Colors of the Green Bay Packers' Helmet

The Green Bay Packers were established in 1919 and played their first game in 1921 for the American Professional Football Association, renamed the National Football League (NFL) in 1922. The franchise has 13 championships, more than any other team in NFL history. When the Packers first entered the NFL, helmets were not required. The NFL did not require helmets until the 1930s and the first helmets were made of leather rather than plastic.

  1. Packers' Helmet Colors

    • The official colors of the Green Bay Packers helmet are gold, dark green and white. Gold is the primary color. A white stripe with wide dark green trim runs down the center of the helmet from the top of the facemask to the base of the helmet in the back. Green Bay's logo, which is on both sides of the helmet, is also white with dark green trim. These have been the colors of the Packers helmets since 1959, when legendary coach Vince Lombardi was hired and determined the team's color scheme.

    Packers' Helmet Logo

    • The logo for the Green Bay Packers is an oval white "G" with dark green trim. According to the Packers, the team utilized several different logos in the team's early years before using the "G" that was designed by the equipment manager, Gerald "Dad" Brashier, in 1961. It is the only logo ever used on a Packers helmet. The Packers hold the trademark for the oval "G" and in 1964, granted permission for the University of Georgia to use a similar logo, although with a different color scheme. Grambling State University also used a similar logo, but let the rights to the logo lapse and has since changed the logo it used on licensed apparel.

    Packers' Uniform History

    • Before Vince Lombardi joined the Packers, the team had many different uniform colors and styles, beginning with blue jerseys and light brown pants. In 1921, the team wore navy-blue jerseys with the name of the team at the time, ACME Packers, stitched in gold across the front. The blue jerseys for the 1929 championship team had the player's number stitched in blue and centered in a gold circle. The Packers replaced blue with green in 1935 and by the 1950s, blue was no longer part of the color scheme. The 1950s' team wore a bright green jersey with gold lettering and shiny green pants. The earliest helmets were brown leather, at times painted gold. The Packers' uniform has changed very little since 1961.

    The First NFL Helmet Logo

    • Fred Gehrke, a halfback and defensive back for the Los Angeles Rams, is credited with being the first person to conceive of painting NFL helmets and adding a team logo. In 1947, the art major from the University of Utah painted one of the team's leather helmets dark blue and added yellow ram horns, a design that is similar to the one still in use by the Rams today. The team wore the newly designed helmets in a game for the first time in 1948 and, in 1949, the John T. Riddell Company, the manufacturer of the NFL's plastic helmets, baked the Rams logo into the plastic. Gehrke was honored by the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1972 for his contribution to the sport.