Today's Tidbit... Football's First Striped Helmets

In today's football, helmet decorations come in all stripes or, in Penn State's case, one stripe. Penn State is an outlier claims the title of the most boring helmet in the game: a plain white helmet and a single blue stripe. Even the Cleveland Browns are downright edgy with their plain orange helmets and three center stripes.

Of course, one's preferences regarding the appearance of football uniforms and equipment is a matter of taste, so Penn State fans may be forgiven for their fondness for barrenness. Still, the bonnets worn by Nittany boys raise the question, "When did teams first stripe their helmets and why?" The question is more challenging to answer than it might appear because no source tracks such information in an easily searchable form.

Before covering the striping pioneers, let's examine why early helmets did not have stripes. The earliest headgear resembled wrestling headgear, protecting against cauliflower ear more than blows to the head. After the turn of the century, football headgear shifted to lightly padded canvas and leather caps with some adding molded leather crowns that began taking the shape resembling those worn today, such as Spalding's Model W below. So, it wasn’t until the mid-1910s that there was an opportunity to paint a strap or two.

(1914 Spalding Fall & Winter Catalog)

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