It was a hot
and very humid day at Brimfield today (Sept 4), but it was worth the hours
spent and the miles walked in the heat to come away with the match safe
pictured above.
This is a Tiffany silver match safe commemorating the year’s record for the 1891 Yale football
team (Yale 492, Opponents 0), and the games and scores against Harvard (Yale
10, Harvard 0) and Princeton (Yale 19, Princeton 0). We knew of two examples of this marvelous
match safe previously, one coming out of Leland’s in 2002 (having belonged to Frederick William Wallace) and the other snuck
through virtually unnoticed at Julia’s in 2014 (having belonged to William Herbert Corbin and now in the possession of Tiffany's private collection).
All three of
the match safes being handmade show artist variations in the work, and of
course differ in their monograms.
This particular
match safe belonged to William Burnet Wright, Jr., class of ’92. Wright earned his football letter and was the
president of the Yale Football Association in 1891. He was also the Captain of
the Yale Athletic Association team 1890 - 1891, the half-mile run being his
specialty.
These match safes were presented to team members and coaches on February 26, 1892 at a dinner at Madison Square Garden, attended by 400 individuals, held to honor Walter Camp for his service to Yale's football team and to the University. It was at this banquet that Camp was also presented with the famous Tiffany silver loving cup with three players supporting a football on their backs (McClung, Hefflefinger and Bayne posed for artists at Tiffany, and their likenesses are represented on the cup).
Note (added May 01, 2022): In December of 1890, an
exhibition game was played between the Yale ’91 and Alonzo Stagg’s Springfield
Christian Workers as part of a larger organized sporting event. This took place indoors at Madison Square Garden and was considered to be the first indoor football
game. William Wright played RE in this historic match. The Yale roster for the game was Hartwell,
Funk, Hefflefinger, Lewis, Adams, Ely, Wright, Twombly, Williams, McClintock
and B. Morison. Springfield’s roster included James Naismith (inventor of
basketball) playing center and Stagg playing FB as well as coaching. Referee
for the game was Alexander Moffat (Princeton). Yale won over Springfield 16 to
10.
