Photo: CRobertson / iStock Editorial / Getty Images
The Oklahoma State football team pays homage to its earliest history at Saturday’s Homecoming matchup against Arizona State, as the Cowboys wear some of the earliest known logos and stripes in school history to help commemorate the team’s 125th season.
Featured most prominently, the team will wear helmet side decals of the interlocking “OA” that served as the official letter and emblem of the O.A. Association, organized in October of 1909 by the athletes of Oklahoma A&M College.
The logo can be seen in photos of varsity OAMC athletes across various sports from 1909 through 1913, when the organization dropped the “A” in December of that year to become the “O” Association and subsequently began awarding the traditional “O” letter. The organization later became known as the “O” Club, then O-Club, and still rewards the “O” letter to Oklahoma State’s varsity athletes today.
This weekend is believed to be the first time the “OA” emblem has been used at the institution since the dawn of World War I.
Another prominent feature unique to Saturday’s uniform is the widely spaced horizontal orange stripes that encircle the team’s black sleeves and socks that will be worn with the present-day black uniform. Various versions of horizontal stripes appear in OAMC football photos available from 1901 through 1921, before the team switched to a look with vertical stripes in 1922.
The stripes are a nod to OAMC’s first team name of “Tigers,” which was the name of institution’s athletic teams before it fell out of use in the early 1920s to be replaced with “Aggies” and later “Cowboys” as the teams are known today.
Saturday’s helmet also features a front bumper decal of “OAMC” block letters that can be seen in some of the earliest available team photos. It was prominently featured on head coach Ed Parry’s practice attire in a 1908 football team photo, as well as on the front of the baseball team’s uniform in the mid-1900s.
The helmet blends together the past and present by including a “Tigers” decal on the back bumper in the same script font that appears on many of OSU’s present-day uniforms. It also includes a “125” decal on the back of the helmet shell to commemorate the team’s 125th season in 2024.