Harry Newman / 1932 Chicago Tribune Silver Football Trophy (Big Ten MVP)

Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago won both the Chicago Tribune Silver Football and the first ever Heisman Trophy. He considered the Silver Football more meaningful because it was awarded based on votes from Big Ten coaches who had firsthand experience watching and competing against him. In a 2002 Chicago Tribune article he recalled “When they called to tell me, I thought it was great (winning the Heisman), but the big award then was the Silver Football” which held more prestige at the time than the Heisman, then called the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy.

Years ago, after acquiring Benny Friedman’s Silver Football Trophy (see blog post dated July 31, 2018), Jacob and I talked about the possibility of going after another Silver Football Trophy if they ever became available. Those of Red Grange, Harry Newman, Jay Berwanger, Nile Kinnick and Otto Graham topped the list.

Harry Newman followed in the footsteps of Benny Friedman in many ways, Friedman coming out of Cleveland, Newman out of Detroit, both strong runners, kickers and leaders on the field. Newman initially was not the passer Friedman was, but under Friedman’s mentoring over a summer at his football camp (Newman still in High School), Newman was to become an outstanding record setting passer as well, in college and the pros. They both played for the University of Michigan and went on to play in the NFL.

Some stats on Newman:

College Career (University of Michigan, 1930–1932)

•             National Champion (1932)

•             Unanimous All-American (1932)

•             Chicago Tribune Silver Football (1932) – Big Ten MVP

•             Douglas Fairbanks Trophy (1932) – Outstanding College Player of the Year (pre‑Heisman)

•             Helms Athletic Foundation Player of the Year (1932)

•             Two time first‑team All‑Big Ten (1930, 1932)

•             Second‑team All‑Big Ten (1931)

•             Led Michigan to a 24–1–2 record over three seasons, undefeated in 1932

•             Played 437 of 480 minutes in the 1932 season — an astounding workload

Professional Career (NFL & AFL)

•             NFL Champion (1934) – New York Giants

•             2× Second‑team All‑Pro (1933, 1934)

•             NFL Passing Yards Leader (1933) and the Giants leading rusher

•             NFL Passing Touchdowns Leader (1933)

•             Played for:

•             New York Giants (1933–1935)

•             Brooklyn/Rochester Tigers (1936–1937)

 In 1934 Newman set the NFL single game carries record, at 38, broken by OJ Simpson in 1973, with 39. Simpson was intentionally being fed the ball in order to break 1000 yards on the season in a game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

A large trophy with an early 1930s full sized silver football. A most significant artifact from that period.

This trophy was exhibited at the Michigan Football Centennial in 1979 (photo of the bottom of the trophy base).

               Jacob holding Friedman's Silver Football Trophy and I holding Newman's (Thanksgiving, 2025)

Rare Shaker Knit Worsted Wool Football Cap c. 1890s

We are dating this cap to the 1890s even though the provenance of the cap is suggestive of the 1880s. It's the only cap of its type we have come across. All original, showing no outward signs of use. Measures 10 1/4" in width, 7 1/4" in height.

                                                                 Inside lining.

The above advertisements from the turn of the century are from Antiquefootball.com, in the article "The Football Cap", March 4, 2020.

Historically Significant Silver Trophy Bestowed By Lord Stanley Of Preston / 1891

 Only two trophies are known to have been bestowed by Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor General of Canada from 1888 to 1893. The first was this cup, dated September 3, 1891, presented to William Hendrie as a member of the Quebec Turf Club for his horse B.C. Bullfinch.

The second, a bowl for the 1892 -1893 amateur hockey season, initially called the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, and eventually taking on the name of its donor, the “Stanley Cup”.

The cup that is the subject of this post is representative of the close relationship between the Stanley and Hendrie families and although equestrian, in fact, has as much to do with hockey.

Reads: Presented By Lord Stanley Of Preston - GBC - Governor General Of Canada - To The Quebec Turf Club - Quebec - Sept. 3rd 1891

Reads: Won By Mr William Hendrie's B.C. Bullfinch - 3 Years - Sept. 3rd 1891

At the time that this trophy was awarded (pre "Stanley Cup"), the important hockey relationship between the Stanleys and the Hendries was already well established. The families began their relationship by the 1880s, travelling in similar social circles, sharing interests in horse breeding and racing and with strong interest in hockey and with formalizing the development and rules of the game.

William Hendrie Sr., the recipient of this trophy was best known for breeding (Valley Farm) and racing thoroughbred horses. He also was involved for many years with improving the physicality of heavy draught horses using Shire and Clydesdales that he had brought in from abroad towards that end. Hendrie was the President of the Ontario Jockey Club at the time of his passing and was the first Canadian to be elected an honorary member of the English Jockey Club. His considerable wealth was the result of vast business enterprises and investments.

It was William Hendrie Jr., who first brought then Earl Stanley to Hamilton on business; the two were known to have developed a very close personal relationship. Both men, as well as two of Stanley’s sons shared a significant interest in the relatively new game of hockey that already was gaining traction in Montreal, Ottawa and Kingston.  It was the November 27, 1890 meeting at the Queen’s Hotel that led to the formation of the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA). When the OHA was formed it was the first association dealing with the administration and development of the sport of hockey. The attendees at this November 27th meeting included Arthur Stanley, William Hendrie Jr, and a number of athletes, barristers, and politicians* from across Ontario. Lord Stanley was considered its patron and his two sons were among the association’s first executives along with William Hendrie Jr., who also wrote the first rules and regulations of the game. 

*There is frequent mention in sources of an early hockey game (1890) involving Lord Stanley's sons, Algernon and Arthur, playing for the Rideau Rebels against a team of parliamentarians. 

While evidence from our research is circumstantial, it appears to be a reasonable assumption that the awarding of the 1891 trophy was the impetus behind a decision by William Hendrie Jr., Lord Stanley and one or both of his sons (Arthur and Algernon) that a second trophy could and should be awarded for their relatively newfound obsession, hockey. 

William Hendrie Jr. was a leading financier, had an exemplary military career, was an acknowledged sportsman and played an integral part in the management of his family's stables and the Ontario Jockey Club.

The significance of the Stanley and Hendrie families' hockey partnership is notable with the inclusion in the impossibly hard to find first edition "Classic Hamilton Hockey" card set, with photographs of Lord Stanley and William Hendrie Jr., featured side by side on the first card of the series (card #1 of 150).

To take a step back and put some context to the awarding of such equestrian trophies, there was a tradition of silver cups awarded by Vice-regal representatives in Quebec dating back to the early 19th century.  An article written by Ross Fox** ”Early Turf and Field Silver from Trois-Rivieres” discusses early equestrian pieces in Quebec. The Quebec Turf Club was the first such club in Canada, founded in 1789. Such silver cups were awarded by Lord Aylmer (Governor-in-Chief) to the Three Rivers Turf Club in honor of races in 1833, 1834 and 1835. The earliest record of such a trophy given to the QTC was in 1818 when the 4th Duke of Richmond as Governor-in Chief gifted a silver cup to the Quebec Turf Club appropriately called the Governor’s Cup. Vice regal representatives of the Crown, whether governors general, governors or lieutenant governors were often key patrons of horse racing. Richmond’s successor, the 9th Earl of Dalhousie, provided a silver cup for a sweepstakes run by the Quebec Turf Club in the spring of 1822. He provided a second cup the following year.  

**It is a small world. I first met Ross Fox in the early 1990s when he was a curator of the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College. At the time I was finishing up my research on likenesses of Jeffrey Amherst, including painted portraits and engravings. I like to think that I was the subject matter expert on Amherst at that time and still retain one of the more important documented portraits of him.  

As collectors of historical hockey memorabilia, we were quite excited to find this exceptionally important piece. This trophy measures 10 ¾” x 5” and descended through the Hendrie family.

Card #1 from the Classic Hamilton Hockey card set. Lord Stanley on the left, William Hendrie Jr. on the right.

               1888 Allen & Ginter "Racing Colors of the World" tobacco card for Wm. Hendrie

Note: The acronym GCB appearing on the trophy under the title Lord Stanley of Preston stands for Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, the highest class of the British order of chivalry founded by King George 1 in 1725.

Rare Reed & Barton Rugby Football Repose Style Silver Plate Humidor C. 1887

     Photo of the back of the humidor, which matches the front (front has a lock) and the sides. We have seen three or four of these rare humidors over a twenty-plus year period. A pretty neat piece. There are two sizes documented, this being the larger (we have never seen the smaller) and measures 6 7/8/" in width, 5 3/8" in depth and 3 1/2/" in height. 

                                                                          Side View

                                           Photo from above showing the football pull.

The two photos above show the major element of the design, which are the reverse of one another on the humidor and in the print. The second photo is the source of the design, an 1887 print of a Scotland V. England rugby football match. This same print, by 1890, distributed by a New York lithographer was now "Americanized", showing American flags in the scene, and renamed "Football". By the time of this humidor's manufacture, over one third of the two dozen designers at R&B were English or European, accounting for their design choices and sources.

An Unusual Letter With Cricket Associations 1854

 Previously having had the good fortune of acquiring two American cricket CDVs’, one of which pictures baseball’s Harry Wright (see blog posting dated March 7, 2025) I realized how little I knew of cricket, cricket’s origins and of its ties to baseball. In the last year and a half I have made a study of American and British cricket and happened across the letter which is the subject of this blog.

This ‘letter’, even with its cricket content, is more importantly a study of man’s ability to overcome life’s obstacles, no matter how great. A study in perseverance, in times that were indeed so much more difficult than today.

Richard Walker, a cricketer with no hands. At age twelve (1843) Richard Walker had an accident at Cornelius Nicholson’s Burnside Paper Mill, losing his hands between heavy rollers (Cumbria County Archives). He persevered in learning to write and draw and went further, to be able to play cricket.  

His handwritten letter reads:

“Written by Rd (Richard) Walker who lost both his hands at Burnside Paper Mill Aug 9^th 1843. Signed ‘Rd Walker, Sine Manibus (without hands) Aug 18^th 1854’. He continues, “R.W. can play at Cricket, is a very good Batsman and can Bowl very well, has occasionally partly shaved himself and has often Mowed a swaith in rank with other Mowers – and can do anything almost than anyone else can – And has taught the grammar school Haveley for 2 years. R.W.”

An unusual and thought provoking letter with sports associations.

Rare Tiffany Sterling Silver Football Themed Flask 1891/1892

 A wonderfully detailed, high relief, acid etched, Tiffany rugby football flask made in 1891/1892 for Dr. William Palmer Wesselhoeft. Wesselhoeft was a Harvard trained physician (MD in 1857) with ties to Boston University School of Medicine, where he and another four or five of his close Wesselhoeft relatives, who were also MDs, were working. This flask was presented to him before his planned world travels in 1893-1894, as inscribed on the flask. Also inscribed on the flask, translated from German “Travel around the world” and “Never full or never empty”. There are records of him in Rome and Venice and of having to abandon plans for going up the Nile in 1894.  

Interestingly, his son, William Fessenden Wesselhoeft (also a trained Harvard physician) played for the Harvard varsity football team in 1882 and 1884 according to The H Book of Harvard Athletics  and contemporary newspaper accounts. W.F. originally rowed crew but in 1882 "Harvard has taken its biggest boating men...and put them in training for the football team", and a football player he became. 

Tiffany’s craftsman, lacking familiarity with rugby football borrowed from contemporary publication’s illustrations. We have not done a serious search as yet, but should be able to identify the source of the etching on this flask. Publications such as The Century Illustrated Monthly magazine, Frank Leslie’s Illustrated New York Newspaper and Harper’s Weekly commonly had such illustrations, and would be the best place for us to start.

This flask is one of four football related flasks in our collection, and the second made by Tiffany (see post dated September 28, 2014). Also see posts dated November 6, 2022 (Walter Camp's personal flask) and June 15, 2015 (association football flask).

Oneida Football Monument / Boston Public Garden

 "So the Boston game became the Harvard game" 

                                                Morton Prince '75

The Oneida Monument in the Boston Public Garden, was one of a handful of places Jacob and I had on an unwritten bucket list. We combined a few of these, visiting the Oneida Monument, the Ether Monument and the Ether Dome, all in the same day.

We consider the Oneida Monument more of a monument to the Boston Game than to a single team playing this type of football, although its intent was to immortalize only one of the more successful teams that played the Boston game in the 1860s and it was funded by seven of the living members. The original plans for the monument featured a round rubber ball, correct for the game that had been played. It was felt later that this round ball would not be recognizable to people who were now, in the 1920s, accustomed to seeing an oblong shaped football and thus the newer style football was carved onto the monument.

The Boston Game was played from the late 1850s through the mid-1870s and it was the Boston Game specifically that kept Harvard from playing intercollegiate “football” games. In 1874 that was all to change.

In describing the Boston game and its significance in the history and development of American football I will borrow a small section from The H Book of Harvard Athletics that was written by Morton Prince (please see blog posting dated June 13,2015, The H.F.B.C. and the Foundations of Football: Beginnings of a Game: 1873 Membership Shingle).

“Harvard on the other hand played an entirely different game, one inherited, as we have seen, from the preparatory schools, with a long history behind it, and — though we may now smile — dear to the heart of this section of New England. One fundamental principle of our game, determining the whole character of the play, was, I may repeat, that a player was permitted to pick up the ball, run with it, throw it, or pass it. He could also seize and hold an adversary to prevent his getting the ball. Quite contrary to this by the Yale rules, which were essentially the same as those of Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers, no picking up, carrying, or throwing the ball was allowed, nor was holding or pushing with the hands. The game was all foot work. On the other hand Harvard's game was based on the strategy of carrying, passing, and holding. The two styles of game were consequently vitally different, as different as Soccer football is from the present game. The principles underlying the play were essentially unlike. There could therefore be no compromise or modifications made that would harmonize the two styles of game. If Harvard entered the convention one or the other game would have to be given up. It was easy at the time to foresee which it would be. Harvard would have been outvoted four to one, and then we should have been morally bound to say " good-bye” to our beloved "Boston " football and to support the rules adopted by the convention, — the Association rules, as they were afterwards called.

When fall (1874) came we played McGill in Montreal. This return match, following the experience with the Rugby game the preceding spring, had unexpected consequences; for learning to play Rugby Harvard learned that there was another game besides its own which was worthy of being played. And with familiarity Harvard became weaned from her first love and a new taste was acquired for a better game which opened the door for the longed for match with Yale under rules which all American colleges were destined to adopt. Indeed the impression made upon the Harvard players by the Montreal experience was such that in the following spring we had, although the Rugby rules had not been formally adopted, gone so far that under them a match was arranged with Tufts, instead of under the "Boston" rules with which Tufts must have been more familiar.”

And so it was, the pivotal role of the Boston game on the path to our modern game of football. 

                      

                                                    Close up of the front of the monument

                                                            Jacob holding up the monument

                                        Reverse of the monument listing original members including Edward Bowditch, Harvard class of 1869. His son, also Edward Bowditch, played varsity football for Harvard in 1900, 1901, 1902 and 1903 (class of '03 and L.S.). He was a first team All-American in 1903. See blog entry dated July 27, 2023.

Posing at the back of the monument

                                               Original members in 1925 at the unveiling

      1863 Oneida game used rubber ball on display at Historic New England in Boston