Bruddah Lippy’s helmet on way home

He hadn’t seen the antique leather football helmet for 20 years, probably more, but the instant Tom Metcalf found it in his father’s belongings, he knew he had to return it to its owner: David Akana "Lippy" Espinda.

Known as the King of Pidgin and blessed with the gift of gab, Espinda was a colorful character from a bygone time — a Honolulu used-car salesman during the 1960s and ’70s, a TV celebrity with roles on the original "Hawaii Five-0" and "The Brady Bunch," and the bruddah who made "Shaka brah!" part of the local vernacular. He died in 1975.

Espinda’s car lot and gas station, which he operated on Kalakaua Avenue at the entrance to Waikiki, was replaced by Century Center, a gleaming, mirrored 40-story building that Metcalf’s father built in the mid-1970s.

Before construction started but after Espinda had cleared out his office, Norman "Red" Metcalf found the helmet on the property and kept it as a souvenir. The helmet was the ultimate football throwback, circa 1930, with a bulbous design that immediately conjured images of the sport’s earliest players. Then, as now, its condition is the same: It’s red and scuffed from impact.

The leather is thick and still pliable, the stitching intact. A section of helmet above the wearer’s forehead is shaped like wings.

The brand-name inscription is only barely legible, but there’s enough information to know it’s a Wilson Airlite, size 7 1/8.

And inside, written in black marker on two canvas straps, the word "LIP."

Tom Metcalf, who grew up in Enchanted Lake but now lives in Carson City, Nev., where he owns a construction firm, made an instant connection with the helmet.

"It just brought back a flood of good memories," he said. "I’m a visual person. If I see something the memories come back."

When he first pulled it from his father’s belongings in the late summer of 2013, his mother, JoAn, was suffering from cancer, and he had to cancel a Hawaii trip during which he planned to return the helmet. After his mother died in February, the helmet seemed to resonate with him even more.

"The light went on," Metcalf said. "I have to get this back home, and I have to get this to Lippy’s heirs. Who does this belong to? It doesn’t belong to us."

Metcalf’s father agreed. He knew Espinda, too, having met him on the set of "The Brady Bunch" when the TV show used one his construction sites for an episode.

"It meant something to me because it brought back memories," said Red Metcalf, 79, who moved to Carson City in 1993. "But it would mean a lot more to someone in Lippy’s family, a grandchild or a great-grandchild, than to me — especially here on the mainland where nobody knows Lippy but me."

This week Tom Metcalf will be in Hawaii on vacation, and he would like to return the helmet. That would be the highlight of his visit.

But Metcalf still has a key problem to deal with. He doesn’t know how to reach Espinda’s relatives, assuming any of them are still living in Hawaii.

Metcalf hopes they’ll step forward, though, so he can meet them face to face, an old leather helmet in his hand, and tell them, "This belongs to you."