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Tuesday
March 16, 2010 Since 1922 |
New REL helmets keep Gander traditions
By Dave Rogers
They showcased new-look helmets as well in their 27-14 win over La Porte.
Even if you had to look close to notice.
A longstanding principle of high school football is that new coaches nearly always equal new helmet and uniform designs. Typically, teams change uniform styles every two or three years whenever coaches order replacements, but helmets might stay the same for two or three decades.
Lee High School varsity players had worn solid maroon helmets with white gander silhouettes on both sides since 1993, Dick Olin’s second year as head coach, with little exception.
Last Friday, the Ganders of coach Marvin Sedberry, Jr., burst onto the field wearing maroon helmets with a gander silhouette only on the right side. A white stripe ran down the center of the headgear, from front to back and the left side was bare.
But not for long, Sedberry said.
“We’re going to put award stickers on the other side,” he said.
And the award stickers are smaller gander silhouettes.
“Players will earn them throughout the season for their performance in practices and games,” he said, “for things we set goals to achieve.”
Keeping one big gander on the side of the helmet (along with the small ones for
goal-achievers) keeps intact a Lee tradition that was begun in Pete Sultis’ final season as a Ganders’ head coach, 1967.
For 38 of the 43 years since, the male goose has been part of Lee’s football headwear.
A check of Lee football helmets of the past 50 years revealed an all-white helmet with no adornments in the years 1959 and 1960, early in Sultis’ nine-year tenure as head coach.
From 1961 to 1966, Sultis had his team outfitted in white helmets with block numbers on each side matching the players’ jersey numbers. Penn State and Alabama maintain this tradition, although Alabama has gone back and forth between white and red helmets.
In 1967, Lee helmets featured two stripes down the middle and a line-art gander that was barely noticeable from the sidelines.
Ron Kramer changed that when he was promoted to head coach in 1968, putting a solid maroon gander on each side of the helmet. In Kramer’s first 10 years on the job, Lee’s white helmets also had two stripes down the middle.
In 1978, the stripes disappeared, so that the maroon ganders were the helmets’ only embellishments.
Jim Stroud kept those helmets his first two seasons as head coach, 1985 and 1986, then threw a changeup in for his final five seasons.
Instead of the Gander, the helmet logo was the word “Lee” spelled out in block letters, with a big L enclosing smaller capital E’s, which is similar to the current Midland Lee helmet logo. Stroud’s design had a single maroon stripe down the middle.
Olin brought back the gander silhouette when he arrived in 1992, but he kept the white helmets and added a second maroon stripe.
“We didn’t get hired until June of 1992 and we didn’t really get the helmet right until the next year,” Olin said. “(Athletic director) Marvin Guy helped me a lot with the school traditions, he and (longtime trainer) George Crow.
“We put the gander on the helmet in 1993 and kept it there.”
Olin did make one temporary alteration on the simple maroon helmet-white gander scheme. From 2000 to 2002, Lee wore two helmets, the maroon one at home and a white one with a maroon gander for road games.
“Drew (Drew Tate, the coach’s son) and I went to the Cotton Bowl and saw Texas play Arkansas,” Olin recalled last week. “Texas came out in all white, except for the orange longhorn on the side of the helmet. Drew said, ‘You know dad, we can do that.’
“At that time, our numbers were down and the kids had a set of white helmets they wore for practice. We used those until it was time to re-order and then it was all maroon helmets after that.”
When Sedberry arrived at Lee last winter, helmet makeovers were one of the things he worked on. An early idea was a white helmet with a block “Lee” on the sides. It was nearly identical to Stroud’s helmet, but had an oval, football-shaped ring around it.
More traditional heads prevailed.
“They told me the last coach to do that was the least successful coach who’d been here,” Sedberry said. “I figure if I’m going to learn anything from history, it’s don’t do it twice.”
They showcased new-look helmets as well in their 27-14 win over La Porte.
Even if you had to look close to notice.
A longstanding principle of high school football is that new coaches nearly always equal new helmet and uniform designs. Typically, teams change uniform styles every two or three years whenever coaches order replacements, but helmets might stay the same for two or three decades.
Lee High School varsity players had worn solid maroon helmets with white gander silhouettes on both sides since 1993, Dick Olin’s second year as head coach, with little exception.
Last Friday, the Ganders of coach Marvin Sedberry, Jr., burst onto the field wearing maroon helmets with a gander silhouette only on the right side. A white stripe ran down the center of the headgear, from front to back and the left side was bare.
But not for long, Sedberry said.
“We’re going to put award stickers on the other side,” he said.
And the award stickers are smaller gander silhouettes.
“Players will earn them throughout the season for their performance in practices and games,” he said, “for things we set goals to achieve.”
Keeping one big gander on the side of the helmet (along with the small ones for
goal-achievers) keeps intact a Lee tradition that was begun in Pete Sultis’ final season as a Ganders’ head coach, 1967.
For 38 of the 43 years since, the male goose has been part of Lee’s football headwear.
A check of Lee football helmets of the past 50 years revealed an all-white helmet with no adornments in the years 1959 and 1960, early in Sultis’ nine-year tenure as head coach.
From 1961 to 1966, Sultis had his team outfitted in white helmets with block numbers on each side matching the players’ jersey numbers. Penn State and Alabama maintain this tradition, although Alabama has gone back and forth between white and red helmets.
In 1967, Lee helmets featured two stripes down the middle and a line-art gander that was barely noticeable from the sidelines.
Ron Kramer changed that when he was promoted to head coach in 1968, putting a solid maroon gander on each side of the helmet. In Kramer’s first 10 years on the job, Lee’s white helmets also had two stripes down the middle.
In 1978, the stripes disappeared, so that the maroon ganders were the helmets’ only embellishments.
Jim Stroud kept those helmets his first two seasons as head coach, 1985 and 1986, then threw a changeup in for his final five seasons.
Instead of the Gander, the helmet logo was the word “Lee” spelled out in block letters, with a big L enclosing smaller capital E’s, which is similar to the current Midland Lee helmet logo. Stroud’s design had a single maroon stripe down the middle.
Olin brought back the gander silhouette when he arrived in 1992, but he kept the white helmets and added a second maroon stripe.
“We didn’t get hired until June of 1992 and we didn’t really get the helmet right until the next year,” Olin said. “(Athletic director) Marvin Guy helped me a lot with the school traditions, he and (longtime trainer) George Crow.
“We put the gander on the helmet in 1993 and kept it there.”
Olin did make one temporary alteration on the simple maroon helmet-white gander scheme. From 2000 to 2002, Lee wore two helmets, the maroon one at home and a white one with a maroon gander for road games.
“Drew (Drew Tate, the coach’s son) and I went to the Cotton Bowl and saw Texas play Arkansas,” Olin recalled last week. “Texas came out in all white, except for the orange longhorn on the side of the helmet. Drew said, ‘You know dad, we can do that.’
“At that time, our numbers were down and the kids had a set of white helmets they wore for practice. We used those until it was time to re-order and then it was all maroon helmets after that.”
When Sedberry arrived at Lee last winter, helmet makeovers were one of the things he worked on. An early idea was a white helmet with a block “Lee” on the sides. It was nearly identical to Stroud’s helmet, but had an oval, football-shaped ring around it.
More traditional heads prevailed.
“They told me the last coach to do that was the least successful coach who’d been here,” Sedberry said. “I figure if I’m going to learn anything from history, it’s don’t do it twice.”