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LOOK: Iowa unveils special helmet honoring Veterans, Nile Kinnick

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

Iowa is going to have a new look on Saturday when it hosts Northwestern.

This weekend, the Hawkeyes are hosting their Military Appreciation Game as they take on the Wildcats. The team will sport special helmets, with the Tigerhawk logo resembling the United States flag on one side.

On the other side of the helmet, Iowa will don a gold “24,” honoring Nile Kinnick, who won the 1939 Heisman Trophy. Photos of the helmet made it to Twitter on Wednesday morning.

The helmet will also feature the traditional “ANF” logo, an acronym for “America Needs Farmers.”

From HawkeyeSports.com:

The biggest change from year’s past will be on the left side of the helmet where every Hawkeye player will wear a gold numeral 24 in honor of Nile Kinnick. Winner of the 1939 Heisman Trophy, Kinnick, was born 100 years ago (1918 in Adel, Iowa) and died 75 years ago (1943 in the Gulf of Paria off the coast of Venezuela). His jersey No. 24 is one of two retired numbers for the football program; Iowa Stadium was renamed Kinnick Stadium in 1972.

Typically, the left side has been left black in honor of all men and women of all branches of the military who gave their lives in the line of duty. That includes Kinnick, who died on a routine training flight in a Grumman F4F Wildcat from the aircraft carrier USS Lexington on June 2, 1943.

According to HawkeyeSports.com, Iowa is 7-1 when wearing the alternate Veteran’s Day decals. The Hawkeyes are 6-3 this season.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB