Football History As Told By Sporting Goods Catalogs: Nose Guards and Face Masks

The equipment used by football players at different points in the game's history tells us much about the game during each period, making period sporting goods catalogs an interesting archival source of football history. My first post examining catalog items covered the history of footballs and the equipment needed to maintain them, while the second post dealt with football shoes and cleats. The series now turns to facial protection. That is, the methods of protecting players' faces before helmets, during the leather helmet days, and in the first twenty years of plastic helmets.

Early football players did not wear equipment to protect their heads or faces, but particular rules changes led football away from the open rugby-style game of the 1870s and 1880s to the slug-it-out, mass game of the 1890s. The increased number of collisions and piles brought more broken noses, black eyes, and similar injuries, leading Harvard's captain, Arthur Cumnock, to devise the nose guard in 1892. Cumnock sold his rights to the device to John Morrill, who modified and commercialized the nose guard.

The top of the nose guard rested on the forehead and strapped around the head. The back bottom of the nose guard had a hard rubber shelf the wearer clenched between his teeth. (Cook, ‘Football in Armour,’ Strand, March 1897.)

In an age when the amount of protective equipment worn by a player was considered inversely related to one's manhood, most who wore a nose guard had existing facial injuries or strong-willed mothers. Even then, the nose guard was less than ideal since players with broken noses had difficulty breathing through the nose. At the same time, clenching the device between the teeth made it difficult to breathe through the mouth.

The use of nose guards peaked by 1910 but remained in use and available in sporting goods catalogs until the 1940s. Notably, during much of the nose guard's reign, players did not wear helmets per se; as seen in the image above, they wore head harnesses that more closely resembled today's wrestling headgear than modern football helmets.

The 1918 Reach catalog offered nose guards along with soft leather headgear, most with dog-ear extensions. These headgear cushioned some blows and limited abrasions but offered none of the later helmets' structural protection. (1918 Reach catalog)

The 1920s and 1930s saw football's flimsy headgear shift toward rigid helmets with hard protective shells encased in softer leather. The nose guards of the 1890s, which rested on the face, evolved into partial and full-face masks. Fiber- and steel-reinforced, some strapped around the head while others attached to the helmet, covering the face.