How the hand-painted Utah football helmets honoring Ty Jordan and Aaron Lowe were made [Video]

Longtime Utah Utes football fan Travis Vallejo stopped what he was doing when the football team revealed the helmets for Saturday’s game against No. 6 USC. He was so filled with emotion he that needed to regain his composure.

“It just chokes me up,” Vallejo said. “It’s deep.”

The hand-painted helmets depict airbrushed paintings of late Utes players Ty Jordan and Aaron Lowe, who died almost exactly a year apart from gunshot wounds. It’s just one of the ways the University of Utah is honoring their memories.

The man who painted the helmets, Armando Villarreal, feels the sentiment coming from fans like Vallejo, as well as the university as a whole. He first started to understand what Jordan and Lowe meant to the team when he attended a Utes game last season where his Military Appreciation helmets were worn by the players.

“I don’t think it would have been as significant to me personally if I didn’t get to see and …