January 7, 1930, Montreal Canadien great Howie Morenz rings a shot off Clint Benedict's nose and cheekbone, the goalie for cross-town rival Montreal Maroons. This shot would cause Benedict to don a makeshift facemask based on either a football face guard or one worn by that of sparring boxers. Benedict found that the large protective nose piece impaired his vision, so after two games, he gave it up.

Benedict' experiment was not recorded as the first goalie mask in history. That moment came nearly thirty years later on November 1, 1959 after New York Ranger Andy Bathgate hit Montreal Canadien goalie Jacques Plante with a shot off the face. Plante would leave the game to get stitched up and later return wearing a mask he had made himself for practices. Plante won the game. This was the birth of the goalie mask. Plante was ridiculed for wearing this mask. Goaltenders were considered cowards to even think of wearing one, but Plante would often say "If you jump from an airplane without a parachute, is that considered an act of bravery?" In the time between Clint Benedict's experiment and Jacques Plante first putting on his mask, Benedict would encounter a mask that actually worked, worn by an unheralded young Canadian.

When Bendict's playing career was over, he turned to coaching and managing a team from the British Ice Hockey League named the Wembley Lions around 1934. There he encountered a young goalie from Winnipeg named Roy Mosgrove. Mosgrove had to wear glasses all the time. And so, in Winnipeg and then in England, Mosgrove donned a wire cage worn by baseball catchers. And it worked again thirty years later when a young goalie named Tony Esposito in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, could not play goal without glasses and borrowed the same piece of equipment from the sandlot. It would take decades for the players and the tinkerers to see the wisdom of Roy Mosgrove, and incorporate the wire cage with the fibreglass mask of Jacques Plante.

Jacques Plante had a knack for defying the principles. When he set out in the late fifties to develop the first mask seen in the NHL since Clint Benedict's failed experiment of 1930, he set himself at odds with mangement and the culture of the game. But by then, he had absorbed enough stitches and facial fractures to justify his defiance.

At the time, a clear plastic shield-style protecter was being made by Delbert Louch if St. Mary's, Ontario. Samples were distributed throughout the NHL to the likes of Gump Worsley, Terry Sawchuk and Jacques Plante and used in practice. Complaints ranged from fogging to light reflection. Steps were taken to correct the problems but the shield never caught on. For his first experimental mask, Plante took the Louch shield and cut out the eye area to eliminate fogging,and contoured the mask to his face to eliminate reflection. This masked was used in practice but never in a game due to the lack of protection around the forehead, nose and eye area.

Plante's first fibreglass mask, the one he eventually wore after the Bathgate shot, was tougher than his modified Louch model. It was a solid piece of fibreglass with cut-outs for the nose and eyes. He later replaced it with a "pretzel" style fibreglass model, the insiration for the one worn by Ken Dryden through his collegiate days and his first years with the Montreal Canadiens in the early 1970's.

The most popular style of mask in the 1960's was the "Sawchuck" style, so called because of Terry Sawchuck, one of the first goalie to follow in Plante's footsteps and put on a mask. Sawchuck began wearing his in regular season games in 1962. Sawchuck's mask and similar ones worn by Ceasar Maniago, Roy Edwards, Gilles Meloche and many other professionals were hand crafted by Detroit Red Wings assistant trainer Lefty Wilson. Wilson produced them from five sheets of fibreglass and charged around $35 for one.

Having a custom mask made, meant a mold of your head had to be created. This was not a process that alot of goalies favored. But it had to be done. This entailed putting a womens stocking over your head, covering your face in vaseline and breathing through straws stuck up your nostrils so you wouldn't suffocate.

Custom masks were the product of plumbers, dentists and other inspired craftsmen working in garage workshops. An exception was Dave Dryden, who as a professional goaltender made his own. Around 1972, the old "Sawchuk" style was beginning to be replaced by masks that offered greater protection to the sides and top of the head. The neck was an area even the best masks left vunerable. One solution was a hinged guard that swung forward so a goalie could look down without the mask hitting his chest. This did not really catch on. Similar clear plastic neck guards are employed by some of today's goalies.

For some goalies, plain white fibreglass just wouldn't cut it. Gerry Cheevers started the trend by putting stitches on his mask where ever he was struck by a puck or stick. One Halloween night in the Philadelphia Flyers locker room, Doug Favell's teammates decided to paint his mask orange as a prank. The first artistic mask, one with a full paint job and color scheme, was probably owned by Glenn "Chico" Resch of the New York Islanders. In 1976, Resch had a new mask made by Ernie Higgins, who created Cheevers, and was the craftsman of choice in the early 1970's. The plain white mask intrigued Linda Spinella, a friend of an Islanders trainer studying art in New York, and Resch let her use his mask as a canvas. Not only did she paint the mask, but also the backplate which was attached to the straps.

About this time, a young man named Greg Harrison came on the scene. A goaltender himself, he played for the University of Toronto and at the Senior level in Barrie. He had made his first mask for himself using a fibreglass car repair kit. In the mid seventies, combining his construction skill with his artistic talent, he became the leading mask maker for the major league goaltenders, with the graphic designs becoming increasingly ornate. None more than the heraldry-inspired Cleveland Barons mask of Gilles Meloche. No mask has ever exploited the device to make a statement better than the feline nightmare created by Harrison for New York Rangers goalie Gilles Gratton. Inspiration for this design came from Gratton's astrological sign Leo. He wore it for the 1976/77 season only.

On February 10, 1977, Gerry Dejardins was struck in the eye by the edge of a puck causing severe hemorrhaging. This helped start the movement toward the "bird-cage" style already made popular by Russian goalie Vladislav Tretiak in the 1972 Canada-Russia series.

In October 1978, the Canadian Standards Association declared molded masks unsafe and began certifying only cage style masks. In 1979 Bernie Parent suffered a carreer-ending eye injury when he was caught with an errant stick. Thus causing some professional goalies to shelve their molded masks and start choosing the cage and helmet.

The Parent injury didn't incite a complete conversion to bird cages. Dave Dryden, for one, felt they protected the head more than the face. Back to the drawing board he went. He took one of his Greg Harrison masks cut out the face area, and with some wire and a soldering gun created the first prototype hybrid mask cage combination. From there it evolved into the sophisticated masks you see today. In addition to providing unprecedented protection, it has also allowed the artist to once again use the goaltenders mask as his canvas. Modern composites can cost as much as $1500.

Once, a craft undertaken by just a few men, the art has been handed down to others. Greg Harrison's masks are still considered by some to be the elite of masks. But others have followed in his footsteps with slight changes in style, Michele Leferbve, Don Malerba, Don Strauss, Gary Warwick, Ed Cubberly. Even major companies like Itech Sports have employed mask makers like Jerry Wright to make custom masks under their name.

Although some, like Harrison and Straus still do their own artwork, other designers have lent their talents to the masked men. Artwork on these masks has caught the eye of companies such as Pinnacle Brand sports cards which offer a set of goalie mask cards every year for the past four years. Tattoo Distributing who offers scaled down models of pro masks. Who knows what the future hold for goalie masks. With artwork getting more elaborate, is the next stop for goalie masks the art museum?

Source: A Breed Apart, The History of Goaltending.