Andy Brown, the last "Maskless Man"

Andy Brown makes a nice pad save.

On November 1, 1959, Jacques Plante first wore his famous goalie mask and ushered in the era of regular use of protective facial equipment for netminders. But the transition didn't happen overnight. It would take another 15 years before all goalies saw the merits of protecting their mugs from flying pieces of hard rubber coming at them each night.

In an interesting piece of trivia, it just so happens that the final member of the old guard was a guardian of the Penguins cage - Andy Brown. Acquired from the Red Wings in February 1973, Brown would play 45 games in a Pittsburgh uniform before moving to the WHA following the 1973-74 season.

Fourteen years less a day after Plante made history, the Penguins came to Montreal and left with a 1-1 tie behind Brown's solid performance. This story from the Montreal Gazette the following day features some nice action shots of Brown stopping Hall of Famer Henri Richard on a breakaway (along with some funny verbal swipes between the two after the game). And this report from the Pittsburgh Press includes another nice shot of the Last Maskless Man in action.