A History of the Mouth Guard and Other Sound Bites

The story is being sent early today so you can read it without being interrupted during tonight’s Grey Cup. (6:00 ET on CBS Sports Network)

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Football players may not have worn mouth guards since the game began, but they nearly did so. In fact, mouth guards were likely the first protective equipment football players wore, along with shin protectors. Shoulder pads arrived in 1895, head harnesses were on the scene by 1894, and Wright & Ditson marketed rubber mouth guards for football players by 1883, over a decade earlier.

(1883 Wright & Ditson Catalog)

The subsequent development in football dental appliances came in 1890 when Harvard captain Arthur Cumnock invented the nose guard. Sold to and marketed by Morrill, the Morrill Nose Guard, and its copiers dominated football facial protection for the next 30 years. As seen in the catalog image, they secured the mask to the face with a strap encircling the head, while the bottom of the mask stayed in place due to the wearer biting on the ridge at the back bottom of the mask. The mask covered and protected the front teeth, while the shelf separated the upper and lower teeth to help prevent tooth loss from blows delivered to the jaw.

(1900 Wright & Ditson Catalog)

The image below shows another view of the shelf on the backside of the Morrill Nose Guard.

(Cook, Charles Emerson. 'Football in Armour,' Strand, March 1897.)

Oral protection took a big step in 1947 when Rodney O. Lilyquist, a Los Angeles dentist, created the molded mouth guard.