[Hot Tabasco]

For the life of me I still can’t understand why it took so long before goalies started wearing helmets with masks

[certrtwngnut]

Because that was when men were men and the sheep knew it. They still seem to know it in some arab countries. Or maybe because they didn’t have the technology?

[OttawaFreeper]

In the early 1970s, the maskless goaltenders ranks included Gump Worsley in Minnesota, Joe Daley in Buffalo, Detroit, and then Winnipeg in the World Hockey Association, Bob Perreault for one game for the WHA's Los Angeles Sharks in 1972-73 (he finished his career in the minors the following season), and Andy Brown for Detroit and Pittsburgh (in above photo). In 1973-74, both Worsley and Daley donned masks (as that was also Gump's last season) and that left Brown as the last of the barefaced netminders. His last game in the NHL was broadcast on Sunday afternoon on NBC on April 7 1974 at the Omni in Atlanta (a 6-3 loss for the Penguins). Brown then jumped to the Indianapolis Racers of the WHA and stayed barefaced (wore a mask in practices, but claimed that it obscured his vision) until his retirement in 1976-77.

[PGR88]

Like many things, sports training, nutrition, and equipment technology have really progressed.

I’m not slighting earlier players, but they played with heavy wooden sticks, so they did not take 107 mph slap-shots. Their skates were heavier and slower. Also, weight training was not considered important in the 1950s and 1960s and no athlete trained year-round like they do now. Many smoked and drank throughout the season. Players are simply bigger, faster and stronger now.

I remember reading how the 1970 Nebraska Corn Huskers were the first team to use weight training and even then it was controversial. Coach Bob Devaney told the trainer Boyd Epley he’d be fired if any players got slower. When Nebraska blew Alabama off the line in the orange Bowl in Jan. 1972, football (and other sports) accepted that strength training was a key part of training.