Philadelphia Eagles helmets 1974-1977

It looks like the Eagles had three different helmet shells during this era. First one with a metallic finish, then one with a flat finish that might've had a darker tone of green, before settling on another flat finish that was more closely matched with the green of the jerseys.

/8/31/74 vs Giants at Princeton (Pre Season)


10/6/74 Philadelphia at San Diego



10/3/76 Philadelphia at Atlanta



10/10/76 Philadelphia at St.Louis



9/18/77 Philadelphia vs Tampa Bay


10/16/77 Philadelphia vs St.Louis

11/3/74 Philadelphia at Pittsburgh



10/17/76 Philadelphia at Green Bay


9/25/77 Philadelphia at Los Angeles

I think that the metallic helmets went out in 1977; of course back then a handful of players may have kept their metallic painted shell helmets for longer than just 1974-76 but it appears that all new helmets were the plain green.  The Riddell helmets that are closer to the jersey color are Riddell helmets that are molded in green.  The "darker green" helmets are Marietta/Maxpro helmets that are painted on the inside. In the 1974 photos Bill Bergey (66) is wearing a metallic painted Riddell helmet; by 1976 he is wearing a Marietta/Maxpro (not sure when Maxpro bought out Marietta; it might have been 1975 or 1976).  These are so-called "clear shell" helmets but plastic actually has a slight blue-gray tint to it that you can most clearly see on white helmets like Penn State.  I don't believe any of this was a choice in the color other than abandoning the metallic painted shells used in 1974-76 and replacing them with molded green shells in 1977.  I do believe that eventually Maxpro got better at matching the green paint they used to the molded green shells used by Riddell and Bike/Schutt - by the time that these helmets had a "MAXPRO" logo right between the facemask clips they seem to be much closer to the molded green shell color.

John C wrote:I think that the metallic helmets went out in 1977; of course back then a handful of players may have kept their metallic painted shell helmets for longer than just 1974-76 but it appears that all new helmets were the plain green.  The Riddell helmets that are closer to the jersey color are Riddell helmets that are molded in green.  The "darker green" helmets are Marietta/Maxpro helmets that are painted on the inside.  In the 1974 photos Bill Bergey (66) is wearing a metallic painted Riddell helmet; by 1976 he is wearing a Marietta/Maxpro (not sure when Maxpro bought out Marietta; it might have been 1975 or 1976).  These are so-called "clear shell" helmets but plastic actually has a slight blue-gray tint to it that you can most clearly see on white helmets like Penn State.  I don't believe any of this was a choice in the color other than abandoning the metallic painted shells used in 1974-76 and replacing them with molded green shells in 1977.  I do believe that eventually Maxpro got better at matching the green paint they used to the molded green shells used by Riddell and Bike/Schutt - by the time that these helmets had a "MAXPRO" logo right between the facemask clips they seem to be much closer to the molded green shell color.

Wow, that's a lot of good info, thanks!
It seem to me that they all wore the metallic helmets in '74, had a mix of the metallic and dark green in '75-'76, then fixed everything with the new helmets in '77 going forward.

bigbluelarry wrote:

John C wrote:I think that the metallic helmets went out in 1977; of course back then a handful of players may have kept their metallic painted shell helmets for longer than just 1974-76 but it appears that all new helmets were the plain green.  The Riddell helmets that are closer to the jersey color are Riddell helmets that are molded in green.  The "darker green" helmets are Marietta/Maxpro helmets that are painted on the inside.  In the 1974 photos Bill Bergey (66) is wearing a metallic painted Riddell helmet; by 1976 he is wearing a Marietta/Maxpro (not sure when Maxpro bought out Marietta; it might have been 1975 or 1976).  These are so-called "clear shell" helmets but plastic actually has a slight blue-gray tint to it that you can most clearly see on white helmets like Penn State.  I don't believe any of this was a choice in the color other than abandoning the metallic painted shells used in 1974-76 and replacing them with molded green shells in 1977.  I do believe that eventually Maxpro got better at matching the green paint they used to the molded green shells used by Riddell and Bike/Schutt - by the time that these helmets had a "MAXPRO" logo right between the facemask clips they seem to be much closer to the molded green shell color.

Wow, that's a lot of good info, thanks!
It seem to me that they all wore the metallic helmets in '74, had a mix of the metallic and dark green in '75-'76, then fixed everything with the new helmets in '77 going forward.

That's what I remember also. It seems like the Cowboys, Eagles and Penn State were really big early users of the Maxpro helmets among their players; the Steelers also became big users but more like 1978 and later. 1975 seems to be when a lot of the Eagle players switched to Maxpros, so those still wearing Riddells would have had the metallic green painted helmets. It also seems that any new Maxpro helmets for 1977 were closer in color to the green molded shells of the Riddell helmets, but they can still come off being slightly darker. It just isn't as noticeable from 1977/78 onward.