Expert: Thom Brooks - 4/2/2010

Question
When did players first start wearing helmets? I know Chuck Yeager whore a football helmet in 1947 when he flew the X-1.

And: Why don't the refs wear them? This seems incredibly stupid. You have a lot of large men running at high speed all wearing hard helmets. Should a ref get hit in the head it could do a lot of damage.

Answer
Eric, hello!


Chuck Yeager is one of the Great Americans!  I'm mailing him $75 worth of jersey and hat as a gesture for him allowing our men's baseball team to have him as an Honorary Member of the Savannah Bombers!  We've won the Championship for 4 of the last 5 years.  We honor true Heroes like General Yeager, Jimmy Stewart, Abe Wilen, Ed Foster, Ed Arita and Snake Crandall (pilot of the We Were Soldiers fame).  So, you are correct.  Those men were smart.  They wore helmets.

Organized football had the leather helmets (why?) but the hard hats started around the late '40's and early '50's.  If I find the exact year, I'll write back to you!!


You are also correct about the officials needing helmets.  In high school ball, I am the Umpire.  He's the poor soul that stands over the ball, with the Defensive line, when the ball is snapped.  He gets stampeded, bruised, stepped on, knocked down, cut, bloodied and humiliated during the routine game.  That's me.  I am 5'10", 190 pounds of fragility.  I get knocked down and abused but limp away grinning every week.  It messes up my makeup, but I show my bruises as proudly as the real athletes show theirs!  Actually, it has been discussed for years about having the Umpire wear equipment.  I took a shot from a snapper in the last game last November.  He body slammed me, snapped my neck, pancaked me and jarred my teeth.  He may have just discovered I had dated him Mom 19 years ago.  Wow.  I was hurting and the first thing I thought was that I need helmet, pads, knee braces, mouthpiece and a Preacher.  But, he apologized which made me all better.......


Hah!!  I would love to see the interior officials wear protective gear.


In our men's baseball league, last summer, I was umpiring a player pool game for new players to be drafted.  I'm standing behind the pitcher's mound calling the game.  Just when the catcher threw down to 2nd, I was babbling with a friend about football.  He and I call games together.
The baseball hit my right temple and would have killed me had it not hit my glass frame.  I was totally blind for 5 minutes, a white sheet.  Woke up the next day with a headache in 4 different places but lived to laugh about it.  In regular games, I've seen umpires take shots to the face, head and body.  They need hard hats, too.  Remember, a 1st base coach was killed two years ago in minor leagues.  A hard helmet would not have prevented his throat injury but would help most others.


Take Care,

Thom Brooks
www.BrooksInsuranceSchool.com
Savannah Adult Baseball League

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