Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Who was the first player to use a visor in their helmet? Just from my childhood the first few guys I remember using it were Jim McMahon and Leslie O'Neal and some of the New Orleans Saints linebackers.

Who is credited with the first usage of them?

Although it is not to be taken as an official source, the Wikipedia says it was Mark Mullaney of the Vikings in 1984 due to a recent eye injury.

Rupert Patrick wrote:Although it is not to be taken as an official source, the Wikipedia says it was Mark Mullaney of the Vikings in 1984 due to a recent eye injury.

That's right, I remember Mullaney in the NFL Game of the Week classic at Washington in 1986.

Did that precede visors in the NHL?
When did Kareem Abdul-Jabbar start wearing goggles?

JuggernautJ wrote:Did that precede visors in the NHL?
When did Kareem Abdul-Jabbar start wearing goggles?

around 1977, he got poked in the eye and wore them. I could be off a year but I think he was a Laker, not a Buck

JohnTurney wrote:

JuggernautJ wrote:Did that precede visors in the NHL?
When did Kareem Abdul-Jabbar start wearing goggles?

around 1977, he got poked in the eye and wore them. I could be off a year but I think he was a Laker, not a Buck

https://www.basketball-goggles.com/2011 ... n-history/

Not a great pic, but this is Charlie Justice wearing a lucite mask in 1953. It's positioned in a way that he had to look through it. It's a visor.

This was posted in a Facebook group with the claim it is John Henry Johnson from the 50s.

We should probably distinguish between visors and the Lucite face masks that were commonplace for a couple years in the 1950s.

There's a difference here. JH Johnson (and Tittle, and all the rest) was running around looking over his mask. Justice has a differently shaped mask that is intended for eye protection only.
Justice's is tapered on the sides, unlike the other lucite masks.