1875 Tufts Football Eleven Stereoview

An amazing and scarce example of early photographic football. We have collected stereoviews for decades, routinely attending photographic ephemera and related shows. In twenty five years only two of the pictured views have surfaced (we were lucky enough to find both of them and sold one to a fellow vintage football collector) that we are aware of, and this is the only 1870s or 1880s football team stereo view known. It is identified on the reverse as the "Foot Ball Eleven". The Tufts 1875 team played Harvard on June 4th at Jarvis Field (rugby-style football) and won by a score of 1 to 0, a game Tufts and others contends is the first true American intercollegiate football game. On October 27th a rematch would allow Harvard to even the score with a 1 to 0 win in Medford, although Tufts far outplayed Harvard and the win was due to a mistake and the resulting official's determination.
If you are not familiar with stereoviews you are really missing something. Looking at the photo with the appropriate viewer creates a three dimensional image - its like going back in time and being present when the photo was taken.

1876 photo of what is likely the graduating class for that year. The senior class had only 13 or 14 students; therefore this may represent that class along with post graduates and divinity school students. All of the varsity football players from the class of 1876 appear to be in the photo.

Both of the above stereoviews were taken on the steps of Ballou Hall, the first building on the campus of Tufts College. Originally called College Hall it was renamed for the college's first president Hosea Ballou. This photo is from an 1880 Tufts class/photo album in our collection.