Helmet Bowl

Helmet Bowl II – Greatest College Football Helmet Contest Ever

August 22, 2018 By Jeff Zogg

*Changes are coming to Helmet Bowl II. Look for an update Sept 12, 2018.

Welcome to Helmet Bowl II – the Greatest College Football Helmet Contest Ever.

A year ago we gathered 777 college football helmets and put them into the first Helmet Bowl. Tens of thousands of votes determined Conference Championships. In the 64-team National Championship Bracket, hundreds of thousands of votes lead to a showdown between DI San Diego State and DIII Gallaudet University. A stunning come-from-behind national effort saw the Bison win the inaugural Helmet Bowl trophy.

The Gallaudet Bison, Helmet Bowl I National Champion football helmet.

This year will be even better! Equipment Managers, Sports Information Directors, football players and coaches, students, alumni, and fans are poised to push their team forward to a Conference Championship into the National Championship bracket, then to the Helmet Bowl II Championship.

Rules Update

We updated the rules for Helmet Bowl II. Significant changes include:

a compact, more powerful Conference play period
Conference Championship brackets for every Conference

This means you have to be on your game right from the get-go. Fans will have just two weeks to ensure their team qualifies for the Conference Championship Brackets.

See the complete rules here.

We consulted with Equipment Managers who had success in Helmet Bowl I, held polls, and talked with many of you at the Athletic Equipment Managers Association convention in Phoenix. From your input and a careful look at engagement and enthusiasm from the inaugural Helmet Bowl, changes were determined.

Calendar

October 1 – Conference play begins and runs two straight weeks.
October 15 – Conference play concludes.
October 29 – Conference Championship Brackets launched
November 19 – Conference Champions Crowned
November 26 – National Championship Bracket of 64 launched
January 7 – Helmet Bowl II Champion Crowne

What Now?

Watch our social media for announcements of how to participate! Equipment Managers and Sports Information Directors will receive instructions via email in early September.

Comments?

Find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram: @helmettracker

Send your comments, questions, and ideas to helmetbowl@helmettracker.com

MORE?

See the Helmet Bowl I list of Conference Champions

Sponsorships available. Contact the Helmet Bowl II Commissioner at HelmetBowl@helmettracker.com.

Read about Gallaudet University Bison's Helmet Bowl I victory.

The Helmet Bowl I National Championship Story, Part 3

March 14, 2018 By Jeff Zogg

Sam Atkinson, the Gallaudet University Sports Information Director, set his alarm early and swung out of bed. It was the final day of voting for the Helmet Bowl I National Championship. His Bison had made it to the matchup, rallied thousands and thousands of votes, but was struggling against the San Diego State Aztecs and their deep red helmet with the Aztec calendar embossing.

He checked the contest. The matchup was essentially even when he went to bed, but now the Aztecs had pulled ahead by more than 1,100 votes. Only hours remained and the West Coast was barreling ahead. Sam had talked someone over at Channel 5 into interviewing him and some others from Gallaudet. Maybe they could drum up enough support to challenge the Aztecs in the last few hours. It was a long shot, but nothing else had worked well enough to ensure victory.

“We tried a couple strategies. We tried to figure out San Diego State’s biggest on-field rival and we reached out to them, but we got little traction.”

Close Contest

The entire week had been a struggle. Little Gallaudet, with 1,100 students or so, had jumped on the Helmet Bowl bandwagon and given the Bison a chance.

But San Diego State, with 30-times the number of students, stood in the way.

“We saw this as an opportunity—a fun way to rally our alumni, students, and staff around something fun to do for our community. We were proud,” Sam said.

But the fun was giving way to pressure. Second place would be fine, but what good is fine when you have a chance to hoist a national championship?

“It was really close throughout the whole week,” Sam recalls. “I left about 6 a.m. to get to the station. We were 1,100 votes behind.

“It seemed like we maybe were going to run out of time.”

The Interview

Along with Sam was Tony Tatum, a Gallaudet star on the gridiron. They sat opposite a television personality and an interpreter. Sam and Tony would communicate by sign language. This was Gallaudet University, the nation’s deaf and hard of hearing school.

They talked about Gallaudet. They talked about the Bison’s historical place in football—they created the huddle more than 100 years ago. They talked about San Diego State. They talked about the Helmet Bowl I National Championship and they asked for votes. (Watch Sam and Tony's interview here.)

It was nearly 7 a.m. in San Diego. They had no idea what was about to hit them.

In D.C. the segment aired just before 9 a.m. The votes started coming in immediately.

“We saw it take off right after that,” Sam said. “We were making up ground—gaining 100 votes about every 20 minutes.”

At about 11 a.m., the teams were virtually tied. More than 25,000 votes had been cast. Still, we had no winner.

Then suddenly, Gallaudet was leading by 100 votes. Then 200.

Mary Matlin, Academy Award-winning actress, and deaf person, sent out a supportive tweet. Other celebrities did, too.

The Aztecs, meanwhile, were waking up, shocked at what was happening. The disbelief could be seen in the tweets. But it was too late. The Bison were leading, and their lead was growing. But mid-afternoon, San Diego State Equipment Manager Sonny Sanfilippo knew it was over. (See our profile of Sonny here.) He tweeted a congratulatory message. The next day he would call and personally offer his kudos.

Celebration

By the time the clock ticked down to the final minute Monday afternoon, Gallaudet had extended its lead by 100 votes an hour, or more. The Championship in hand and the Bison would win by a vote count of 17,657 to the Aztecs’ 15,521. (See our story here.)

“People were overjoyed with our winning,” Sam remembers. “We saw a small little piece of light and shot through the gap—and won it.”

“It was big deal here. For six weeks, everyone was saying to everyone else: “Make sure you vote.’”

Sam reveals in Gallaudet’s place, now, in history.

“We will always be the first year winner of Helmet Bowl—We will always be National Champions!”

Gallaudet will be represented at the Athletic Equipment Managers Association convention in Phoenix, Arizona in June where Helmet Tracker will present the Helmet Bowl National Champion trophies—one permanent for the school to keep, one traveling.

As for San Diego State, they and the semi-finalists will get custom banners to hang in their equipment rooms.

“SDSU has an amazing helmet,” Sam said. “They were a formidable opponent and Sonny is a class act. We enjoyed competing against him and his team.”

For now, Gallaudet plans a year-long observance of their national dominance. They’ve made a place for a banner in their gym and space overlooking the football field. T-shirts may be produced and sold to support the program.

Sam said he hopes, along with Helmet Tracker, that the Helmet Bowl continues to get bigger and grow in its popularity.

“We hope we are able to set the standard for future helmet bowl champions,” he said. “As other teams win and are named Helmet Bowl champion, people will always look back and ask, who won the first one and the answer will be ‘Gallaudet University' every time.”

Learn more about Helmet Tracker here.

Learn more about Helmet Bowl here.

The Helmet Bowl I National Championship Story, Part 2

March 7, 2018 By Jeff Zogg

Gallaudet Plans a National Championship Run

Gallaudet is the nation’s deaf and hard of hearing university. It is the only such university in the world.

“Once we won our conference, I started making plans,” Sam said. “I knew that if we were to get into the national tournament, our social media presence would give us a good shot at it.”

The Bison won their conference in Helmet Bowl I, then swept away their first-round opponent in the National Championship bracket of 64. Now, they faced the behemoth Ohio State University.

Learn more about Gallaudet University here.

Mostly deaf or hard of hearing, Gallaudet students come from across the country and internationally. Sam knew he could tap this community for support. He’d done it before. As Sports Information Director it was his job. Social media is an important link for the deaf community to share news, stay in touch, build bonds.

“Our Instagram account is very active. We communicate with our hands—we are very visual,” Sam said.

Gallaudet counts nearly 8,400 followers on Instagram. The next highest DIII school, Johns Hopkins, sports less than 7,000.

“I started thinking about strategy when we learned we faced Cheyney. I looked ahead and saw Ohio State looming. That would be a tough one for us. We knew it. As I talked about it across campus, I got asked several times how we were going to beat a big program like that.”

Bison defeat Wolves, face the Buckeyes

As Sam drummed up support throughout campus and the deaf community at large, he was asked the same question again and again: How would a little school like Gallaudet have any chance at all against Ohio State, a university with more than 66,000 students and a readily identifiable silver football helmet bedecked with buckeye leaf stickers?

Then, in the second week of the Helmet Bowl National Championship, Gallaudet did. They took down Ohio State, winners of the Big 10 in Helmet Bowl.

“I’m not sure Ohio State took it very seriously,” Sam said. “But beating Ohio State is beating Ohio State. We did it.”

On the horizon rose Colgate, who had caught fire late in the Conference play, then loomed Army, a fan favorite.

Bison start a stampede

“Our football season had ended, but Helmet Bowl was a great way to highlight our football program and it’s history—a history wrapped up in football. We started the huddle in the 1890s when our team used it to communicate the next plays.”

Now, Gallaudet eyed another moment in history—could they, a DIII school, become the first Helmet Bowl National Champion? (See our story about Gallaudet Equipment Manager Kris Gould here.)

Now, Colgate stood in their way. The Raiders had finished the Conference play in a tie with Georgetown in the Patriot League. Both teams sort of found themselves in a one-week playoff without really being aware of the contest. Suddenly, Colgate fans discovered Helmet Bowl and began voting. Colgate destroyed Georgetown in the playoff, then swept aside their initial National Champion foe. (See our story about Colgate's victory over Georgetown here).

Now, they faced Gallaudet—a DIII school.

Sam Arrives in DC

Sam was raised just 30 minutes from our nation’s capital. He graduated Salsbury University on the eastern shore of Maryland with a degree in Communications. He did

some sports reporting, worked in television, then for US Lacrosse writing website content and such. Soon, he was back at Salsbury working as the Sports Information Director. Life was good.

He married and soon found he and his bride were expecting their first child.

“As we started a family, I wanted to get back closer to home,” Sam said. “Gallaudet was in our conference and there was a job there, but I was not fluent in sign language.”

A college roommate’s parents signed, but Sam was always at a loss for how to communicate with them. As he considered the Gallaudet job, he thought of them, and, he saw stories—lots of them. Gallaudet is in the nation's capital, Washington, D.C.

“Everyone here has a story and I thought we could promote them, tell the great stories. I took the job.”

Soon, Sam was meeting presidents and vice presidents. The women’s basketball team started one season 20-0 and garnered national attention.

“We haven't won national championships here, but we have won many hearts,” he said.

When his college roommate wed, Sam signed with his parents, surprising and delighting them both.

Colgate, Army, then Kennesaw

The Colgate Raiders wandered through the Helmet Bowl I Conference play ending up tied with Georgetown. Then, like a wildcard team that suddenly seems to realize they have a shot at something special, they caught fire.

Now they faced Gallaudet. Did they overlook this DIII team? We may never know.

“Colgate was a really hard battle,” Sam recalls. “We really pushed. Our coach was emailing and sending out blasts to the football team. My wife was pushing it to her audiences, too.”

“In the end, we squeeked out a win against Colgate.”

Then, the Bison faced Army. The Black Knights easily won the Independent DI Conference—not giving Notre Dame and others even a sideways glance. Their camo helmets gave voters a sense of patriotism and honor.

Sam needed reinforcements, and he knew it.

“I reached out to the College of Idaho.”

This NAIA team, with its purple helmet and chrome outline of a howling coyote, was barnstorming through their side of the bracket. The ‘Yotes were making noise.

“We decided to leverage this David versus Goliath thing, both of us, and help each other out,” Sam said. “We were also the last, smallest schools in Helmet Bowl. It gave us identity.”

Gallaudet defeated Army to make it to the semi-finals against the Kennesaw State Owls, which had gained momentum and votes with every win. The College of Idaho beat the powerful Northwest Missouri State Bearcats, then surprised the Oregon Ducks with a score of 2,041 votes to just 1,460. They faced San Diego State in the Quarter-finals.

Sam, and some Helmet Bowl voters could foresee the two smallest schools facing off the national championship. Sports Information Directors from both schools saw it, too. Pushed for it.

But the Aztecs had another idea. Equipment Manager Sonny Sanfilippo, who created the Aztec calendar concept for the San Diego State helmet, started mustering support. It worked and just as quickly as the ‘Yotes were steaming along, it was over for them.

The Aztecs could see a National Championship on the horizon. But first they faced the undefeated Central Michigan Chippewas in the semifinal and throughout the week of voting the lead swung back and forth. In the end, the Chippewas fell behind, and SDSU won 6,647 to 6,408—a two percent victory.

Meanwhile at Gallaudet, Sam created graphics, hit the social media hard, and rallied the campus. The Bison beat the Owls of Kennesaw State by just four percent of the votes—about 500 tallies.

They did it, making it to Helmet Bowl I National Championship. (See our preview story about the Championship matchup here.) It was the week of that other game, too. Georgia would face Alabama for another title. Meanwhile, the Bison and the Aztecs began to build up votes against each other. Lots of votes. The hundreds of votes turned to thousands. A few thousand. Then 10,000. Then 20,000 votes. Neither team could get ahead by much, or hold a lead. The lead changed hands nearly hourly throughout the weekend. Neither team could get more than a hundred or a few hundred votes ahead.

“We knew we would need help against San Diego State,” Sam said. “We reached out to their biggest on-field rivals, but got little traction.”

Sam talked someone over at Channel 5 into a Monday morning interview, but when he awoke to prepare for it, the Aztecs had taken an 1,100 vote lead and there were just hours to go.

The Bison would have to run on their own again.

Read Part III of this series.

The Helmet Bowl I National Championship Story, Part 1

February 28, 2018 By Jeff Zogg

As Sam Atkinson swung out of bed early Monday morning, he wondered if he’d made a mistake.

It was National Championship day for college football and his team was vying for the whole enchilada, the entire ball of wax, all nine yards. Sam checked the vote count and found his Gallaudet Bison were more than 1,100 behind.

In the greatest college football helmet contest ever, overcoming such a deficit seemed beyond all rational hope. Yet Sam had talked the local morning television show into a live interview that morning, the last morning of the Helmet Bowl National Championship. He was due in the studio in just a few hours.

It was January 8^th.

“It seemed like we maybe were going to run out of time.”

What now?

Would he be embarrassed, or worse—embarrass the university he worked for and now loved?

Gallaudet Wins Eastern Collegiate Football Conference

When Helmet Tracker launched Helmet Bowl I in September 2017, every college football helmet was entered. Every one. Every division. Every conference. Every helmet. Nearly 800 helmets were represented and each competed in their own conference to start. For Gallaudet, a Division III school in football, it was the Eastern Collegiate Football Conference.

At the other end of the spectrum, seemingly in another football world, the San Diego State Aztecs competed in the DI Mountain West Conference. The two schools had nothing in common. Gallaudet sits near the East Coast in Washington, DC. San Diego State students can throw stones into the Pacific Ocean. Gallaudet supports just over 1,100 students while San Diego State boasts nearly 34,000.

Yet the two schools were on a collision course in Helmet Bowl I – the greatest college football helmet contest ever.

Making the Bracket

Gallaudet won their conference, racking up 8.25 of a possible 11 conference points. (see all Conference Champions here) The only school to garner all 11 points by winning each of the 10 weeks of the conference contests was the Central Michigan Chippewas in the Mid-American Conference. The Chipps would advance until they challenged the Aztecs in the Semi-Finals. In the Mountain West, voters chose the red helmet of San Diego State with the Aztec calendar embossed on it over the other conference helmets, advancing them with 7.25 points.

Conference winners, including the Bison and the Aztecs, advanced to the National Championship. There, head to head battles in a 64-team bracket would determine the Helmet Bowl I National Championship.

“I had sent some emails out to some supporters early in the fall,” Sam said. “Then, it kind of drifted off my radar. I checked in at one point and we had won the conference for a couple of weeks in a row. I read up on how the National Championship would work and found out if we won the conference we could possibly make some noise in the bracket.”

Teams would have to win five times, five weeks in a row, to make it to the Championship match, six times to take the title. For Gallaudet, its first test would be against the Cheyney Wolves. The Wolves, winners of the Eastern Collegiate Conference, sported a fairly bland blue helmet. But that wouldn’t really matter much, most observers thought, because the winner of this match would most likely face the Ohio State Buckeyes in the second round.

Read Part II of this story.

Bison vs Aztecs for the Helmet Bowl I Championship

January 2, 2018 By Jeff Zogg

The Division III Gallaudet Bison surged forward in the last few hours of the Helmet Bowl I semi-finals to secure a spot in the championship match.

But hold on.

They must face the powerful San Diego State Aztecs, who dismissed the undefeated Central Michigan Chippewas and, like third quarter Bulldogs, seem to gain momentum with every play.

The Aztecs sauntered into the National Championship bracket through a lackluster voting Mountain West Conference. The Bison fought to the top of the Eastern Collegiate Football Conference and learned how to battle. Do they have the moxie to pull off an upset? Do the Aztecs have another gear?

The Helmet Bowl National Champion will be crowned Monday, January 8 at 4 p.m. Central. The College Football world will await it's result, then turn their attention to the other Championship.

Fare thee Well

The Chipps performed like champions from the first vote on September 5 through today. Never a lost point in the Conference Championships. Never were they seriously challenged, though the Stout Blue Devils gave them a bit of a fright in Round 2 of the National Championship bracket.

The Owls. Wow, the Owls. They flew through the Big South Conference, then started asserting themselves.

Both great helmets. Both great programs. Both great Equipment Managers with strong support. Thank you!