Have you ever seen another one?  Bill Kelley very rare Oakland Raiders 100MH Clear Shell Helmet. Kelley took over the popular MacGregor helmet line, with his helmets virtually identical to the clear shell MacGregor 100MH model helmets.  We have been doing this a long time - over 30 years, and we have only seen one other Raiders Kelley clear shell helmet from this era.  If you collect helmets, you know how rare Raiders helmets are in the collectible market.  They bring top dollar, are highly sought after, and when purchased by a collector - they never resurface. This helmet is in pristine, museum quality condition from the mint condition interior, to the mask, the slight wear on the exterior, the iconic logos, and the included rare Kelley chinstrap.  

Clear shell football helmets have been around for more than 80 years.  It seems that every major football helmet manufacturer has produced clear shell helmets at one time or another.  Today, they are rare, highly collectible and bring top dollar with serious collectors. The clear shell helmet has the logos, size/brand labels, striping, and paint - under the shell - unlike conventional helmets with the exterior painted and decals/striping applied over the exterior paint.  The idea was that the paint and any logos and/or striping would be protected by the shell, keeping the helmet paint and logos in undamaged conditon from game wear.  

The period of these helmets that is most desired by collectors is the mid 1960's through the mid 1980's, due to the logos used and "displayed" under the helmet shells. NFL teams and college teams alike used the 100MH model helmets, with superstars of both preferring to wear them due to the fully padded interiors.  These helmets were, and are today, a bit brittle and prone to cracking - especially at the facemask mounts, and at the rivets where the suspension padding was installed.  This helmet is an exception.  The helmet has no cracking at any of the facemask mounts with minor spider cracking at the suspension rivets.  Yes as far as cracking, this helmet is a rarity - it is near perfect. 

The other issue with the 100MH models was the paint.  Some of the helmets had some paint issues with the paint not properly adhering to the shell, which is a bit more prominent with white, silver and gold colored helmets.  Additionally, as the paint was sprayed on the inside of the helmet, some helmets exhibit light paint coatings and inconsistent paint thicknesses.  Internal paint wear or scratches resulted in a clear spot on the helmet rather than a molded base color or primer spot on the exterior.  Lastly, since the outside of the helmet is clear, it had tendency to yellow over time or with exposure to light - resulting in a different shade of color than a teammate's conventionally painted helmet. This helmet has no paint issues at all, a bit uncommon given it's silver color. Additionally, there are no scratches, no light spots, no fading - again, just perfect.  

This beautiful helmet is complete including the chinstrap.  The helmet itself is all original and unaltered in any manner.  The padding is original, complete including the jaw pads, and in perfect/mint condition with no visible wear or issues.  The logos are perfect and colorful, properly positioned with no issues.  The helmet is a very nice highly desired size large - 7 3/8.  The facemask is an original Schutt double wire OPO - made popular with the Raiders by Marcus Allen in a standard red Dot size, in NOS condition with very light wear.  Finally, there are two factory labels, one on each side of the helmet interior with the 1980 factory date code stamp. 

A great, beautiful Kelley clear shell - perfect paint, logos, mask, chinstrap, and padding, no cracking, and in a size LARGE, just as nice as it left the factory 45 years ago.  Bill would be proud. Don't wait on this one.