We Uncover the Rams' 1948 Horns and Why Few Noticed

Sports History Network · Oct 13, 2026 · 15m · transcript

Timoth Brown if Football Archaeology joins me to state plainly that helmet logos were not immediate: the Los Angeles Rams painted horns on their helmets in 1948 and the change went largely unnoticed until decades later. Tim explains why early teams often put markings on the back or top of helmets and why the side logo only became standard later. We trace scattered experiments in the 1920s and 1930s, the Rams’ 1948 horns, and the slow adoption by NFL teams through the 1950s and early 1960s. We conclude that television visibility, the need for clear team identification on small black-and-white…