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Royce Womble catches a pass for the Chargers, while Clyde Washington prepares to make the tackle for the Patriots.
For many years, the Boston and later New England Patriots sported the beloved Pat Patriot logo on the sides of their helmets. However, AFL fans going way back remember that there was something that once graced the sides of those classic white helmets prior to Pat Patriot. For the 1960 season alone, the Patriots wore a much-forgotten “tri-corn hat” logo on their helmets. I found an article about the inspiration behind the tri-corn logo in a 2009 article by Adrianna Borgia on the Boston Magazine website. Take a look!
In celebration of the American Football League’s 50th birthday, on 9/14 the Patriots will sport what’s being billed as their original helmet design, featuring Pat Patriot. But even as Flying Elvis (as the team’s current stylized logo is known) rides the bench, Pats purists might call for pulling the burly Revolutionary War jock, too, in favor of his long-lost predecessor: a humble tricorn that adorned team helmets for the inaugural 1960 season.
The simple blue logo was the brainchild of Walter J. Pingree, a railroad conductor and former semipro player from Somerville. Upon learning New England was finally getting a pro team, he was so pleased to be rescued from the indignity of rooting for the New York Giants that he set out to design a suitably patriotic helmet
Though
Sullivan
loved
Pingree’s
concept and
later made
him
something of
an
unofficial
team
member—lifetime
season
tickets,
invites to
private team
meetings—he
decided to
switch to
Pat Patriot,
inspired by
a 1959 Globe
editorial
cartoon, at
the close of
the first
season. Most
of the
evidence of
Pingree’s
design
disappeared
soon after:
To avoid
buying new
helmets,
Sullivan had
the tricorn
logo peeled
off and
replaced
with Pat.