Mondo Knows Facts
NHL helmets became mandatory in 1979
Players already in the league were allowed to keep playing bareheaded The last player to go without a helmet was Craig MacTavish, who retired in 1997. Visors were grandfathered in from 2013, so players who had already begun their careers could decline them. Full face protection is mandatory only in junior and college hockey. It sits in Mondo's sports collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
Where this comes from
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
Go further
More facts like this
An ice hockey puck weighs about 170 gramsIt is a vulcanised rubber disc 76 millimetres across and 25 millimetres thickSki bindings release the boot in a fallThe setting is adjusted to the skier's weight, height and abilityNFL players had to wear helmets from 1943The rule arrived after the league had experimented with them for a decadeThe Stanley Cup is the oldest trophy in North American pro sportLord Stanley donated it in 1892 and it was first awarded in 1893Wayne Gretzky scored 2,857 points in the NHLHe is the only player to pass 2,000 career pointsAn international hockey rink is 60 by 30 metresThe NHL instead uses a narrower North American surface, 200 feet by 85 feet
🏅 Sportsfact 109 of 200
← → to keep reading, or swipe
Tags: hockey, safety, equipment
NHL helmets became mandatory in 1979: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Players already in the league were allowed to keep playing bareheaded. The figure is taken from National Hockey League, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a sports fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Sports shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.