Jim David’s “Bone Style” Rams Helmet
June 18th, 2010 | Published in Sites I Like, Uniforms
It seems I’m on a bit of a helmet kick this week. This card caught my eye yesterday: it’s Jim David’s 1957 Topps card. David’s helmet didn’t look familiar, but knowing that he was from Colorado State (Colorado A&M at the time), I thought it might be a CSU Rams helmet. Sure enough, I found it on a page at ColoradoAggies.com. And what a find that was! The site has photos and illustrations of all of the school’s football uniforms from 1922 to present, along with tons of other material on the history of CSU athletics.
The helmet that David is wearing is known as the “bone style” helmet. The team wore it from 1951 to 1956, and it was part of the uniform that Rams fans recently chose as their all-time favorite. David’s image must be from 1951, since by 1952 he was a rookie with the Detroit Lions. Though the Lions didn’t draft him until the twenty-second round, David became a six-time Pro Bowler, playing in the defensive backfield with Hall of Famers Jack Christiansen (also a CSU alumnus) and Yale Lary. Thurman “Fum” McGraw, CSU’s first All-American football player and its athletic director from 1976 to 1986, was also a Pro Bowl defensive player for the Lions in the early 1950s.
Judging by the photos on ColoradoAggies.com, David’s helmet was actually green when the photo was taken, and his pants (shown on the right half of the card) were actually yellow. It was common in the 1950s for a card company to color an old black and white photo of a player to match the colors of his current team. (For another example, see my article on Alan Ameche.) In this case, I’m just happy that Topps kept the horns!
- Search Nearmint’s Cards for: Jim David, Colorado State Alumni, Detroit Lions
- Search eBay for: Jim David, Jack Christiansen, Fum McGraw
