Helmet History

The Columbia Lions took the football field for the first time way back in 1870. The Columbia Lions football program is the intercollegiate American football team for Columbia University. They were a national powerhouse eleven in the early twentieth century and have had some fine players and coaches in the program. The 1875 team was retroactively declared co-national champion by Parke H. Davis, along with Harvard and Princeton. The school itself claims its gridiron eleven as a national champion in both 1875 and 1933. Lions in the College Football Hall of Fame include Paul Governali, Coach Percy Haughton, Walter Koppisch, Coach Lou Little, Sid Luckman, Cliff Montgomery, Bill Morley, Coach Buck O'Neill, Coach George Sanford, Bill Swiacki, and Harold Weekes.

Today's college football players charge down the field adorned in futuristic helmets, marvels of modern engineering designed to absorb impact and mitigate injuries. But rewind the clock a century, and you'd find players taking the field with little more than glorified leather skullcaps. This series delves into the fascinating evolution of college football helmets and head gear, a journey that mirrors not just the changing safety standards of the sport, but also its cultural and technological advancements.

Join us we embark on the individual hard shell histories of individual schools and how the design has progressed for each over the ages.