Adult Helmets

Professionals and amateurs alike wear protective gear to reduce the chance of injury while playing the game of American Football. The history of the football helmet is responsive to both the evolution of materials technology and rule changes in the game itself. more...

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Origination

It's widely thought that a change in the rules of football led quickly to the need for better protective equipment. In 1888 the college football annual rules convention voted to allow tackling below the waist. Players and coaches soon viewed pads as essential for the game. However, helmets were the last thing to be accepted. They were not a mandatory piece of equipment in college ball until 1939 and they were made mandatory in the National Football league until 1943

As a side note \"the last NFL player to play in a game without a helmet probably was end Dick Plasman of the Chicago Bears in 1940.\" There is a photo of him without one, taken during the 1940 championship game in which Chicago beat the Washington Redskins 73-0.

The man largely credited with inventing the first helmet was George Barclay of Lafayette College who probably developed the \"head harness\" in 1896. He designed a headgear which had three thick leather straps forming a close fit around his head, made by a harness maker. It became known as a head harness. It slowly began to take more of the appearance we recognize today when around 1915 more padding and flaps were added with ear holes for better on-field communication. Painted helmets were being almost as long as helmets themselves: used to show team spirit and to help the quarterback distinguish a down field receiver from the defenders.

The next innovation came probably in 1917 in the form of suspension: to \"cradle\" the skull away from the leather shell. Straps of fabric formed a pattern inside the helmet. They absorbed and distributed the impact better, and they allowed for ventilation. It was a breakthrough. They were first known as \"ZH\" or Zuppke helmets named after the Illinois coach who came up with the design. Rawlings and Spalding were some of the first manufacturers.

The first person to design a bar face mask on a football helmet was Vern McMillan, the owner of a sporting goods store in Terre Haute, Indiana. It was a rubber-covered wire mask on a leather helmet. This kind was used in the mid-1930s. Here's a leather helmet with a leather covered wire mask used around the same time.

A great place to view and purchase leather helmets from this period is a web site called Past Time Sports

Plastic helmets

The plastic football helmet came in 1939. It was invented and patented by Gerry E. Morgan and other employees of the John T. Riddell Company in Chicago, a sporting goods provider. The single molded plastic shell was stronger, lighter, longer lasting, and didn't rot the way leather does when damp. Colors could also be baked into the plastic so the paint jobs would be longer lasting. In 1940 Riddell also developed the first chin strap to rest on the chin instead of the neck and the first plastic face mask.

Read more at Wikipedia.org