On November 15, 1953, in a literally closely fought game against the San Francisco 49ers, Otto Graham runs 19 yards down the sideline and is driven out of bounds when 49er Pro Bowl middle guard Art Michalik flings his elbow and gashes open Graham's jaw which forces Graham out of the first half with 6:23 to go in the 2nd quarter. Graham gets 15 stitches in the locker room. Coach Paul Brown orders his equipment manager Leo Murphy to create what the local Cleveland sportswriter in his column on the game calls "a plastic protective apparatus" on his helmet. Graham returns to the field in the second half with the first plastic facemask in football history. Brown eventually requires all his players to wear a facemask and he patents the invention using the acronym BT-5 which stands for "bar tubular". The Riddell Helmet Company begins mass producing helmets with facemasks.