A FOOTBALL MOUTHFUL

THE NEFF ZONE -- BY JIM NEFF

CADILLAC NEWS -- AUGUST 10, 2024

Memories are tricky. A small occurrence in your everyday life can trigger something from your past that is totally unrelated. This happened to me during a recent trip to the dentist. The foray into the past had to do with high school football equipment.

 

Since the high school football season is about to commence, the memory is timely. However, this is not another instance of an old geezer spinning yarns about his exploits on the gridiron. This is about being a guinea pig of sorts. Travel with me to 1962. I was on the JV team of Flint St. Michael High School.

 

The use of face masks on helmets was just being standardized. Backs and ends typically wore helmets with one bar because the thought was that anything more obstructed their vision. Linemen had two bars because they didn't need to see in order to block. 

 

As you probably can surmise, these “masks” didn't offer much more protection than helmets with no masks. This resulted in a lot of lost teeth. So, in an attempt to help save the chiclets, the National Alliance Football Rules Committee issued a mandate in 1962 to require that football players in high school and junior colleges wear mouth-protectors. (https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/65782/j.1752-7325.1972.tb03937.x.pdf)

 

The decree meant that every high school football player , including me, would need to obtain a mouth-protector. This proved to be more difficult than you might think. Apparently, the sporting goods industry was caught flat-footed because there didn't seem to be any ready-made protectors available in stores. For me, that meant a trip to my family dentist. (Several teammates experienced the same scenario.)

 

My family dentist was a nice gentleman, who we will call Dr. Kindness (not a real name). He was my mom's dentist when she was a little girl. I think he was Fred Flintstone's dentist. He had been a dentist for a really long time. He had a one-man operation at a downtown Flint office. He had a receptionist, but no dental assistants. Dr. Kindness was such a wonderful man that our family did not have the heart to go to another dentist. 

 

So, here I came with the need for a football mouth-protector. Dr. Kindness had never heard of such a thing, but he had some knowledge of mouth-protectors for boxers. He figured what worked for boxers would work for football players. This seemed logical to him and also to me. 

 

The first step was to fill my mouth with plaster (or something) and make an impression of my teeth. Then, using that mold, he fashioned a rubber (or something) mouth-protector. The end result was a protector covering both upper teeth and lower teeth and connected with a hinge at the back. Also, the roof of the mouth was covered with a layer. It was a thing of beauty to look at.

 

Alas, looks were deceiving, because when I tried to jam the protector into my mouth it evoked gagging and gasping. Dr. Kindness assured me that I'd get used to it, but I had my doubts. 

 

Showing up for the first day of football practice, it was apparent to me that getting used to the mouth-protector was going to be he biggest challenge of the fall. Checking in with other players, gagging seemed to be the theme of the day. 

 

For me, the Dr. Kindness mouth-protector lasted one day. Out came the scissors and the first thing to go was the material that covered the roof of my mouth. That reduced the gagging by at least half. 

 

Next, I cut the connection between lowers and uppers, so I could just wear the uppers. I was gambling that no one would notice. Just wearing the uppers made things (like breathing) tolerable. I noticed my teammates were making similar adjustments. 

 

We all struggled through those early practices, but during a preseason scrimmage we discovered an interesting development. Referees would check players for mouth-protectors, but if you smiled and showed only your uppers you passed the test. What a relief. 

 

This whole landscape changed the next year. Sporting good stores had racks of all sorts of do-it-yourself mouth-protectors. You could pick your style and material. Some protectors could be custom molded to your bite by just dipping them in boiling water and chomping down. It was a revelation!

 

The use of mouth-protectors proved to be a rousing success.  “In the year 1967alone, more than 25,000 to 50,000 injuries to players were estimated to have been prevented by the use of mouth-protectors.”

 

Better yet, another benefit was discovered. “Use of the mouth-protectors also has been shown to be a factor in reducing the incidence of concussions from a blow to the chin. An unexpected result has been an observation that the number of injuries to the neck also seem to be reduced and relief provided from chronic neck- problems.” 

 

Nowadays, mouth-protectors are standard equipment for football and many other sports. I was a guinea pig, but looking back it was a noble experience. By the way, the St. Mike's JV team finished 7-0 that season. It was all smiles for us in more ways than one. 

 

Jim Neff is a local columnist. Read Neff Zone columns online at CadillacNews.com and NeffZone.com/cadillacnews.