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LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – A half-century ago the UNLV football team posted its only undefeated regular season, finished with a school-record 12 wins and played in the NCAA Division II semifinals. As the athletics department celebrates the golden anniversary of those players’ accomplishments at Saturday’s home-opening game vs. Utah Tech, second-year head coach Barry Odom will outfit his squad in a special, never-before-used helmet design in their honor.
While the 1974 Rebels, coached by the late Ron Meyer, donned plain red helmets during that historic season at what was known then as Las Vegas Stadium, this UNLV team will wear white helmets with red facemasks and the beloved 1970s UNLV “sunburst logo” popping off in vibrant red at Allegiant Stadium for the noon kickoff.
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Members of the ’74 squad in attendance will be recognized on the field at halftime. The team, which was inducted into the UNLV Athletics Hall of Fame in its second year of existence in 1988, boasted six future NFL draft picks, including two All-Americans in lineman Joe Ingersoll and running back Mike Thomas, while quarterback Glenn Carano and wide receiver Mike “Cowboy” Haverty were also each inducted into their school’s hall of fame as individuals.
Those Rebels regularly played before sold-out crowds in compiling a 10-0 home record at the now-closed stadium constructed deep in the desert. In fact, an October win over previously undefeated Boise State pushed the six-year-old program all the way to No. 2 in the nation in the small-college rankings. The squad’s dominant campaign led to a first-ever bid to the NCAA postseason where UNLV defeated Alcorn State, 35-22, in a first-round matchup staged in Las Vegas. One week later, the Rebels headed to LSU’s Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to play in the national semifinals where they fell to Delaware at the Grantland Rice Bowl during what was also the school’s first network television appearance on ABC 50 years ago.
Saturday will mark the third different retro-inspired helmet worn by the Rebels since Odom took over the program last year. In the 2023 season-opener, UNLV’s helmets featured the REBELS font from the mid-1980s when College Football Hall of Famer Randall Cunningham was running the offense. Then, in a game four victory at UTEP, the team sported an all-white look that featured a helmet decal inspired by the ones that adorned the silver helmets from 1987-89. That block N and Las Vegas script are best remembered as being worn by another legendary UNLV player, running back Ickey Woods, when he led college football with 1,658 yards rushing in 1987 before shuffling off to the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals.
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