1892 St. John's Military Academy Football Team / Bill Edwards

William “Big Bill” Edwards is best known for authoring one of the best known books on 19^th century football, Football Days, published in 1916. Edwards played on two National Championship teams while at Princeton in 1898 and 1899, captaining the later.

A little known fact was that Edwards’s first experience playing football was at St. John’s Military Academy in 1892. Much better known are his playing days at Lawrenceville and then for Princeton. The pictured photo is the first team that Edwards played on (he is at the far right). He wrote about this time that “I was only seventeen years of age and weighed 217 pounds”, large even for college players at this time.

This is the largest football albumin photograph we have come across, by far. We had it framed to protect it, which matted out several inches to the dimensions, and yet the sight still measures  21 1/2“x 16“. A significant photograph of a significant football figure.

Dr. Robert M. Lurie, February 24, 1931 – February 10, 2019

To the man who took me to my first professional football game, to see the Patriots at Harvard Stadium -  to my first and last professional hockey games at the old Boston Garden, when Orr, Sanderson and Cheevers were all playing -  and took me to watch the Celtics run the floor, with Bill Russel, Sam Jones, and company -   thank you for that and for a lifetime of great memories.  Dad, we will all miss you.

1892 Yale Football Team Photo Mitchell C. Lilley Jr.

This 1892 team photo is from an extensive collection of football, Yale, Lawrenceville and family photographs and documents all originating from Mitchell C. Lilley, Jr.  Lilley is pictured in this photo, his name being misspelled as Lilly on the mat (see photo below). Additionally, among those listed that appear on the Mayo Cut Plug football card set of 1894 are Beard, Hinkey, McCrea, Buttersworth, Armstrong, Stillman, Adee and Greenway. A pretty rare photo that we were lucky to come across.

                                                         Period cabinet photo of Lilley.

                                                                     M.C. in uniform.

We always loved these muscular football back poses. They are very hard to come by. M.C. Lilley posing.

Mitchell with his brother Alexander S. Lilley. Alexander played quarterback and end for the Princeton Tigers in 1889 and also served as Ohio State University's first football coach.

Boating photos with Francis Edward Barbour (football Y in 1890 and 1891) '92S at the wheel. In top photo Heffelfinger is second to his right. Also identified on the back are Isaac Chauncey McKeever, '93 and Oliver Peter Nicola, '93.