IMPERIAL, Neb. (KSNB) – One-hundred years ago, the legendary “Galloping Ghost” Red Grange scored five touchdowns in the new Illinois Memorial Stadium. This past Saturday, Oct. 19, the University of Illinois honored Grange with a special tribute — an alternate helmet crafted by Nebraska native Armando Villarreal.
Villarreal, an Army veteran and artist based in Imperial, Nebraska, has created specialty helmets for teams across the country. Preparing the helmets for Illinois required extensive dedication, with each helmet taking two to two and a half hours to complete in batches of 24.
Among the Nebraska connections to Illinois football is freshman tight end Tanner Hollinger, a Cross County High School graduate. For him, seeing the helmets firsthand was a powerful moment.
“It was really cool. We talked about in the summer, like that 100-year game is gonna be a big deal, and we knew there’s gonna be alternate uniforms,” Hollinger said. “I think they turned out real nice. Nebraska has always been home for me growing up, so when I heard that guy who made him is actually from Nebraska, I thought it was really cool. Home state of Nebraska representing.”
Illinois head coach Bret Bielema said the craftsmanship was so impressive that even referees noticed.
“Actually one of the officials came up and said, ‘Damn coach I had to go up and touch one of those I thought they were leather,’” Bielema recalled.
Villarreal attended the Illinois-Michigan game to see his work in action, calling it a humbling experience.
“It’s such a significant part of college football history, in the history of Illinois, and to be a part of that is something that, it’s just hard to explain, it’s extremely humbling, honestly, to get to know that I got to be part of that,” Villarreal said.
Villarreal is also responsible for several other specialty helmets, including three for the Utah Utes, but the success of this dream Villarreal had since he was seven years old, almost didn’t happen.
“There’s so many times I wanted to quit and just, you know, go be a mechanic or, you know, something like that, cause I grew up in farm country, so my dad always told me to be a diesel mechanic or a machinist or something like that, so that’s always in the back of your mind,” Villarreal said.
At one point, the Imperial artist left art altogether.
“Just kind of got to a point where I had to walk away from it, so we completely walked away from it in I think 2016,” Villarreal said.
After that Villarreal went to work for the city of Imperial, and fast forward two years, he was on the back of a garbage truck when helmet manufacturer, Schutt, called him to make a specialty helmet for Mississippi State.
It took off from there, Villarreal has now done a dozen helmets for teams in eight states. The Imperial artist said the whole process has taught him some lessons on keeping dreams alive.
“No matter how down you get the next day you wake up and you just kind of, we’ll just try it again, we’ll try it again,” Villarreal said. “Granted, there’s sometimes where your dream is a plan B, and you have to have plan A to pay the bills, but never, never give up on it.”
Villarreal notes having the moral support of the people around you is important.
“It’s nice that I grew up here, because there’s so many people that were so supportive the whole time, and I almost feel better for them that their faith in me has paid off,” Villarreal said.
Armando’s biggest support system is wife, Lora, who he said is right there along side him helping get helmets made.
“I got real lucky with my wife because she has an incredible work ethic,” Villarreal said. “She’s very good at, you know, the details and understands what this has to be like and what it needs to look like, and I think there’s times when she almost puts in more hours on it than I do.”
On Thursday morning, it was announced the Villarreal’s throwback helmet for the Illini was put in EA Sports’ College Football 25 video game.
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