Friday, October 23, 2020

1894 University Of Pennsylvania Football Pinback


Really nice and rare composite photo pin. 1894 team members including Gelbert, Bull, Wharton, Knipe, Woodruff, Brooke and most other team members. Measuring 1 3/4" in diameter and total length with ribbon 3 3/4". 


This pinback is a true convex front and flat back

                                          Back of pin with manufacturer and 1894 patent date


 

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

1903 Princeton Football Pinback



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".




Friday, October 9, 2020

1914 Harvard - Yale Silver Football Tea Infuser

 


Sterling silver football form tea ball commemorating the first game played in the Yale Bowl, the contest with Harvard on November 21, 1914.  Harvard scored 36 to Yale's 0. A wonderful rare piece measuring just over two inches in length, not including the chain. Internal catch works perfectly.
Since I'm a tea drinker this was nice to find.


Monday, October 5, 2020

Scarce 1899 Princeton - Yale Gold Charm Edward S. Burke

 


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.





                                                            "E.S. Burke Jr. Quarterback"


                                                       Burke's senior yearbook photo, 1900


Sunday, October 4, 2020

1880s - Turn Of The Century Eight Panel Association Football

 


Really nice and clean example of a number 6 association ball, 30" in circumference. Note the construction such that the pattern differs on the two ends. I have yet to definitively identify the mark, although a similar circular pattern was used by Spalding and Reach.







Saturday, October 3, 2020

Very Large Early Melon Football

 


Collectors always wonder where those immense melon balls we see in early team cabinet photos went to - well here is a fine and rare example. The largest melon ball we have handled, measuring 25" around the short circumference and a full 30" around the long circumference.