1949 Rams uniform and helmets

Hi, I want to say that this is an excellent site. I was notified by a friend of mine who happens to be an electric football hobbylist. http://www.miniaturefootball.com/forum/index.php Needless to say, there are people who still play electric football like myself and they will use your site as reference for painting throwback teams.

I have a question about the helmets and color of the 1949 Rams. The off-blue, almost violet color on the uniforms and helmets. Was that the color shade? It seems weird that the Rams would use that color variation when they used blue and gold for the rest of their uniform combinations. Please tell me how you came up with the colors. Thanks.

LARamfan,

The Rams for one year only decided to wear Red helmets, yellow jerseys with red numbers, yellow pants and red socks. I had heard this claim for awhile and was very skeptical on the validity of it. A couple of months ago, Uni Watch ran an interview with one of the equipment managers whose father preceded him as EM for Rams while in Los Angeles. The interviewer, was himself a rabid Rams fan. Through Uni Watch, I was able to email him about the 1949 claim. He replied with a copy of a letter written by Fred Gehrke at the time a Broncos General Manager on Broncos letterhead where Gehrke responded to someone asking if indeed the Rams wore red and yellow (gold) in '49. Gehrke confirmed the claim. Gehrke played with the Rams in '49 and in 1948 was the man who painted the yellow horns on the Rams blue leather helmets, thus creating the first helmet logo in pro football history.

As for the Rams blue jersey/white pants combo shown with the red/yellow uniform, the Rams lost their clothing (jerseys, pants, socks) in a fire just before a game in Detroit. The Rams used their 1948 blue jersey and white pants for this game. New red/yellow unis were made in time for the rest of the season, as it appears.

Where can I find a picture of the Rams in red and yellow. I have seen the helmet online.

One of my books has a photo of the 1949 Championship Game played in the slop of the LAMC. Unfortunately there was not much color photography back then as you know. One thing to keep in mind...1949 was the first year that the Rams went to plastic helmets and was also the ONLY year they had the segmented horns on the helmets. Any B/W photo showing the segmented horns, the team colors that year were red and yellow, not blue (except for the game in Detroit).

Thanks very much Bill.