US3037209A - Football glove - Google Patents

Description

June 5, 1962 l.. T. APPLEGATE, JR., ETAL 3,037,209

FOOTBALL GLOVE Filed Nov.-18, 1960 AT TKA/Ey 3,037,20?) Patented `lune 5, 1962 3,037,209 FOOTBALL GLVE Lesliel T. Applegate, Jr., and Hector E. Lewis, Cincinnati, Ohio, assignors to Surgical Appliance Industries, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Filed Nov. 18, 1960, Ser. No. 70,223 2 Claims. (Cl. 2--20) The present invention relates to athletic protective equipment and is particularly directed to a football glove effective to protect the back of a players hand from cuts, lacerations, bruises and the like.

In the past it has been the practice to protect the hands of many football players, particularly linesmen, by taping the hands with conventional adhesive tape, the tape running across the back of the hand and across the palm. While this taping does offer some protection against cleat injuries and the like, it is less than totally satisfactory for several reasons.

Principal among these reasons is that the tape tends to unduly restrict movement of the hand and tends to bunch along the palm. Thus, the tape makes it exceedingly diflicult for a player -to properly handle a football; i.e., it makes `it diliicult to catch a ball or to pass it. Moreover, properly applying tape to a players hands requires an appreciable amount of time of a skilled trainer. Many small colleges, secondary schools, and the like, do not have a suliicient amount of trainer personnel to tape every player on the squad. Consequently, many players are forced to play without any protective hand covering whatsoever.

It has also been proposed in the past to provide heavy pad-like gloves to protect the back of a players hand. These gloves have usually been formed of leather and are subject to most of the disadvantages of taping. Specilically, these heavy leather gloves have restricted movement of the hand and because the gloves have a leather palm piece extending arcoss all or a substantial portion of a players hand, these gloves also make handling of a football exceedingly difficult. Another disadvantage of heavy leather-type gloves is that the gloves cause localized pressure on various areas of the rear surface of the hand which may be exceedingly uncomfortable to the wearer if these areas yof high pressure happen to coincide with a previously injured area.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide a novel type of protect-ive glove which is effective to provide a maximum amount of protection to a players hand while at the same time providing maximum freedom of movement for his hand. Or viewed differently, the principal object of the present invention is to provide a glove which aliords complete protective covering for the back of a pl-ayers hand, while at the same time leaving a maximum portion of his palm :and lingers exposed so that a player in effect is able to handle a football as though he had no glove on at all.

More particularly, the present invention contemplates a glove formed of an elastic knitted fabric such as that now currently used in knee braces and the like. The glove is shaped so that it extends completely across the rear surface of a players hand and includes a wrist band which encircles the players wrist to secure the lower portion of the glove in place. The present glove also includes two narrow liaps which are overfolded and stitched to the rear piece to form two spaced linger stalls for receiving a players little linger and index linger. A large arcuate opening is formed in the palm portion of the glove so that no portion of the glove extends across the players palm or across his thumb, middle linger or third linger. Thus, while the entire back portion of the players hand is covered, his entire palm is free to grip the ball and all of his finger areas are free except for two very narrow bands across lthe base of his index linger and little finger.

The present glove further includes a pocket which is formed on the rear surface of the glove and receives a flexible protective pad, such as a sponge rubber pad or a slow rebound cellular pad coated with a vinyl or other water impervious coating. This pad is substantially coextensive of the entire rear surface of the players hand and is extremely effective to protect his skin, tendons, bones and knuckles from injury. Nevertheless, because the pad is liexible and is pulled evenly against the rear surface of the players hand by the stretchable glove member, there are no areas of pressure to irritate -a players hand. When the glove is in position, the outward edge of the pad is preferably disposed just outwardly of the finger knuckles so that the knuckles are fully protected without greatly affecting the mobility of the lingers. This relationship is shown generally in FIGURE 1.

One of the principal advantages of the present glove is that while it provides maximum protection for a players hand, the glove also provides maximum freedom of movement and a maximum of free palm and linger area to grip a ball.

Another advantage of the present glove is that it is extremely lightweight and lits very snugly so that a player is practically unaware that he is wearing a glove.

A still further advantage of the present glove is that it can readily be washed and reused. Moreover, the glove is quite inexpensive to produce so that should a glove become worn after a period of use it can 'be replaced at a very low cost. This replacement is further facilitated by the fact that a glove can be worn equally well on either hand, i.e., there are no rights and leftsf Consequently, the present gloves are very practical for use not only by professionals and large schools, but also by small schools operating on a limited budget.

These and other objects and advantages of the present invent-ion will be more readily apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description of the drawings illustrating a preferred embodiment of the invention.

In the drawings:

FGURE l is an elevational view of a palm of a wearers hand showing the manner in which the present glove is worn.

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view of a glove constructed in accordance with the present invention.

FIGURE 3 is an elevational view Showing the back portion of the glove.

FIGURE 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 4 4 of FIGURE 3.

As is best shown in FIGURES l and 2, a preferred form of glove ill fabricated in accordance with the principles of the present invention is shaped to cover the back of a players hand to protect his hand against cuts, lacerations and bruises. The glove body lll is preferably formed of heavy knitted elastic two-way stretch fabric, although it is contemplated that the glove can be formed of one-way stretch fabric, the fabric being oriented so that the elastic threads extend transversely, i.e., across the back of a players hand from thumb to little finger.

The body of the glove is of one-piece construction and includes a back face portion 12 and a wrist encircling, or band, portion 13. Two linger stalls 14 and l5 are formed adjacent to the edge of the glove remote from the wrist band portion i3. Each of these linger stalls is formed by stitching a narrow, overturned llap lli-i7 to the rear face 12 as at lS-l.

The side edges of the rear face are congurated so that they form a large arcuate opening 20 on the palm face of the glove. As is shown in FIGURE 1, the side opening of this glove is such that when the glove is in position on a wearers hand, substantially the entire palm B of the wearer is exposed. It is to be understood that the periphery of this opening as Well as the other exposed edges of the glove are provided with a suitable binding 21 which is applied to the glove in a conventional manner.

In addition to the elements described above, the glove is further provided with a pocket 22 disposed beneath the rear surface of the glove and substantially coextensive therewith. The pocket is formed by stitching a generally rectangular piece of elastic fabric 23 about its periphery to the inner surface of the rear portion ft2 of the glove. This pocket forming piece 23 is formed of an elastic Inaterial which may be of the same weight as is used in the glove or alternatively may `be of a lighter weight. The elastic pocket forming piece 23 is stitched along its side edges 24 and 25 and along its upper edge 26. Additionally, the endwise portions 27 and 23 of the bottom edge pocket forming piece 23 are stitched to the rear face of the glove. However, a center portion 39 along the bottom edge of the pocket forming piece is not stitched to the glove body to form an opening to pocket 22, which opening is narrower than the width of the pocket.

Pocket 22 receives `a resilient pad 31 formed of sponge rubber or the like. One particular form of pad is a vinyl coated slow rebound cellular pad fabricated from polyvinyl chloride sponge having a closed or unicellular structure. Pad 31 substantially fills pocket 22 and is thus substantially coextensive with the rear surface of glove 1t). Pad 3l is inselted in the pocket by stretching opening 3@ and is thereafter held in place by stitched portions 27 and 7.8.

As is apparent from FIGURES 3 and 4, in the preferred embodiment, glove is symmetrical about its vertical center line. Consequently, the glove is equally adapted to be Worn on either the right or left hand. Consequently, a team using the gloves of the present invention merely stocks a number of gloves and pads without concern for rights and lefts Before being put into use, a rubber pad is inserted in the pocket 22 in each glove. A player dons a glove by inserting his hand through wrist strap opening 13. Since this wrist strap is stretchable no difficulty is encountered in pulling the strap down over a players hand. The player then inserts his index finger through one of the finger stalls (stall le in FIGURE l), and his little finger in the opposite stall (stall l5' in FIGURE 1). When the glove is in place as shown in FIGURE 1, the opening Z3 of the glove is of substantially the same size as a players palm. Thus, the player wearing a glove has his whole palm plus his thumb, middle finger and his third finger completely exposed. Also, most of his little finger and index finger are exposed. With so much of his hand exposed and with no restraint on bending his hand or lingers, a player can grip a football as in passing, catching, punting, centering, or the like, with maximum freeness and sureness. Nevertheless, all of the back of a players hand is well protected against injury by pad 22.

From the foregoing disclosure of the principles of the present invention and the `above description of a preferred embodiment, those skilled in the art will readily comprehend various modifications to which the invention is susceptible. Therefore, we desire to be limited only by the scope of the following claims.

Having described our invention, we claim:

1. A protective glove comprising a rear portion shaped to extend completely across the back of a wearers hand and having spaced end portions, a wrist strap joined to said rear portion at one end thereof and forming a loop adapted to embrace a wearers wrist, narrow overturned flap portions disposed adjacent to the other end of said rear portion, means securing said flap portions to said rear portion whereby said flap portions define two spaced linger stalls, said rear portion having edgewise portions dening a cut out of substantially the same size as a wearers palm, said glove being substantially symmetrical about a vertical center line whereby said glove may be worn on either hand and means defining a pocket on the rear portion of said glove.

2. A protective glove formed from stretchable material comprising a rear portion shaped to extend unbrokenly over the entire back of the wearers hand from the wrist to the area outwardly of the knuckles and a wrist strap joined to said rear portion adjacent the inner end thereof and forming a loop adapted to embrace the wearers wrist, narrow overturned flap portions disposed adjacent to the edges of said rear portion adjacent the outer end thereof, means securing said flap portions to said rear portion to define two spaced finger stalls, said glove being generally symmetrical about a vertical line whereby said glove may be worn on either hand, means defining a pocket on said rear portion and a resilient pad disposed within said pocket, said pad and pocket being substantially coextensive in area with the rear portion with the outward edge of the pad disposed outwardly of the knuckles.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

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