Iowa State University

1952 - 53 Cyclones
(Authentic Reproduction)
 

An obvious lack of team speed and the collapse of what had been a solid passing attack limited success to a 3-6 mark  in '52 with only one conference victory. The depth problem still plagued Coach Stuber as there were more losses to the military services and the only true star was co-captain Carl Brettschneider who later starred at LB for the Cardinals and Lions. FB Max Burkett was named Iowa State's first Academic All American. Stuber had changed the helmet, giving his Cyclones a white shell in place of the gold they had worn previously. The new white helmets maintained the one-inch center stripe in the school color of Cardinal. In 1953 the NCAA returned to one-platoon ball which should have brought improvement  to the Cyclones but other than FB-LB Max Burkett who was an All Conference pick and HB Gary Lutz, there was no stemming the opponent's tide of offense. With too much defensive inexperience, Northwestern, Colorado, and Oklahoma ran up big scores, and ISU dropped to 2-7. Faced with less scholarship money than the other Big Seven schools, Coach Stuber moved on, becoming offensive coordinator at Washington before serving as an NFL assistant with the Eagles, Packers, and Cardinals. He spent fifteen years as the Cardinals' Director Of Player Personnel until he retired. His legacy as a track and field coach was such that the state-of-the-art  track and field stadium on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University is named after him.    

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