I've always thought facemasks were cool, and I've sort of followed the ones used over the years in the NFL. They became mandatory for any players entering into the league after 1958, with the players who entered prior to 58 able to choose whether they wore them or not (and thus, even in 1968 there were two or three players still not wearing them). By the mid 1960s, nearly every player in the league had at least a one bar facemask, and from then, the evolution of face protection took off:
the days before the facemask hardshell helmet early experiment The Adams:
AD110,
AD220 MARIETTA FAIL one bar modification of the bar crazy mod of the bar one bar with a hump lucite panel (this did not last long due to them shattering and injuring players--I only ever saw one on the "Leave It to Beaver" show worn by one of their friends in a sandlot game)
Jim Brown's RAWLINGS lucite facemask from his college days at Syracuse Riddell Duckbill with a horseshoe Riddell Duckbill with an extra single bar (I remember seeing this guy play. He was also often in those NFL library books in elementary school)
1954 parade of facemask fails Early full cage another 1960s cage a max cage with the middle vertical bar stopping for better field of vision rather than going to the helmet crown like the typical max cage
in the 1960s, emerged the MACGREGOR cheesy white jr. varsity looking facemasks. Gale Sayers wore this crappy thing.
The MACGREGOR "full cage" modification Another MARIETTA cage And WTF MACGREGOR? Why put a big hole right in the middle of the cage?
DUNGARD ...
facemasks came out in the late 60s with their more protective facemasks
The full cage DUNGARD facemask And here's that weird LA RAMS OL DUNGARD combination facemask again I always thought this DUNGARD was the lamest of all facemasks, worn by
Griese,
Bradshaw, and
Jaworski. They barely protect the end of your nose, maybe...
This is the prototypical clip-on cage Riddell facemask that in the 1970s replaced the duckbill mask
as the most common facemask worn by NFL and college players all the way up to the late 80s. The
clip-on cage facemasks have been the standard for facemasks in the NFL and NCAA from the late 60s and early 70s until today, with many variations, obviously.
The Schutt mask worn by the
** Snake** The Marrietta Max-Pro was popular in the late '70s-early '80s when the Marrietta company went out of business. Here is the
back version and the
linebackeend version. Marrietta Max-Pros had a clear shell with the team's markings painted on the inside of the clear shell making it logo or paint replacement less frequent. Trainers LOVED the clear shell.
Dig the design possibilities for the expansion 1968 Bengals In the early '80s, Riddell came out with a variation on its standard mask that soon became common on all the cages: the extra horizontal bar at eye level:
And in the 90s, those opened the door for a ton of cage variations:
full cage,open field of vision Custom mega cage w/open field of vision The extra horizontal bars on the full cage and
again How many bars is that custom job? and
more customs The one favored by RBs and DBs in the early 90s. Riddell Kra-lite plastic masks (on either side of the middle guy) were common in the WLAF but pretty rare in the NFL. They lasted almost a decade before disappearing.
and here are links to modern facemasks--there are so many different helmets and facemasks now, I'm just posting urls without descriptions from here...
http://www.helmethut.com/procap.jpg http://www.pigskinbuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/steve-wallace-helmet.jpg http://www.riddell.com/wp-content/uploads/hlmt_riddell_360_zoom_holiday-new.png http://www.teamskyline.com/index.cfm/fusemethod/cdd2_sub/catid/6/category/Football/subcatid/171/sub_category/Face%20Masks/ http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3256/2905917464_f830e2e2fd_o.jpg http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6166/6143831873_462f6ef0e7_o.jpg http://www.riddell.com/wp-content/uploads/hlmt_riddell_360_front-542x490.png http://www.riddell.com/wp-content/uploads/hlmt_riddell_360_youth_zoom_holiday-new.png http://www.riddell.com/wp-content/uploads/hlmt_riddell_360_zoom_holiday-new.png http://espn.go.com/photo/2007/0827/pg2_u_bjacobshelmet_450.jpg http://www.riddell.com/wp-content/uploads/featimage_pressroom_revolutionspeedhelmet.jpg http://www.schuttsports.com/userdocs/feature/orig_ion_hsXL.jpg http://assets.academy.com/mgen/86/10126986.jpg http://farm1.static.flickr.com/133/323819787_fab225cc2e.jpg http://www.americansportscollectibles.com/images/helmets/dls-cowboys-revolution.jpg http://www.sport-bartl.com/upload/pics/Riddell_Revolution_Spped.JPG Schutt's modern faceguard inventory future helmets and facemasks?
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2129/2335824249_a4c6dae249_o.jpg http://www.softballrampage.com/productphotos/4377_display.jpg http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2418/2336658600_b3d05b661b_o.jpg Bob Lilly's 1974
helmet &
uniform Don Meredith's 1962
helmet &
uniform Bob Hayes 1965
helmet &
uniform Roger Staubach's 1976 Bicentennial
[helmet](
http://www.helmethut.com/Staubach.html) &
uniform Cowboys' Hall of Fame helmets together Never seen one of these before They've gotten quite elaborate over the years...