MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Last spring, West Virginia University unveiled a special 1965 throwback uniform on its social media platforms.

This Saturday against Utah, in a game that will be nationally televised on FOX, the Mountaineers will finally get to wear them.

The attractive design is similar to the uniform the team wore 60 years ago when it was competing in the Southern Conference with star players Dick Leftridge, Garrett Ford Sr., Allen McCune and John Mallory.

That squad defeated Pitt 63-48 in what is still the highest-scoring Backyard Brawl game in series history.

The Mountaineers won the Southern Conference with a 4-0 record, but Virginia Tech had exited the league, leaving West Virginia, William & Mary, East Carolina, VMI, George Washington, The Citadel, Davidson, Furman and Richmond as its remnants.

The real historical significance of that season is what was on the team's helmet – a distinctive, three-dimensional navy blue WVU logo outlined in gold. Set behind the logo was a light-blue state of West Virginia that really gave the old-gold helmet a modern, technicolor look for the mid-1960s.

Photographs of games that season indicated the team wore variants of the uniform, sometimes in the same game. There are photos of some helmets with a single blue stripe down the middle and others that didn't, like Bob Dunlevy's helmet, pictured here.

The Wheeling resident guesses equipment manager Carl Roberts must have run out of blue tape.

"Probably so," Dunlevy laughed. "I kept my helmet because I needed it to play in the North-South game after the season. I'm sure Carl was probably after me to return it, but I kept it, and I still have it."

The home blue jersey had white numerals on the arm outlined in gold, with three gold stripes underneath. The road jerseys were gold and didn't have numerals or stripes on the arms.

The history of helmet decals dates back to 1948, when the NFL's Los Angeles Rams were the first to paint logos on their helmets. Logos on college football helmets came later, spurred by new helmet advancements and the growing popularity of television coverage, which made it important for teams to be identified.

Texas was among the first college teams to put a logo on its helmets in 1962, and others soon followed suit. West Virginia put individual numerals on its 1955 and 1959 helmets, according to the website helmethut.com.

During the 1963 centennial season, each player had the numeral 100 on the side of the helmet to help celebrate the state's 100-year anniversary. WVU that year also petitioned the NCAA to have placekicker Chuck Kinder wear jersey No. 100, which was granted.

The '65 season was the first time WVU football adopted a helmet decal and the people who would have been responsible for doing it, namely Roberts, coach Gene Corum and publicity director Eddie Barrett, are no longer around to provide additional details.

Nevertheless, West Virginia University vice-president and director of athletics Wren Baker is somewhat of a uniform buff, and the first time he visited the Puskar Center's Hall of Traditions, he immediately took notice of that helmet among the other ones on display.

"The inspiration really came shortly after Wren got here," WVU deputy director of athletics Matt Wells said last May. "He was familiarizing himself with the history of Mountaineer football, and he saw the 1965 helmet on display over at the Hall of Traditions.

"That started a conversation of, 'Hey, what can we do with that?' As we looked more into what the '65 team accomplished … Southern Conference champions and what I believe is still the highest-scoring Backyard Brawl game in series history and a big win over Pitt … plus, it's also the 60^th anniversary of that season, but really, it was an opportunity to do a true throwback, which we haven't done."

As for the helmet logo, it was removed when coach Jim Carlen took over the program in 1966 and with the exception of Carlen issuing helmet stars for outstanding performance, the side of the helmet remained bare until a different iteration of the WVU football logo returned in 1970 when Bobby Bowden replaced Carlen.

A logo of some sort has been on Mountaineer football helmets ever since.

Special-themed uniforms have been designed in the past, but never a true throwback uniform, according to Wells.

"We've done the 'Country Roads' version uniform home and away, we've done a 'Coal Rush,' and we've brought back certain elements of past uniforms with our primary look," Wells noted. "But we thought with the unique nature of that helmet, and the helmet logo with the baby blue, it was probably the most unique element of any of the past uniforms that we could potentially replicate."

Kristin Coldsnow, the lead designer on West Virginia's other themed football uniforms, was once again consulted on this design, although she no longer works for the athletics department.

"We didn't challenge her as much on this one because it was just emulating an existing look," Wells explained. "She was very detail-oriented to make sure we got the state outline right and the proper color of blue while working with Nike.

"Austin Blake, from our football equipment staff, was also instrumental on the helmet, matching the color and getting the right colors on the front and back bumpers," Wells said. "There were some intricate details and Austin sort of took the lead on that."

In addition to Coldsnow, Blake, Wells and Baker, department uniform connoisseur and executive senior associate athletic director Michael Fragale and senior sports publications director Joe Swan also provided their input during the design process.

Because of the unique old-gold color scheme, Wells said the helmet will be one-off because it doesn't match the colors of West Virginia's regular uniforms.

The Official WVU Team Store on Patteson Drive has special throwback apparel available for sale, and merchandise will also be on sale inside the stadium on game day.

Interestingly enough, Saturday's opponent Utah may also have a tie to West Virginia's throwback look. It appears the Mountaineers may have worn the helmet decal during their 1964 Liberty Bowl meeting against Utah in Atlantic City, New Jersey, although photos and video clips available do not provide irrefutable evidence.

The game was televised nationally on ABC and having a team decal would have fallen in line with common practices of the time. It was just the second-ever national television appearance in school history for the Mountaineers.

Saturday's game will kick off at 3:30 p.m. and tickets remain on sale through the Mountaineer Ticket Office by logging on to WVUGAME.com.