Facemask Oddities

FUN STUFF
By John Turney

From 1977 through 1979 Rams right tackle wore this mask. It was two Dungard masks applied to his helmet. The bottom is the Dungard No. DG140 and on top of that is the Dungard No. DG110.

In 1979 Rams equipment manager concocted a Schutt version of this for Jackie Slater, but he wore it only for the first couple of games and then switched to a more conventional, off-the-rack mask. 

Here you can see the Williams helmet using Dungard masks and behind Slater's mask that used Schutt masks taped together.

Slaters's mask is an N-JOP with the bottom "cage" portion of an OPO taped to the top—

Starting with game three of 1979 Slater went with the NJOP-DW.

Dan Dierdorf broke his jaw in 1977 but only misses a couple of games. He returned to play with this mask for the remainder of the season and in the Pro Bowl.

Others have used this similar facemask, among them Charlie Smith of the Eagles in 1980 and Doug Williams in 1978. Williams's version was only to the side of the injury. Dierdorf's was to both sides.

Smith's mask was different that either, though the concept was similar. Smith's, like Dierdrof's wrapped around both sides of the helmet. 

Vincie Glenn is a giant jaw protector.

Credit to Jose P.  This is Steve Sewell in 1987

In 1970, when the Ram's Les Josephson broke his jaw, neither Schutt or Dungard had masks ready to go for extra jaw protection. Here, Don Hewitt, the Rams equipment manager added his own ideas the the facemask lore with this creation

Ray Brown of the Falcons, then the Saints wore this mask most of his career. We are not sure if it was the result of an injury and then him taking a liking to the mask, but unless he had a jaw injury for many years, it's likely he liked the extra protection.

Jack Squirek with a later version of the jaw-protector.

John Grant with quite a mask in 1977—

Pay Hughes of the Saints in 1979 with this beauty.

Norm Thompson's CO-OPO with jaw protection to the right side.

It is hard to see, but Clarence Duren is in a mask similar to the one above but on a NOP mask

Kurt Warner wore this extended mask to protect his throat in 2001:

Peyton Manning wore something similar as well:

James Scott with a Riddell version of the EGOP—

Mike Garrett seemed to have a T-Bar added to a common Riddell RI220 2-bar mask. The Chiefs equipment manager was very creative with masks that combined two masks for players like Otis Taylor and Morris Stroud.

Fred "The Hammer" Williamson had a Riddell No. RI210 and a No. RI220 to form a 3-bar look.

Otis Taylor and Morris Stroud each had two No. RI210's to form a 2-bar look

In Super Bowl I it seemed Taylor's bars were further apart. We are not sure if this was intentional or if they got spread during the game.

Here is a nice shot of tight end Willie Frazier (#83) with the 2-bar above and the single below and Otis Taylor with his two single bars. 

Sherrill Headrick had a Riddell No. RI220 on top and a Riddell No. RI210 underneath.

Headrick was likely the first player to wear this type of combination mask, here he is in 1960 with that mask when the franchise was in Dallas.

In 1964 Len Dawson wore his own version of the JOP, another of the Riddell 2-Bar with a single bar added as well as a U-Bar.

In 1973 Mike Livingston took his turn with the same setup sans the U-Bar—

In 1963 Kansas City tackle Jim Tyrer wore a sawed-off Schutt CC-NJOP plus a Riddell 210 one-bar below it.

Jim Kearney wore the additional bar that Williamson and Dawson wore:

Tight end Willie Frazier had his version complete with some tape to complete the look—

Never saw this in action but it is not a creation of the equipment manager but looks like a prototype of a double-wire JOP.

Bob Dee, longtime defensive end for the Patriots also had a Riddell No. RI220 on top,  Riddell No. RI210 underneath same as Headrick but added a Riddell U-Bar on top.

Brad Hubbert of the Chargers wore this one. He had the RI-220 on the bottom and the RI-210 single bar on top:

Here is a CFL version of what Bob Dee wore:

Jim Otis with a Riddell 220 mask plus a Dungard U-bar.

Charley Diamond with an early NOP and a single bar beneath it.

Dungard DG140 with nose bar sawed out

H/T to @equestriatola for this one:  Double Dungard facemasks on the Toronto Argonauts #79 player. It's a DG140 with a DG110 mounted upside down to protect the throat of the player

Here is a mess.

Ricky Jackson's original multi-bar mask, reportedly made custom by Schutt.

Chris Canty and Justin Tuck rocked the world with these:

Darnell Dockett donned this:

Robert Mathis tried this one:

This one is a H/T to Uniwatch.com:  They reported the caption read "that's Lions WR Leonard Thompson, wearing “his new helmet to protect his jaw” in December of 1983". We are looking for any shots that may have been taken during the game. It would be the 1983 regular-season finale that any shot would appear. We are just not convinced this contraption ever saw the field.

Curtis McClinton had some huge oddity going on in 1969 and in Super Bowl XIV

Dr. Del Rye from Helmet Hut.com wrote THIS. To sum that it McClinton’s had a cheek injury and there were metal strips affixed to the helmet. They were "dipped in rubber and then red paint". 

Cardinals QB Charlie Johnson wore a variety of mask in his career, this one isn't particularly unusual except it seems to be affixed at an unusual angle. It's a basic Dungard No. DG105 mask but it is higher than normal, as you might see on a Bob Greise helmet. It just looks odd to the eye.

This is same mask, but it is attached closer to the earhole. 

Pete Banaszak, like Johnson of the Cardinals had his mask affixed at an odd angle which made the bars closer to his face than normal.

Another oddball mess or two

Glenn Doughty of the Colts had a unique-looking EGOP in 1975

Y.A. Tittle with what looks to be two Riddell No. RI210 masks used to create a two-bar look.

Here is a Lion guard with two single bars:

Eddie Lebaron had two masks clipped together and also taped.

LeBaron had one of these Riddell arched one-bars with a Riddell No. RI210 below.

Joe Perry wore lots of masks, here he is in the Riddell arched tubular single bar.

The Giants Bill Svoboda wore two Riddell BT-5 masks affixed in a most unusual manner.

Bill Austin of the Giants had a single bar attached above his Lucite single bar

Ron Singleton with two Dungard No. DG100 "U" Bars added.

Here is a doosey worn by 49ers Keith Fahnhorst in 1978. Underneath is a Dungard No. DG140. Taped to it is anyone's guess. Fanhhorst maybe was concerned with getting poked in the eye that season.

49ers Bubba Paris has a unique style of mask that looks homemade but it's off-the-shelf.

Guy McIntyre liked to have his U-bar under his nose bar from time to time. 

A really bent Schutt half cage on Rams tight end Bob Klein.

Lance Rentzel with a Marietta No. MA230

Randy Graidshar wore what Helmet Hut's website identifies it as a Riddell 340 (RI340). It seemed like a cross between a Schutt and Dungard mask and may actually be a Dungard (perhaps) prototype.

Joe Scibelli of the Rams would use (sometimes) this contraption for extra jaw/cheek protection

 

 

Here is Alvin Haymond wearing a similar device on his left side.

Here is the same device used by Roosevelt Brown of the Giants

Here is Marlon McKeever with the same thing, circa 1963:

This is Ram Hall of Famer Les Richter with it:

Jim Taylor, when playing for Saints wore the same contraption with a Riddell 2-bar mask:

Jerry Sturm is wearing the piece here, in 1970.

Unidentified Lions player wit the jaw protector—

Fulton Kuykendall had a smaller version of this jaw protection in 1975:

In 1951 Elroy Hirsch wore a more crude version of the jaw protection device:

Mark Kelso and Steve Wallace wore the "Procap Eliminator" on their lids for extra protection.

 Not a facemask oddity, but an oddity nonetheless. Raymond Berry in LA Coliseum

Garo Yepremium, a Dungard No. DG205 with top bar sawed off, and others—Tom Blanchard and Rich Szaro with the same mask alterations

Ken Stabler with No. Dungard "Supermask" with the nose bar sawed out.

Here are Harold Hart of the Raiders and Aaron Kyle of the Cowboys and Joe Lavender of the Redskins all with a sawed out nose bar of a Schutt CO-NOPO  2 Bar W/ "T" Bar Cage. 

Randy White's DW-NOP with bottom bar sawed out

Here is a sawed-out wire on a DW-OPO that John Stallworth wore.

Caesar Belser with a sawed out nose bar on a 1968 Schutt Square Jaw NOPO.

Not sure who wore this, but it's a Dungard No. DG140 with the "T" or nose bar sawed out.

Here is a CFL version of the same thing:

Ron Sellers also had nose bar sawed out in 1971 with the sans nose bar NOP:

Jesse Frietas wore this in 1974:

Mall Millen with the USFK NJOP-type mask with nose bar sawed out

That could be a normal JOP Supermask or one with nose bar sawed off.

Don Horn of the Chargers is another of the sawed-out types:

Here are (H/T @WTHelmets) two more with bars sawed out. Grogan has the lower "wire" sawed out and the USFL player has the upper taken out.

Irving Fryar with the same kind of alteration:

Cookie Gilchrist of the Bills has what looks like a sawed-off JOP and in the background is another shot of Sherrill Headrick with his additional single bar below the Riddell 2-bar

Bill George, the Bears Hall of Fame middle linebacker with a brown cowcatcher sawed off. He and Doug Atkins have same mask, only George's is modified.

Here is a sawed-off mask worn by Ted Ginn:

Kenny King of the Raiders had his nose bar sawed out as well:

Dave Casper with a Riddell Supermask NJOP with nose bar sawed out, similar to Ken Stabler's:

This is a Kra-Lite mask on Greg Lloyd, and looks to have nosebar sawed out but it is Photoshopped

The actual unaltered shot—

For a while Fred Biletnikoff wore a Dungard Supermask JOP  but is so odd-shaped it looks like a NJOP with the bottom sawed off, but it was made this way.

Ralf Mojsiejenko with two bars cut out—

Rams equipment manager cut the top wire with a bolt cutter and painted the metal blue on this one:

And from the USFL Breakers punter Dario Casarino:

Jim Otto with Riddell 2-bar mask and U-Bar added

Henry Reed's helmet of the NY Giants, much like Otto's

Howie with Riddell JOP cage and U-Bar added

In the 1967 Ice Bowl, Don Meredith had his U-bar mounted almost too high to protect his nose.

The Vikings running back Clint Jones wore this, which may or may not be a sawed-off Schutt JOP:

Larry Wilson's rig looks very similar to Clint Jones's sawed-off 3-bar (JOP) but like Jones's it was likely made this way.

This is Matt Millen with a USFL N-JOP DW with nose bar sawed out:

The Browns Len Ford used this to protect a broken jaw in 1950:

Toni Fritsch adjusted his mask in a way that it seemingly endangered his face: 

Tony Zendejas liked to make his face a target, too

Zeke Moore also wore his mask low.

This one is turned up.

Joe Washington wore his mask low and close to the edge of the face opening making it look like a longer mask. Helmet Hut has a nice piece on Washington's equipment preferences.

Here is a nice, sleek helmet cam from the early 1960s, made by General Dynamics:

In 1980 Steve DeBerg suffered from laryngitis which limited his ability to call signals so the 49ers equipped him with a microphone and a loudspeaker on his back:

In 1983 a similar thing happened and DeBerg wore the contraption again vs Steelers.

Vern Holland has some sort of cover on the bottom two bars of his mask. Never seen this one before.

Y.A. Tittle and Joe Perry with protective masks, circa 1954.

Joe Moore of the Bears donned this mask in 1973 and it is a true oddity, a prototype OPO, perhaps—

Below is Merlin Olsen, with foam on the forehead

That is all for now, but as we go through photos and films we will try and take note of the oddball masks that made the era so interesting from week to week in uniforms, helmets, facemasks, shoes, etc. We can see from Twitter that there is keen interest in these things and we hope to learn more from others as we go along.

Terrell Suggs with a new one:

Novo Bojovic had an unusual attachment point on his one-bar mask:

Here is another odd one:

John Sciarra has a unique mask in the clip area:

Here is another oddball NOP-DW from the early 1980s.

Where a mask is attached to a helmet can make it into an oddity. Here, Tom Dempsey had his Dungard DG105 attached very low, lower than normal:

Terry Bradshaw's was on the low side as well:

Here, Charley Johnson of the Cardinals has the same mask attached higher than normal:

Here is Bob Greise and John Hadl with the usual attachment point for the DG105:

And speaking of odd attachment points for a mask, check this one out on Pete Barnes:

In the late 1970s, Preston Pearson had a different attachment point for his NOP mask:

The Raiders Pete Banaszak had quite the odd attachment point on his NOP mask—