Harvard Class of 1886 Freshman Football Team c.1882

 

Last weekend I was just over the border in Connecticut and found this Harvard class of 1886 football team photo, presumably taken in 1882. It's a really nice early photo that draws you in. Framed in a much better than average frame, having a birdseye maple central band. The mat has been damaged and pieced together on the right side. Very early Harvard football photos are a passion of ours and are very difficult to come by.

 Kimball (Marcus Morton), far right in the middle, went on to play for the University team in 1883 and in 1884, when he was captain.  His left arm rests on Adams (George Casper), who played for the University eleven in 1882, 1883 and 1886.

Adams was named as ‘field coach’ for Harvard from 1890 -1892, sharing coaching duties with George Stewart, ’84. Before Harvard, Adams attended and played football at Adams Academy, and was a great grandson of president John Quincy Adams. I have a late 1870s photo of an Adams Academy football team that I believe has Adams in it, however players are unidentified and at present this is just conjecture. I may be able to clear this up with a trip to the Quincy Historical Society which retains many records and photos (including sports photos with identified players) from the Adams Academy, which closed in 1908

 The team roster includes Adams, Haughton, Dewey, Hartley, Vogel, Burnett, Woodbury, Clark, Phillips, Kimball, Beck, Austin, Littauer as a substitute, Guild , the manager. 

The ’86 Freshman’s teams record in 1882: 

‘86 v. Roxbury Latin, won by ‘86

’86 v. Exeter, won by ‘86

’86 v. Andover, won by Andover

’86 v. Yale, Tie game (Dec. 02) 

Another source has them playing five games, without listing the individual contests, ending with a record of 3-2-1. 

The ’86 freshman challenged Dartmouth to a game, but this was “respectfully declined”. 

This is a Pach Bro’s photo. Pach was based in New York City and travelled to college towns somewhat seasonally to take yearbook, class and sports photographs. They were generally the photographer of choice for senior classes at Yale, Harvard and Princeton, but college classes would vote on who they wanted to be their photographer. For example, Pach was chosen by Yale’s class of ’82, while the ’82 Sheffield School at Yale chose Notman as their photographer.

                                                                  Kimball and Adams

1912 Chicago v. Minnesota Trophy Football - The "Floorboard Hoard"

 This 1912 University of Chicago (v. Minnesota) trophy ball was one of the earliest balls from a larger collection of  University of Chicago trophy footballs that came up at auction a good number of years ago. The exact number of balls in the collection appears to be 23, based on the referenced lots in the original auction catalog. Most of the balls date from the 1920s, with several as late as 1932. 

All of these footballs were found together during a home inspection, in the crawlspace of a Hyde Park Chicago home, where they had lay hidden for 70 plus years. 

I have nicknamed this collection, somewhat in jest, in the manner used with recently discovered and significant old collections of baseball cards that come to auction.  Encapsulated cards are labelled with names like the “Black Swamp Find” or the “Lucky 7 Find”, and so on. We don’t collect baseball or any type of sports cards, so we don’t know if they are just having fun or take this somewhat seriously. 

Well, “The Floorboard Hoard” seems appropriate for these balls. And now that it’s in print it is a done deal. 

The 1912 team was coached by Amos Alonzo Stagg and they ended their season with a 6 -1 record.

This ball is pictured in “Antique Sports Uniforms and Equipment, 1840 – 1940, Baseball – Football – Basketball, 2008, page 91. It has an embossed Spalding seal on one of its panels and embossed patent number and date by the laces. Ex Dan Hauser collection.

Scarce Rowing Coxswain Ambrotype c. 1859

Every so often we find a wonderful early piece from a sport other than football that we like to share on the blog.  This is an exceedingly rare sporting Ambrotype c.1859; any sports related photo from this period would be considered a scarcity. This photo is of a coxswain (rowing) and at this point in our research we believe the boat (the Prioress) to be from the Potomac Barge Club. 

By the mid 1850s the daguerreotype was being displaced by the ambrotype, somewhat cheaper and easier to produce. The ambrotype created the image on glass as opposed to the earlier daguerreotype which used silver coated copper plates. The image is crystal clear. The cheeks are hand tinted.