Kansas State Unveils Retro Willie The Wildcat Helmet

The Kansas State football program will wear a new white helmet featuring a retro version of Willie the Wildcat for Saturday’s game against Tulane (3 p.m. ET on ESPN+).

Fresh off the lot pic.twitter.com/iamZBwEFfN
— K-State Football (@KStateFB) September 13, 2022

This marks the first time since the 2019 season that the Wildcats will deviate from their standard home or road uniform, which traditionally feature a silver helmet, purple or white jersey and silver pants.

That season, Kansas State wore a white helmet with a purple Powercat logo on both sides in a 31-12 loss to Baylor, then donned a throwback-inspired white helmet that featured a script “Cats” in a 24-20 loss to West Virginia.

Both times, the Wildcats paired the new helmet design with their purple home jersey and new white pants. The former returned for a 20-17 loss to Navy in the Liberty Bowl, albeit with their white road jersey and a single purple stripe instead of two.

The new helmet – which displays Willie the Wildcat in black wearing a white sweater with a purple “K” and holding a pennant on the right side, black numbers on the left side and a gray facemask – will also be worn with Kansas State’s purple home jersey and white pants.

The Wildcats have never worn this version of Willie the Wildcat, which is typically reserved for Kansas State’s alumni association, on their helmets. They did, however, wear numbers on both sides during the 1957 and 1964-65 seasons.

The new white helmet is complete with the aforementioned script “Cats” on the front bumper, K-State wordmark on the back bumper and a 1st Infantry Division insignia above that as part of the Wildcats’ annual Fort Riley Day festivities.