Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Perhaps the most distinct and iconic image of the Notre Dame football program is the gold helmet which the Fighting Irish began wearing in the 1950s. Through the years preparing the gold helmets has been an elaborate operation that at one time included student managers painting the helmets with real gold flakes. Not just any gold flakes but flakes from the 24K gold leaf that was scraped from the iconic Golden Dome. Although the tradition of painting the team's helmets prior to each game ended in 2011, there are still 23.9-karat gold flakes in the paint of every football helmet.