It’s Retro Night on Friday night in Arizona Stadium, and the hometown Wildcats are certainly doing what they can to look the part. For the second year in a row, Arizona is unveiling a new helmet ahead of its matchup with new Big 12 foe Kansas State. Arizona will wear a retro throwback helmet featuring the 1980’s “Block A” logo and paw print stickers when the visiting Wildcats from Kansas State come to town on Friday night.
The helmets draw inspiration from ones worn by Arizona Wildcat teams throughout the 1980’s, including program legends like Chuck Cecil and Ricky Hunley under head coach Larry Smith. The helmet features an cherry red chrome throwback “Block A”, which served as the University of Arizona’s logo from 1982-1989. It also includes paw print stickers on the right half of the helmet, similar to Ohio State’s buckeye stickers, which players received for outstanding plays and performances on the gridiron. It also includes red and blue vertical striping down the crown, as well as a blue face mask.
Last season, Arizona unveiled candy red helmets with the script “Cats” logo and white face masks during Big 12 Media Days in Las Vegas, which it wore during the matchup with Kansas State in Manhattan, Kansas.
The Arizona-Kansas State game kicks off on Friday, September 12, at 6:00 PM MST on FOX.