When one reaches my age, he runs the risk of becoming repetitive. I’ll take that risk this week and again write about some changes in the game of football that have come about in my memory.

My first experience with organized football took place when I was in the seventh grade. Every player wore a leather helmet, no face mask, and everybody wore high-top shoes. There was no &8220;T&8221; formation (that we knew of). The only football player in my memory at that time who wore low-quarter shoes was a tailback at Tennessee named Johnny Butler. This was in the late 1930s or early 1940s and I don’t remember his ever getting an ankle injury, though that was the prediction of all the adults I knew. Nobody could figure out why his Coach at Tennessee, General Bob Neyland, allowed the short shoes, except Butler must have proved to the General how much better he ran in them. General Neyland was a rock-solid traditionalist who believed in defense, punting on third down, and that three things could happen when you passed the ball, and two of them were bad.

Through high school and into my first year at Sewanee we all wore the old leather helmets. The only player at Sewanee with a face mask was an end who had broken his nose multiple times, and he wore a hard leather device. It fastened to the front top of the helmet and was kept in place by the player, who held it with his teeth. I don’t remember what a hard lick would do to his teeth. Only one or two players wore tooth protectors, and those had to be prescribed by a dentist. Nobody wore low-top shoes.

My second year at Sewanee the top 33 players were issued plastic headgear, but all other equipment remained the same. Still no face masks or low-top shoes.

A few years later when I played at Keesler Air Force Base we did all have plastic helmets and could wear low-top shoes, if you owned a pair. A few players there had face masks, which at that time were a simple clear plastic bar reaching from one side of the helmet to the other. It was all of an inch wide. It was partially effective in protecting the player, but at that time there was no rule against an opponent grabbing the bar.

The face mask (actually, the face bar) was made mandatory in 1958, along with the rule prohibiting grasping an opponent by the bar. Early in my high school officiating career I was officiating, along with Clarence Bowlin, a game matching bitter rivals Magnolia and Liberty. I don’t recall which was the home team, but late in the game I flagged a face mask foul against the home team. As I went over to set the chains for the first down, one of the fellows on the chains took exception to the call, claiming that it wasn’t against the rules to grab the face mask. When I explained it was a new rule that year, he said something to the effect that I was telling him he didn’t know the rules. As a result of the penalty, the visiting team went on to win the game. As Clarence and I were leaving the field, I felt someone grab my arm. I turned around, expecting to get whipped. As the home team had lost, I expected no help. Luckily at that time the late Bill Zimmerman, who was on the coaching staff at Southwest Community College, stopped to say hello. The bad guy simply disappeared .

Other than having the van or police car carrying the officials after an occasional SEC game rocked or bumped, that was the closest I ever came to a real fan problem after a game.

At any rate, the face mask did more to change the game of football than any other piece of equipment, ever, except maybe in the old days when the helmet became required equipment.

And, That’s Official.