Show Me your NFL stuff

[aeneas01]

yoseff777 - there's also a great circa 1974 getty image that shows the inside of bradshaw's hnd9 with the evenly spaced crown pad attachments which accounts for the aligned screws! as far as campbell is concerned, i took another look and he defintey did wear an rts for one year, the last year he wore a rawlings - he wore it with a red dw-nopo. as far as i can tell that's the only year he wore it and as such never wore it with a gray nopo. here's what i found:

1978 - riddell - gray nopo
1979 - rawlings hnd9 - gray nopo
1980 - rawlings hnd9 - gray nopo dw
1981 - rawlings hnd9 - red nopo
1982 - rawlings rts - red nopo dw
1983 - riddell - red usfl
1984 - riddell - red usfl

photo on the left is from 1979, photo on the right from 1980. in 1981 the oilers switched to red facemasks....



can't believe you brought up the rawlings csh - one of my alltime favorite lids! did you happen to see the beauty that sold on ebay for $400+ a year or two ago? here it is...



richard todd definitely wore a ridge...

Both of my WD 1's have the blue inner shell. Blades was recertified 1991 and Crocket 1990. Both look like gamers, especially the Crockett. Blades has the flag worn by Lions in '90. I'd say these 2 helmets prove the point the helmets had blue interior shells. Bought off ebay if my memory's right...

although you have two lions helmets with blue shells, unfortunately it doesn't settle the matter imo. as most football helmet collectors know, anything is possible of course - however i'm not aware of any collector that has obtained an authentic lions helmet from a solid source that consisted of a blue shell painted silver. add to this the dozens and dozens of closeup game photos available that do not show a) a blue shell exposed by hit marks, scrapes and/or paint chipping b) a blue shell exposed by inconsistent spraying around the helmet's edges c) a blue shell visible in shots of the helmet's interior. i can't help but wonder if these blue shell helmets aren't part of the old proline models...

as far as the gary danielson helmet is concerned, imo there's little doubt that it's a reproduction. danielson stopped wearing a suspension helmet (and i don't think he ever wore a gladiator suspension helmet) long before the lions switched to blue facemasks, and he never wore a blue dungard if i remember correctly (although he did wear that style in gray). further, it's another dark colored helmet painted silver - i believe it was originally navy or black... and of course the oversized decal is a big problem.

the blades helmet strikes me as problematic as well. the paint job appears suspect and the lions decal, with the exaggerated (extra wide) transparent border, was only used in 1986 as far as i can tell (but your decal even varies from those odd, short-lived 1986 decals) and therefore doesn't really jive with the 1990 memorial flag.

your vintage lions helmet sold at auction as a circa 1953-1954 game used lions helmet (attributed to earl girard). it appears to be an early macgregor - however there were other macgregor models (and wilson and rawlings models) out at the time which provided better padding and/or sturdier suspension units. in short, i'm not sure this particular model was used at the pro level - at least i'm not as certain as i am about the other models. also i have never seen a vintage photo of a lions player sporting that type of facemask - here are some vintage photos of that era showing the style the lions wore which is similar to your helmet - but not the same...



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[yosef777]

Aeneas01,
Thanks for the Richard Todd / Ridge photo! Proof positive for my next project.
In regards to the CSH helmet, I won that gold helmet and then stripped off the interior paint and made into the Rice / Tommy Kramer helmet I posted. I believe Kramer wore CSH helmet his junior and senior seasons (along with the Adams chin cup). It is one of two that I own.
As usual, you are correct on the Campbell grey double wire. It was on HND 9 and the red double wire was on the RTS.
Glad to have a helmet version of wikipedia in YOU : )

[princip]

Aeneas01,
Thanks for the Richard Todd / Ridge photo! Proof positive for my next project.
In regards to the CSH helmet, I won that gold helmet and then stripped off the interior paint and made into the Rice / Tommy Kramer helmet I posted. I believe Kramer wore CSH helmet his junior and senior seasons (along with the Adams chin cup). It is one of two that I own.
As usual, you are correct on the Campbell grey double wire. It was on HND 9 and the red double wire was on the RTS.
Glad to have a helmet version of wikipedia in YOU : )

If you don't mind, how did you go about striping the paint without clouding the clear plastic, or did you? I worked up a Seahawks clear shell Kelley helmet, yet, when I got the shell it was very cloudy from the striping that someone else did. Thus, had to get very fine grit sandpaper and.................well, it was tedious.

[nyjetsfan14]

In Todd We Trust! How cool to see my boy RT show up in this thread. Brings back simpler days and fond memories. As anyone can probably tell by my username and e-mail address: Richard Todd will always be my fav Jets player and sports idol. Anytime I can find a Todd piece of memorabilia it is an exciting day. Thanks for the insightful posts gentleman, always great and educational reads. Happy collecting and as always...

GO JETS!

[beantown]

Richard Todd did wear a Rawlings Ridge along with Tony Dungy and Gerry "Moon" Mullins....

[kirkb]

Once again, thanks Robert. Looks like all of these helmets might be suspect. I am definately not a helmet expert and havent studied them that much. I did look at 100's of Lion photos I personally took 1991-1993 but those showing insides of helmets are inconclusive. I may try to blow a few up but they are 35 mm and I dont have a scanner. I must say if the Crockett is fake someone went to great lengths.
My major effort has been in ID'ing Lions jersies. More my area of expertise.

[34swtns]

Greg Spires Buccaneers 2005-2006 seasons gamer.
Lots of use on this one....I counted 13 team repairs. You can see the outline from the stitching of the "30th Season" patch they wore in '05 just to the right of the team logo on the chest. Looks like it was removed so the jersey could be worn again in '06 which is where several photo-matches originated, particularly the pics with the black mark under the #4 on the left shoulder.

[saintsfan]

Some old school Saints pickups. In this order, 1994 throwback with tackle twill, style used only once in 94 against the 49ers (Smeenge), also 94, screened numbers recycled from 1993 (Byrd), and a 1998 briefly used design with gold numbers on white (Dombrowski).

Tom

[saintsfan]

oops, busted the size limit. Try again. Tom

[aeneas01]

great photos beantown!!

Thanks for the Richard Todd / Ridge photo! Proof positive for my next project.

is this the ridge helmet you will be using?

In regards to the CSH helmet, I won that gold helmet and then stripped off the interior paint and made into the Rice / Tommy Kramer helmet I posted. I believe Kramer wore CSH helmet his junior and senior seasons (along with the Adams chin cup). It is one of two that I own.

that was a heck of a helmet you stripped down - but then again you did one heck of a job restoring it, that thing is a beauty! someday you will have to tell me how the interior rivets look on your restoration clearshells, if they look like the original factory installed rivets....

speaking of rawlings clearshell helmets....





and speaking of ridge helmets...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=150337698266



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