Cleveland Browns

Jim Brown
(Authentic Reproduction)
 

This is a perfect reproduction of the helmet worn by the great Jim Brown in the 1960 season. The Browns fans are proud of their teams uniform tradition which includes being the only team in the NFL without helmet logos. When a proposed helmet logo was introduced for the new replacement franchise in 1999, it was overwhelmingly rejected by the fans and thus canceled by team management. Many of the younger Brown's fans do not realize that the teams helmets included large 3" player numerals on each side throughout the 1950's and ending in 1960. In addition to the player numerals, a single white middle stripe adorned their helmet in the 50's. Brown colored side stripes were added in 1960. This was the only year in which both the player numerals on each side of the helmet and the white (center) and brown (flanking) stripes were worn. Jim Brown's helmet was unique for another reason - having a head size larger than 7 1/2 forced him to wear the special wide or "husky" version of the "Riddell" helmet. The "husky"  version was produced by simply increasing the center ridge of the normal sized shell from 1.0" to 1.5" (or 2.0" for head sizes 8 and larger). Please notice how the 1" white center  stripe on his helmet does not fully cover the center ridge as it does on a normal size shell. Another feature of his 1960 helmet also reflected in this reproduction is that the helmet striping is painted on rather than applied with vinyl tape. Ironically the current Browns team returned to painted on stripes in the year 2000 after using vinyl tape stripes for almost forty years. No other known team in college or professional currently use painted on striping as the Browns continue their tradition of unique helmet design.