aeneas01
05-18-2008, 07:02 AM
a great looking mick tingelhoff helmet and jersey are currently listed on ebay. the helmet is a riddell pac-3 model and is equipped with a full cage dungard facemask - tingelhoff and other vikings greats were known to have favored the distinct aluminum dungard masks during this era.
tingelhoff's played for the vikes from 1962-1978, 17 years, and sported a suspension helmet for 13 of these 17 years - it wasn't until 1975 that tingelhoff finally traded in his suspension helmet for a cell model. what's interesting about the helmet for sale, which tended to be the case for all vikings helmets of this era, is that the shell is molded of navy blue plastic and has been painted purple. this is because riddell did not offer purple as a shell color option at the time. consequently teams like the vikes, i.e. teams that sported helmets with a color that riddell did not offer at the time, selected colors that were similar and painted them the team's color. for example, the 49ers used green bay packer yellow lids that they painted gold because gb yellow was a color that was available from riddell at the time but metallic gold wasn't.
as nice as the listed tingelhoff lid is, theres' nothing quite as an beautiful as an authentic vikings suspension helmet - especially the pre-decal vikings suspension helmet with the over-sized painted horns. make it an vikings rk suspension helmet (slightly flared ear hole sections) with over-sized painted horns and you've reached perfection! but a factory-applied decal suspenion helmets the vikings wore were a close second imo - just something about the front rivet of the shell seemingly connecting the yellow arc to the white horn, apparent on the vikes' hand painted lids and factory-applied decal lids, that will always bring back great memories for me.
whether or not tingelhoff ever actually wore the listed helmet... well i'm not sure anyone will ever really know for sure. perhaps it is indeed one of the final lids he wore during his great career or perhaps it's just a rare, vintage game used or practice used vikings helmet that tingelhoff asked the em to put together as a gift for a friend. personally, i'm hoping that tingelhoff really did wear this lid.
one thing is for sure, vikings and lions collectors seem to be the most ardent when it comes to vintage game-used lids (i have no idea why!) so i expect this helmet to fetch a solid price! a couple of things about the lid that i did notice - 1) there seems to be a lot of purple paint spotting throughout the lid; on the inside of the facemask, on the facemask clips, othe wildcat padding on the interior cell padding, etc. 2) the several photos i have of tingelhoff during his non-suspension helmet days show that his dungard is equipped with transparent top hardware instead of sold gray hardware (you helmet geeks will know what i'm talking about!) as shown in the ad. but i do have a photo of the first year tingelhoff sported his cell helmet and the top dungard hardware does appear to be gray, not transparent. i've emailed the seller asking him for the helmet date - should be interesting...
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/aeneas1/sub/01-5.jpg
helmet:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=120262707819&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=002
jersey:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Minnesota-Vikings-Mick-Tingelhoff-1960s-GameWornJersey_W0QQitemZ120262710678QQihZ002QQcate goryZ86829QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
...
tingelhoff's played for the vikes from 1962-1978, 17 years, and sported a suspension helmet for 13 of these 17 years - it wasn't until 1975 that tingelhoff finally traded in his suspension helmet for a cell model. what's interesting about the helmet for sale, which tended to be the case for all vikings helmets of this era, is that the shell is molded of navy blue plastic and has been painted purple. this is because riddell did not offer purple as a shell color option at the time. consequently teams like the vikes, i.e. teams that sported helmets with a color that riddell did not offer at the time, selected colors that were similar and painted them the team's color. for example, the 49ers used green bay packer yellow lids that they painted gold because gb yellow was a color that was available from riddell at the time but metallic gold wasn't.
as nice as the listed tingelhoff lid is, theres' nothing quite as an beautiful as an authentic vikings suspension helmet - especially the pre-decal vikings suspension helmet with the over-sized painted horns. make it an vikings rk suspension helmet (slightly flared ear hole sections) with over-sized painted horns and you've reached perfection! but a factory-applied decal suspenion helmets the vikings wore were a close second imo - just something about the front rivet of the shell seemingly connecting the yellow arc to the white horn, apparent on the vikes' hand painted lids and factory-applied decal lids, that will always bring back great memories for me.
whether or not tingelhoff ever actually wore the listed helmet... well i'm not sure anyone will ever really know for sure. perhaps it is indeed one of the final lids he wore during his great career or perhaps it's just a rare, vintage game used or practice used vikings helmet that tingelhoff asked the em to put together as a gift for a friend. personally, i'm hoping that tingelhoff really did wear this lid.
one thing is for sure, vikings and lions collectors seem to be the most ardent when it comes to vintage game-used lids (i have no idea why!) so i expect this helmet to fetch a solid price! a couple of things about the lid that i did notice - 1) there seems to be a lot of purple paint spotting throughout the lid; on the inside of the facemask, on the facemask clips, othe wildcat padding on the interior cell padding, etc. 2) the several photos i have of tingelhoff during his non-suspension helmet days show that his dungard is equipped with transparent top hardware instead of sold gray hardware (you helmet geeks will know what i'm talking about!) as shown in the ad. but i do have a photo of the first year tingelhoff sported his cell helmet and the top dungard hardware does appear to be gray, not transparent. i've emailed the seller asking him for the helmet date - should be interesting...
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/aeneas1/sub/01-5.jpg
helmet:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=120262707819&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=002
jersey:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Minnesota-Vikings-Mick-Tingelhoff-1960s-GameWornJersey_W0QQitemZ120262710678QQihZ002QQcate goryZ86829QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
...