The UTEP football team is going with a throwback look for its homecoming game against Louisiana Tech, as it is reviving its Paydirt Pete helmets it wore between 1986 and ’89. The white helmet features a cartoon Paydirt Pete with a pickax in one hand and a football in the other.
UTEP has sporadically brought these out of retirement, often for homecoming, and played a portion of the 2014 season in these, starting with a homecoming game against Old Dominion. In 2014, Sean Kugler, the coach, played in the helmets in the late 1980s, and UTEP continued to wear them for much of the 2014 season.
UTEP began offering throwback gear in 2023, offering an array of T-shirts through Homefield Apparel with logos from the 1969s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s starting at $38.
The Miners will wear orange tops and white pants in Saturday night’s Sun Bowl game, which kicks at 7 p.m.
Bret Bloomquist can be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @Bretbloomquist on X.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: UTEP Miners football to wear throwback helmets for homecoming game against Louisiana Tech
Reporting by Bret Bloomquist, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
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