Masks in Sports: Hockey Part 1

Masks in Sports

Western Civilization has a number of sports to participate in, and to watch. I myself am a hockey fan. I know others who enjoy a game of paintball, or enjoy heading out to the ball diamond for a game of baseball. All these sports are team sports, yet at least one member(more in paintball) wears a mask. They are all for protective reasons, yet to tell these people they are “just a mask” is an insult. These masks are used to personalise the user, a way of telling others about their personality. Wearing a mask in sport is just as important for identity as wearing one at Halloween(though you don’t get many one hundred kilometre per hour projectiles thrown at you!) I will be talking about the history of the mask in hockey, baseball and paintball. I will also discuss other sports where identifiable headgear is used.

Hockey History

Ask any hockey fan who wore the first goalie mask in he NHL, and ninety nine percent will tell you “Jacques Plante”. While Mr. Plante was the first goalie to wear a mask professionally for more than one game, it was another gent who wore one for protection for one game. Does Clint Benedict count if it was only one game some would ask? For purposes here(and if you want to stump your friends trivia wise), we will start with Mr. Graham, as he was technically the first professionally to wear one, but even then the lines are blurred as we shall see.

Let us be clear, we are speaking of professional hockey. Amateurs had been donning the mask for several years before Mr. Benedict. Professional goalies, however, went mask less in the ranks. The entry of the mask into professional sports began on January 7, 1930. Clint was hit in the face with an errant puck from Howie Morenz of the Montreal Canadiens. He was knocked unconscious, his nose broken and his cheekbone smashed. When he returned to the ice, Clint wore a mask that was used for boxing sparring and as football faceguard. The mask covered the nose, mouth and forehead, but left the eyes unprotected. It was made of leather and wire. The nosepiece was large, and obstructed Clint’s view. It obstructed so much; he took it off after the game and didn’t wear one again. Different sources suggest between one and five games was the amount of times he wore the mask.

Other goalies had worn masks, though most wore variation of a baseball catcher’s mask. Photos have been snapped of non NHL goaltenders wearing masks. There is a photo of an anonymous goaltender wearing a catcher’s type mask in an international game against Switzerland. During the 1936 Olympics, Japan’s Teiji Honma was photographed wearing a similar mask. There is even a suggestion, on a University level, that one Elizabeth Graham wore the first goalie mask in 1927. She had been hit in the teeth before and wore the mask as protection. So we can see a bit of blurring on who wore the first mask in hockey. While Mr. Benedict wore a mask more out of necessity, Mr. Plante’s mask was one of choice.