Helmet collection provides hobby
Apr. 16—After retiring and losing his wife, former Permian High School girls' golf coach Steve Chandler needed something to do.
He settled on collecting football helmets about two and a half years ago. With one "man cave" featuring some of the helmets and golf balls, Chandler is constructing another that will house more of them. He has 95-plus of the headwear, but is working on 111 total.
"I'm a Permian graduate and I did not play football at Permian. I was a baseball player (second base) and I ended up coaching the girls' golf team for many years at Permian. My teams won four district championships at one time, so I have four flags for my district championships. But after I retired and after my wife passed away, I decided to build this building," Chandler said.
"Through my coaching connections and through my administrative connections, I thought, I wonder if it would be possible to get a helmet from every school that was in the district whenever I went to Permian. There were eight schools in the district — Midland High, Midland Lee, Big Spring and San Angelo, Abilene High and Abilene Cooper, and OHS. That's what these helmets are. It's just those helmets from the original district," he added.
He has an Odessa High helmet that dates back to 1984 and a Lee High School helmet that is obsolete now that it's called Legacy High School. However, he said he does have a helmet from Legacy. He hasn't had to do much traveling to obtain the helmets.
"Like I say, I have administrator friends and coach friends all over the state. After I got these seven helmets, my thought process was I wonder if I could get one from everybody that Permian has ever played. So I started making phone calls to coaches and administrators and that's how I'm up to about 95 right now. I have all 14 helmets from El Paso that we've played. I have all five from Fort Worth that we've played. I have all three from Lubbock; all three from Amarillo," Chandler said.
As he collects them, he's creating an index card saying who provided the helmet, who and when they played and what the score was. There are multiple cards for teams they played multiple times.
"It's been a very fun and enjoyable project to work on with the people that I've met ...," Chandler said. "There's still plenty of work to do. Permian has played seven out of state schools. I have five of those in the collection already."
"It's crazy the way that it's taken off," he added.
For schools that don't exist anymore he's planning to get a picture frame with the school's name in it, when Permian played them and when it shut down.
Although he didn't play football, all of his friends played football and he almost never missed a game.
"I still own 14 season tickets at Permian. I probably own more season tickets than anybody in the city," Chandler said.
He showed a helmet from Broken Arrow, Okla., and Pasadena High School, the first high school Permian played in 1959.
"I've talked to that principal. He was so excited to get it for me," Chandler said.
The building will be 12 feet by 16 feet with shelves to put the helmets on. He'll also put in a photo of Barrett Stadium, which is where Odessa College is putting in its track now.
"That's where Permian and Odessa High used to play football games. So I have some old pictures of Barrett stadium. I'll have some pictures of Ratliff Stadium put inside of this new ... helmet cave. But I've had success collecting what I've collected," Chandler said.
When the building is done, he'll invite the coaching staff and administration and old coaches that he knows.
"It's just to be something to entertain. I'm not going to charge anybody or anything. My daughters both know that when I die all of the helmets are to be donated to Permian High School, so that they can keep the collection intact," Chandler said.
He graduated from Permian in 1971 and went to work coaching at what was Hood Junior High, now Wilson & Young Medal of Honor Middle School, in 1976. He coached basketball, football and track for six years and got out of coaching when he was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Chandler decided to teach and six years later he got a call from the principal asking him to teach and coach at PHS. He became the head girls' golf coach and coached for 17 years.
After PHS, he went to Odessa College for a couple of years and then Southwest Texas State for a year. He left there and went to University of Texas Permian Basin where he majored in physical education and minored in math.
"That's how I became a math teacher," Chandler said.
Along with the helmets, he has about 400 golf balls and probably another 100 that aren't in racks. The students would walk by and just give him different golf balls with different logos.
"I have about 16 schools still to go and I'm in communication with probably eight of those right now. My goal was to originally get to 96% of all of them that we've played. I'm sitting at about 88 or 89% right now," Chandler said.
He and his late wife, Bonnie, have five children and 12 grandchildren. His wife passed away in 2014 and he misses her every day.
Chandler said she probably wouldn't approve of his helmet collection and would have wanted the room for her stuff.
His friend Phil Fouche said Chandler is true MOJO.
"He continues to serve Odessa and the MOJO community; oustanding golf coach ... tremendous educator ... a lover of football helmets and a great friend," Fouche said.
He has gotten some static from districts that don't want to give up a helmet as they cost about $400 each and some have gone up to $500.
"I do not want a helmet that's from their usable inventory. I only want a helmet, that could not meet reconditioning standards, because it's never going to be used again. It's going to be on display, or one that had to be taken out of circulation from their inventory. That's why they're more receptive to send it to me, but I've had two schools just flatly outright say no, we won't do that. Of those two schools, I've been in contact through a back door person that says I can get you this one I think," Chandler said.
If he doesn't get one of the schools, he'll recognize it with maybe a picture frame like he'll do for schools that have closed.
"... I'm going to quit trying ...," Chandler said.
