Florida

1967 Gators
(Authentic Reproduction)
 

With Spurrier gone, the plan was to move Harmon Wages from HB to his original QB position but Wages, who subsequently had a modest five-year career with the Falcons, was suspended for disciplinary reasons. Larry Rentz was pulled from Safety to play QB although he had last practiced these skills in high school. The Gators opened with two victories, a 14-0 blanking of Illinois and a 24-7 pounding of Mississippi State and wore a white helmet with a one-inch orange center stripe. Graves placed a white football-shaped decal on each side of the helmet that held a blue "F" within it. Larry Smith of course, was the centerpiece of the offense and boosted his two-year rushing total to 1683 yards. Receiver Richard Trapp's talent went largely underutilized and he graduated to a two-year NFL career with the Bills and Chargers. The offense remained steady other than a no-show performance against LSU in the third game, one in which the Gators entered the field with the same white shell and orange center stripe, but with the addition of one-half-inch blue flanking stripes. The "F" within the white football decal remained on the sides of the helmet. Jim Yarborough who later took his huge size and strength to bulwark the Lions O-line from '69 through 1977 was excellent and the defense seemed to gather steam. Graves kept the new helmet style until the season's seventh game against rival Georgia, then removed the "F" decals and instead replaced them with the black three-inch thin, rounded style "Charger" type numerals for the final four games of the season. The change brought a split with victories over Georgia and Kentucky, but losses to rivals Florida State and Miami (making it three in a row), dropping the Gators to a mediocre 6-4 record for the 1967 season.

If interested in any of these Florida helmets please click on the photos below.