Roxbury Latin School Football Elevens 1883 and 1884

Front row, left to right, Joseph Hamblen Sears, Edmund Channing Stowell, Francis Call Woodman (Captain), Wilder Dwight Bancroft, Arthur Pierce Butler and Oliver Fairfield Wadsworth.

Back row, left to right, John Balch, Thomas Williams Slocum, Franklin Greene Balch, Asaph Churchill and Elliot Hardon.

Front row, left to right, Charles Garrison, Robert Beverly Hale, Elliot Hardon, Moses Williams and Robert Sever Hale.

Back row, left to right, Garceau, George Lewis Batchelder, Thomas Williams Slocum, Hunneman, George Snell Mandell and Bernard Coffin Weld.

Two rare and wonderful oversized albumin cabinet photographs of the Roxbury Latin School Football Elevens for the years 1883 and 1884.  Sight measurements for the 1883 albumin is 16 3/8” x 11 7/8”, and for the 1884 photograph 16 5/8” x 12 ¼”.

We in the hobby are more familiar with schools in New England like Phillips Exeter or Phillips Andover, in large part due to a much greater availability of photographs and ephemera that has become available over the years and to the two school’s well-documented rivalry. In contrast, Roxbury Latin material rarely becomes available in the marketplace. We should however, take note of Roxbury Latin, its football history and its place as an Ivy League feeder school and give it its proper due.

Roxbury Latin is the oldest school in continuous existence in North America, founded in 1645 (as a point of comparison Andover was founded in 1778 and Exeter was established in 1781).

Roxbury Latin was playing the collegiate football game since 1882, and previous to this played the carrying game in the mid-1860s, the Boston Rules game in the mid-1870s and the American Rugby game from 1876 to 1881. In the 1880s an Interscholastic Athletic Association was formed inclusive of Roxbury Latin, St. Mark’s and Hopkinson. It is believed this was the earliest example of such an organization amongst schools at this level of play.

Roxbury sent the overwhelming majority of its students during the 1880s to Harvard.  In fact, of those in the photographs that were able to complete their schooling at Roxbury, over ninety percent went on to attend Harvard.

The following Roxbury players from these two photographs went on to play for the Harvard Varsity Eleven (note: Harvard banned football for the year 1885):

Joseph Hamblen Sears, Harvard ’89, played on the Harvard varsity in 1886, 1887 and 1888. Sears was one of the leading players of the period. He captained the Harvard Eleven in 1888.

Francis Call Woodman, Harvard ’88 and LS, played for the Harvard Eleven in 1886, 1887 and 1888.

Wilbur Dwight Bancroft, Harvard ’88, played for the varsity Eleven in 1887.

Arthur Pierce Butler, Harvard ’88, played for the Varsity Eleven in 1886 and 1887 and also rowed crew these same two years.

Bernard Coffin Weld, Harvard ’89, was the manager of the varsity Eleven in 1888.

Other varsity sports were played by:

 Franklin Greene Balch, Harvard,’88, competed for varsity track in 1888 and crew in 1887.

George Lewis Batchelder, Harvard ’88, was on the varsity track team in 1891 and 1892.

Interesting note: William Burnet Wright, the original owner of the 1891 Yale match safe pictured in our blog posting of September 4, 2018, graduated from the Roxbury Latin School, in 1888. He graduated from Yale in 1892.

I would like to profusely thank and credit The Roxbury Latin School, and Christopher Heaton (Archivist, Librarian, Faculty Member of the History Department and Assistant Coach of the Cross Country/Track & Field) specifically, for furnishing me with copies of team photographs from the 1880s, with all team members identified. Additionally, he also sent me a spreadsheet with the colleges that RLS students moved on to, with their class years. This information was invaluable.