Today’s discourse focuses on the intriguing history surrounding the last Heisman Trophy winner who did not don a face mask during his collegiate career. Timothy Brown from FootballArchaeology.com joins us to elucidate this captivating narrative, which spans the evolution of football equipment and player safety protocols.

The topic comes from one of Tim's recent Tidbits titled: The Last Heisman Winner without a Face Mask.

Throughout our conversation, we explore the trajectory of the Heisman Trophy, commencing with its inaugural recipient, Jay Berwanger, and culminating with analysis of the changing landscape of helmet design and the adoption of protective gear. Furthermore, we delve into the implications of these advancements on player safety, particularly highlighting the transition from minimal facial protection to the now-ubiquitous face mask. As we reflect on these pivotal moments in football history, we invite our listeners to appreciate the rich tapestry of the sport and the continuous evolution of its practices.

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You know, in college football, we're used to the best college player being voted in as the Heisman Trophy winner.

Now we also are accustomed to helmets having face masks, but who was the last Heisman winner not to wear a face mask?

Timothy Brown of FootballArchaeology.com joins us today to answer this question, and it's a doozy I'm sure you'll want to hear.

It's all coming up with Tim in just a moment.

This is the Pigskin Daily History Dispatch, a podcast that covers the anniversaries of American football events throughout history.

Your host, Darren Hayes is podcasting from America's North Shore to bring you the memories of the gridiron one day at a time.

Hello, my football friends.

This is Darren Hayes of pigskindispatch.com welcome once again to the Pig Pen, your portal to positive football history.

And welcome to another evening where we get to have our guests come in.

Timothy Brown of FootballArchaeology.com to join us with one of his great tidbit stories that he has on his site.

Tim, welcome back to the Pig Pen.

Thank you, Darren.

I just wanted to let the listeners know that I am without a dad joke for this particular story.

So breathe deeply.

Feel better about yourself.

You don't have to listen.

There's no masking it, Tim.

There's no masking it.

You don't have to.

I was going to use that one and it was just like, it was kind of a low hanging fruit one and I just, I set higher bar for myself, you know what I mean?

Okay, well, that much higher.

Yeah, yeah.

We.

We're really sinking to the new lows tonight, folks, with our segues.

And of course, we're going into one of Tim's tidbits and he had a recent one titled the Last Heisman Winner without a Face Mask.

Tim, what can you tell us about this interesting story?

Also the first NFL draft pick.

Yeah, and he never played.

He never played.

So, you know, he was a guy who, I mean, he had other options in life.

And so he actually did a fair amount of refereeing after his playing career.

But he.

So, you know, back in the 30s, at 20s and 30s, like when he was, he basically broke his nose playing football in high school.

And so back then people would create these custom masks that, you know, we call them bird cage masks now, but they, they basically look like the normal face mask that we would wear today, except they, they basically Only covered the top half of the face.

So they were there to protect the nose and the eyes.

Because if you wore glasses at the time, you know, you either had to wear these kind of really goofy things, kind of look like a, you know, aviator sort of headgear with, you know, goggles embedded in them, or you.

You wore a.

A birdcage mask.

So he had a custom one that he wore throughout his time playing for Chicago.

So he was the first Heisman winner and the first Heisman winner to wear a face mask.

Now, at the time, most people didn't wear them.

And in.

If.

If you wore them, it was because you had suffered, like, an acute injury.

You know, you.

Again, either you wore glasses or you recently broke your nose.

And then once your nose was better, then you got rid of the thing and just played without.

So not many people warm.

But then, you know, things changed after World War II.

You know, plastic helmets had been.

And so, and just plain and simple, you know, with the harder plastic helmets, people were getting their faces smashed up more than, you know, like, people without a face mask would get hit in the face with a hard plastic helmet, and they break their nose or bruise themselves or, you know, orbital breaks or whatever.

And so then face masks started becoming more popular.

And then the face masks themselves led to more facial injuries to the guys who didn't wear face masks.

Right, because they protrude out from the helmet.

They're hard, you know, unlike leather, which is, you know, just more forgiving.

And so, you know, there were a lot of things, like some coaches would force, you know, they'd force their team to wear plastic, or they'd force their team to put.

To wear leather, you know, however it went.

And so anyways, with Horning, like, when I kind of was researching this, I went back and looked for college images of the, you know, the various players.

So.

And in both years, Notre Dame was wearing.

So I think for a while they had worn, like, plastic helmets with the golden dome.

I'm not positive about the golden dome side of it, but in 55, 56, they wore, you know, I'd call it a yellow helmet with, you know, green cross stripes.

And then he, you know, then he has a face Mask or he doesn't, depending on the season.

So.

So he would have been the.

He's a last one I found not wearing a face mask.

And especially running backs and quarterbacks, you know, I mean, it was just like you're getting slammed from all kinds of different directions.

You know, you just have less control over what happens to your.

To your body and your head.

And so I think, you know, they tended to adopt face masks as quickly as almost anybody.

So if anybody has information showing that somebody after horning did not wear a face mask during their college career, let me know and I will add a postscript to the tidbit and credit you if you want to be credited, you know, whatever.

But, yeah, I mean, I believe it.

I mean, because he was right at that.

That era, right when they were changing over, you know, helmet structure and the protection and everything, so people are becoming more aware of the safety aspect of it, which is a good thing.

But, yeah, and he was definitely a Heisman winner, so very challenged.

And I mean, he.

He won the Heisman as the quarterback of a 2 and 8 team.

Right.

Which is really kind of remarkable, but.

And then obviously, you know, he got converted to halfback money.

Joined the Packers.

Yeah, most definitely.

Both.

Both halls of fame.

So great, great player.

And like, like to do a little bit of extracurricular activity.

That got him in some trouble, too.

In the froze.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He was not.

He was not a saint.

Yeah, right.

That's for sure.

Well, he had some.

Yeah, I would guess he had a lot of temptations in life, but.

Yeah, yeah, I'll bet.

I'll bet.

When you have a young guy with some fame and fortune, definitely goes hand in hand, that's for sure.

I mean, he was nearly as good looking as me.

He had a lot more money and he was younger.

Wait a second.

I kind of threw up in my mouth a little bit.

Hold on.

But so we had two, you know, two of the three things going for him.

Yeah, yeah, most definitely.

Well, great story, Tim, and, you know, great awareness on your part because, you know, there's a lot of fans out there that love, you know, the helmet.

It's, you know, we've had a talk with our friend Noah Cohen recently on, you know, the iconic symbol of the helmet.

And people love that symbol and love to learn about it and love the history of it and love to hear stories about football that it's connected to.

And you do this a lot with not only people, but with items that are used in football games or items that are.

Represent football games.

And you do it in your tidbits on your website.

Maybe you could tell the listeners how they can enjoy some of your stories.

Sure.

Just so the site is footballarchaeology.com It's a substack newsletter, blog site, whatever you want to call it.

And so if you go there and subscribe, you'll get an email every time that I publish a new story that'll contain the story itself.

So you don't have to go to the site, though you can if you want to.

Alternatively, if you don't want those coming into your inbox, then you could follow me on on Substack and read it through the Substack application.

You can just bookmark it and go there wherever you want or whenever you want.

Or you can follow me on Blue sky because I, I post.

I post each story, you know, on Blue sky and then have other kind of miscellaneous comments about football and other things.

On Blue Sky.

Yeah, most definitely.

Well, Tim, we really appreciate you coming on and sharing this story and all the times you've come on and shared and all the stories that you post on social media and on footballarchaeology.com preserving that great history.

So love to talk to you again next Tuesday.

Very good.

Thank you, Derek.

That's all the football history we have today, folks.

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