1979 St. Louis Cardinals Protype Helmet

LOOKING BACK
By John Turney

The St. Louis Cardinals asked Rawlings, based in St. Louis, to design a concept helmet that would enhance the "Ridge" helmet  Rawlings Sporting Goods had intruduced. (Tony Dorsett of the Cowboys wore that model for a few years).

As you can see the design added color to that ridge to contrast the white shell.

Obviously not adopted, it was an interesting ideal, but it would have almost required all players use the same helmet, though a Ridell helmet could be painted the same way, it may have looked odd without the ridge.

Our question would be as to the color of the facemasks. Had this been adopted would they have stayed gray? Would they have changed to red or white or black? Maybe some of the graphic arts guys out there can do a mock up since the example here is sans mask.

Here it is:

Speaking for the Cardinals, for years they have had a protype helmet displayed in their public relations office. We are working on getting a photo of it, but it looks similar to this:

However, it is not the moden Cardinal on it, it's more like the old Cardinal andthe hemet was all red and the facemask was a yellow Riddell Kra Lite NJOP (like Anthony Munoz wore)

So, thank goodness for small favors. We prefer the classic Cardinal all white helmet.