Huskies Will Wear Purple Helmets Against Arizona State, Tempt Fate

The dark-colored plastic hat seems stylish, but the UW hasn't always fared well while wearing it.

University of Washington football players will wear new purple helmets against Arizona State on Saturday night at Husky Stadium, a move the players seem to whole-heartily endorse while traditionalists no doubt will consider it blasphemous and tempting fate.

The last time the UW pulled on purple hats was for a game at California in 2018. For anyone who needs reminding, four-year starting quarterback Jake Browning was temporarily benched that day, then a little-known Jake Haener thew a game-deciding interception returned for a touchdown and the heavily favored Huskies lost 12-10.

The Huskies typically wear their long-standing gold helmets complete with stripes and a W, but part of their uniform deal with adidas was to re-introduce the purple helmet for a season one-off.

"I like them a lot actually," said senior wide receiver Giles Jackson, who began his college career wearing Michigan's maize and blue helmet with its classic winged design.

While UW players over the past decade and a half have worn gold, purple, white, black and metallic colored helmets, the purple version doesn't have huge support among team followers.

Wide receiver Giles Jackson shows off new Husky purple helmet supplied by adidas / Dan Raley

While change is difficult for some people, long-time fans can tell you the purple helmet has had good intentions but it's never quite lived up to an unbeatable approach.

Coach Jim Owens first introduced the purple helmet to his defensive players in 1966 — to anyone who gave 110 percent effort while on the field — opened up the practice to his offensive players in 1971 and this lasted until he retired in three years later. These teams finished anywhere from 1-9 to 8-3, going a collective 40-43.

With no NCAA rules preventing it, the UW players showed up for games wearing two different colors of helmets, looking somewhat ragtag. Opponents would even taunt those in the gold hats by suggesting they must not be very good.

Rome Odunze holds up the Huskies' new purple helmet that will be worn against Arizona State / Dan Raley

When he took over as the UW coach in 1975, Don James showed himself to be a stickler for cohesion and tradition, and for the next 18 years had his players wear only gold helmets.

However, Jim Lambright, who played for and coached with Owens, succeeded James as the Husky leader and one of the things he did was bring back the purple helmet in 1995. He played for Owens and coached with him.

While Lambright had his successes, the purple helmet seemed to make little difference to the coach's lasting power because Lambright was fired in 1998. He finished 44-25-1 and was let go following a 6-6 season.

Rick Neuheisel, Lambright's replacement, made a big deal about his Husky team returning to gold hats and their rightful tradition. Of course, he didn't last more than four seasons before he was shoved out the door for a betting scandal. 

As uniform and equipment deals for college football teams have leaned more to a pop-culture approach, fueled by Oregon's vast wardrobe of NIKE jerseys and helmets, the UW has pulled on a different helmet color other gold every couple of years with mixed results.

In 2020, during the height of the pandemic, Jimmy Lake's Huskies took the field against Arizona in an ominous black helmet and won 44-27.

Yet in the 2016 season that led to a College Football Playoff berth, Chris Petersen's UW 9-0 team pulled on the black hats expecting to dominate and lost at home to a 6-3 USC entry 26-13.

Probably the best message here is the Huskies shouldn't necessarily lead with their head. More chances than not on the field, it will lead to a big penalty. Some people, of course, think all that glitters is gold.

 

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