Today's Tidbit... On A Wing and a Player

Knowledge advances incrementally, one step or Tidbit at a time, and an example of that incrementalism is our understanding of the whens and whys of winged helmets. I previously published Tidbits about winged helmets, noting that they originated in 1930 to better pad the front of helmets and protect the foreheads of the era.

Today's Tidbit... Variations on the Winged Helmet Theme

Today's Tidbit... When Leather Helmets Earned Their Wings

Nothing I've encountered has changed that understanding, but both Tidbits focused on the aesthetics of the various wing designs and assumed the wings were nothing more than design flair added to the functional forehead pad. However, a recent catalog acquisition points out that early wings had a functional purpose—or, at least, some of them did.

A newly acquired 1932 Reach Wright & Ditson Fall & Winter Catalog included a winged helmet design I had seen in images but not in a catalog. The images below are action shots of players wearing helmets with broad, rounded wings on the side and a design that extends above the forehead in front.

#13 for BYU has a winged design, while his teammate does not. (1937 BYU yearbook)

Vanderbilt wore a similar design in 1940. (1941 Georgia Tech yearbook)

The 1932 Reach Wright & Ditson Fall & Winter Catalog had their version of this design, the BW model, and described it as having a "T-Model front piece of leather."