This is a facsimile of the logo MSU used on its football helmets from 1965-1972 (interrupted in 1969 when the Spartans used a football-shaped sticker with the number "100" in the middle, commemorating the 100th anniversary of college football).
I have never been able to find a decent example of this old logo (which I love, by the way, for reasons I'll explain in more detail in this post), so I decided to recreate it myself. (If I haven't already made it abundantly clear, I am indeed a giant dork).
On the web, I found a photo of a reproduction of the 1960s helmet, enlarged the photo, printed it, and then made the logo bolder by coloring it in with a Sharpie marker. My younger son has a drawing board that lights up, so I was able to trace this from the photocopied logo. (I'd love to lie and tell you that I drew this freehand, but there's no way I could have reproduced it [reasonably] accurate without tracing it). Using more of my son's art supplies, I traced it and colored it in with a green pencil. Finally, since I wasn't able to scan it because my scanner isn't currently hooked up to our desktop computer, I photographed it with my phone and then uploaded it to Facebook. (That's probably way more detail than anyone could possibly care to read).
So there you have it, my version of the 1960s Michigan State Spartans football helmet logo. I think it's classic, I don't understand why MSU doesn't at least use it on some of its Nike "throwback" clothing. The logo had a brief resurrection in 2006 for the 40th anniversary of the "Game of the Century" Notre Dame game, but that 2006 game was such a disaster for the Spartans that it seems MSU is in no hurry to bring it back.
The logo has a charm to it. It hearkens back to a time when logos weren't created with an eye to how they'd appear on TV or how much merch they'd sell. It also just has a distinctive "1960s" look to it. I mean, is it just me, or does the Spartan's profile look a little like a young Charlton Heston?
I don't know what I'll do with this logo, besides write a boring blog post about it (and use it as my Facebook profile picture), but at least I have a decent version of it after searching endlessly for one. Maybe I'll write a letter to Mark Hollis and suggest the university give it another chance.
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