A look at the Hawkeyes’ helmets through the years

Among college sports fans, uniforms often spark some of the greatest debate. Which threads are the best and which are total duds?

Fortunately for college football fans, legendary former Iowa head football coach Hayden Fry knew the program needed a fresh start with its image. When Fry arrived in December of 1978, the Hawkeyes had not enjoyed a winning season since 1961 and he represented the fourth head coach in nine years.

Fry enlisted the help of then-Iowa sports information director George Wine to spread the word that the Hawkeyes were in the market for a change and wanted a different, distinctive decal on their helmets. Wine reached out to Charles Edwards, whose firm Pepco Litho printed Iowa’s media guides at the time and worked with a lot of commercial artists.

Edwards then contacted Bill Colbert, the art director for Three Arts Advertising in Cedar Rapids. On a plane flight home from the Twin Cities, Colbert sketched out a rough design of a helmet decal with his pen on a paper napkin. After presenting the final design to Fry, the result was iconic. The Tigerhawk was met with rave reviews in the 1979 season and has become Iowa’s signature logo for all sports.

What did the Hawkeyes’ headgear look like before the Tigerhawk and what wrinkles have Iowa’s helmets seen over the years?

1977-78, script ‘Iowa’

Register file photo, Des Moines Register via Imagn Content Services, LLC

In the 1977 and 1978 seasons, the black cursive script “Iowa” adorned the Hawkeyes’ gold helmets with a black helmet stripe down the middle. Fry wanted a change when he arrived and the program wound up with the iconic Tigerhawk next.

1979-present, the Tigerhawk

Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

When Fry enlisted help to create a new helmet decal, even he couldn’t have imagined it would have lasted until present day. That’s precisely how it’s played out, though. The solid black helmets with the gold…