Today's Tidbit... Beaver Cleaver's Football Gear

The Paris Olympics closed 30 minutes ago, so it’s time to focus on football and the start of youth football training camp.

Back in February, I wrote about a Pennsylvania Athletic Products comic book featuring Otto Graham and his training tips that helped a boy grow into a football star. The comic book has a Leave It To Beaver quality to it, which is quite the compliment in my eyes. So, I’ll take the opportunity to discuss football as seen in a Leave It To Beaver episode. Beaver's Team (Season 3, Episode 39) that premiered on June 25, 1960. I came across it in a 2023 tweet and watched it here on Peacock.

One could analyze the episode through various lenses, but since the story opens with Beaver requesting that his Dad buy him football gear, I thought I should analyze the episode based on the football gear the boys use.

The storyline involves the Beav forming a seven-player team called the Lightning 11 to play the Grant Avenue Tigers. Older brother Wally coaches the team and installs a secret play, the old 98, which Beaver fails to keep secret.

Setting aside the storyline, let’s look at images from the episode showing the boy’s gear. The first image shows Beaver (on the right) and a friend. Both wear period plastic helmets, though Beaver's helmet has a clear plastic face mask while his friend goes without since his parents do not love him as much as Ward and June Cleaver love the Beaver. The facemaskless lad doesn't even have his chin strap adjusted correctly.