Inside The Huskies

Black UW Helmet Unveiled, Presumably for One-Off Moment

The Huskies continue to tinker with different game-day ensembles.

Dan Raley

The UW has unveiled black Husky football helmets.
The UW has unveiled black Husky football helmets. / UW

The University of Washington football team typically answers to purple and gold wardrobe colors except for special occasions, such as the black helmet the school unveiled on Thursday presumably for a one-off moment this coming season.

While you won't see schools such as Alabama, Texas or Penn State pulling on retro gear, choosing to maintain strict traditional looks in their base colors, the Huskies have experimented a lot with different game-day ensembles over the past decade.

Some have worked, some not, in terms of dressing for success.

In recent years, the all-purple uniform look with a gold helmet as a standard accessory has served the Huskies well in victories over Michigan State in 2022, Oregon in 2023 and Texas in the 2024 Sugar Bowl.

This was a well-received fashion statement for everyone involved with the UW for approaching big games.

However, the Whiter Shade of Pale both describes an old rock song by Procol Harum and a fashion direction for the Huskies that simply hasn't worked.

The all-white Husky uniform, worn in the CFP national championship game against Michigan and prior to that through the, proved to be a disaster this last time -- it was if the UW was signaling surrender before the showcase matchup even got started and ended up as a 34-13 loss to the Wolverines.

White pants were a UW staple throughout the 1950s before getting swapped out for gold togs, both home and away, and spotlighted in the 1960 and 1961Rose Bowls.

Today, if the Huskies wear purple jerseys and white pants they tend to resemble Northwestern or Kansas State.

Coach Jim Owens had select players in the 1960s wear purple helmets as a reward for exemplary play, a tradition that Jim Lambright, an Owens player and a Husky coach himself, restored in the 1990s.

The Huskies even wore white helmets during the Steve Sarkisian coaching era, but it was a bit too gimmicky.

The UW last wore black helmets, and all-black uniforms ,was in 2020 in a 44-27 victory over Arizona, though it was done in an empty Husky Stadium with the COVID pandemic preventing crowds from coming out.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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Dan Raley

DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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