The California Bears have revealed this Saturday they will be wearing throwback helmets for their game against Miami.
Naturally, they introduced the helmet via video…
Back by popular demand 😮💨#GoBears | #ALLIN pic.twitter.com/s7SzxHcb7o
— Cal Football (@CalFootball) September 30, 2024
The helmets are themselves almost perfect throwbacks to those worn during the 1985 season. They wore very similar helmets during the 1982-86 seasons.
As you can see, the helmet is blue, with a black cage. The nose bumper features a gold graphic featuring the Cal bear logo.
Both sides of the helmet have the “bear paw” logo, with “Cal” in script inside the paw.
Here’s a look at the rear, which has “California” spelled out in gold script on the neck bumper.
It appears as though the logo the team is using is not quite identical to those worn during the mid-1980s, as the 1985 helmet (shown below) seems to have longer claws, and the logo of the predecessor helmet has white outlines. What the team will wear on Saturday shows slightly shorter claws, and it not outlined. The 1983 and 1986 helmets look like they are not outlined.
As of this moment, the team has not unveiled what uniforms they will wear with the throwback helmet, but the team has called for a “gold out” for the fans. Whether or not the jersey shown below is a placeholder is not known.
If the team were to introduce period-correct throwback uniforms with the throwback helmet, here’s how they might look.
Those uniforms were pretty plain: solid navy jersey with gold numbers outlined in white, and gold pants. No stripes of any kind, and TV numbers on the sleeves.
However, since the game is a “Gold Out” (at least for the fans), and the Bears got new uniforms for 2024, but there were no gold jerseys — so perhaps the team will simply wear gold pants with whatever jersey they decide upon.
Great paw logo but too small on this current helmet. They will not wear gold jerseys I guess, probably gold pants indeed.
Yeah agreed. I like the slightly more detailed paw logo, but it’s just far too small. I know that helmets aren’t the blank canvas they used to be, with all the vents and ridges and panels, but c’mon surely it can be a little larger?
Having attended a few Cal games over the years, the Gold Out will more likely be an Empty Seats Out.
That logo is tiny….
I like the logo change on the helmet, always liked it when they wore the similar one before. Always found the script “Cal” a little boring.
The 83 and 86 logo, without the white outline, as in the AZ pic above, were the best IMO, never understood why they went away from it.
Also noticed on these new ones, they only have one version, no right side / left side images, which is strange, they had them in the 80s.
“The helmets are themselves almost perfect throwbacks”
They’re not even close to perfect. The originals were gloddy, featured a much larger logo, and the logo was outlined in white. It doesn’t even appear to be the same logo.
What are you talking about, Phil?
Best Cal uniform is royal blue tops, gold pants and gold helmet with the white “C” inside the black oval. The Joe Roth threads. I wish they wore these a lot more. Go Bears!
When the new uniforms for 2024 were unveiled (link), the Joe Roth throwback helmets were included, so we will definitely see them on the field at some point. Not sure if they’ll go full throwback with that helmet, but it was shown with both white and navy options in the new style
link
link