billsportsmaps.com

January 24, 2008

The NFL, 1960-Map.

Filed under: NFL/ Gridiron Football,Retro maps — admin @ 7:15 am

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The NFL expanded to 13 teams in 1960, with the addition of the Dallas Cowboys.  That season, they would be competing with the newly formed AFL.  They made sure they could meet that new threat head-on in Texas, by establishing a franchise in Dallas.  This, just 8 years after an initial failed attempt (the Dallas Texans, of 1952).  The following season (1961), the NFL would add a 14th team in Minneapolis, with the Minnesota Vikings. 

This was the era when teams were adopting helmet crests.  The Los Angeles Rams had been the trailblazers in this department, sporting their soon-to-be trademark golden horns, in 1947.  In 1954, the Baltimore Colts began wearing a U-shaped horseshoe on their helmet, but strangely wore it on the back of a blue helmet.  By 1957, the Colts’ helmet had evolved into the very same style won today.  Also in 1957, the Philadelphia Eagles began wearing their eagle-wings style design on their helmets.  In 1960, the Chicago Cardinals moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and debuted their striking Cardinal bird’s head emblem (only slightly modified in 2005).  Also in 1960, the expansion Cowboys wore the large blue star they still wear today, but on a white helmet.  Their distinctive pale blue-silver colored helmets did not come until 1964.    

In 1960 and 1961, several teams wore a blank helmet for the last time.  In 1961, the Giants, the Lions, and the Packers adopted helmet insignias; in ’62, the 49ers, the Bears, and the Steelers followed suit.  That left just the Cleveland Browns, who reversed the trend by switching from helmets with the players’ number on it, to a blank orange helmet.  The franchise wears this style helmet to this day.

Thanks to Helmets, Helmets, Helmets website, and the SSUR (http://www.ssur.org/).

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