Pre-1946, LSU wore leather helmets. From 1947 through 1955, LSU wore an old gold helmet. In 1956, head coach Paul Dietzel changed the color of the helmet to a yellow-gold similar to that of the Green Bay Packers. It featured a white one-inch center stripe with purple three-quarter inch flanking stripes. From 1957 through 1971, LSU added jersey numbers to the sides of the helmet. In 1972, the first logo was introduced, a tiger head inside a purple circle with LSU written underneath the tiger head. In 1977, LSU introduced its current helmet. The logo features curved LSU lettering written above the Tiger head logo. Purple face masks were introduced in 1980. In 2014, LSU introduced a new Tiger head logo.