[The lone arched TCUI] represents the era were TCU was a laugh stocking program wise......no thanks personally.
I'm not sure your aversion to the lone arched TCU is warranted. Yeah, we went 24-42-1 under Sullivan. But Sullivan's tenure also marks the point at which TCU started to turn things around.
When Sullivan was brought in in 1992, one of the first things he wanted to do was create a new culture. TCU had worn the Flying TCU from 1977-1991, and been absolutely awful while wearing them. Sullivan's idea behind a new look was to reverse the expectation of losing. Here's what we wore in his first year:
This was the first time the arched TCU logo appeared anywhere. But we only wore this helmet for one year.
In 1993 and 1994, Sullivan changed the helmet to more closely resemble the Dallas Cowboys', which he hoped people would associate with their recent Super Bowl success:
Now obviously, the Frogs in these helmets weren't the Frogs of today. But neither were they the Frogs of the previous 20 or 30 years. Sullivan gets a lot of heat, but he did a few things right. First he gave us the new logo, which TCU uses everywhere, even on its buildings. The logo looks great, it's here to stay, and we can thank Sullivan for that.
He also immediately raised the profile of the team, despite having almost nothing to work with. In his first year he went 2-8-1, but one of those wins was against Texas, 23-14. He did an even better job 1994, his second year, when he led TCU to 7-5 record and a share of the Southwest Conference championship. Five-way-tie or no, it was the first time TCU had won it's conference since 1959. That 35 years, so let's give the man a little credit where credit is due.
That turnaround, I would say, should be associated with the above helmets and the introduction of the new logo.
But in 1995 he changed the helmet again, to this monstrosity:
This is the helmet we were wearing when we really stank it up. Under this helmet we went 6-5 in 1995; 4-7 in 1996; and 1-10 in 1997, the season that cost Sullivan his job, and rightfully so. But Sullivan did one other great thing for TCU before he left, and that was to recruit LaDainian Tomlinson. For his first season, LT wore the above helmet.
In 1998 we hired Dennis Franchione, who immediately changed to this look, the one we all know and love:
This helmet has been the longest continually used helmet in TCU's history. It was used from 1998-2010, with only 3 interruptions (the Nike helmets).
That, really, is the history of the current TCU helmet. Way I see it, Pat Sullivan's tenure marked the beginning of the TCU renaissance, and that includes the helmet we've worn under Patterson.
