St. Nicholas Hockey Club Jersey c.1916 / Hobey Baker / Theodore Conklin

As football enthusiasts we are all aware of the aura around and exploits of Hobey Baker.  Jacob and I have several really unusual football related photographs that include Baker that we plan to include as part of this post, but for now, since I have on occasion exposed my hockey alter ego, I once again diverge slightly. 

The pictured hockey jersey is a game worn St. Nicholas Hockey Club jersey dating from the very few years that Hobey Baker played on that team. It is the only such jersey that we know of from this club and era that has come to light. The Alex Taylor label puts this jersey at no earlier than 1914, the company moving to the 26 E. 42^nd St. address during that year. The label address and the distinctive style and variations with the stripe and St. Nicholas lettering put this jersey squarely in the timeframe of Hobey Baker, specifically the 1915-1916 or 1916-1917 time period, but probably not the 1914-1915 season. The back of the St. Nicks jersey has a sewn on number "2" that we originally thought may have been added later, but it may in fact be period, as we see in an International News Photo (copy of photo and close-up pictured) dating from the 1915/1916 time period a posed Hobey Baker in a St. Nicks jersey with a number on the back of his jersey. This photo was taken at a time in hockey when numbers were just beginning to be worn on the back of their jerseys and would have been added after the jersey was manufactured (a few years after numbered armbands and numbers on the fronts of jerseys were utilized).

In fact in 1915 wearing a number was becoming more frequent and was required in championship games under the Championship Rules of the American Amateur hockey League. The players of each club shall be numbered, shall wear their numbers on the back of the jersey or sweater and as far as possible, shall retain the same numbers throughout a championship series.

This jersey has made it through a century and was of significance to someone who took great care to pass it down. Won't it be fascinating to determine who wore this jersey. After all, it was on the ice at the same time as Hobey Baker...

Jacob and I have acquired the matching St. Nicholas hockey pants/leggings that were split off as a separate lot from the jersey at the auction we had bought the jersey at. We did not know of their existence at the time due to the item description. It is fortunate from a research perspective that they have the original name tag of the owner sewn into them: Theodore B. Conklin Jr., who was a teammate of Baker’s on the St. Nicholas team. Rosters in 1916 and early 1917 have Conklin as Point (for example see NYT, February 18, 1917 article titled "St. Nicholas Stars Lose: Hobey Baker Unable to Stave Off 2 to 1 Defeat by Boston H.C." (one month before Baker’s last game for St. Nicholas)). This information was added to the blog on  02OCT17.

Baker, after graduating from Princeton (where he was known for excelling in both football and hockey) started playing for the St. Nicholas Hockey Club in 1914 and played for them during the 1914-1915 and 1915-1916 seasons. In 1916 Baker took up residence in Philadelphia and from November 1916 into 1917 Baker represented St. Nicks in their exhibition play. His last game representing St. Nicholas was in March of 1917, the St. Nicks vs. the Aura Lee team of Toronto (Ontario Hockey Association).

The final hockey game he played in was on March 24, 1917 when he played in an amateur All Star exhibition game which basically pitted Pittsburg against Philadelphia, played at the Winter Garden. Philadelphia won.

WWl came and went and Hobey Baker had played in his last hockey game.

                                        Close up photo of the jersey – note: photo is printed in reverse

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