frnkdrcmn Posted March 26, 2006 Share Posted March 26, 2006 why are their helmets painted the way they are? The two side stripes were added after skunks found the original insulting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 Sorry to bump an old thread, but I just noticed this as I was searching back. Whoever said that it was electrical tape was correct. Every year the equipment manager spends a couple hours cutting and putting the tape on the helmets. It's actually a strange story of how Michigan got to wear those helmets. In the late 80's, the Hartford Whalers were thinking of switching to a dark blue helmet, so one of the hockey equipment manufacturers made up a bunch of dark, blue helmets, but the Whale decided against using them, so this company had a bunch of dark blue helmets laying around. The Michigan coaches heard about it and decided to buy them all up. They figured the wings on the football helmet were so recognizable, and helped in recruiting, and figured it could do the same with hockey.(This was around 1989 when Michigan wasn't the power it is today. They had finally had their first coupel of winning seasons in a long time but hadn't been to the NCAA tournament since 1977.) So they took the blue helmets and added bright yellow electrical tape to look like the football helmets. I believe the first game they ever wore them was at Joe Louis Arena in the CCHA tournament against Bowling Green. Michigan never announced that they were changing their helmets, so when they took the ice for pregame warm-ups, the entire arena went silent. Even the Bowling Green players that were already on the ice stopped their warm-up and just sort of stared at them for a couple minutes. I believe Michigan ended up winning the game. I think they might have just missed the NCAA tournament that season, but have made it every since then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HockeyMom Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 Sorry to bump an old thread, but I just noticed this as I was searching back. I'm glad you bumped it. I've been telling the story about Michigan's helmets being an advantage for the QB to find his receivers downfield since I heard it when I was like 7 or something......when I told Mr. HockeyMom the story in The Ralph when we played Michigan he thought I was full of crap. Good to know I'm not completely full of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redwing77 Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 Good to know I'm not completely full of it. Rumor has it that you are 43.56% full of it. Any truth to that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HockeyMom Posted April 3, 2006 Share Posted April 3, 2006 Rumor has it that you are 43.56% full of it. Any truth to that? My eyes are brown, I think it's more than that......maybe around 98% Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigmrg74 Posted April 4, 2006 Share Posted April 4, 2006 Sorry to bump an old thread, but I just noticed this as I was searching back. Whoever said that it was electrical tape was correct. Every year the equipment manager spends a couple hours cutting and putting the tape on the helmets. It's actually a strange story of how Michigan got to wear those helmets. In the late 80's, the Hartford Whalers were thinking of switching to a dark blue helmet, so one of the hockey equipment manufacturers made up a bunch of dark, blue helmets, but the Whale decided against using them, so this company had a bunch of dark blue helmets laying around. The Michigan coaches heard about it and decided to buy them all up. They figured the wings on the football helmet were so recognizable, and helped in recruiting, and figured it could do the same with hockey.(This was around 1989 when Michigan wasn't the power it is today. They had finally had their first coupel of winning seasons in a long time but hadn't been to the NCAA tournament since 1977.) So they took the blue helmets and added bright yellow electrical tape to look like the football helmets. I believe the first game they ever wore them was at Joe Louis Arena in the CCHA tournament against Bowling Green. Michigan never announced that they were changing their helmets, so when they took the ice for pregame warm-ups, the entire arena went silent. Even the Bowling Green players that were already on the ice stopped their warm-up and just sort of stared at them for a couple minutes. I believe Michigan ended up winning the game. I think they might have just missed the NCAA tournament that season, but have made it every since then. Yeah, thats probably how they were orginally done at first, but now I would believe that Michigan has the "Wing" painted onto the helmet. I'm pretty sure they could afford whatever custom setup that would require to have done. I've seen a lot of HS Football helmets with the wing, some with different colors, but they all had the wing painted on. Not like at my HS where we all had to try to get our arrows on strait, or at least mostly pointing to the front. *Pretty much Florida State style arrows in black and white with red helmet, Clinton Redskins* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MafiaMan Posted April 12, 2006 Share Posted April 12, 2006 In another interesting bit of Michigan trivia, Fritz Crisler also pronounced Michigan with a drawl, which is why you often hear Chris Fowler on ESPN's College Gameday show pronounce the word "Meeeeee-chigan" as a tribute to Mr. Crisler. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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