I've been following this on UniWatch for a while; it turns out WE wore thos helmets before scUM did.
The old MacGregor helmets that served as the inspiration for Michael Princip's Bulwark concept are similar to Spalding's old "winged" helmets, which are the basis for the design still used today by Michigan and a handful of other schools.
For years, the party line has been that the winged helmet was first used by Princeton coach Fritz Crisler in 1935 and then moved to Michigan when Crisler began coaching there in 1938. This basic storyline is repeated all over the Internet.
But over on the Uni Watch Blog, we've recently found several examples of schools using the winged design prior to Crisler's 1935 Princeton squad, including Michigan State in 1934, Indiana in 1933 (lots of additional photos here), and Ohio State in 1930.
The lesson here is twofold: First, no team or coach "invented" the winged helmet design -- it was simply a Spalding stock item that several colleges used in the early 1930s (and probably lots of high schools, too). And second, history isn't always as neat and tidy as the party line would suggest.
(From ESPN Uniwatch page 2 blog)
