Today's Tidbit... Getting Pumped Up for Pneumatic Football Pads

An 1898 newspaper article described recent advances in football gear: a helmet with a hard shell and pneumatic thigh pads. Previously, football players wore head harnesses that resembled wrestling headgear. They protected the ears and portions of the head but lacked a protective shell covering the top of the skull.

A player wearing a head harness in the early 1900s. (RPPC, Personal collection)

Reports of true helmets or headgear with hard leather shells offering mechanical protection began appearing in 1896, but the 1898 article indicated the helmet:

…completely protects the head and ears. The crown is made of tough sole leather filled with air holes and lined with soft felt. It has stout earlaps of leather, with holes in them so that the wearer can hear the signals...

'The Sporting World,' North Adams Transcript (MA), November 11, 1898.

The article included an image from a Spalding catalog. ('The Sporting World,' North Adams Transcript (MA), November 11, 1898.)

More important for our purposes was the article mentioning canvas-covered pneumatic thigh pads, which were one inch thick and protected the thighs against hard blows and resulting "cholly horses." Although pneumatic pads were touted during the period as a solution to football's toll on players, they never took off, likely due to problems keeping the pads inflated.