Professionals and amateurs alike wear protective head gear to reduce the chance of injury while playing American Football. The football helmet has changed over time as different materials have become available and as the rules of the game have changed.
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In 1888 the college football rules convention voted to allow tackling below the waist. Players and coaches soon regarded 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 not made mandatory in the National Football league until 1943[1] As a side note "the last NFL player to play in a game without a helmet probably was Dick Plasman an end for the Chicago Bears in 1940."[2] There is a photo of him without one, taken during the 1940 NFL Championship Game in which Chicago defeated the Washington Redskins 73-0.
The man largely credited with inventing the first helmets was George Barclay who played at the college-level for Lafayette College and professionally for the Greensburg Athletic Association. He developed the "head harness" in 1896 by designing 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. Additionally, other sources credit the invention of the football helmet to U.S. Naval Academy Midshipman Joseph M. Reeves (later to become the "Father of Carrier Aviation"), who had a protective device for his head made out of mole skin to allow him to play in the 1893 Army-Navy Game after he was told by a Navy doctor that he must give up football or risk death from another kick in the head. Reeves went to a local shoemaker/blacksmith and had a crude leather helmet fabricated to protect his skull. Later helmets were made of padded leather, and resembled aviators' helmets. The helmet 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 have been around 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 helmets of the University of Michigan Wolverines bear logos that follow the original seams of the leather helmets. Professional team logos started in 1948 when Fred Gehrke, a halfback for the Los Angeles Rams, began painting a horn design on all of the Rams' helmets. Gehrke studied art at the University of Utah.
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.
The plastic football helmet came in 1939. It was invented and patented by John T. Riddell and his son John T. Riddell Jr., of the John T. Riddell Company in Chicago, a sporting goods provider. The single molded 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.
There were problems however. The plastic helmets were brittle when hit head on. And the bar hole that was drilled for the face mask tended to pop loose. Because of this Riddell was in trouble and so was the plastic helmet.
The plastic helmet survived because of an intercession by one George Halas of the Chicago Bears on its behalf, and the plastic helmet was made legal in 1949, the beginning of the end for leather helmets. Riddell's plastic helmet was a little flat on top at first but it changed to its tear-drop shape, which allowed a blow to slide to one side or the other rather than be met head-on. Its web suspension could be raised or lowered to fit the head of a player.
In 1955. G.E. Morgan a consultant to Riddell, and Paul Brown the coach of the Cleveland Browns, invented the BT-5 face mask which is the single bar design. The year after the BT-5 a single wave radio was installed in a players helmet so the coach could give the play to the quarterback over a radio frequency. It only resulted in game time interference but the experiment was ahead of its time.
In 1971, Morgan, now chairman of the board of Riddell received a patent for "Energy Absorbing and Sizing Means for Helmets." The result: new HA-91 and HA-92 energy-absorbing, "microfit" helmets. They had valves on their crown to allow air to be pumped into vinyl cushions that were crammed into every space inside the helmet. The player put it on and then had it pumped up to fit firmly around the player's head. Sometimes fluid was also used. An anti-freeze solvent, was used by some of the Green Bay Packers to beat the cold of Lambeau field.
Sources are unsure as to who first designed air bladders for football helmets but Dr. Richard Schneider of the University of Michigan Hospital is reported to have believed that air was the most effective way to protect against blunt force. With this theory in mind, he invented an inflatable bladder for use inside a football helmet. The Michigan Wolverines Football team used a prototype and Schutt Sports hired Schnieder and started mass producing the AirTm Helmet in the early 1970s.
Many veteran players still preferred the old web suspended Riddell TK-2 because it was generally lighter and more breathable. Interior helmet pads were then developed that were lighter and didn't need to be filled with air or fluid by both the Schutt and Riddell sports companies. And because of safety they were soon preferred by all positions.
In late 1976, because of concern for safety, four point chin straps were required in college ball. These kept the helmet firmly in place.
Space age rigid Polycarbonate alloy plastic helmets and vinyl coated steel alloy face masks were the norm in the 1980's and 1990's.
In 2002 Riddell released a new more spherical design for the helmet called the Revolution (or Revo) and it is currently the most widely used helmet in the National Football League The Schutt counterpart is called the DNA Pro Adult Helmet. A study released by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center shows that the Riddell Revolution, and others like it, reduce the incidences of concussion by 31%.[3]