Big South Conference

CHARLESTON SOUTHERN	COASTAL CAROLINA	GARDNER-WEBB
"Buccaneers"	"Chanticleers"	"Bulldogs"
Charleston, SC	Conway, SC	Boiling Springs, NC

LIBERTY	PRESBYTERIAN	STONY BROOK
"Flames"	"Blue Hose"	"Seawolves"
Lynchburg, VA	Clinton, SC	Stony Brook, NY

VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE
"Keydets"
Lexington, VA

Comments

Presbyterian and Stony Brook will be new members of this conference in 2008.

Liberty was using a new helmet design in 2006.

Historical Helmets

CHARLESTON SOUTHERN

1991	1992 - ?	? - 1999?

2000? - 2002	2003 -

The first Charleston Southern varsity football team played in 1991, and this is believed to be a complete set of historical helmets for this team.

COASTAL CAROLINA

2003 -

2003 was the first year of play for the Coastal Carolina team.

GARDNER-WEBB

1993	1998 - 1999	2000 - present

A visitor to this web site has created a very nice site of his own called the "Gardner-Webb Helmet Project"; it displays photographs of many interesting Gardner-Webb helmets dating from 1969 (which was apparently the football team's first year) to present. Upon looking at this site, it becomes evident that I have received a bunch of inaccurate information from other people in the past regarding various old GWU helmets:

• The plain black helmets were used in 1993, not 1984 and 1985, as had been reported to me earlier.
• A "The Dogs" decal was worn on red helmet shells from 1979 through 1982, not on black helmet shells during the late 1980s/early 1990s.
• No photographic evidence is present at the site to suggest that a design identical to that currently used by the University of Georgia was ever used by Gardner-Webb, though I still suspect this report is probably true. If so, it was apparently used in 1983 and/or 1984, not 1981 through 1983, as had been reported to me earlier.

LIBERTY

1973 - 1975?	c.early 1980s	1988
		*see note 1 below

1989 - 1990	1992	1994 - 1999

2000	2001 - 2003	2004 - 2005

2006 -

The first Liberty football team played in 1973, but at that time the school's name was Lynchburg Baptist College and the school colors were gold and green. In 1976, the name was changed to Liberty Baptist College and blue, red, and white were adopted as the school colors. The team was affiliated with both the NAIA and NCAA for a few years before switching solely to NCAA Division II in 1983. The school was renamed Liberty University in 1985 and endured a devastating flood which washed away the football team's practice facility in November of that same year, causing the team to cancel part of its late-season schedule. A move to NCAA Division I-AA was made in 1988.

The team has apparently had many other helmet designs through the years. I have partial information for a few other helmet designs used by Liberty in the past; photographs of these would be greatly appreciated:

• In 1993 (and possibly part of 1994?), a script "Liberty" decal, with white letters outlined in blue, was worn on red helmet shells with white facemasks; I need a photograph of one of these helmets in order to add this one to the site;
• In 1991, a blue eagle decal was worn on both sides of white helmets;
• Around 1987, gray helmets were used; these featured red/white/blue stripes, and a logo consisting of an oval shape containing an eagle's head and some flames;
• In the early- to mid-1980s, blue helmets were used; these featured for at least a while a cursive "Flames" decal in white (below is a photograph from 1980).

*1 The stripe sequence on this helmet went (from left to right) blue-white-red.

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PRESBYTERIAN

? - 1995	1996? - 2003	2004 - 2006

2007 -

An earlier helmet design (c.early-mid 1990s) has been described as featuring a blue "P" that was a "lot thicker" than the letters on the current helmet.

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STONY BROOK

? - 1998?	1999? - 2004	2005

2006 -

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VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE

? - 1984	1985 - ?	c.early 1990s(?)

? - present

VMI has apparently switched between red, white, gold, and possibly yellow helmets several times through the years, but I do not have much specific information regarding most of these older helmets, of which I think there are probably a substantial number. Additional information and photographs would be greatly appreciated.

In 1975 the team used a logo consisting of the team name "KEYDETS" inside a light-colored oval (apparently white), worn on what were probably red helmet shells.

A "VMI" logo was used during the early 1990s; it featured block letters and an underline. The letters were again white and worn on red helmets with white facemasks and a single white stripe.

The 1998 helmet decal has been described as consisting of the letters "VMI" inside a football-shape; it was supposedly worn on white helmet shells.