US2986396A

US2986396A - Flag football device

Info

Publication number: US2986396A
Application number: US766509A
Authority: US
Inventors: William P Abbott; Hertzberg Arthur
Original assignee: W J VOIT RUBBER Co
Current assignee: W J VOIT RUBBER Co
Priority date: 1958-10-10
Filing date: 1958-10-10
Publication date: 1961-05-30
Anticipated expiration: 1978-05-30

Description

May 30, 1961 w. P. ABBOTT ET AL 2, 86,396

FLAG FOOTBALL DEVICE Filed Oct. 10, 1958 I Illlsl llll;

INVENTORQ WILL/AM R ABBOTT APT/W2 #52726526 @A ATTORNEY United States Patent FLAG FOOTBALL DEVICE William P. Abbott, Pasadena, and Arthur Hertzberg, Pacific Palisades, Calif., assignors to W. J. Voit Rubber Company, Los Angeles, Calif., a corporation of California Filed Oct. 10, 1958, Ser. No. 766,509

3 Claims. (Cl. 273-55) This invention relates to flag football devices. Flag football is a game in which players have a flag attached to the belt of one player and he is pursued by' another player or players, who try to snatch and detach the flag from the player having it and then run to the goal with such flag for making touchdown.

It is an object of this invention to provide a flag football device attachable to the waistline of a player and having one or more detachable flags, or streamers, said devices being made of a thermoplastic material, such as polyvinyl chloride, and having a suitable thermoplastic snap for attaching a flag either to a vinyl belt or a vinyl belt strip, which is attached to a conventional belt by threading the conventional belt through the strip.

Referring to the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a vinyl belt with one flag being attached to the belt;

Figs. 2 and 3 are sectional views of the snaps used with the belt of Fig. 1;

Figs. 4A and 4B show the male and female portions, respectively, of another version of a vinyl snap suitable for use with the belt illustrated in Fig. 1; and

Fig. 5 illustrates an alternative form of belt arrangement.

Referring to Fig. 1, it illustrates a belt made of a vinyl ribbon stock with a buckle 11 made of polystyrene or any other material, such as aluminum or stainless steel. The ribbon 10 is attached to the buckle by threading it through the

openings

12 and 13 in the buckle and wrapping it around the center piece 14 of the buckle. The end of the ribbon 10 is then fused to the ribbon by heating the adjoining portions of ribbon 10 with a high frequency current, while the end of the ribbon is pressed against the ribbon. This fusing is indicated by a depressed circle 15 on the belt. The belt is also provided with two vinyl snaps of the type illustrated in Figs. 2 through 4b. The plan view of the female portion of the snap is illustrated at 16 in Fig. l and a sectional view is shown at 200 in Fig. 2. The female portion of the snap includes a flange 201, an outside wall portion 202, an inside wall portion 203 provided with a ridge 204 and a beveled portion 205. The female portion 200, or the male portion 300 of the snap is connected to belt 10 by pressing flange 201 or flange 301 against the belt and then high frequency heating the joint. The adjoining surfaces become permanently fused together and one half of the snap becomes very securely attached to belt 10. In similar manner the other portion of the snap is fused to a flag 17 which is also made of a vinyl sheet stock and may have some suitable design on its surface and color for distinguishing the players or the teams participating in the play.

The male portion of the snap is shown in Fig. 3. It also includes a flange 301, a plug portion 302 with a ridge 303 and a truncated cone portion 304. The plug is held in an expanded position by a dome-shaped portion 305, which acts as a spring when the plug is inserted into the other half 200 of the snap. When this is done, the two

ridges

204 and 303 interlock and hold the snap and the 2 flag in a very good positive engagement requiring considerable force for its detachment from the belt. Any desired number of flags may be attached to the belt, the usual number being two or three flags.

The snap used for attaching the flag to the belt can take a variety of forms, and such additional version is illustrated in Figs. 4a and 4b. The plug 400 includes a flange 401, a stem 402 and a ridge 403. The complementary member 410 includes a flange 405, a cone shaped portion 406 and a neck 407 provided with an opening 408 to receive stem 402 with ridge 403 engaging a shoulder 409 provided in member 410. The two flanges are thermoplastically welded to the belt and the flag, respectively, as

503 for threading a conventional belt through the slits and thus attaching strip 501 to the belt and to the player. The advantage of this device resides in the fact that it is less expensive than the belt of Fig. l and enables one to shift the flag along the belt by sliding strip 501 along the belt.

The advantages of the disclosed flag belt devices reside in the fact that they are inexpensive to manufacture, are made of thermoplastic material which is pliable and soft to touch, thus preventing any injuries to the players; the flags and the belts take on very bright colors for identifying the players or the teams participating in the play; the vinyl plastics withstand very well exposure to various weather conditions; and the thermoplastic snaps and the belt itself, or the strip 501, are not subject to any deterioration due to rest, which would be the case if they were made of inexpensive metal; all parts keep their shape well indefinitely, and the design features of the snaps can be produced quite readily since the plastic nature of the material permits-the use of relatively large tolerances among the interlocking parts, such as

ridges

204, 303 and 403; if such parts were made of metal, these snaps would be rendered completely inoperative; the use of wide flanges distributes the stresses over a wide area and, therefore, the local unit stress is never too high to produce ruptures; the snaps function well and in positive manner, and can be engaged very readily by inexperienced hands of children.

In claiming the invention, reference will be made to a thermoplastic strip. This term will include strip 10 in Fig. 1 and strip 501 in Fig. 5.

What is claimed as new is:

l. A device for playing the game of flag football com prising an elongated belt of thermoplastic material adapted to be securely attached at the belt-line of a wearer, said belt having a plurality of fastening elements thereon spaced from one another in the direction of elongation of said belt and adapted to individually receive and to individually detachably hold a plur-ahity of elongated flexible streamer-like flags individually depending and streaming from said belt in substantially parallel relation to one another, each of said individual streamer-like flags comprising an elongated ribbon-like strip of thermoplastic material removably attached to said belt and adapted to be detached individually from said belt, during playing of said game of flag football, by forces insuflicient to detach said belt from said wearer, each of said fastening elements consisting of one-half of a snap fastener comprising separable complementary male and female fastener portions, said snap fastener male and female portions each being constructed substantially entirely of a thermoplastic material, said one-half thermoplastic fastener portions being fused in said spaced relation to an outwardly facing surface of said thermoplastic belt, the other halves of said separable thermoplastic fastener portions being respectively fused to surfaces of said thermoplastic ribbon-like strips located respectively adjacent an end of each said streamer-like flag, whereby the major portion of each said flag is adapted to depend individually downwardly and stream outwardly from said belt in free-hanging indi vidually detachable relation to said belt.

2. A device for playing the game of flag. football comprising a first elongated relatively narrow strip of thermoplastic material adapted to be securely attached at the beltline of a wearer, a second elongated relatively narrow ribbon-like strip of thermoplastic material acting as a streamer adapted to be removably attached to said first strip for detachment therefrom during the playing of said game of flag football, a snap fastener comprising separable complementary male and female fastener portions, each of said fastener portions being constructed substantially entirely of a thermoplastic material and each of said fastener portions including an outstanding flange of said thermoplastic material, one of said fastener portions havits flange fused to an outwardly facing portion of said first thermoplastic strip, positioned at the rear belt-line of said wearer, when said first strip is attached to the beltline of said wearer, the other of said fastener portions having its flange fused to a surface of said second thermoplastic strip facing inwardly when said other fastener portion is snapped into engagement with said one fastener portion to removably attach said first and second thermoplastic strips to one another, said other fastener portion being located closely adjacent one end of said second strip whereby said second strip is adapted to depend downwardly and stream outwardly from and below a limited portion of said first strip and said snap fastener in freehanging removable relation to said first strip thereby to permit said free-hanging streamer to be grasped and force ably detached from said first strip by forces insufficient to detach said first strip from sail belt-line or to rupture the fused junctions between said snap fastener portions and strips, said female snap fastener portion comprising first and second hollow thermoplastic cylinders of differing diameters disposed one within the other in spaced substantially coaxial relation, the inner one of said cylinders having an inwardly projecting ridge of plastic material, the upper ends of said cylinders being integrally joined by an inclined thermoplastic wall forming a funnel shaped entry to said inner one of said thermoplastic cylinders, the lower end of the outer one of said cylinders having an integral thermoplastic annulus outstanding therefrom to define said flange for said female snap fastener portion, said male snap fastener portion comprising a substantially cylindrical plug of thermoplastic material having its said flange integral therewith and outstanding from one end thereof, said plug being sized to fit within the inner one of said cylinders and including an outwardly projecting ridge adapted to interlock with said inwardly projecting ridge of said inner cylinder.

3. A device for playing the game of flag football comprising a first elongated relatively narrow strip of thermoplastic material adapted to be securely attached at the belt-line of a wearer, a second elongated relatively narrow ribbon like strip of thermoplastic material acting as a streamer adapted to be removably attached to said first strip for detachment therefrom during the playing of said game of flag football, a snap fastener comprising separable complementary male and female fastener portions, each of said fastener portions being constructed substantially entirely of a thermoplastic material and each of said fastener portions including an outstanding flange of said thermoplastic material, one of said fastener portions having its flange fused to an outwardly facing portion of said first thermoplastic strip, positioned at the rear beltline of said wearer, when said first strip is attached to the belt-line of said wearer, the other of said fastener portions having its flange fused to a surface of said second thermoplastic strip facing inwardly when said other fastener portion is snapped into engagement with said one fastener portion to removably attach said first and second thermoplastic strips to one another, said other fastener portion being located closely adjacent one end of said second strip whereby said second strip is adapted to depend downwardly and stream outwardly from and below a limited portion of said first strip and said snap fastener in free-hanging removable relation to said first strip thereby to permit said free-hanging streamer to be grasped and forceably detached from said first strip by forces insufficient to detach said first strip from said beltline or to rupture the fused junctions between said snap fastener portions and strips, said snap fastener being adapted to space said first and second strips from one another, said female snap fastener portion comprising a hollow truncated conical thermoplastic member having an appreciable height, the larger end of said truncated conical member being open and having said flange for said female fastener portion integral therewith and outstanding therefrom, the smaller end of said truncated conical member also being open, an elongated hollow cylinder of thermoplastic material integral with said truncated conical thermoplastic member at said smaller end thereof whereby said female snap fastener portion has a significant height corresponding to the combined lengths of said truncated conical member and elongated hollow cylinder, said male snap fastener comprising a plug of thermoplastic material adapted to be inserted into and having a length substantially equal to said elongated hollow cylinder.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS D. 155,723 Mattison Oct. 25, 1949 699,339 McDonald May 6, 1902 924,011 Sprague June 8, 1909 1,310,119 Harper July 15, 1919 2,846,224 Roselle Aug S, 1958 FOREIGN PATENTS 621,404 Great Britain Apr. 8, 1949