The history of the winged football helmet
Dearest fans of the Maize & Blue:
The post about the helmet stickers reminded me that I needed to post something about the history of the winged football helmet, because the Michigan AD has done such a poor job explaining this in its football guide and on its webpage. Prior to moving in teaching and coaching I worked in sports at ESPN and in the Princeton AD, and I grew up as a Princeton fan in the Lansing area. Here is the true history of the helmet, which I wrote while at ESPN, and which was on Gameday prior to the 1999 Michigan-Ohio State game.
Fritz Crisler, who coached at Princeton from 1932-7 (after he coached at Minnesota for a couple of years), designed the helmet to use during the 1935 season. The reason that he designed the helmet was that in the 1930s all college football teams wore bland, monocromatic helmets, and he figured that a unique design would give his quarterback a better chance to spot receivers downfield. If you look at the passing statistics at Princeton there is an amazing jump in QB performace after the introduction of the helmet, and some quarterbacks during that area still are high on various passing lists at Old Nassau. The same statistical jump can be seen in the Michigan books when Crisler introduced them upon starting his coaching career there after leaving Princeton in 1937.
You might wonder why he used the winged design, but it makes a great deal of sense if you understand the context in which came up with his idea. The wings on the helmet are meant to be tigers ears flared back (Princeton's mascot is the tiger), and the tree vertical stripes running from the front of the helmet to back match the three stripes that were on on the sleeves on the 1934 Princeton football jersey.
As someone who earned a graduate degree from Michigan and as a Princetonian with many family family members who are alums, I have no problem with Michigan gaining attribution for popularizing the helmet (Princeton ditched the helmet shorttly after Crisler left, and they only reintroduced it when they opened the new Princeton Stadium in 1998. I talked to many teary-eyed football alumns who wept for joy when this happened there), but they should give Princeton more attribution on their web page and in their media guide. If the US can acknowledge that we trace our legal heritage back to the introudction of democracy in ancient Greece, the Roman Republic and British common law, can we not simply admit that we took a design from another football team who used to be a national power in its own right (28 national titles). It is this kind of institutional arrogance that turns people off to us.
Interestingly, when I researched this story with the Princeton historian, I found out some interesting side stories about Crisler.
1. Crisler was not the first choice to coach at Princeton. Knute Rockne was offered the job, but the very Protestant Princeton Football Association, did not like the thought of a Catholic taking the job. (The irony here is that Rockne would not have been on the plane that crashed when he was with Notre Dame)
2. When Crisler arrived on campus at Princeton he was taken into the Princeton Police Station as a possible witness in the Lindbergh Baby case. (The kidnapping happened in nearby Hopewell, NJ)
Thanks for taking the time to share the story. However, I actually think that Michigan and the Athletic Department do their part in writing about the history of the Winged Helmet (see this webpage I linked to last week from Michigan's Bentley Library: http://bentley.umich.edu/athdept/football/helmet/mhelmet.htm)
Here's an excerpt: "Some accounts of the actual design of the new helmet have suggested Crisler came up with the idea out of whole cloth. In fact, Crisler had introduced a helmet at Princeton in 1935 that should look remarkably familiar to Wolverine fans. The winged design simply took advantage of features of a helmet the Spalding sporting goods company and advertised in the 1937 edition the Official Intercollegiate Football Guide. Crisler's 1938 innovation at Michigan was to paint the helmet maize and blue."
I just think it's a common mis-perception that people have that Michigan "invented" the winged helmet, kind of like how people don't realize that the lines "Champions of the West" in 'The Victors' is actually because of Michigan originally being in the Western Conference, the precursor to the Big Ten.
Thanks for your insight!
Blake: Thanks to the link to Bentley library, as I did not uncover this while at ESPN. I do remember being incredibly frustrated that I could only find was one sentence in the media guide that merely stated that Crisler brought the helmet from Princeton. Thanks to the others who wrote about the Spalding design, which may have been a technical design feature that set the stage for Princeton to pay homage to its mascot with its unique design.
I have to admit that it looks better in maize and blue.
Below is a link to a story from the Daily Princetonian about the history of the helmet.
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2004/09/22/sports/10787.shtml
Is it just me, or are portions of the BHL's helmet page poorly written? Seems like there's at least one anachronism in addition to some other unclear passages. I remember that I used to think it was clearer.
Anyway, I have to agree with the other commenters. Not only did the same coach that introduced the helmet to Princeton bring it to Michigan, but Princeton wasn't even the first school to use a winged helmet design. I've never been able to figure out its actual date of first use, but Michigan State (known at the time as either MAC or MSC, I can't remember) used a form of it as early as 1933 (I've had plenty of conversations about this with an old-time MSU alum). As I understand it, Crisler's "innovation" was simply to paint the three-striped version in the school's colors.
Others may have done it first, but Michigan did it best. The fact that the design has enjoyed such long and consistent usage, along with the success of the football team, is what transformed it from a simple adornment to an iconic representation of the school and its tradition.
Many teams wore the winged helmet - as it was how the manufacturer constructed it. Michigan State wore it until they joined the BigTen in 1948. Most schools simply threw out the winged design when they stopped making leather helmets - leather helmets with the extra padding and reinforcement in the shape of the wing. Michigan on the other hand, simply decided to paint the wing onto the modern helmets.
Here is a picture of Tom Harmon pounding the Spartans into submission - notice the Sparties are wearing their own manufacturers version of a winged helmet.
http://bentley.umich.edu/athdept/football/helmet/harmmsl.jpg
I've been told that when 'MSC' went to the winged helmet, they used the one striped version that could be ordered in the school's colors. So, naturally, they bought them in...black and gold. No idea why - as far as I know green and white have always been the school's colors.
wildbackdunesman, any idea when that method of helmet construction began? It's something I've always wondered about but never been able to find an answer for.