Armando Villarreal was featured Saturday, Nov 1, on College GameDay, for hand painting the University of Utah’s helmets. While at the show, Villarreal painted a special GameDay helmet, live, with all five of the broadcasters faces and the shows logo on it.
This is the helmet Armando Villarreal painted for the Utah vs Cincinnati football game on Nov. 1. It features the Ute’s Tribe circle and feathers, symbolizing the “circle of life” paired with the eagle feathers of honor.
Armando Villarreal featured on College GameDay
By Alan Carman
The Imperial Republican
This week, another hand painted football helmet, painted by local artist Armando Villarreal, was featured at the Utah vs Cincinnati college football game. This was also the featured game for the TV broadcast College GameDay, which was shot live at the University of Utah Saturday, Nov. 1.
On Tuesday, Oct. 28, Villarreal was invited to be on the show Saturday, Nov. 1 and was featured, live, airbrushing a College GameDay helmet with the shows logo and pictures of all five of the hosts of the show, Reece Davis, Desmond Howard, Pat McAfee, Nick Saban and Kirk Herbstreit.
During the show, Villarreal was interviewed by Jess Simms about his work on the helmets, stating that each helmet took between two to three hours to complete.
This years Utah helmet has the circle and feather logo, symbolizing the Ute’s tribe “circle of life” paired with the eagle feathers of honor and will be worn with the dark mode uniform. The helmets will also be worn in the Ute’s game Nov. 15 against Baylor in Waco Texas. This is the ninth helmet that Villarreal has done for the Ute’s, dating back to 2016.
Past helmets featured many different designs. 2016: Black drum and feathers; 2017: Throw the U; 2018: Red Tail Hawk; 2019: 66-67 Throw back; 2020: no helmet due to covid; 2021: USS Salt Lake City; 2022: “22 Forever”, honoring Ty Jordan and Aaron Lowe; 2023: The MUSS, for the student section called the “Mighty Utah Student Section”; 2024: Malama Lahaina.
Villarreal said things happened really fast and it was kind of a crazy experience. Due to the fact that he would be painting on the show, Villarreal drove to Salt Lake City so he could haul his compressor and supplies with him.
Villarreal has one more helmet that he painted for the 2025 season. It will be featured on Nov. 15, when the Green Wave of Tulane hosts Florida Atlantic. More on this in next weeks issue.
Each year the local artist is becoming more recognized for his quality work and his skilled artistry. As Jess Simms said in her interview, she was star struck to meet Armando.
This writer believes there are even greater things to come for Armando, and I am proud that he is putting Imperial on the map with his brilliant work.