"The Nascent Helmet Awareness of 1958"
HELMET HUT NEWS/REFLECTIONS January 2012:
The nascent Helmet Awareness of 1958
By Dr. Ken
1958
was
a
pivotal
year
in
my
development
as
an
athlete
and
a
young
man
who
decided
to
make
improvement
in
many
aspects
of
my
existence.
We
moved
from
an
isolated
house
that
bordered
the
beach
and
lacked
heat
and
hot
water
to
the
second
floor
of a
two
story
rental
home
in
the
middle
of
town.
Though
my
younger
brother
and
I
drove
the
downstairs
neighbor
to
distraction
with
our renditions
of
professional
wrestling
bouts,
the
location
alone
made
it
easier
to
engage
in
school
sponsored
sports,
and
as
importantly,
after
school
football
games
with
friends.
The
spirited
and
rather
physical
contests
made
it
clear
that
even
as a
pre-teen,
I
was
in
need
of
becoming
larger
and
stronger
if I
intended
to
compete
well
at
my
relatively
new
found
love
of
high
school
football.
Though
my
high
school
experience
would
not
begin
for
a
few
years,
I
had
already
set
my
sights
on
the
goal
of
wearing
the
Columbia
blue
and
white
of
Long
Beach
High
School.
I
had
an
early
love
for
college
football,
had
been
exposed
to
professional
football
via
the
radio
and
television,
and
became
mesmerized
by
the
high
school
games
I
had
been
watching
live
at
both
Long
Beach
and
Lawrence
High
Schools
for
two
seasons.
 |
Lawrence High School great Sal Ciampi later served as captain of the Purdue University Boilermakers. He attended training camp with the N.Y. Giants and matched his legendary record as a player by becoming one of the greatest high school coaches in New York State history.
Living in town instead of on the outskirts where a bus ride or some luck hitch-hiking was necessary to attend school, see a movie, or visit the public library and any of the stores, also offered the opportunity to better enjoy the football season. Highly competitive games of tackle football were played on the grassy medians that divided the flow of two-way traffic through Long Beach. What seemed like “kid stuff” to the adults who would occasionally stop and watch the athletic events, at times were mini-bloodbaths as teams from different parts of town squared off and often tried to prove who was tougher. Rather than overcoming travel logistics or time constraints to join in the contests, I could now walk down the street and be in the middle of the action, often visualizing myself duplicating the achievements of one of my collegiate heroes like Billy Cannon.
 |
Billy Cannon of LSU was a favorite of our young group of football fanatics. We were astute enough at a very young age to already know who the truly great players were.
The speed demon in our group, Richard Landsman whom was mentioned in this column last month, later proved to be the mainstay of the high school track team but more importantly, he very much mirrored my obsessive penchant for football research. He was aware of LSU’s progress through an arduous season that produced Billy Cannon’s famous Halloween night punt return that toppled Ole Miss and their undefeated National Championship season, the lackluster performance of Columbia University against most of their foes, and the Heisman Trophy play of Army’s Pete Dawkins [ see HELMET HUT Army 1957 -1958 summary at http://www.helmethut.com/College/Army/NYUSMA5758.html ]. Richard and I shared a similar perspective of Dawkins and we saw him very much as the football version of Superman. In the New York metropolitan area press, he was written up often and he was one of the nation’s few players that was actually as good, or better, than his press clippings. One of my fondest memories, and one that no doubt spoke volumes in predicting my work with HELMET HUT and attachment to “all things football,” is as vivid as if it had occurred merely days ago. I was a proud member of the local Pop Warner Lido/Point Lookout Knights, a blue-and-white clad group of ten to twelve year olds who played against a number of similar teams that represented the various sections of the City of Long Beach. |
With a Heisman Trophy and accolades for his offensive heroics, it is largely forgotten that Pete Dawkins was a fine two-way performer. His defensive abilities are caught in this photo from the 1958 game against Navy. Note the Naval Academy’s distinctive dark navy blue helmets worn exclusively that season for the annual clash with the Black Knights [ see HELMET HUT Navy 1958 summary at http://www.helmethut.com/College/Navy/MDUSNA5858.html
As a full blown Dawkins and Army fan, I did not believe I could perform to my utmost ability in the plain white Riddell and Wilson helmets we wore. I walked to the local hardware store and with my own money, earned by working side-by-side with my chef uncle and doing what was very much an adult man’s labor, purchased a can of gold spray paint and black electrical tape. I can still see myself sitting on the curb, carefully, patiently, and lovingly spray painting my white helmet until it mimicked the gold headgear of West Point. The one-inch black center stripe was rather easy to recreate with the electrical tape but I was clueless and lost for the identifying player numerals that the Army team wore on each side of their helmets. Numerous attempts to “cut” my own tape numbers failed miserably but I had the basic shell and stripe.
It was obvious even to other ten year olds that my newly painted gold helmet did not match the blue jersey with white numerals or the white pants we wore. I of course was oblivious because now, I was my own recreation of Pete Dawkins, Army halfback! That our adult coaches were flabbergasted and a bit unhappy was somehow totally missed on my part and before the unveiling of my newly painted helmet was more than an hour old, I was asked to make the same alterations to at least a half dozen of my teammates helmets.