Football fans at Autzen Stadium may have noticed something missing from this year’s Oregon Marching Band uniforms: helmets.
After four years using its characteristic green, Nike-designed helmets, which cost tens of thousands of dollars total, the band has switched to baseball caps following donors’ complaints that the helmets resembled those of Nazi storm troopers, said Eric Wiltshire, assistant director of bands.
“We got a lot of comments from donors who didn’t like it,” Wiltshire said.
After consulting with the Athletics Department and the School of Music and Dance, which each provide a portion of the band’s funds, administrators decided to retire the toppers.
“The people who didn’t like them were very offended,” Wiltshire said, adding that the band had not intended to offend anyone.
Nike, the athletic apparel company that designed the uniforms, also did not mean to offend, Wiltshire said.
The band switched to its latest Nike-made uniforms in 2003-04, prompting a mixed reaction from its members. The uniforms feature slim, thunder-green overalls and matching jackets with lightning-yellow shoulder accents.
Wiltshire said he estimates the helmets cost between $90 and $100 each, and the band owns between 280 and 300 helmets.
The retired helmets are currently in storage, and their fate has yet to be determined, he said.
Some professors also criticized the helmets.
“I intensely dislike the uniforms, particularly the helmets,” said art history professor Jeffrey Hurwit, the fall University Senate president.
Hurwit said he did not believe the band intended to remind viewers of WWII garb, but that the helmets were in bad taste.
“I’m an art historian. I know beauty when I see it and something that is ugly when I see it, and that’s ugly,” he said.
Biology professor Nathan Tublitz also disapproved of the headgear.
“I find the band uniform helmets reminiscent of Nazi helmets. I’m not the only who thinks that,” Tublitz said. Although Tublitz said while he wasn’t losing any sleep over the issue, “It’s a little issue on campus that would make some people feel better.”
Wiltshire said donors have responded positively to the switch.
The band began wearing the ball caps at the beginning of the season during the home football game against Oklahoma. The band already owned the caps, so it did not need to make an additional purchase.
Junior Matt Hall, who plays clarinet in the band, said the new caps are “not that much of a difference” and that he did not mind the helmets.
Sophomore Thomas Reed, who is a part of the band’s drum line, said the caps “really work.”
“I’ve always been a big fan of looking at other team’s uniforms,” he said. “No other band wears baseball caps, so I think it’s really cool.”
Reed said he didn’t really like the helmets.
“They were very good for drumming on during spare time,” he said. “They were pretty hot to march in.”
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