The focal point of our discussion today revolves around the historical significance and evolution of striped helmets in American football. As we delve into the origins of this distinctive feature, we are joined by Timothy P. Brown of Football Archaeology, who elucidates the timeline and context in which these stripes emerged. We explore the early instances of striping, from individual players to team-wide adoption, highlighting the innovative practices that led to these aesthetic modifications on helmets. Furthermore, we scrutinize the interplay between functionality and decoration, examining how these stripes served both practical and visual purposes throughout the history of the sport. Join us as we unravel the fascinating narrative behind one of football's most recognizable symbols.

This information comes from his original post titled: Football's First Striped Helmets -https://www.footballarchaeology.com/p/todays-tidbit-footballs-first-helmet

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You know, we see them almost every time we watch a football game or see a football image, the stripes on the helmet.

But where do they come from?

Where did they start?

And what's their origins?

Timothy P.

Brown of Football Archaeology joins us today to tell us all about the stripes on the helmets.

And it's all coming up 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, Darrin 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 Pigsyand dispatch.com welcome once again to the Pig Pen, your portal to positive football history.

And as we do on Tuesdays, we talk with Timothy p.

Brown of footballarchaeology.com about one of his recent tidbits, and we have him here today.

And Tim, welcome back to the Pig Pen.

Hey, Darren.

Look forward to chatting.

I do not have any kind of dad joke ready for this particular one.

No.

So we're just gonna have to get right, right into it.

And I.

I guess so.

So let's, let's stripe to it.

So.

Yeah, that was a stretch.

Okay, that was bad.

That was bad.

But I didn't want to go.

I didn't want to go that low.

Yeah, yeah.

I was trying to think of something.

Yeah, yeah, I guess so.

Of course, you know, Tim's topic of his tidbit was titled football's first striped helmets that he put out recently.

And it sounds like a very interesting and intriguing topic.

And Tim, why don't you tell us a little bit about it?

Yeah, so I, I will first say that anytime that I write about the first time that such and such happened in a football game, you know, inevitably there's an earlier time.

So, you know, not always, but very often.

So, you know, there is an implied as of what I know right now, anytime that I write about something being the first.

Now, sometimes there really is a first, but for a lot of stuff like, you know, the first stripe, tell it well, okay?

There's no database out there that I can search and say when was the, you know, where who had the first striped helmet?

Because, like, chat GPT isn't going to get it right.

I guarantee you that.

Not today.

You know, our overlords will.

Will have that soon.

Once the machines take over and Terminator, then they'll be right for sure.

So the.

So anyways, you know, so I end up looking like, you know, I'VE got thousands of photographs of things that I've pulled out of college yearbooks and whatever.

And so, you know, I combed through those and looking for the earliest examples, I search newspaper archives and just general, you know, Google searching and stuff.

And so.

So, you know, that.

That's kind of how I try to identify something, like, when's the first.

You know, when did people first wear stripes on their helmet?

And so now part of the thing, too, is like, you know, you get into these existential questions, like, what is a helmet and what is a stripe?

Right?

Because, like, early on, you know, guys wore head harnesses or had gear that were more like wrestling gear.

So they didn't necessarily, like, nobody.

They were leather and cloth, and so nobody thought to paint a stripe on them.

Apparently.

Maybe somebody did.

And it's out there.

You know, somebody will send us a note saying, hey, there's a.

But so basically, as far as I could tell, the first time that they.

People started striping, adding a stripe to a helmet was in when the manufacturers of football head gear started putting, like, cross straps.

They started putting, like, leather straps across the crown of the helmet as reinforcement.

Right?

And.

And, you know, every.

Those straps, but that's kind of when that whole thing started.

And so.

But those kinds of straps show up mid teens.

And so the first person I found or the first instance I found of a stripe on a helmet was a Yale player.

He was a back.

You know, he was an end who had a stripe on the helmet.

So my guess is that he striped his helmet so that a passer could see him downfield so that he would stand out from everybody else running around the field.

There was no pass interference, blah, blah, blah.

So, you know, they needed to make sure they threw the ball to.

To the correct teammate, just not a teammate.

And there's probably some others, but so then they transitioned to str.

To striping.

So Boston College.

And so I published that.

And then like an hour later I'm going back and I'm like, I publish stuff and then I like take all those images and I file them away to the, to the right spot.

And I realized, hey, there was an image that I found when I was doing the research that I forgot to include in the, in the story.

So instead of Utah being the first team with stripes, which is what I claimed in the article, I had in my possession an example of Indiana striping as a team, not just the individual, like Yale.

So even though I was, you know, so my point is even, you know, even if I already had the information that says this is the first, sometimes I get that wrong because I forgot to include it in the, in the article.

So, so never trust anybody who says that they were the first to do something.

I, I fully understand it.

You know, it's hard to sometimes clarify and file your, your research away, especially images.

It's, it's tough because you have to sort of describe it to have words to do it, have to tag it.

Yeah, yeah, so, but it's a difficult thing to do.

So I've had some of that myself where I've corrected myself later.

Well, and so we, we were talking a little bit before we actually got on about this one, but so in the past two months or so, we did a podcast with, with Noah Cohen, who's a professor at Washu, and he's very much into, you know, the helmets.

And he pointed out that helmet striping, a lot of it, you know, the center, just a single center stripe appeared, you know, appears when they first create plastic helmets because they molded two pieces of plastic together.

And then I think oftentimes they had like a metal strap that held them to get together.

And then they'd kind of hide that strap with a piece of tape.

And so like the army helmet, right?

Gold helmet, black stripe, boom.

And it's because they were hiding that strap.

So he was like, oh, you know, yeah, I see what you did here with this tidbit.

But they're all like cross hatched.

You know, there's multiple ones.

What about, Are there any others up there?

It was like kind of covered the whole forehead and then it would extend up and there'd be a stripe running from that winged effect on the center all the way back.

So is that a center stripe or not?

Right.

Yeah, I don't know.

And you know, there's other examples like that, but I know it's one of these stupid little things like, well, what is a stripe?

Well, of course you know what a stripe is.

Well, okay, let me show you a couple pictures and you tell me, you know, you tell me whether that's a stripe or not.

So anyways.

Definitely some interesting decor, especially when you get into leather, because is it decorative?

Is it functional for, you know, making the thing safer and constructed so it stays together?

Yeah, some.

But it's interesting and it's.

It's cool.

You know, just like the.

The friction stripes on the jerseys, you know those.

Yeah.

Weren't.

Weren't made to be cool.

But I.

You look back at them now, I think they're kind of neat looking, you know, because they're different.

Yeah, some of them are absolutely bizarre.

Most of my think are pretty darn sharp look, you know, and I've really enjoyed like, you know, Illinois did.

Was last year, the year before where they.

They had this past year.

Okay.

Yeah.

So they did the leather helmet look and then they had the friction strip look.

And you know, there have been others in the past that have done a really good job recreating that effect for historic.

It was at the 100th anniversary of the Grange game as a junior where you blew away Michigan or whoever they were playing.

Yeah, yeah.

And yeah, so I mean, I think those are really cool recreations.

And so I.

So I think it can be a really neat effect.

I think it's.

It's the ugliest decade for football uniforms.

And yet the Calgary Stampeders, one of their looks is the red and white stripes on the shoulders.

But it's a modern.

You know, it draws on the past, but it's got a very modern look to it.

And I think, I think there is sharp a jersey as you're going to find that's out there really, really nice looking.

So anyways, I mean, I just, I think that kind of the drawing on the history is really neat.

As long as it's.

As long as it looks good otherwise.

Right.

Well, even Even when it doesn't look good, it's still interesting.

And you, you write about it and you tell us the reasons why and some stories behind it like you did today that really helps clarify the history.

And we know how we got to today with the Guardian helmets and things that, that you and I and Noah talked about, you know, a couple months ago.

We, it really makes, it goes full circle and takes the, the equipment, the, the whole evolution of it.

And you do this quite often in your tidbits and maybe you could share with the audience how they can read and take a look at your tidbits with some of the great images that you collect and, you know, so they can enjoy it.

Yeah, just go to footballarchaeology.com it's substack newsletter blog and if you subscribe, you'll get.

Every time I publish something, you'll get it, get an email about it and otherwise just bookmark it, go there when you want to and catch up on, you know, what's been written.

And then, you know, last thing you can follow me on on Blue sky because every time I post a new article, it's on Blue sky.

And I also post it to, to the notes within the Substack app so that whatever your preference is, whatever works for you, have at it.

All right.

Well, Tim, we really appreciate you coming on and sharing this history of, you know, this great aspect of football, and we would love to talk to you again next Tuesday about some more great history.

Looking forward to it.

We'll talk soon.

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