Vintage Ohio State Gem (Helmet)...

[princip]

Welcome aboard Huron, and thanks for sharing these exceptional photos of your Archie Griffin helmet.

[Jake51]

Hi Huron,

That is an amazing piece, thanks for sharing!!! Always nice to see another football collector here!

Tom

[buckeyegamers]

Beautiful helmet Huron!!! I have not seen many OSU helmets on the market over the years but lately as Robert pointed out there have been a couple very nice ones, including yours. I picked mine up a few years back from a guy just outside of Marysville. He couldn't tell me much about it's history other than it had been in his family for a number of years.

[aeneas01]

guys, great looking helmets... buckeyegamers, what's the name that appears on the suspension webbing of your helmet? it looks like jack - "something" tatum? what's the scratched out name, looks like "yor..."

huron, i've always liked that griffin helmet and imo it matches perfectly to his 1974 gamer (see below). i know karey at "heismanheros.com" had that helmet listed at his site for some time, did you purchase it from him? btw, his herschel walker looks to be the real deal as well and passes all of the date code tests, the only hw i have looked at (and i've seen quite a few) that does.

griffin clearly wore more than one gladiator helmet while with ohio and from what i can tell it's clear that his 1974 and 1975 helmets were not the same, that he switched to a new helmet in 1975.... below i've circled what i believe to be common impact/wear marks, the most notable being the large cut across the center stripe which, unfortunately, blurred when i enlarged the game photo. nonetheless it is present and matches perfectly. btw the game photos are from 1974.



here's a look at the other side of the helmet - i believe the most notable marks can be found in the large circle, two verticle scuff marks...



here's griffin in 1974 (left) and 1975 (right) - clearly two different gladiator helmets. among other things, the positioning of the side facemask clip in relation to the ear hole is quite different and the lower chinstrap snap (near the facemask) is positioned differently as well when compared to the bottom rivet...



...

[Huron]

The documentation that accompanied the helmet confirmed that it was used in both 73 & 74, his Sophomore and Junior years...I guess you're allowed a new one at OSU if you win the Heisman.

Robert, It is the same piece that you saw on Karey's site and I was fortunate enough to meet with him when I made the purchase. A very nice person with an amazing collection. As you've (expertly) shown, the helmet can be photo matched and that gouge across the center stripe is pretty impressive. Here's a closer look...


Any more buckeye helmet images to share?

[buckeyegamers]

aeneas01 I will try to take some more pictures and post them. What is written in the helmet is Jack Bear Tatum. I've never heard of the nickname Bear for Tatum. Then it also has 58 written on another part of the webbing. The scratched out name appears to be York. Again I will try to get some clear pictures. Here is another Buckeyes helmet that I have had for a few years...don't know much about this one either.

[aeneas01]

aeneas01 I will try to take some more pictures and post them. What is written in the helmet is Jack Bear Tatum. I've never heard of the nickname Bear for Tatum. Then it also has 58 written on another part of the webbing. The scratched out name appears to be York. Again I will try to get some clear pictures. Here is another Buckeyes helmet that I have had for a few years...don't know much about this one either.

i believe tatum wore a macgregor while at ohio state and according to the buckeye's "all-time jersey by jersey number" no person named york ever made the roster (perhaps he was cut?). nonetheless it's a very nice helmet imo and i think you have a very nice collection of ohio state helmets including your helmet hut reproductions! fwiw, here's a link to the buckeye's all-time roster...

http://www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/fls...B_OEM_ID=17300

btw i found an interesting photo comparison when looking at griffin's 1974 helmet, the helmet guu member "huron" owns, that i haven't seen before - the addition of award decals over the course of a season...

the photos below show the same helmet during the 1974 season. first, the blue boxes compare the top facemask attachment method - the photo on the left shows the use of dungard slip-on covers while the photo on the right shows the facemask attached without these covers. other photos from 1974 show yet another attachment method incorporating vinyl washers, a method identical to the side facemask clips that can be seen in the photo below. one has to wonder why the attachment method changed so much over the course of the year. perhaps the slip-on covers tore and were replaced by vinyl washers. perhaps the vinyl washers took more abuse at the front of the helmet, didn't hold up, and were ditched in favor of using only screws (photo on the right). who knows, but interesting nonetheless...

the red circles make it easy to see that the award decals are identical on both helmets - notice that these decals (circled in red) are all upside down and positioned/rotated exactly the same. the yellow circles show the before and after of additional award decals - in the photo on the left the yellow circles are empty and represent where the additional decals will be added, the photo on the right shows the addition of the decals...




...