Herbert Gustave "Dick" Plasman (April 6, 1914 – June 20, 1981) was an American professional football player who played running back for eight seasons for the Chicago Bears and Chicago Cardinals.
He is notably the last player in the National Football League (NFL) to play a game without a helmet.
[2] On November 6, 1938, he crashed into Wrigley Field's brick wall during a home game against the Green Bay Packers, suffering a severe scalp laceration, three fractured ribs, a broken wrist, and a fractured arm.
However, he recovered and continued to not wear a helmet—as he did in the 1940 NFL Championship game on December 8, 1940, and Chicago's 1941 NFL Championship game victory on December 21, 1941, two weeks after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
[4] This biographical article relating to an American football running back born in the 1910s is a stub.