Sometimes, a sticker isn’t just a sticker.

Heading into the 1967 season, Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes dumped his program’s red helmets and brought in the now-iconic silver headgear. With the new garb, Hayes instituted a new policy: Individual players’ contributions — those that helped the team win but might otherwise go unnoticed by traditional statistics, like a key block on a touchdown run — would be rewarded with a small buckeye leaf sticker. (It’s now trademarked by the university.)

What were they supposed to do with these decals? Hayes instructed his players to affix them to the...