Believe it or not it used to be pretty rare to see players wear head protection. After 1979 the league grandfathered in a rule that mandated all players entering the league had to wear an approved helmet. Quickly enough the bare-headed player became a true rarity, with Mac T being the last such player to retire.
A reader recently asked me if I had a complete listing of helmetless players post-1979. The answer is no, I do not. But I thought I'd turn it over to Twitter to see how many helmetless players of the 1980s and 1990s we can name. Join me on Twitter @HockeyLegends and tell me who you remember as one of hockey's bareheaded battlers of the 1980s and 1990s.
Update: Here's an alphabetical listing of players named so far:
Bill Barber
Barry Beck
Randy Carlyle
Bobby Clarke
Ron Duguay
Phil Esposito
Lee Fogolin
Dwight Foster
Nick Fotiu
Bob Gainey
Clark Gillies
Gordie Howe
Bobby Hull
Guy Lafleur
Reggie Leach
Dave Lumley
Tom Lysiak
Blair MacDonald
Rick MacLeish
Craig MacTavish
Brad Marsh
Peter McNab
Rick Middleton
Bob Nystrom
Terry O'Reilly
Willi Plett
Jacques Richard
Larry Robinson
Al Secord
Dave Semenko
Brad Smith
Harold Snepsts
Doug Wilson
Paul Woods
3 comments:
Here's another question. Who was the first player to were a helmet? I remember Stan Mikita wore a helm et way before it became a rule to ware one.
Rod Langway
Eddie Shore
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