet with the script mock-up on the previous page objectively look pretty slick, haha.
FWIW, I we wore W/W/B uniforms in Iowa City one year, and all of my Iowa friends remarked how cool they thought our jerseys were when we were watching the game:
I would only have a blue or white helmet "available on short notice" should we ever play a team with orange helmets like Syracuse or Clemson in a bowl game .
I do want us to have a “special” uniform up our sleeves for sure (and not the Gray Ghost ones, lol…). Even if I hate the teams, I gotta admit that seeing LSU in purple or the Cowboys in navy is pretty cool. I like the idea of that novelty for us, especially if our new look will be very standard from game to game like Iowa and Wisconsin (and it sounds like it will, which makes sense for a Bielema uniform!).
I am the opposite, I prefer white helmets from jerseys from everybody from Illinois to BYU to ASU to Texas A&M to Air Force.
I would love for us to have a bears style jersey ready for when we play NW in Chicago
I even have a "Nike Marketing" name for that look, the George Halas jersey.
Here's my pessimistic thought: the first three letters of the football hoodie look like right font, too.
I will say that the graphic design and photography team need big credit on these photo shoots. They do one of the best backgrounds in the country, and the addition of the local graffiti artist adds a nice touch too.
