It's one of the best traditions in college sports, the painting of the University of Notre Dame football helmets. Every Monday night during the football season, you'll find a group of approximately 80 Notre Dame students inside Notre Dame Stadium, restoring the legendary gold helmets of the Fighting Irish -- it's quite a process! Annually voted the greatest helmet in college football -- just ask Urban Meyer, Florida's Head Coach, who admitted two seasons ago on national television that Notre Dame had the best helmets in college football -- the Notre Dame helmet carries actual 23.9-karat gold flakes from the Golden Dome that sits atop the University's Main Building. Ten times in the last 131 years, Notre Dame has removed and replaced the gold leaf on the Dome -- it's called "regilding." And, when they do -- they capture the gold they remove -- and it's mixed in with the paint used on the helmets. Please note: if you're looking at the pictures of football practice, these last few weeks, and the helmets don't look "Notre Dame Gold" -- they won't. Notre Dame only paints the "game day" helmets of each player. The Irish now have a helmet for practice and a helmet for games. That's why they now paint the helmets on Monday night, instead of the traditional Friday nights from previous seasons (remember the movie Rudy). I have to admit, I liked the painting of the helmets on Friday night, I thought it was a wonderful "primer" for Football Weekend at Notre Dame -- oh well! The link to the video below will tell you this story -- and you'll see the actual gold flakes from the Dome. When you do go to this link, you'll need to scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the video. Enjoy!
REGILDING THE GOLD HELMETS OF NOTRE DAME
