Denver Broncos prototype helmet? Maybe 1962?

[Sec19Row53]

39 minutes ago, ramsjetsthunder said:

 

I'm ashamed that I didn't know these existed.

Maybe don't be? If you aren't old like some of us who saw them in use, it isn't like they are commonly seen in photos or otherwise. 

 

Try to find a picture of the ones used in the 60s. It's harder still.

[Gothamite]

No shame at all - not only was it not common knowledge until a couple years ago, it wasn't known at all. 

 

For years the Broncos themselves treated the short-lived horse as though it was brown (when they thought of it at all).  So you had merchandise like these pocket pro helmets:

 

  

 

Former players were asked about it, and they said it was brown.  The official team files showed brown.  The GUD had a brown horse in their graphic.  But there was one fan of the team at the time who kept proclaiming on Uni Watch that the horse was blue, and after years of insisting that his childhood memories were right and everyone else was wrong, the team finally researched it and learned that the horse was in fact blue.

 

https://uni-watch.com/2011/04/27/what-color-was-the-1962-broncos-helmet-logo/

 

https://blog.denverbroncos.com/jsaccomano/saccomano-mystery-solved-horse-was-blue-in-62/

 

Still one of my favorite uni-related stories.  David and Goliath, one lone fan telling everyone that the team and league were wrong about their own uniform history. 

 

And.  He.  Was.  Right.

[Bmac]

On 2/17/2021 at 3:57 PM, oldschoolvikings said:

Weird.  Colors in old photos are always tricky but that looks like navy, red, and... I dunno, old gold?

 

Is it just me or does that red/orange section look like an added material on the helmet? It appears to be raised a bit from the white part.

[burgundy]

10 hours ago, Bmac said:

 

Is it just me or does that red/orange section look like an added material on the helmet? It appears to be raised a bit from the white part.

 

Maybe an attempt at something like this padded helmet from 1968?

 

 

[AgentColon2]

I’m seeing red and brown. Horse and stripe are the same color. Just lighting hitting front of stripe.

[dont care]

1 hour ago, AgentColon2 said:

I’m seeing red and brown. Horse and stripe are the same color. Just lighting hitting front of stripe.

Not sure how you can say definitively that they are the same color especially since to me the horse looks blue.

[AgentColon2]

Just an opinion broseph.

[Bmac]

I adjusted the brightness of the photo to give us a better look at the colors:

 

 

 

[Kiltman]

To expand on @Bmac's brightening

This is a white balanced and slightly deartifacted version

or

[jc...]

On 2/18/2021 at 9:26 PM, Gothamite said:

No shame at all - not only was it not common knowledge until a couple years ago, it wasn't known at all. 

 

For years the Broncos themselves treated the short-lived horse as though it was brown (when they thought of it at all).  So you had merchandise like these pocket pro helmets:

 

  

 

Former players were asked about it, and they said it was brown.  The official team files showed brown.  The GUD had a brown horse in their graphic.  But there was one fan of the team at the time who kept proclaiming on Uni Watch that the horse was blue, and after years of insisting that his childhood memories were right and everyone else was wrong, the team finally researched it and learned that the horse was in fact blue.

 

https://uni-watch.com/2011/04/27/what-color-was-the-1962-broncos-helmet-logo/

 

https://blog.denverbroncos.com/jsaccomano/saccomano-mystery-solved-horse-was-blue-in-62/

 

Still one of my favorite uni-related stories.  David and Goliath, one lone fan telling everyone that the team and league were wrong about their own uniform history. 

 

And.  He.  Was.  Right.

I'd like to see the Broncos modern set done in their colors from the 70's, 80's 90's. 

[roxfan00]

On 2/18/2021 at 7:26 PM, Gothamite said:

No shame at all - not only was it not common knowledge until a couple years ago, it wasn't known at all. 

 

For years the Broncos themselves treated the short-lived horse as though it was brown (when they thought of it at all).  So you had merchandise like these pocket pro helmets:

 

  

 

Former players were asked about it, and they said it was brown.  The official team files showed brown.  The GUD had a brown horse in their graphic.  But there was one fan of the team at the time who kept proclaiming on Uni Watch that the horse was blue, and after years of insisting that his childhood memories were right and everyone else was wrong, the team finally researched it and learned that the horse was in fact blue.

 

https://uni-watch.com/2011/04/27/what-color-was-the-1962-broncos-helmet-logo/

 

https://blog.denverbroncos.com/jsaccomano/saccomano-mystery-solved-horse-was-blue-in-62/

 

Still one of my favorite uni-related stories.  David and Goliath, one lone fan telling everyone that the team and league were wrong about their own uniform history. 

 

And.  He.  Was.  Right.

 Just weird the team and players thought the decal was brown. It clearly looks blue in this pic

[Gothamite]

38 minutes ago, roxfan00 said:

Just weird the team and players thought the decal was brown. It clearly looks blue in this pic

Memories can be funny sometimes. 
 

But keep in mind - nobody had any color photos at that point.  This photo, like the others, surfaced later.  The decals themselves had been discarded decades earlier.
 

So once the mistake was made, there wasn’t anything to contradict it and people absorbed the misinformation into their memories. 

[dont care]

On 3/10/2021 at 3:34 PM, roxfan00 said:

 Just weird the team and players thought the decal was brown. It clearly looks blue in this pic

This is a colorized picture. Someone went in later and took a black and white picture and colored it how they believe it would have looked. There was no such thing as color photography yet at that time.

[WSU151]

5 hours ago, dont care said:

This is a colorized picture. Someone went in later and took a black and white picture and colored it how they believe it would have looked. There was no such thing as color photography yet at that time.

 

This isn't true. Color photography was available in the early 1900s, but didn't become mainstream and affordable until the 50s/60s.

 

 

 

 

[Pizzaman7294]

On 3/5/2021 at 8:06 AM, Kiltman said:

To expand on @Bmac's brightening

This is a white balanced and slightly deartifacted version

or

 

90s Nuggets colors! 

[andrewharrington]

On 3/10/2021 at 1:12 PM, Gothamite said:

Memories can be funny sometimes. 
 

But keep in mind - nobody had any color photos at that point.  This photo, like the others, surfaced later.  The decals themselves had been discarded decades earlier.
 

So once the mistake was made, there wasn’t anything to contradict it and people absorbed the misinformation into their memories. 

In retrospect, I’m surprised that such a large percentage of people were adamant it was brown.

 

Occam’s Razor and all that, on a uniform that was known to be entirely orange, blue, and white, you’d think more people would have just assumed it was blue.

[Gothamite]

Yeah, you'd think. 

 

But somebody somewhere said "Brown", and then all of a sudden the Mandela Effect kicked in.

[Sec19Row53]

1 hour ago, Gothamite said:

Yeah, you'd think. 

 

But somebody somewhere said "Brown", and then all of a sudden the Mandela Effect kicked in.

Cuz everyone knows horses aren't blue 

[Mikedoherty]

On 3/29/2021 at 12:32 PM, Pizzaman7294 said:

 

90s Nuggets colors! 

Those would be Colorado flag colors assuming that's supposed to be a yellow gold

[Jake51]

Hi, 

Looks like this conversation took place back in April.  If there is still any interest in it, let me know.  These are my helmets and my photographs of the game vs. the Titans with the blue decals.  The photos were not colorized, they were printed from the original negatives.  The helmet is a prototype Riddell proposed to the Broncos - using the original blue decals - on one of their new helmet types.  The red area is extra padding, it wasn't colored specifically for the team, it was a color used by Riddell when manufacturing these helmets.

Thanks