Harvard and Yale Folding Football Pocket Schedule / 1894 / Trinity Hall

 

A very rare folding pocket schedule for both Harvard and Yale’s 1894 football seasons. This of course is the year of the ‘Bloodbath at Hampden Park’, the last game for both Harvard and Yale for the year and the reason for the cessation of the Harvard - Yale football match for the next two years.

This schedule was distributed with the compliments of the management of Trinity Hall, an independently owned dormitory on Mount Auburn street in Cambridge, just a very short stroll from Harvard Yard.

When you read through the amenities offered by Trinity Hall, this was part of a newer trend beginning in the mid 1890s where decentralization of the student body at Harvard was becoming the new norm and rooms in privately owned dormitories (built as investment properties) with such amenities were now preferred. These “Gold Coast” dorms were constructed starting 1893.

 Just a few years before this, it was considered a great privilege and socially distinctive to room in the dormitories of the old quadrangle.

Trinity Hall, a wood frame building that had fallen into disrepair was demolished around 2008 to allow for the restoration of the “Conductor’s Building’ that laid adjacent to it. The Conductor’s Building was the last surviving structure associated with the Boston Elevated Railway. For those familiar with Harvard Square, the Conductor's Building lies diagonally across the street from the Charles Hotel.

A really neat little piece from one of our favorite years to collect.

Robert Cook / 1871 / Yale / Scrub IV Crew

                                                                   Cooks' Scrub IV 

Robert Johnston “Bob” Cook (on the far left) entered Yale (prepped at Andover for two years of a three-year program and entered Yale in 1871) already drawn to rowing, and it was during his undergraduate years that he became one of the most influential figures in American collegiate crew.

In the fall of 1871 Robert Johnston Cook’s scrubs won two races at New Haven Harbor. This at a time that Yale’s own varsity and '71 class team were in disarray, had been unsuccessful, and were not racing. 

Cook made a pivotal decision in 1873 and took a semester off from Yale to travel to England and learn “how to row” from British universities. He first studied with Francis S. Gulston of the London Rowing Club, followed by time spent first at Cambridge then at Oxford.

When he returned to Yale later that same year, he brought back a modified English stroke that fundamentally changed Yale’s rowing style. Cook's stroke was a milestone in the history of college rowing and the development of the American stroke. This innovation immediately paid off as Yale won the RAAC Regatta using Cook’s new stroke.

From 1873 until his graduation in 1876 (was supposed to graduate in 1875 but dropped back to 1876), Cook served as the unofficial coach of Yale’s crews. Running practices, selecting lineups, teaching new techniques and setting training standards that would extend for decades at Yale. He was captain and stroke for four years. His influence was so strong that he effectively shaped the entire Yale rowing program before he graduated.

After graduating, Cook became Yale’s official coach, though he worked full‑time in Philadelphia and often traveled back to New Haven only on weekends. He was the official Yale coach (1876–1898).

In 1924, Yale dedicated the Bob Cook Boathouse on Lake Housatonic.

After working on the identification of the other three oarsman I have yet to come up with their names. It is likely they were freshman from c.1871. Scrub team rosters from this period were rarely listed and have proven virtually impossible to locate.  We do have a cabinet card of the other seated individual in the photo that is in our 1873 Yale album belonging to Atwood Collins. Most of the cards in the album are identified except for 28 cabinet photos placed in slots in the back pages of the album (men and women, African Americans, etc.). His card is one of those that is not identified by name. I will likely be able to identify him and the other two rowers when I locate Yale albums with identified sitters from 1875. The 1873 album also has loose rowing memorabilia in it, all dating to 1875 and the dedication of the Yale Navy boathouse.

One of our top early crew photographs, and likely the most important. This rare and historically significant photo would be the earliest known rowing photo of Cook. A larger albumin photo measuring 13 ½” in height by 10 1/8” in width, not inclusive of the outside edge. An amazing link to Yale’s past rowing history.

                                                                         Bob Cook in 1871

                                           The unframed photograph with margins

Draper & Maynard / Plymouth New Hampshire

 I was driving at dusk, after dinner in Plymouth New Hampshire, on my way up to the foothills of the White Mountains. I was cutting through the town on a deserted road when I pulled a U-turn in the middle of the road having just passed a sign that I thought said Draper & Maynard. And wouldn’t you know, it was in fact the Draper & Maynard building. As luck would have it, the only vehicle I didn’t see was a parked police car who let me be and watched intently as I took photos of the sign and building from half a dozen vantage points. For those not in the hobby, Draper & Maynard was one of the larger early sporting goods manufacturers.

Harry Newman / 1932 Chicago Tribune Silver Football Trophy (Big Ten MVP)

Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago won both the Chicago Tribune Silver Football and the first ever Heisman Trophy. He considered the Silver Football more meaningful because it was awarded based on votes from Big Ten coaches who had firsthand experience watching and competing against him. In a 2002 Chicago Tribune article he recalled “When they called to tell me, I thought it was great (winning the Heisman), but the big award then was the Silver Football” which held more prestige at the time than the Heisman, then called the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy.

Years ago, after acquiring Benny Friedman’s Silver Football Trophy (see blog post dated July 31, 2018), Jacob and I talked about the possibility of going after another Silver Football Trophy if they ever became available. Those of Red Grange, Harry Newman, Jay Berwanger, Nile Kinnick and Otto Graham topped the list.

Harry Newman followed in the footsteps of Benny Friedman in many ways, Friedman coming out of Cleveland, Newman out of Detroit, both strong runners, kickers and leaders on the field. Newman initially was not the passer Friedman was, but under Friedman’s mentoring over a summer at his football camp (Newman still in High School), Newman was to become an outstanding record setting passer as well, in college and the pros. They both played for the University of Michigan and went on to play in the NFL.

Some stats on Newman:

College Career (University of Michigan, 1930–1932)

•             National Champion (1932)

•             Unanimous All-American (1932)

•             Chicago Tribune Silver Football (1932) – Big Ten MVP

•             Douglas Fairbanks Trophy (1932) – Outstanding College Player of the Year (pre‑Heisman)

•             Helms Athletic Foundation Player of the Year (1932)

•             Two time first‑team All‑Big Ten (1930, 1932)

•             Second‑team All‑Big Ten (1931)

•             Led Michigan to a 24–1–2 record over three seasons, undefeated in 1932

•             Played 437 of 480 minutes in the 1932 season — an astounding workload

Professional Career (NFL & AFL)

•             NFL Champion (1934) – New York Giants

•             2× Second‑team All‑Pro (1933, 1934)

•             NFL Passing Yards Leader (1933) and the Giants leading rusher

•             NFL Passing Touchdowns Leader (1933)

•             Played for:

•             New York Giants (1933–1935)

•             Brooklyn/Rochester Tigers (1936–1937)

 In 1934 Newman set the NFL single game carries record, at 38, broken by OJ Simpson in 1973, with 39. Simpson was intentionally being fed the ball in order to break 1000 yards on the season in a game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

A large trophy with an early 1930s full sized silver football. A most significant artifact from that period.

This trophy was exhibited at the Michigan Football Centennial in 1979 (photo of the bottom of the trophy base).

               Jacob holding Friedman's Silver Football Trophy and I holding Newman's (Thanksgiving, 2025)

Rare Shaker Knit Worsted Wool Football Cap c. 1890s

We are dating this cap to the 1890s even though the provenance of the cap is suggestive of the 1880s. It's the only cap of its type we have come across. All original, showing no outward signs of use. Measures 10 1/4" in width, 7 1/4" in height.

                                                                 Inside lining.

The above advertisements from the turn of the century are from Antiquefootball.com, in the article "The Football Cap", March 4, 2020.