Georgia Tech Football Helmet - A History

Georgia Tech has been playing football since at least 1895 when it was a founding member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association. Now a proud member of the Atlantic Coast Conference's Coastal Division, very few other teams have had the historical success of Georgia Tech football. They have won four national titles dating back to 1917 and as recent as 1990, 15 conference titles and won the four most historic bowls (Rose, Orange, Sugar, Cotton). They have put an enormous number of players and coaches into the NFL. They play in the oldest on campus stadium in Division 1 FBS, and this nostalgia and since of history is clearly reflective in the conservative styling of their football helmet. Looking back to the 1960s when modern era helmets came into being, the team has had some remarkably consistent football helmet designs, and has never used any outlandish helmet variations, even for 1 or 2 games, unlike some of programs such as Boise State, Maryland or their rival, Georgia.
The early 1960's football helmet for Georgia Tech was simply a gold helmet with a gray facemask. Sometime in the mid-1960's, the team switched to a white football helmet with gold and black vertical stripes stretching from the top of the facemask to the back of the helmet. It was not until 1967 that the team added the now familiar "GT" logo with the G feeding into the upper horizontal piece of the T. The logo has remained basically unchanged since then. The team initially used the gold background and black and white stripes; this briefly switched to a white helmet from 1969 to 1971 and has been brought back at least once as a throwback helmet.
Around the mid-70's, Georgia Tech football helmets no longer had the white and black vertical stripes and that has basically remained that way ever since then. In the late 70', a minor change was made to the facemask making it a very dark blue instead of the basic gray mask. There was also a period in 1984 where the logo was removed from the football helmet for some games, and it was simply a gold helmet like you might see at Notre Dame with no logo (or Boston College minus the stripes). The only other major change of note was in 2008 when the gold background that has been around for about 50 years was switched to a yellow background. This gold contrasted against the dark blue facemask, looked very crisp and catchy. It changed the look and feel somewhat, and some argue, brought them a slightly more modern look. However, old habits are apparently tough to change as the gold background returned in 2009 and has been the same ever sense. Whether or not the next 50 years will be the same as the last 50 in terms of conservative helmet design, is yet to be seen. If having more modern football helmets becomes a competitive strength and recruiting tool for programs like Oregon and Boise State, it may be something to reconsider. For now, however, the helmet's logo, colors and design, is likely to remain the familiar one.

Copyright Donald Plunkett. View the most recent Georgia Tech football helmet at http://www.footballhelmets.com

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TCU Football Helmet - A History

TCU's football helmets have a memorable history dating back over 50 years. They have had some combination of player numbers, images of a horned frog, and the letters T-C-U over the years. They have been white, purple, silver, and occasionally black. The 1960's saw four different helmet designs. Much of that period, the helmet was either white or purple with the player's number (e.g. 88) on the side of the helmet, either in a sans serif font or a block font. During 1966, the helmet had a strange-looking horned frog head. The next year, the letters TCU were on the helmet; it was similar to the modern day Texas A&M logo with a big T and a smaller C and U on either side. In the 1970's, the letters TCU again appeared on the helmet, in a stylized serif font with T, C, and U going in a diagonal path down from facemask side to back side.
Perhaps one of the most-loved and famous logos of TCU appeared in 1977. The "Flying T" had a large T racing from front to back. C and U were underneath. It had an ESPN-logo type feel to it. Like a stencil, the C and U were not fully connected. They were 3 and 2 unconnected blocks of text. The original Flying T helmet was silver, but by 1980, it was purple and it remained that way until 1991. By 1992, the administration apparently wanted a new look and decided to retire the Flying T; although as recently as 2010, there were Facebook postings asking them to bring it back. In 1992, the helmet remained purple, but went to three equal-sized block letters of TCU. They had an upslope on the T, a level slope on the C, and a downslope on the U. The next year, the helmet was changed from purple to silver and the TCU letters were outlined in white. This design held steady for 2 years before being replaced with a black outline and black facemask. A horned frog was added underneath the letters, the color went back to purple, and this designed remained with some minor tweaking from 1998 to 2010. On some specific games, Nike did a custom helmet of either black or silver with red frogs blood (horned frogs spit blood from their eyes to scare predators) and a frog-like scale. Finally, during the 2011 Rose Bowl game, the frog had a rose through its mouth. The latest helmet marks a return to the TCU lettering with no frog. Looking at the past few years with so many changes and adjustments, it is unlikely to last without some changes soon.

Copyright Donald Plunkett. Are you ready to see the latest TCU Football Helmet at http://footballhelmets.com.

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Getting a Sports Scholarship From an American School

If you are a sports player from another country and you would like to attend a college in the US, you can use scholarships as a way to pay for college. At the very least, a sports scholarship can pay part of the money a US college or university would cost. However, what you need to understand is that applying for a scholarship is the easy part. Getting the scholarship is the real challenge.
The process for applying for a sports scholarship is pretty straightforward. You need to first compile a list of colleges and/or universities that you would like to attend. Make sure that the list has around 20 or more different schools.
Next, you need to have a contact person, and in most cases that will be a coach of the sport you are interested in getting a scholarship for. You also will need to provide them with your statistics as well as a film of you performing on the field or on court or whatever applies to the sport you participate in.
You also need to have the grades to qualify for a scholarship. This is one area that you must not fall short. Since you are asking for a scholarship rather than a coach or recruiter offering you a sports scholarship, you have to make sure that you have all your T's crossed and your I's dotted. Make sure you understand the academic requirements for receiving a scholarship and be sure that you meet those requirements before you even consider applying.
Lastly, you need to understand that getting a sports scholarship to an American college is not an easy thing to do. You will be competing with thousands of other athletes. If you are from another country, you may have a lot to offer a college in America with your aptitude in your given sport, but with the glut of athletes worldwide, unless your skills are beyond anything anyone has ever witnessed, it is likely you'll have to introduce yourself to your college rather than the college discovering you.
While you may think that being a good athlete is enough to get you a sports scholarship, that may not be enough. You may be have to be proactive off the field as well as on the field. In any case, getting a scholarship may be a long process but it is not an impossible task. You just have to know how to go about it.

Sports Scholarships for girls and boys in Golf, Soccer, Track & Field, Swimming, Tennis & many other sports.Thanks for reading.

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Football Betting Tips That Will Give You the Profitable Edge

As the world of football takes the sports betting field by storm, so do the different football betting tips that proliferate the market. What most betters do not know is that blindly subscribing to these tips will not do anyone any good. Granted that there are good betting tips in the market, one would have to practice a high level of cunning in order to find them and to use them. Fortunately, there are certain categories that one may use in order to make this task much simpler and, ultimately, more financially profitable.
First and foremost, try your best to stick to betting tips that will not coerce you to bet a big amount of money on a single bet. After all, you will have better chances of winning if you separate your bets among a number of choices. If done right, betting on football can be relatively harmless yet ultimately profitable. You just have to know how much you should be betting on a particular team, and how much you stand to gain from doing so. There are different tips in the area that will guide you to do this, but not all of them are bound to be effective.
When choosing among the various football betting tips that you may use, check the past history of the tipster. If you want make a decent amount of money off of betting on football games, it is important that you look for someone who has been around for a while and making regular profits. Doing this will not only help you win long term, but will give you the confidence to see it through when the bad times come. And bad times WILL come, as all football tipsters suffer dips in form.
Finally, make sure that you set your own criteria and limits in placing your football bets. While the football betting tips that you get may actually help you increase your chances of winning, you need to set your own limits in order to keep winning. If you are betting with more money than you can afford to lose, you will make bad decisions, leave out some tips and double up on others. This can exacerbate the problem, and very soon you can find yourself on a downward spiral.
If you are paying a tipster to find you football tips, surely it must make sense to follow all the tips. That way you can be assured that when the good times return, you will not miss any winners.

I have been a football fan since the age of 8 and I suggest you follow this link to discover exclusive football betting tips made by an expert in his field.

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Wayne Rooney The Superstar

Are you a football supporter? Do you support England? Are you looking forward to the football World Cup? These are three questions which I would have answered a big yes to and I am very happy to learn that Wayne Rooney looks likely to be fit to play some part in the Fifa World Cup tournament. He could prove to be the man that helps bring glory to our proud footballing nation.
The hype around the foot injury of Wayne Rooney has been absolutely massive and has been possibly way over the top. I would have much preferred more focus to have been placed on some of our other better players such as David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Joe Cole and Michael Owen. In saying that, in a way it could have been a blessing in disguise as the players mentioned and the other members of the squad, have had quite a lot of the attention taken away from them.
I remember first watching Wayne Rooney play live, when I went to support my favourite team Birmingham City play at St Andrews. Wayne at that point was probably only seventeen and was playing for Everton. I had heard that he was supposed to be a great talent and had watched him play on the television on a number of occasions.
Throughout the match he looked very lively and dangerous but ended up getting himself sent off, after an over the top challenge on the Birmingham goalkeeper. I will never forget the Birmingham City fans singing to torment the Everton supporters with, where's your Wayne gone, where's your Wayne gone? Imagine it being sang etc.
Over the next few months Rooney became better and better and eventually was sold in a dream move for him, to Manchester United. He has continued his form and improvement and has since been a major part of the England football team. In my opinion, he is one of, if not the best, footballers in the world.
Chelsea, who of course seem to have a never ending supply of money, would no doubt love to sign Rooney. I wonder how much it would cost them to persuade Alex Ferguson and Manchester United to part with their prize asset. They say every man has a price, I would think that they would need around the one hundred million pounds mark, quite a scary thought.
Wayne is still so young and I hope he can remain injury free as it is going to be very exciting to see how good he can become. He is already a superstar but I believe he could be one of the best players who has ever played the game.

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