To honor the 50th anniversary of NASA’s Apollo 11 lunar mission and to celebrate “150 Years of Giant Leaps”, the Purdue Boilermakers will wear moon-inspired helmets as they take on Maryland on Saturday.
To pay homage to Purdue’s astronaut history, the helmet is designed to resemble an astronaut’s helmet. The white helmet features a chrome gold facemask to represent the gold tint of a space suit’s visor. It also features a moon pattern on the “Motion P” logo on the sides and center stripe. The helmet also has Neil Armstrong’s moon footprints running down the center stripe.
On the back of the helmet are the numbers 2, 25 and 64 to represent the number of Purdue alumni to walk on the moon, number of Purdue astronauts in space and the total number of space missions by Purdue astronauts.
There will also be a sticker on the back of the helmet and patch on the jersey that illustrates the Griffin from Purdue’s crest planting the Purdue flag on the moon, similar to the American flag being planted on the moon 50 years ago.
To complete the look, Purdue will be wearing their regular white jerseys, white pants and gray gloves.
Purdue will be the second team to wear a special space-themed helmet. UCF began wearing their space uniform in 2017.
