Helmet stickers, also known as reward decals and pride stickers, are stickers that are affixed to a

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offerin ...

football player's

helmet A helmet is a form of protective gear worn to protect the head. More specifically, a helmet complements the skull in protecting the human brain. Ceremonial or symbolic helmets (e.g., a policeman's helmet in the United Kingdom) without protect ...

. They can denote either individual or team accomplishments.

History

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

says the practice of awarding helmet stickers is often wrongly credited to Ernie Biggs, also an athletic trainer at

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

under legendary coach

Woody Hayes Wayne Woodrow Hayes (February 14, 1913 – March 12, 1987) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Denison University (1946–1948), Miami University in Oxford, Ohio (1949–1950), and Ohio State University (1951 ...

. They instead claim that the practice of awarding stickers began with Jim Young, former assistant coach at

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

in 1965, two years before they were used by the Buckeyes. An even earlier attribution is given to Gene Stauber, freshman coach at

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

(1955–1957) by head coach

Pete Elliott Peter R. Elliott (September 29, 1926 – January 4, 2013) was an American football player and coach. Elliott served as the head football coach at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (1956), the University of California, Berkeley (1957–1959), ...

. Stauber routinely used stickers throughout his tenure as assistant coach at

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

(1960–1970), as a 1962 photo of All-American linebacker Dick Butkus indicates. The stickers stem from fighter pilots marking their planes with stickers or painted

roundel A roundel is a circular disc used as a symbol. The term is used in heraldry, but also commonly used to refer to a type of national insignia used on military aircraft, generally circular in shape and usually comprising concentric rings of diff ...

s after kills and/or successful missions. Michael Pellowski, in his book ''Rutgers Football: A Gridiron Tradition in Scarlet'', credits

Rutgers Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and w ...

defensive backs coach

Dewey King DeWayne "Dewey" King (October 1, 1925 – April 13, 2021) was a former American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at San Jose State University from 1970 to 1972 and at Wheaton Colleg ...

with being “one of the first” to award decals for helmets in 1961. The stickers were given for

interception In ball-playing competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for a player of the same team ...

s only, so they were more difficult to earn. Every time there was an interception, the crowd yelled “give him the star.” The stars can be seen in a photo of the 1961 team walking from the locker room to the field prior to the season finale against Columbia.

Current usage

Division I

FBS

* Clemson: paw print /3.0/4.0 * Eastern Michigan: feather * FIU: gold panther paw * Florida State:

tomahawk A tomahawk is a type of single-handed axe used by the many Indigenous peoples and nations of North America. It traditionally resembles a hatchet with a straight shaft. In pre-colonial times the head was made of stone, bone, or antler, and Eur ...

(Only awarded after team wins) * Louisiana Lafayette: fleur de lis * Michigan: wolverine with players' personal achievements and area codes * North Carolina: Tar Heel(only on traditional blue helmets) * Northern Illinois: Bone/ Huskie logo * Ohio State: buckeye tree leaf * Pittsburgh: panther head * Stanford: axe blade * UNLV: spade * UTEP: pick ax

FCS

* Alabama A&M * Butler: dog bone * Florida A&M: snake heads * Fordham University: ram head * Illinois State: Reggie Redbird * New Hampshire * North Carolina A&T * Weber State * Youngstown State: white star

Discontinued usage

* Appalachian State: Yosef * Arizona: Wildcat Paw * Arizona State: Pitchfork * Arkansas: Hog head * Arkansas State: "I Will" * Baylor: Bear head * Bowling Green: "BG" logo * BYU: Gold Cougar (Personal Goals) and Blue Cougar (Team Goals, Wins)/"HC"(used only on throwback helmets) * California: Football (football with big C and "WIN" on it, Growling Bear head ('70s)) * Central Michigan: Yellow Block C * Colorado: Buffalo * Colorado State: Ram horn * Duke: Grim Reaper * East Carolina: Skull Pirate Logo * Florida Atlantic * Fresno State: White Bone, Yellow Bone, and Black Bone * Georgia: White Bone/Black Bone (Academic) (Used during the Mark Richt Era (2001-2015), White Stars during the Vince Dooley Years * Georgia State: Panther, a block "M" (standing for magnanimatas, or "greatness of spirit" in Latin), and a gold star for academics * University of Hawaii: Warrior helmet and cross spears * Houston: White Paw * Indiana * Iowa State: Cyclone * Kentucky: White Wildcat Paw/Blue Wildcat Paw (only on white helmets) * Louisville: Cardinal * Louisiana Monroe: Maroon Star/Warhawk Talon * Marshall: Green Horn * Maryland: Red Turtle and Yellow Turtle * Memphis: Tiger Paw * Miami: Green hurricane/Orange hurricane * Miami(Ohio): Star/Tomahawk * Middle Tennessee State: Pegasus * Michigan State: White "S"/ Javelin * Missouri: Tiger Paw * Mississippi State: Bulldog * North Carolina State: Wolf Fang * New Mexico: Lobo * New Mexico State: Aggie "A" * Nevada: Axe * Northwestern: Wildcat logo * Purdue: Train * Rice: Owl * Rutgers: Silver Star/Sword * San Jose State: 100/100, “Prove It”(only on white helmets) * SMU: Pony logo * Southern Miss: Eagle * South Carolina: Gamecock foot with spur * South Florida: Green Bull Logo * Temple: Diamond * Tennessee * Texas Tech: Red Star * Toledo: White Rocket/Yellow Rocket * Tulane: Fleur-de-lis * Tulsa: Skull and Crossbones * UConn: Huskie/"C" logo * UCLA: Blue Bear Paw * Utah: Utes logo * Utah State: Block letter 'A'/Bull * Vanderbilt: Ship Anchor (only on gold helmets) * Virginia * Virginia Tech * Western Kentucky: "WKU" Red Towel logo * Western Michigan: Crossed Oars (used only during the 2013–16 tenure of

P. J. Fleck Philip John Fleck Jr. (born November 29, 1980) is an American football coach and former wide receiver. He has served as the head coach for the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team since 2017. Born in Sugar Grove, Illinois, Fleck played colle ...

as head coach) * West Virginia: Musket * Wyoming: Small Bucking Horse

References

{{reflist American football equipment College football in the United States High school football in the United States Stickers