Back of pin with manufacturer and 1894 patent date
1903 Princeton football team with Captain John DeWitt holding the football (middle seated row). DeWitt was a two time All-American and won the silver medal in the hammer throw at the 1904 summer games in St. Louis. Princeton finished the season with an 11-0 record and were the consensus National Champions (Helms, Parke Davis). Pinback, labelled on reverse Whitehead & Hoag, measures 2 1/8" in diameter, total length with ribbon 8 3/8".
Besides the Harvard - Yale game of 1894, written and spoken of due to its violent play and the cessation of games between the two schools for the next two years, the Princeton - Yale game of 1899 is probably the most written about and celebrated contest of the nineteenth century. The Princeton – Yale games were the biggest of the period, in both attendance and importance.
In this hard fought game, all but three players for Princeton that started the game had been replaced. Remember, once you left the game you were not allowed back in. Edward S. Burke entered the game substituting as Quarterback, for Hutchinson, in the second half.
Burke’s charm from the 1899 match is a rare survivor. These charms and the other spoils and awards that were given to the players included silver match safes and gold cufflinks, and are extremely hard to come by.
Interestingly, Burke and Yale’s Captain Malcolm McBride, now on opposite sides of the field had once played on the same team. They both played at the University School in Cleveland, before attending Princeton and Yale, Burke as halfback, McBride as fullback.
Burke was also a member of the University baseball Nine.
The 1899 battle was the second year in a row that Princeton beat Yale, something that added greatly to the significance of the game. It was also the second year in a row that Arthur Poe won the game for Princeton. Arthur’s fame and notoriety was unrivaled. Today some tend to think of his brother, Edgar Allen Poe as the player of superior athletic ability, however, during the period in which this game took place and for five or six decades after, it was Arthur who was acknowledged as the superior athlete (not just in football) and better known player. I plan to do an entire blog entry in the future on this game, and Arthur Poe in particular.
