Mudra's 3-8 record in '75 showed improvement across the board but Mudra's coaching style did not fit in well with many in the Seminole nation. He stayed in the pressbox during games, wrote academic articles (the "Dr." in Dr. Darrell Mudra was from his hard-earned PhD), and would often relax the morning of games by going fishing and enjoying the outdoors, all of which did not mesh with the image of a hard-driving, resourceful coach although it was his style and it had brought a very successful record prior to (and long after) his stint at Florida State. DT Greg Johnson was 1975’s main defensive weapon, later playing for the Colts for a season. HB Bright picked up another 657 yards on the ground and QB Clyde Walker threw for 1619 thus Mudra saw progress but the combination of his coaching style and a four-wins-in-two-seasons record resulted in the buy-out of his contract and yet another search for a new coach. Though Mudra’s short tenure was controversial, his helmet designs for 1975 were distinctive and memorable. Some forethought may have gone into matching the jerseys. The Seminoles wore the wide-mesh jerseys that were in style during those years, especially in the southern states. These were an exacting color of garnet, designed to match the accessory garnet of the helmet making for a very nice appearance.  To open the 1975 season at Texas Tech on September 13^th, the traditional FSU gold shell was adorned with a garnet one-inch center stripe and one-inch white flanking stripes. The 31-20 loss to the Red Raiders was followed by a 17-8 victory over Utah State.

Following the Utah State game, the Seminoles took the field against Iowa State on September 27^th having added garnet two-and-a-half-inch, diagonally arranged interlocking “FSU” letters to each side of the helmet. The Cyclone squad coached by Earle Bruce would go 4-7 for the 1975 season and their 10-6 victory over Florida State was one of their more important triumphs.

Perhaps frustrated by his 1-2 record, perhaps patiently awaiting the arrival of new helmet decals, Mudra surprisingly introduced his third helmet design for the fourth game of the 1975 season. Fans were delighted as their Seminoles took the field against Georgia Tech on October 4^th. Despite the 30-0 shellacking they took, a familiar FSU icon was obvious on the uniforms. The new helmet design was familiar because in the late 1960’s, Florida State art student John Roberge received the princely sum of $50.00 from the school administration, to draw an Indian Head logo that was used on a school pamphlet. The logo was shown to the athletic department but was rejected at that time for reasons that remain unexplained and perhaps lost to history and fading memories. The Indian Head logo had obviously caught the fancy of Coach Mudra as the gold helmet with one-inch garnet center stripe and one-inch white flanking stripes now had a garnet, black, and white Indian Head, the same Indian Head that Mr. Roberge had drawn years before, overlaid on a shape of the state of Florida. This wonderful design was not only reused for the helmets that the team wore to complete the ’75 season, but became an icon for all of the FSU Athletic Department teams. Today, Mr. Roberge is an illustrator for the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper.

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