
Griffin, the running back who played at the Ohio State University, wore the helmet at the College All-Star Game in 1976. The helmet worn by the two-time Heisman Trophy Award winner Archie Griffin was auctioned in 2014. Thorpe served as the president of the National Football League when it was first founded in 1920. The medals were returned to his family years later. Thorpe was the famous Olympian who had his Olympic medals stripped from him due to his being judged a professional, not an amateur. However, a leather helmet worn by the legendary Jim Thorpe was auctioned in 2009. Early leather helmets are very scarce, and it is very difficult to attribute a leather helmet with a particular player in most cases. Of course, NFL football collectors have always been enthralled by helmets, especially ones worn by famous players. A rule does specify that a helmet with a white chinstrap must be fastened and a face mask attached. Today, rules regarding helmets are pretty lax. This made it easier for a teams’ coach to call in plays. In 1995 a new NFL rule permitted a quarterback to have a radio transmitter in their helmets. Throughout the 1960s and 70s, many different face masks were developed, usually depending on the position of a player. By 1962, facemasks were worn by all NFL players. The face bar was the creation of legendary Cleveland Browns’ coach Paul Brown, who wanted to protect his star quarterback Otto Graham. Naturally, “face-masking” soon followed, only to be banned in 1956. In 1955, a single face bar was added to the padded plastic helmets.
#Facebar cleveland professional
The Rams then became the first professional team with a helmet emblem. Soon, padded plastic helmets were devised.Īs a forerunner of today’s NFL helmets, in 1948, Los Angeles Rams halfback Fred Gehrke painted horns on his helmet.

After the war, helmets again became sturdier. However, as plastics became more scarce during World War II, so did the durability of the plastic. Football became much safer in 1939 when John Riddel devised the first plastic helmet. Hardened leather helmets were first worn in the 1920s, which admittedly increased protection. It was in the early 1900s that soft leather skull caps were used as optional headgear. You can then see for yourself that today’s helmets have probably saved many players from great bodily harm, and even death. Let me go back not too many years ago and trace the history of the football helmet. After all, we’re all accustomed to seeing those beautifully decorated hard plastic helmets that the players wear.īut the leather helmets were not too much of a thing of the past. That’s a bit hard to believe in today’s game. Imagine a modern day running back for the Denver Broncos or New York Jets running smack into a 350 pound defensive lineman – with only a leather helmet.
