Football Fanatic Shows Off Impressive Collection Of BYU Helmets

PROVO, Utah – Did you know BYU football has had 35 different helmets in their history? You probably didn’t know that, but one guy living in Dallas right now definitely does.

Blaise D’Sylva, a Washington State graduate who currently resides in Texas, is celebrating the 150 years of college football by showing off his college football mini helmet collection that runs 4,700 helmets deep.

D’Sylva has each helmet that all FBS college football teams have worn in their histories. Each day on D’Sylva’s Twitter, he’s posting a picture of a different team’s history of helmets in miniature form.

The football fanatic who considers his helmet collection his personal art posted a picture of his BYU helmet collection earlier this week.

Today we feature the helmet history of BYU (Team 66/130). @BYUfootball has 35 different helmets which are all pictured. 1/2@byuequipment@UniWatch @PhilHecken @dufftittle@brettpyne@KVN_03@gregwrubell@VanquishTheFoe@BlueBrethren@CriddleBenjamin@Mitch_Harper#CFB150 pic.twitter.com/MRhHQinoCR

— Blaise D'Sylva (@wtfcoach) October 28, 2019

The detail in all 41 of the helmets D’Sylva put on display for BYU is impressive. The 1990 helmet with the same helmet decals on Ty Detmer’s helmet is very cool. He even has the one-game helmets or lids that were used for one season including the 1969 helmet that featured the 100th anniversary of the college football logo.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of CFB in ’69, BYU wore the 100 logo on the left side of its helmet and the white Y inside blue oval on right side. 2/2@CFB150 pic.twitter.com/b0rP6Fgyik

— Blaise D’Sylva (@wtfcoach) October 28, 2019

D’Sylva’s passion for helmets started in the 1970s with the gumball machine helmets for NFL teams. Fast forward to 2003, D’Sylva purchased packs of Riddell College Football helmets and that reignited his passion for helmets. Then after that purchase, he saw individuals on eBay who were making custom helmets and he’s worked with them since to create his immense collection.

Along with college football, D’Sylva has all of the helmets from the NFL, CFL, XFL, USFL, WFL, NFLE, WLAF, AAFC, and Continental League.

He does his research every week for any new helmets and for BYU he added the Cougars throwback helmet to his collection that they wore against Washington back in September.

BYU @BYUfootball with a "fauxback" Saturday. Single blue stripe and gray facemask in '19 vs blue/white/blue stripe and blue facemask in '78. Plus Y logo is different. '19 helmet left and '78 helmet right.#CFB2019HelmetWatch#SeasonTotal70@UniWatch @PhilHecken @SimplyMoono pic.twitter.com/8SdB7oZylt

— Blaise D'Sylva (@wtfcoach) September 21, 2019

When asked what comes to mind for D’Sylva when he thinks of BYU football, he said, “That is not an easy question. Because I can give you five different things. One, LaVell Edwards. Two, 1984 National Championship. Three, helmet stickers from the 1970s and 1980s. Four, a heavy passing team before it was the rage. Five, how they always seemed on TV to be a very tough place to play for a road team. Especially in 8os and 90s.”

More Local Teams Will Be Released

BYU is the first local program D’Sylva has posted a picture of from his collection. He’s unveiling each team alphabetically within conferences. Right now he’s posting the independent programs and then later in the season he’ll get to the Mountain West Conference that will feature Utah State. Then the Pac-12 where D’Sylva will showcase his Utah Utes.

Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12-3 pm) on KSL Newsradio. Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.