1894 Boston Athletic Association Football Team Photo

 

                                            Note the unicorn emblem on the vest

A larger (11” x 17”) and very rare albumin cabinet photo of the 1894 Boston Athletic Association (BAA) (year and team identified on the ball). In addition, note the unicorn patches worn by players in the photo, the unicorn being the symbol of the BAA (also recognized as the symbol of the Boston Marathon, run under the auspices of the BAA, first run in 1897, 3 years after this photo was taken).

On the reverse, the Boston photographer Chickering is identified as well as a notation that this photo belonged to “McLoon” (right end for the BAA).

We had never come across or seen a BAA photo previously, so this was a very nice find for us (one of the few pickups from Brimfield yesterday).

The Boston Athletic Association had a good number of games scheduled in 1894, including those against major powers such as Harvard, Yale, and Brown, as well as games with the New York Athletic Club, the Columbia Athletic Club, Amherst, Bowdoin, Phillips Andover, the Chicago Athletic Association, and the Crescent Athletic Club.

Most of the BAA team was comprised of Harvard men, and when the BAA played against Yale, the game was “fierce” with notable injuries (The Evening Bulletin, October 25, 1894). This game, a harbinger to the violent “Bloodbath at Hampden Park", the Harvard – Yale game a month away.

The playing roster for the 1894 BAA team:

McLoon  RE

Erickson, Ward  LT, RT

Waters  LT

Carpenter  C

J. Fay  LG

Gallagher  LT

Whittren  LE

Clarkson  QB

Anthony  RHB

Burns, Garcelon  RHB, LHB

Dearborn  HB

Hoag  FB

                                                                Joseph Story Fay 3rd

Of great interest to Jacob and I, in addition to the photo’s rarity and subject matter is that one of the sitters in the photo is Joseph Story Fay 3^rd, Harvard class of ’94 (back row, second from the left). It was Fay’s father, Joseph Story Fay Jr. who rowed varsity for Harvard in 1869, beating Yale on Lake Quinsigamond at Worcester. Following this win, Fay immediately sailed for England to join teammates and row against Oxford in the “Great International Boat Race”, one of the most significant and earliest international sporting events up to that time (estimated attendance exceeding half a million people).

Fay’s trophy oar from the 1869 Harvard – Yale contest is one of the most prized items in our collection and possibly the subject of a future post. To now have this BAA photo along with the oar, so that father son are represented hanging on the same wall adds to the story of both and makes collecting all the more interesting.