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 On this day in engineering history, the commissioner of the
National Football League (NFL) banned the use of a "radio helmet" which enabled coaches on the
sidelines to communicate with quarterbacks on the field. De Benneville (Bert) Bell, the feisty NLF
commissioner who protected ticket sales by blacking-out television coverage of
games within 75 miles of a home team's stadium, outlawed the device on October
18, 1956. A firm believer in a level playing field, Bell rejected the radio helmet after learning
that most of the NFL's teams were unable to develop a radio communications
system that rivaled that of the Cleveland Browns.
In the spring of 1956, two Ohio inventors met with head coach Paul
Brown of the Cleveland Browns about a small radio receiver that they had
developed. John Campbell and George Sarles theorized that their device could be
mounted inside of a football helmet to enable Coach Brown to communicate directly
with his players. In this way, Quarterback George Ratterman could his receive
his plays right from the coaching staff instead of from substitute players
arriving from the sidelines. By eliminating the delays and confusion caused by
miscommunication, the Cleveland Browns would have a better chance of winning
the NFL's Eastern Conference and repeating as league champions.
Paul Brown liked the inventors' idea, but insisted that
their device be tested in secret. In a secluded area behind John Campbell's
house, George Sarles donned a football helmet with a small radio receiver and went
into the woods. Eventually, the signal weakened and communication stopped. When
Sarles failed to return, Campbell
set out in search of his fellow inventor. To his surprise, he saw Sarles
talking to a police officer who had intercepted the signal. Fortunately for
Campbell and Sarles, the officer was a Cleveland Browns' fan who agreed to keep
his discovery secret. Before releasing their invention to Paul Brown, however, Campbell
and Sarles changed the frequency on the device.
During an exhibition game against the Detroit Lions, the
Cleveland Browns ran plays like clockwork. Shortly before halftime, a
suspicious Lions' coach noticed that Paul Brown was not using player
substitutions for play calling. When a Lions' assistant spotted a radio transmitter
hidden behind a post on the Browns' sidelines, word spread like wildfire. The
rest of the league scrambled to create their own radio helmets, but none were
as effective as the Sarles-Campbell device. Although the Cleveland Browns used
the radio helmet in three more games, NLF Commissioner Bert Bell soon outlawed
all such communication systems.
On December 30, 1956, the New York Giants defeated the
Chicago Bears for the NFL Championship while Paul Brown, George Ratterman and
the Cleveland Brown stayed home. Less than 50 years later, in 1994, the
National Football League instituted the use of a radio helmet to allow for
limited communication from the sidelines to the quarterback.
Resources:
http://www.440.com/twtd/archives/oct18.html
http://archive.profootballweekly.com/content/archives/features_1999/hof1_030700.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_Bell
http://sports.jrank.org/pages/382/Bell-Bert-Impact-Television.html
http://www.profootballhof.com/history/release.jsp?release_id=2080
http://www.profootballhof.com/hof/member.jsp?player_id=23
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