Helmet Bevo turns 50!

Fifty years ago this week, Darrell Royal put the infamous Longhorn silhouette logo on the football helmets! He asked a local sporting goods merchant to draw something up. Upon Rooster's reveal of his design (rendered in crayon), Darrell put it on the helmet for the Cal game. That was September 23, 1961! The article tracks the earliest emergence of the longhorn around the university - main contributor being booster H.J Lutcher Stark who first added a steer to sideline player blankets (and a host of other influences detailed in the story).

They got one thing wrong, though. First appearance of those little iconic cartoon Bevos I can attribute to 1956 - which is earlier than the 1960 media guide sporting the familiar pair of characters.  I have them in a 1956 Texas football program (and not in 1955 programs). Would love to know who drew him up!  Note that this pair from the 50s is very similar to the one above in my blog banner from the 70s.  The super angry one in the right of my blog banner adorns a SWC/National Champions windbreaker I have from 1969. Just to give you a dating of the different versions... which were all used at various times throughout those decades (and certainly on cool throwback SWC tees).

Also love how Royal did not want to "candy up" the unis by adding stripes.  The ONLY uni to this day I accept emphatically WITHOUT striped pants (because, as I have stated time and time again - football pants need stripes)!

Full article can be found here - and the link has also been added to my SWC football site the left column under traditions.