A Helmet Logo? Surely you Jest.

Not to divert your attention away from the Uniform post, but my attention has been brought to an issue that simply must be discussed.

In the comment section of the "Uniforms: Part 1" post, local sage DrVanNostren posted this little nugget...

"I think that during the 1988 campaign they had the "rider jumping through the O" logo."

Come again? My immediate rection was that of denial, my mind is less sharp everyday, but all I've ever known (or thought I've known) was that in my lifetime the Red Riders have never had a helmet logo. I thought maybe it was something we wore in a scrimmage, or thought about wearing but never did. I was very surprised to find out that we actually wore it for not just a game, but for an entire season.

Through careful follow up with the good doctor, he revealed that a player on the '88 team tipped him off to this fact. That was good enough for me, but I needed visual proof, so off to the Orrville Public Library and the wonderfully awesome microfilm archive.

This is what I found (look between the skulls on the top row). Tough to see, and looks more like a smudge or glare, but trust me, it's there. Upon further inspection, it becomes more clear what it is.

Here's about the best picture I could find, pretty clear in my mind. It's this. The Rider jumping through a Block 'O.' Yes indeed. Unbelievable.

I wouldn't be against a logo on the helmet, but this one just looks hokey. To me, it doesn't seem like a whole lot of planning went into this. First off, it's terribly small. If you're putting something on the helmet, make it so people can see it. Players and coaches on the sidelines probably had a hard time seeing it, nevermind the fans. It's tough to see even in close up pictures.

Lastly, as I mentioned in the comments section, when you have pride stickers and a logo, it can become a little cluttered. Look again at this picture. Not only is it cluttered, but the pride stickers become much more visible than the actual logo, and to me, that's backwards.

From what I could tell, it only appeared on the right side of the helmet and was a 1 year experiment. Here's a picture from 1989...back to normal. Whew!

Enjoy, don't forget about the uniform poll, interesting voting so far.

Now, let us never speak of this again.