One of the reasons we collect football photographs is because it gives you a historical perspective and allows you to see and feel the people and the sport. Stereoviews go one step further, allowing the viewer to go back in time and visualize the subject in three dimensions. I am posting this view, as it is not well known and gives a different perspective from Hamilton Park, Yale's 19th century sports venue. This view (1870s) is taken with the photographer's back to the Whalley Avenue entrance to Hamilton Park. You can see the wooden fence surrounding the park at the far left of the card. There is currently a version of this card on ebay, should you have interest.
1911 banquet for the Princeton Football Team. Held at the Hotel Martinique in New York City following Princeton's victory over Yale , 6 - 3, on November 18, 1911. Princeton had not beaten Yale since 1903. There were many recognizable Princeton football players of the past present, some of whom I picture below. A similar photo from the 1914 dinner can be found in the Images of Sports book, "Princeton Football". This is a mesmerizing photo and measures 19 1/4 by 11 3/8. Excuse the reflection in the glass of the photos, the actual photo is crystal clear.
Hobey Baker
A reorganized corner of the room. Top left is the panoramic photo with a young Fritz Pollard.
An 1890s oversized
albumin photo of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) society football team at
Harvard. Greek letter society teams usually played other chapters of the same society from
other colleges. The SAE team from Harvard played the SAE teams from MIT and WPI
(Worcester Polytechnic Institute) in the 1890s. MIT was played in 1893 (the
year the chapter was established at Harvard) and in 1894 and then the game with
WPI became what was considered the annual event. Records support that the Harvard
team may only have played one game each year.
We believe this photo to
be the 1893 Harvard team that defeated MIT 4 to 0 on Norton’s Field (at
Harvard). The team likely had an edge over its competitor, as Josh Upton, who
played for the University Eleven in 1889, ‘90 and ’92 was a member of SAE at
the time (he was at Harvard until 1896) and was sure to help guide the team.
Throughout the 1890s I
cannot find a record of the Harvard chapter of SAE losing a game, even in games
with WPI, such as in 1895, when WPI openly used varsity players on their squad against
Harvard (Harvard 6, Tech 0).
This photo is an
interesting part of the college football story that most of us know little
about, and fraternity photos are exceedingly difficult to find. I really like
this photo.
Note some of the well-worn football hand-me-down uniforms. Photo measures 13 3/8” x 10 3/8”.
Followers of this blog are primarily football researchers and collectors, and are certainly familiar with “The Game”; the annual football contest between Harvard and Yale that began in 1875. Before “The Game”, however, was “The Race”, a rowing event taking place between Harvard and Yale that began in 1852, and has taken place annually since 1859, excepting during the years of war.
The 1852 contest was the first intercollegiate competition in the U.S., in any sport, and is now the oldest collegiate rivalry. It was an event unlike any other up to that time. In 1852 the Undine Boat Club of Yale challenged the Oneida Boat Club (O.B.C.) of Harvard, who accepted the challenge “to test the superiority of the oarsmaen of the two colleges”. The Regatta, an idea conceived less than two months before the actual race by a Yale student by the name of James Whiton (rowed the number eight position on the Undine, who pitched the idea to Harvard's coxswain, Joseph Brown, an ex classmate from Boston Latin), was to take place on New Hampshire’s Lake Winnipissiogee (old spelling), at Centre Harbor, on August 3rd, 1852. Most of the arrangements for travel and lodging, as well as the majority of the costs associated with the event were arranged for and borne by the Boston, Concord & Montreal Railroad (Whiton's father was a director for the RR and was looking to encourage travel to the area). Future New Hampshire Governor Colonel Nathanial B. Baker of Concord was considered the 'general manager' of the event, as well as one of the six judges. The crowd was estimated at no less than one thousand on race day. Four boats , the Oneida of Harvard and the Shawmut, Undine and Atalanta of Yale were to race. The Atalanta withdrew before the race as it was a four-oared rather than eight -oared boat and it would not have been an even contest. On the day of the race there was a preliminary or scrub contest at 11:00 in the morning, the prize being a silk flag. This race was won by Oneida followed by the Shawmut and the Undine. In the afternoon, sometime around 4 ½ O’clock was the main race; a 2 mile contest. The boats were towed to the starting point by horse boats (powered by horses on treadmills), some two miles up the lake. About fourteen minutes after the bugle sounded Oneida once again placed first, beating out the Shawmut by several lengths.
This trophy cup and the other trophies associated with this race are the first from what is America’s oldest intercollegiate athletic competition. The winning prizes we know of included a trophy cup (the subject of this blog), a pair of silver mounted walnut oars (presented by Franklin Pierce, future president, to the Oneida Boat Club), and also according to one source a silver plate “to be inscribed with a suitable legend”. One account lists this cup as gold, but this would not have been the case, and was a typical hearsay mistake. A second race scheduled for the following day did not take place due to inclement weather. The prize for the winner of that contest was a silver mounted boat hook, which was instead presented to the captain of the Shawmut, runner up to the Oneida in the first race.
There was not another race for Harvard in 1852 or 1853 and in 1854 only the city regatta on the Charles took place.
Sometime around 2006/2007 the walnut oars were discovered during a building renovation in Massachusetts and were being offered for sale. The asking price was an astounding eight figures. You read that correctly. The whereabouts of the silver plate and the silver mounted boat hook are unknown to us. Awards from this event, the first American intercollegiate contest of any sport are certainly of considerable significance.
Note 1: The Oneida was originally built and christened the Star. This 37’ lapstrake barge, built by Holbrook for Chelsea races in 1842 was bought by members of the class of 1846 for $85 and rechristened the Oneida. At the time of this race in 1852 the Oneida was owned by the Harvard class of 1853. In 1856 the Oneida was sold to Dartmouth and was soon after lost, being washed away over a dam.
Note 2: The trophies won by the Oneida Boat Club were known to have been kept together initially, presumably at the Boat House built in 1846, by the the three clubs that existed at that time.
1898 Princeton Team photo. Poe seated to captain Hillerbrand's right.
1899 Princeton team photo
Close up of 1899 team photo
I believe this to be the area adjacent to
the football field (the room pictured is open to the outdoors) where
players could be treated during the games (Photo from the sheet above).
A written description of such an area, taken from Football Days, quoting Harvard doctor, W.M. Conant: "I had a house built under the grandstand where every man from our team was stripped, rubbed dry and put into a new suit of clothes, also given a certain amount of hot drink as seemed necessary. This was a thing which had never been done before, and in my opinion had a large influence in deciding the game in Harvard's favor; as the men went out upon the field in the second half almost as fresh as when they started the first half.”
