‘A Nod to History’: CFL’s Ottawa REDBLACKS Introduce Retro-Inspired Helmets for Legacy Night

The Canadian Football League’s Ottawa REDBLACKS introduced a new helmet on Friday to celebrate the history of football in the nation’s capital.

The REDBLACKS unveiled the helmets on social media just a couple of hours before wearing them in their game against the Calgary Stampeders Friday evening, which was “Legacy Night” at TD Place. The “R” from the team’s primary logo — minus the saw blade background — is placed on either side of the black shell. A white stripe down the middle is flanked by two red stripes, with black space in between.

Past Futu𝙍e
🤝 pic.twitter.com/vUqTO4HclO
— x – Ottawa REDBLACKS (@REDBLACKS) August 5, 2022

The striping and white R harken back to helmets worn by the Ottawa Rough Riders — one of the former iterations of the CFL in the capital — in the 1970s and 1980s.

The REDBLACKS paired the helmets with their black home jerseys, black pants and red socks for Friday’s game.

The Legacy Night festivities celebrated the storied tradition of football in the Ottawa region, and specifically the REDBLACKS’ 2016 Grey Cup victory. Members of that championship team were on hand to sign autographs. And two Rough Riders players from the 1960s were inducted into the team’s Wall of Honour:

Kenny Lehmann, a linebacker who was a CFL all-star for five straight seasons (1965-1969) and was part of two Grey Cup-winning teams; and
Jerry “Soupy” Campbell, a linebacker who joined the Rough Riders in 1968 and won three Grey Cups with the team between then and 1973.

Mini replicas of the Legacy Night helmet are available through the REDBLACKS’ online shop.