US3096523A - Football glove - Google Patents

Description

July 9, 1963 e. R. BRUCHAS 3,096,523

FOOTBALL GLOVE Filed Nov. 8, 1961 INVENTOR GEORGE R. BRUCHAS Filed Nov. 8, 1961, Ser. No. 151,056

3Claims. (Cl. 2--159) This invention relates broadly to sports gloves and more particularly, to a glove useful to participants in the sport of football.

- Over the years, the game of football has evolved. from primarily a running or power play game to that of substantially a deceptive ball handling and passing game. As is well known, the game of football is very often played in foul weather. Whenfootball is played in foul weather the ball becomes damp, slippery, and even watersoaked, and despite the fact that several balls may be alternately used in the coutse of the game, they nevertheless beoorne slippery and hard to manage. The result is that the passing attack of the teams is greatly diminished and the deceptive ball handling greatly impaired because the quarterback or passer of the team cannot grip the ball in foul weather as well as in fair and, too, the receivers of the ball have greater difiiculty in catching or holding the ball in foul weather than in fair. The foregoing difiiculties are well known, not only to the players themselves, but to all football sportsmen.

Gloves have been heretofore developed for use in other sports, such as golf, archery, bowling and, of course, baseball, none of which are adapted for use in football.

I have invented a football glove which is particularly useful for all ball handlers in fair or foul weather. My glove is such that the wearer while handling a football, whether in fair or foul weather, has more certainty and sureness in his grip or control of the ball.

In my invention, I provide a football glove having a wrist strap, a palm portion and finger and thumb stalls with the back of the glove being open. The backs of the finger stalls extend only from the ends of the fingers to between the first and second joints thereof. 1 provide patches of a tenacious gripping material on the tip portions of said thumb and finger stalls. I preferably provide elastic tension bands across the back of the finger stalls between the first and second joints to secure the wearers fingers in the finger stalls. I also preferably provide an elastic strap attached at its ends to the palm portion of the glove and extending across the back of the wearers hand in a zone removed from the joints and knuckles of the wearers hand. I further preferably provide additional patches of tenacious gripping material disposed in the pad zones of the palm of the glove.

Thus, I have invented a glove which provides not only a tenacious gn'p for all ball handlers but also provides for the freedom, flexibility and maneuverability of the hand and in particular the fingers so necessary for competent manipulation of the ball.

Another advantage of my glove is that to some extent it will protect and warm the hand of the wearer which certainly in foul weather will be of benefit to the wearer in keeping his hand more manipulative than it ordinarily would be in such circumstances.

Other details, objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the following description of certain present preferred embodiments thereof proceeds.

In the accompanying drawings, I have shown certain present preferred embodiments of the invention in which FIGURE 1 is an elevational view of a preferred embodiment of the invention showing the palm side thereof as disposed on a wearers hand;

FIGURE 2 is an elevational view of a preferred em- United States Patent 0."

3,096,523 Patented July 9, 1963 ice bodiment of the invention showing the back side thereof as disposed on a wearers hand;

FIGURE 3 is an elevational view of another preferred embodiment of the invention showing the palm side thereof as disposed on a wearers hand; and

FIGURE 4 is an elevational view of another preferred embodiment of the invention showing the back side thereof as disposed on a wearers hand.

Referring to the drawings and initially to FIGURES 1 and 2, I have illustrated a football glove having a wrist strap 10, a palm portion 11, finger stalls 1-2 and thumb stall 1'3. The back portion 14 of each of'finger stalls 12 extends from the end of each of finger stalls 12 to a zone between the first and second joints of the wearers fingers, as shown in FIGURE 2.

As shown in FIGURE 1, I provide patches 15 on the tip portions of linger stalls 1'2 and thumb stall 1'3. Patches 15 are composed of a tenacious gripping material Whose gripping quality is substantially unaffected by moisture. I'have found that patches *15 made of neoprene are very suitable for this purpose and provide an admirable qua'li-ty of tenaciousness when in contact with the leather of a football whether the football is wet or dry to thus furnish the wearer of my glove a soreness and certainty in gripping or catching or otherwise handling a football that at least in foul weather would be lacking.

If the glove is properly fitted and the wrist band snugly secured, as for instance, by snaps 16, it will remain close or olea ve to the wearers hand. However, in' another preferred embodiment, I provide an elastic strap 17, the ends of which are attached to the palm of the glove, as at references 18, and which extends across the back of the wearers hand in a zone removed from the joints and knuckles of the wearers hand, as shown in FIGURE 4. This assures that the glove will firmly and snugly stay in place on the wearers hand. To further assure that the glove will remain properly in place on the wearers hand, I also provide elastic tension means such as bands 19 in the back portions of the linger stalls which substantially eliminates any possibility of the glove failing to properly stay in position on the wearers hand.

The like parts of the embodiment illustrated in FIG- URES 3 and 4 to those in the embodiment illustrated in FIGURES l and 2 carry corresponding reference numbers with a prime.

Referring to FIGURE 3, I further preferably provide on the palm portion of the glove additional patches 20 and 21 of a tenaciously gripping material such as neoprene. These additional palm patches are preferably disposed in the pad zones of the palm portion; the pad zones of the palm portion being that part of palm portion which lies over the heel, ball, outside edge and callous portions of the wearers palm which are commonly referred to as the pad zones of the palm of the hand.

It is obvious that patches may be disposed in various combinations in the palm portion Without departing from the scope and spirit of this disclosure but I have found that the most useful zones in which to position patches are those which lie over the pad portions of the palm of the wearers hand. It is also obvious that there are other materials that would sufiice for the above patches such as, for example, emery cloth, however, I have found neoprene to be a very suitable material for this purpose.

It should be noted also that wrist strap 10 is disposed just short of the wearers wrist and thus does not interfere with wrist movement but rather allows the wearer complete freedom of wrist movement.

The glove, of course, should be made of a good grade of leather not adversely affected by moisture. I have found a leather known in the trade as chrome leather to be very suitable for this purpose.

Thus, I have described and illustrated a football glove that provides the wearer not only a tenacious grip on the ball to better enable him to handle, catch or otherwise control a football but also, by virtue of its open back and non-interference with the wrist and the knuckles and the joints of the fingers of the hand, provides for the freedom, flexibility and manueverability of the wearers hand and particularly the wearers fingers so necessary for competent and confident manipulation of the ball by the wearer.

While I have shown and described certain present preferred embodiments of the invention, it is to be distinctly understood that the invention is not limited thereto but may be variously embodied within the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. A football glove comprising a wriststrap, a palm portion, individual finger and thumb stalls, the backs of said finger stalls extending from the tips thereof to a zone between the first and second joints of the wearers fingers and each having an elastic portion in said zone adapted to grip and retain said fingers in said stalls, the remaining part of the back of the glove being open, said glove having patches of tactile gripping material secured at the balls of the thumb and finger stalls, said glove otherwise being of a less tactile gripping material than said patches.

2. A football glove comprising a wristrap, a palm portion, individual finger and thumb stalls, the backs of said finger stalls extending from the tips thereof to a zone between the first and second joints of the wearers fingers and each having an elastic portion in said zone adapted to grip and retain said fingers in said stalls, said glove having elastic strap means extending across the back of the wearers hand in a zone removed from the knuckles thereof and further having patches of tactile gripping material secured at the balls of the thumb and finger stalls and the pad portions of the palm, said glove otherwise being of a less tactile gripping material.

3. A football glove comprising a wriststrap, a palm portion, individual finger and thumb stalls, the backs of said finger stalls extending from the tips thereof to a zone between the first and second joints of the wearers fingers and each having an elastic portion in said zone adapted to grip and retain said fingers in said stalls, said glove having elastic strap means extending across the back of the wearers hand in a zone removed from the knuckles thereof, said glove being generally of leather material with patches of neoprene material secured at the balls of the thumb and finger stalls and the pad portions of the palm.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,327,625 Dickson Aug. 24, 1943 2,459,985 Woodbury Jan. 25, 1949 2,465,136 Troccoli Mar. 22, 1949 2,702,906 Causse Mar. 1, 1955 2,907,046 Scherr Oct. 6, 1959 2,907,047 Steinberg Oct. 6, 1959 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,819 Great Britain of 1873

Claims (1)

1. A FOOTBALL GLOVE COMPRISING A WRISTRAP, A PALM PORTION, INDIVIDUAL FINGER AND THUMB STALLS, THE BACKS OF SAID FINGER STALLS EXTENDING FROM THE TIPS THEREOF TO A ZONE BETWEEN THE FIRST AND SECOND JOINTS OF THE WEARER''S FINGERS AND EACH HAVING AN ELASTIC PORTION IN SAID ZONE ADAPTED TO GRIP AND RETAIN SAID FINGERS IN SAID STALLS, THE REMAINING PART OF THE BACK OF THE GLOVE BEING OPEN, SAID GLOVE HAVING PATCHES OF TACTILE GRIPPING MATERIAL SECURED AT THE BALLS OF THE THUMB AND FINGER STALLS, SAID GLOVE

Images