Fun With Vintage Football Helmets... [Archive]

aeneas01

07-16-2007, 09:03 AM

here's a "game used" kellen winslow helmet that eric discussed in an older post - it's a beautiful vintage wilson suspension helmet. did winslow ever wear a suspension helmet when he played for the bolts? imo, no he didn't - especially not after he switched to the pictured facemask. but, believe it or not, the bolts do have a history of positioning their decals incorrectly as can be seen below!

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/aeneas1/kw.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/aeneas1/Lincoln.jpg

here's an interesting photo of dorsett when he played at pitt - do you notice anything odd about his lid? he's sporting a classic clear-shell kelley helmet, a helmet that many pitt players wore, yet a wilson nose bumper has been added. wilson did make clear-shell helmets as well at one time but they looked nothing like the kelley helmet dorsett is wearing...

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/aeneas1/td_wilson.jpg

here's a similar sitch - jack lambert added a riddell wildcat (nose) bumper to his classic rawlings "headliner" suspension helmet, a lid he wore throughout his career with the steelers, but covered the lettering with athletic tape. it's easy to see why some folks are convinced that lambert wore a riddell at one time when with the steelers and dorsett a wilson when at pitt...

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/aeneas1/jl1.jpg

here's a photo of cliff harris sporting his clear-shell maxpro - roger staubach also wore a maxpro during this period...

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/aeneas1/ch.jpg

and here's a "game used" cliff harris maxpro that recently sold on ebay for $350 - the only problem is it's a realtively modern, inexpensive youth model. the vintage maxpros worn by the pros, as harris is wearing in the above picture, had leather padding and transparent shells - the youth models had foam padding and the shells were not transparent.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/aeneas1/350fake1.jpg

speaking of youth helmets, here's a relatively modern nokona youth helmet (nh-100) that was recently sold at one of the better known sports memorabilia auction houses as a vintage "game used" oilers helmet - it sold for $700. you can check out the nokona nh-100 pop warner helmet at nokona's website and can purchase it for around $65 retail... http://www.nokona.com/football/nh100.html

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/aeneas1/700_1.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/aeneas1/700_2.jpg

here's a "game used" david woodley helmet that sold not too long ago at one of the more popular sports memorabilia auction houses for about $1,500 - the item description implied that it's from the super bowl season. the thing is woodley definitely didn't wear a rawlings helmet in the super bowl nor do i believe he ever wore a rawlings helmet while with the fins...

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/aeneas1/150001.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/aeneas1/150003.jpg

here's a photo of woodley playing in the super bowl...

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/aeneas1/dw1.jpg

here's a photo of a dorsett "game used" rawlings helmet (model rts) that recently sold at a well known sports memorabila auction house - dorsett wore a rawlings from from 1977 (his rookie year) through part of 1981 when he transitioned to a riddell which he wore for the rest of his career. the problem with this "game used" helmet is that rawlings didn't introduce the rts model until 1981, dorsett's helmet transition year - consequently, dorsett couldn't have worn this model prior to 1981 (because it wasn't available yet) and he couldn't have worn it after 1981 (because he had made the switch to riddell). so the only window of time dorsett could have worn this model was during the few games in 1981 that he didn't wear a riddell. but there's another problem - the rts model is easily identified by a trademark "cross hair" screw which is positioned at the front-center of the helmet and the rear-center of the helmet (along the white stripe), something which i've never seen on a dorsett rawlings game helmet. on the other hand the rawlings hnd9 model doesn't have these front and back screws and, as i mentioned to another forum member, is why i believe the hnd9 is the only type of rawlings model dorsett ever wore (both ridge and non-ridge). in fact, the forum member i mentioned has probably the nicest example of a dallas cowboys rawlings hnd9 in circulation.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/aeneas1/game1.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/aeneas1/game2.jpg

but here's something interesting - a photo of herschel walker posing with the exact same type of rawlings rts helmet that was sold as a game used dorsett helmet. the funny thing is that walker never wore a rawlings helmet - he was a bike/schutt man. but rawlings must have been happy with this si covert shot!

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/aeneas1/hw.jpg

here's a photo of dorsett taking the field for the 1978 superbowl against the steelers but, check it out, the classic, large, trademark "R" on the back of his rawlings helmet is nowhere to be seen. does this mean that dorsett wore a different type of helmet in the superbowl? no it doesn't - what happened was all of the cowboys' helmets got fresh new paint jobs for the big day and the large "R", along with screws, were painted over....

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y238/aeneas1/1978_2.jpg

aeneas01

07-16-2007, 06:24 PM

aeneas

good stuff. i have been searching high and low for another photo of the bolts backwards on a gamer. nice going. BUT- can you find that happening during the Sid Brooks era?
Eric

frankly, a person would be very hard-pressed to find many other examples of this oddity from any era - what's clear is that this wasn't a common occurence, pre or post brooks.

but, again, the helmet is beyond suspect to me - especially given that it's a wilson suspension helmet and not a riddell padded helmet which winslow was known to have worn. throw in the decal sitch and fogettabowtit!

btw when i came across your original post regarding this helmet i immediately thought of an article i had come across at helmethut a couple of years ago. i remembered that the topic of the article was odd helmets and that a bolts' helmet was discussed. so i went back to find the article and, sure enough, it was the reversed decals that were mentioned including the photo. don't know if you have ever spent time at helmet hut's "ask the doctor" section, but if you haven't i would highly recommend it - some very interesting and fun reading as far as helmets are concerned...