Illinois Football to Debut Throwbacks and Incredible Faux-Leather Helmets Saturday vs. Michigan

If you’ve been following college football this season, you’re likely aware that the University of Illinois has been breaking out different throwback helmets for home games this season, including last week’s Dick Butkus-era “Four Stars” gear.

Illinois football is in the midst of a season-long celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Memorial Stadium, and their uniforms and helmets have been celebrating previous eras of Illini football. The team has already showed off some retro helmets, wearing their white underlined ILLINOIS buckets twice (worn from 2005-12), and their radially arched “ILLINI” (worn from 1980-82) with blue letters outlined in white, earlier this season. And last weekend saw the Four Star on the gridiron.

While the team is likely not a threat to the B1G boys (Oregon, Penn State, even Indiana are 6-0 so far, with THE Ohio State University, and Nebraska at 5-1), Illinois has still played well and owns a 5-1 record going into this weekend. And if the team plays as well as the uniforms look this Saturday, they may be able to knock off reigning National Champs Michigan.

That’s because this Saturday the team debuts a “1920s throwback” uniform, complete with an absolutely incredible faux leather helmet, when the Illini take on the Wolverines. October 19th will mark 100 years and one day after Red Grange’s historic six-touchdown performance against the Wolverines during the Memorial Stadium Dedication Game in 1924. They’ll be “rededicating” the Stadium for this game.

According to the University, “the helmets, jerseys, and pants [are] all designed to mirror the attire worn by Grange and the Fighting Illini football teams that represented the university during the early years of the program’s existence.”

Jake Rosch, Director of Football Equipment Operations, said, “The program has done some throwbacks in the past, but it was really important to be more accurate to the time the stadium opened. We kicked around some ideas, but we ultimately settled on recreating Red Grange’s uniform from 1924.”

The uniforms are fantastic, but the faux leather helmet is unquestionably the “star” of the uniform. It’s definitely one of the best, if not the best, attempts to recreate the look of the old school leather helmets on a modern shell:

Here’s how the school described the process for creating it:

Always stuck on the idea of modeling the appearance of a leather helmet, the Illini reached out to their vendors to find a solution, which came via Armando Villarreal, the owner of an airbrushing company in southern Nebraska, who will hand-paint each individual helmet. Villarreal is one of only two artists in the nation who specialize in airbrushing football helmets.

The process is quite complex. The helmets are first sanded down before being sprayed with a sealer. Villarreal then adds a base coat before letting the helmets dry and scuffing them up a bit to add some texture.

The helmets are next sprayed dark brown, and Villarreal uses a stencil to give the exterior a more authentic leather look. Once the helmets dry, Villarreal airbrushes the straps, stitching, and holes, all of which help replicate the look of the helmets worn by Grange and the Illini in 1924.

Villarreal completes the helmets by adding a clear coat to create a matte finish. Each of the leather-brown helmets – which are a slightly different shade from the tan color of the jersey due to the kind of leather that was used during the 1920s – takes one to two hours to complete, but Rosch knew he needed that level of attention to detail to achieve the team’s desired look.

Here’s a closeup of the back of the helmet, featuring a 100 year Memorial Stadium decal, and showing the detail of the artist.

You can get some very good looks at the whole uniform here, as well as a bit of history of Red Grange during his time at Illinois.

A streak of fire, a breath of flame. Eluding all who reach and clutch, a gray ghost thrown into the game.

As a program that always remembers who came before us, we will honor Red Grange and his incredible impact on football during our Memorial Stadium Rededication Game on Oct.… pic.twitter.com/FjUSjZmJ3x

— Illinois Football (@IlliniFootball) August 8, 2024

And here’s a particularly good video featuring Armando Villarreal, who is the artist behind the helmets. Definitely worth a few minutes of your time to watch!

Absolutely incredible.

The rest of the uniform isn’t nearly as complex as the helmet, but it’s just as beautiful.

The jersey is a navy blue, with a series of thick tannish-gold stripes running vertically down the front. These are meant to mimic the “friction strips” common to jerseys of the era. They run from the base of the front of the jersey in a pyramid pattern, extending upward to the top of the numbers. Those numbers are white with blue outlines. A 100-year patch adorns the upper right of the jersey.

The rear of the jersey is solid blue with white numbers. Jerseys are NNOB

The pants will also be a tannish-gold color, and are stripeless. The team will wear solid blue socks with the outfit.

Here’s another view of the uniform:

I can’t wait for these to be worn on the field. I can’t say for sure, but I have a hunch this may just make Jimmer’s 5 & 1 (on the good side). Let’s just hope Michigan wears maize pants.

Your thoughts?