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Pigskin Dispatch Podcast: Transitioning from Leather to Plastic

Timothy P. Brown

Sep 20, 2022

Pigskin Dispatch podcaster Darin Hayes and I cover and expand my Articles or Tidbits each Tuesday. Click here to listen, or subscribe to Pigskin Dispatch wherever you get your podcasts.

Today’s podcast covers a recent Tidbit concerning football’s transition from leather to plastic helmets.

Football Archaeology

Today's Tidbit... Transitioning from Leather to Plastic

Riddell invented plastic helmets and offered them first to Northwestern, who wore them for their season opener versus Syracuse in 1940. Other schools wanted to use plastic helmets for the 1941 season, but by then, plastics had been declared a wartime material as the U.S. geared up for war. Schools quickly switched to plastic helmets when they became available after the war, though some players opted to stick with leather…

a year ago · Timothy P. Brown