The painted goalie mask was invented in Philly. This diehard Flyers fan keeps tradition alive.

Doug Favell laid for an hour and breathed through a straw while his goalie mask was molded to his face. It was made for him by a man who lived near Boston and fit perfectly when Favell stood in net for the Flyers in the team’s early days.

But Favell’s mask looked just like the ones worn back then by every other NHL goalie: white with holes for the eyes and nose. No color. No flash. No individuality.

“It was the morning of practice and we were playing that night,” Favell said. “The next night was Halloween and Halloween was on everybody’s mind.”

So Favell asked Flyers trainer Frank Lewis — “A jack of all trades,” the goalie said — if he could paint his mask orange for the holiday in October of 1970. Lewis said sure.

“He went home, got some orange paint, and painted it orange,” Favell said. “That was the first painted mask.”

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NHL goalies have been defined by their masks for decades as the designs continue to become more intricate each year. But Favell — who played for the Flyers from their first season in 1967 until 1973 — is credited with being the first to have a painted mask.

Boston’s Gerry Cheevers, one of Favell’s friends, decorated his mask with “stitches” in the late 1960s each time a puck hit his mask. But Favell says he was the first to truly paint his. A tradition was born in South Philly.

“It just caught on,” Favell said. “Guys started saying ‘I want to paint my mask.’ It was that simple. There wasn’t any genius behind it.”

The masks are no longer painted by trainers as goalies now pay artists to bring their masks to life. Franny Drummond, who grew up a Flyers fan and played goalie at Neshaminy High before going to art school, provides the art for several NHL goalies, including the Flyers’ Dan Vladař.

A mask takes about two weeks for Drummond, who works in a studio behind his house in Langhorne. He takes a plain white helmet, sands it down, adds coats of primers and sealers, and airbrushes designs fit for a canvas.

What took Lewis just a few hours is now a full-time gig.

“I live through my clients,” Drummond said. “I live through all of them. Watching Dan succeed and I’m like ‘Wow, this is awesome.’ Plus, it’s the Flyers. It’s the best.”

Drummond had a choice to make after high school: play Division III hockey in Maine or go to art school in Miami.

“It was a choice but it’s freezing in Maine,” Drummond said. “So it was pretty easy.”

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He learned the fundamentals while studying commercial art at the International Fine Arts College, then tried to make a living painting surfboards.

“But surfers don’t have money,” Drummond said. “So I moved back up here.”

Drummond, 52, connected in 2009 with former Flyers enforcer Riley Cote, who told him he should paint for goalies. Drummond painted a mask for Ray Emery and rushed to make one for Michael Leighton when the goalie came from out of nowhere to help the Flyers reach the 2010 Stanley Cup Final. Drummond and his Paint Zoo Studios — “I paint and my life is a zoo,” he said — was off and running.

“If you can truly get their personality on a hockey mask, then you did your job,” Drummond said.

His work with the Flyers led him to other goalies. Drummond painted three masks earlier this year for the Winter Olympics while also painting for minor leaguers, college goalies, and even youth players.

The Flyers asked him earlier this season if he could make them a Bernie Parent replica mask for the players to wear after wins as a tribute to the legendary goalie who died in September. Drummond found someone in Canada to make it quick, painted a Flyers logo on it in his studio, and scuffed the old-school mask with pucks to make it look like it was worn by Parent.

Drummond paints motorcycles, airbrushed late radio personality Pierre Robert’s van, and is the artist behind every helmet Navy football wears in the Army-Navy Game. He’s now more than just surfboards.

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“My job as a painter or as an artist is to create something that he gets excited about every time he gets on the ice,” Drummond said. “Now with goaltenders, it’s way above painting. They’re art pieces.”

Drummond was introduced to Vladař last summer after the goalie signed with the Flyers. Vladař needed a new mask and knew little about Philly. Some goalies tell Drummond what they want. Steve Mason asked for a zombie-themed mask and Ilya Bryzgalov wanted Star Wars. But Vladař let Drummond lead the way.

“How many times can you do Rocky?” Drummond said. “So we introduced him to the city.”

He showed him some Philly landmarks like Independence Hall, the Art Museum, and the Liberty Bell. The goalie was in.

Vladař saw a mask Drummond made for Flyers minor-leaguer Carson Bjarnason and asked him to use a similar stitch-like pattern. In a few weeks, it was done.

Vladař asked Drummond during the season to make a Metallica and Iron Maiden-themed mask. The artist obliged. But Vladař was rolling so he never wore it in a game. Drummond is a former goalie. He understands.

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And now Vladař is wearing his mask in the playoffs.

“Every time he gets hit in the face or flings the mask off this year, I’m freaking out,” Drummond said. “I feel like texting Vladař like ‘Dude, keep the mask on.’ But it’s an honor. I was a kid watching the Flyers and my favorite player was Bobby Clarke. I think everyone wanted to knock their teeth out just to be like the guy. Now this is such a special moment not just for Dan but for that whole entire squad.”

What would a goalie mask look like today if Favell never asked for his to be painted?

“A white mask?” Drummond said.

Favell never intended to start something when he debuted his painted mask but the Flyers won that night so he had to keep the orange around.

“I think if we lost, I would’ve painted over it,” Favell said. “But we’re all superstitious.”

Painted masks soon caught on as goalies around the league used their equipment as a way to stand out. Favell wore his orange mask until Buffalo eliminated the Flyers from playoff contention by scoring on Favell with four seconds left in the final game of the 1971-72 season. Orange was out, Favell said.

“I said to Frank, ‘What do you think?’ He goes ‘Leave it with me,’” Favell said.

Favell played the next season with the same mask but it was painted white and orange in a design he calls the “Sunburst.” The trainer showed off his artistic flair. The goalie’s face was covered on the ice but he still had an expression.

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“You’re drawn to a hockey mask because it represents that goalie’s personality,” Drummond said. “Like if you know goalie masks, you know Eddie Belfour as ‘The Eagle.’ If he didn’t have an eagle, what would he be? That’s his personality. ‘The Eagle.’ You know him.”

Favell’s mask was more than just a way to stand out, as he thought it gave him an edge. An eye doctor told him that a skater would be drawn to the brightest thing he saw. So the mask, Favell figured, provided a distraction and became his edge.

The Flyers traded Favell at the end of the 1973 season to Toronto as part of the deal that brought Parent back to Philly. A year later, the Flyers won the Cup. First, the guy who helped goalies come to life needed a new paint scheme.

“I had to pick up my equipment and Frank said, ‘I have something for you,’” Favell said. “He put the mask in my bag and painted the Maple Leaf on there. He had the white mask with the blue leaf. That was the same mask as the orange one.”