Clarence Fred Gehrke (/ˈɡɜːrki/ GUR-kee;[1] April 24, 1918 – February 9, 2002) was an American football player and executive.

He played in the National Football League (NFL) for the Cleveland / Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers and Chicago Cardinals from 1940 through 1950.

However, he did not play in many games that season because Parker Hall, the NFL's MVP in 1939, was the Rams' starting running back and his success kept Gehrke on the bench.

When the United States entered World War II in 1941, Gehrke reported for military service.

However, he was denied entry in the armed forces when military examiners noticed an operation scar across Gehrke's knee; he was immediately designated with a 4F status.

However, Gehrke contributed to the war effort by landing a job with Northrop Aircraft, which was based in California, as a technical illustrator, and began helping with the design of airplanes.

Gehrke painted two ram horns on an old college helmet and presented the design to Reeves, who was intrigued.

The newly painted helmets debuted during a pre-season match-up between the Rams and Redskins at the Los Angeles Coliseum before a crowd of 105,000.

By 1949, the Riddell sporting goods company had created a plastic helmet, baking in Gehrke's design.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame displays one of the original helmets, painted by Gehrke, along with the story behind it each year during Super Bowl Week.

The logo innovation also earned Gehrke the Pro Football Hall of Fame's first Daniel F. Reeves Pioneer Award in 1972.

He played the entire 1947 season with the facemask, which was made by Gehrke first applying a clay mold to his face.

Once the mask dried, he had a few of the machinists who were running the power stamping machines at Northrop cover it with a sheet of aluminum.

The manufactured piece of aluminum covered the nose, forehead and rested on the cheekbones to bear the brunt of blows.

Upon his retirement from professional football, Gehrke returned to Northrup and moved into an administrative post as head of the department.

However, Gehrke and Red Miller were hired by Denver Gold of the United States Football League.