Yale – Oxford Games of 1894 - Signed Team Photo / Hickok / Sanford

 

An exceedingly rare photo, taken in England by the photographer Jason Soame JR., of Oxford, of the 1894 Yale Athletic Team. All members of the team signed the photo, making this an exceptional piece;  12 5/8 x 15 3/8 ( including signatures). 

It was decided by A.B. Coxe and Walter Camp after years of impatiently waiting, that the time had come to challenge the British (due to Yale’s showing against Harvard and at the Intercollegiate Games at Berkeley Oval) in track and field events. The challenge was accepted and the Yale team set sail on the 15^th of June for Oxford, to train for two weeks before the contest.

Team member and Captain, William Orville Hickok is seen at the center of the photo. Being well known in athletic circles for his prowess and as a record holder in both shotput and hammer throw, Hickok was as well known for playing varsity football for Yale, playing guard in 1892, 1893 and 1894. A two-time football All American (1893 and 1894), Hickok was also immortalized in the 1894 Mayo Cut Plug card set. Hickok is certainly one of the more popular and better known Yale football players from the 1890s. 

Hickok won his events against the British, even though a “scrap” occurred over the hammer-throwing. “At first it was decided to use a four-foot hammer in a 14 foot ring, but later the Englishmen insisted on a three-and a half foot hammer and a seven foot ring”, with the hope that it would affect the outcome of the competition, which it did not. “Nothing was done by the Englishmen that could in any way be called illegal in athletic rules, yet there was a tendency to draw the reins pretty closely on Yale, and “jockeying” seemed the prevailing English spirit.”  Regardless, Hickok, a true gentleman and sportsman, had nothing but positive things to say about the contests and the hosts.  

Hickok

  The above photo of Hickok is from our copy of “The Yale Pot Pourri”, 1894 (ex J.C. Sawyer - signed)

In one of the more recognizable and reproduced photos of 1890s football, Hickok (closest to the camera, looking up) and his teammates execute the flying wedge.

Besides Hickok, another member of the Athletic Team played football at Yale as well, playing for the University Eleven in 1891, George Foster Sanford. Sanford was better known for his coaching in the years after he left Yale (3 years at Columbia (including beating Yale), a year at Virginia, and 11 years at Rutgers). It turns out that there is a tremendous amount of disinformation written about Sanford and his time at Yale. Very briefly, he joined the class of ‘94S, and in November of 1891 was playing for the Yale Football Eleven at center -  coincidently, with Hinkey, McCormick and Bliss, from the previous post. Sanford was known to put athletics before academics which was reason for him leaving the Scientific School to join Yale’s Law School, and in 1893 he was playing for the Law School Football Eleven. In 1894 Sanford was a member of the Athletic Team running the quarter mile and the 100 yard dash. Until just days before setting sail for England, Sanford was doubtful to take part. The dean of the Law School had protested his racing, and it wasn’t until passing his exams to the satisfaction of the faculty was he allowed to compete against Oxford in the 100 and 440 yds. Sanford left Yale in October of 1894.  This photo identified on the reverse as having belonged to Sanford.

                                  

                                                                          Sanford

Other team members include:

E.H. Cady, Hurdles and High jump

D.B. Hatch, Hurdles and Broad Jump

A. Pond, 100 and 440 yds and Half-mile - Ashley Pond Jr. bought the land and founded the Los Alamos Ranch School, taken over in 1942 as the site of the Manhattan Project Weapons Development Laboratory (Project Y)(Oppenheimer).

W.S. Woodhull, Half-mile

J.E. Morgan, Mile and Half-mile

A. Brown, Shot and Hammer

L.P. Sheldon, Long Jump and High Jump - ran track at Andover in 1891, 1892

Full page with a cropped close up from the photo that is the subject of this post, from the publication “The Graphic” , July 21, 1894.

Phillips Andover Academy School Photos - Hinkey / McCormick / Bliss / Upton

 

                                       1888/1889 Philips Andover Academy Student Body

Two very rare, very large, early school photos, from the Ivy feeder school Phillips Andover. The first photo dates c.1888/1889, the second c.1889/1890.

Both photos have well known Yale stars Frank Hinkey, Vance McCormick and Laurie Bliss.

Hinkey played football at Andover in 1889 and 1890 (also baseball in 1891) and football for Yale in 1891, 1892, 1893 and 1894; Captain the last two years, and was a four-time All-American.

L.T. Bliss played football at Andover in 1888 and 1889 as Captain (alongside his brother C.D. Bliss in 1888)(he also played baseball in 1890) and football for Yale in 1891 and 1892. 

McCormick played football at Andover in 1889 (also baseball in 1889 and 1890) and football at Yale in 1891 and 1892 (as Captain). 

Not transitioning to Yale, but rather to Harvard is Joshua Damon Upton, who played football at Andover in 1888 (as well as baseball in 1888 and 1889) and went on to play varsity football at Harvard in 1889, 1890 and 1892 (as well as baseball in 1890, 91,92,93).  In 1892 Upton played against his former Andover schoolmates, Hinkey and McCormick, and both his former Andover teammates  L.T and C.D Bliss, as Yale and Harvard met on November 19^th (Yale winning 6-0).

          From the 1888/1889 school photo, with Hinkey, McCormick, Bliss and Upton identified

                                       1889/1890 Philips Andover Academy Student Body

                                                        Hinkey, from the 1889/1890 photo

                                                   L.T. Bliss, from the 1889/1890 photo

                                                    McCormick, from the 1889/1890 photo

      Stereoview of the "Main Academy Building" from the photos above,  built in 1865 - 1866, replacing the previous building lost to fire in 1863

                  1892 Yale Football Eleven with Hinkey, McCormick and Bliss - middle row L to R. Behind Hinkey's right shoulder is Bill Hickok, one of the subjects of the next post. 

Princeton Football Tintype C.T. Wood c.1891

 Sized somewhere between a ninth and a sixteenth plate, this somewhat smaller tintype exemplifies rarity. As we have pointed out in other posts in this blog, football tintypes are difficult to find, and those with identifiable sitters are exceedingly rare.

This tintype pictures Clinton Tyler Wood, Princeton ’92, who played for the University Eleven in 1889, ‘90 and ’91. In 1889 he was listed as a rusher, left tackle and right tackle in various game rosters. In 1890 he was listed as a left tackle and in 1891 as a halfback.

A wonderfully clear image.

Please see related blog entries dated August 11, 2013, November 3, 2014, October 19, 2016, October 25, 2019.

1899 Harvard Freshman Football Team Photo - Class Of 1903

 

This is an unusual class football photo in that nine of it’s sitters went on to play for the varsity.  Usually one might see just two or three. I labelled most of those that went on to play for the University Eleven in this wonderful oversized (16” x 20”, with mat) Pach Bros albumin photo. On the mat is the score against the Yale freshman team; Harvard 54, Yale 0, the game having taken place November 25^th, 1899.

Edward Bowditch, played on the varsity in ’00, ’01, ’02 and ’03. In 1901 he was a second team All-American and in 1902 and 1903 he was a first team All-American. He was also named to the exclusive Harvard All-Time Player Squad, as an end, in 1903. Bowdich's father, also Edward, Harvard class of 1869, was a founding member of the Oneida Football Club, and one of the seven surviving members when the Oneida Football Monument was placed in the Boston public Garden in 1925. "Walter Camp of Yale, football authority, acknowledged the Oneida were the first to organize football in this country. Parke Davis, Princeton '93, in his exhaustive book on football, published in 1911 gives the earliest date of an intercollegiate game as 1869, the game between Princeton and Rutgers, seven years after the organization of the Oneida club." (quote from The Boston Globe, November 7, 1923).

Thomas Hetherington Graydon played for the varsity in ’00, ’01 and ’02, and was a first team All-American in 1901 and 1902.

Daniel Knowlton played for the varsity in ’02, ’03 and ’05, when he was acting captain. Knowlton was a second team All-American in 1902 and a first team All-American in 1903. He was also named to the exclusive Harvard All-Time Players Squad, as a tackle, in 1903. Knowlton was on the Committee of Football H Men, and was heavily involved in contributing to and distributing Morris Bealle’s book “The History of Football at Harvard". Knowlton is pictured in this book opposite page 512. We have more than a passing interest in Knowlton as he and his family were from the small town in Massachusetts that I raised my sons in.

Walter Smith Sugden, played for the varsity in 1902.

John Dudley Clark, played for the varsity in 1900 and 1902.

David Alonzo Baldwin played for the varsity in 1901.

Leo Jameson Daly, played for the varsity in 1902.

Alfred Stillman, played for the varsity in 1900 and 1902. He also played varsity baseball in 1900, 1901, 1902 and 1903.

Guy Lincoln Jones, played for the varsity in 1901.

Additional class football team members include:

McGrew

Hersey

Derby

Sprague

McDonald

Randolph

Riggs

Fox

Waterbury

Knowles

Johnny Poe and the U.S.S. Princeton , 1907

1907, and Johnny Poe* was again becoming restless. The soldier of fortune heard of a war brewing between Honduras and Nicaragua and made his way from Nevada, where he was mining, to board a steamer out of San Francisco for Nicaragua, to join up with their Army. The steamer docked in Honduras first and Johnny decided to join up with their army instead. He was quoted later as saying, “No matter where or on what side, they are both usually wrong, so it doesn’t make much difference which one chooses”.

During the war Johnny was captured by Nicaragua and was held on a charge of spying, and according to one source he was threatened with a firing squad. After two days of “rough” questioning, the Nicaraguans released him stipulating that he had 48 hours to leave the county.

“In one of those impossible twists of fate that seemed to follow him”, he was rescued by the American gunboat, the U.S.S. Princeton.

As the story goes, the commander of the U.S.S. Princeton told Poe, after giving him permission to board, to bring along his luggage. Johnny told him he had fifty four pieces, to which the commander exclaimed that he was not running a freighter. Poe told him not to get too excited as “my fifty four pieces consist of one pair of socks and a pack of playing cards”.

Upon his return to the U.S., Johnny had now become a veteran of five wars. A news article written in 1907 about Poe’s exploits was appropriately titled, “Looking For Trouble”, and subtitled, “Strenuous Life of One of The Famous Poes”.

His next war, WWl would be his sixth and last, as he was killed in action on September 25, 1915 at the Battle of Loos, as a member of the Black Watch, British Expeditionary Force.

We have a passion for sports related silk ribbons from the 19^th century. Although this scarce and attractive ribbon (in Princeton's colors) falls outside of that classification, its association to Johnny Poe and this great story made it of interest to us. 

*Johnny Poe, one of six brothers who played football for Princeton (see related posts on Johnny Poe and his brothers in this blog, including Jan 22, 2023, Dec 25, 2020, Dec 31, 2020, Mar 23, 2014, Feb 13,2014) ).

Princeton Loving Cup C.1877 / James A. Campbell

 

Princeton loving cup, of porcelain, c. 1877, having belonged to James A. Campbell, '77, whose initials are finely decorated in gold on one side (JAC), the Princeton shield on another, and Princeton, the Princeton shield and Tiger and ’77 on the other. This very rare example is a diminutive 2 ¾” in height, is highly detailed and has a far more impressive presence than its dimensions would suggest.

Campbell was the class president of '77 all of his four years at Princeton, and remained so for a half century beyond.  Campbell Hall on the Princeton campus was built and named for him while he was still living. Nearly all of the funds for the dormitory were raised in one hour at the class of '77s thirtieth reunion. Two years later, Campbell Hall was completed and occupied. Campbell was the President of the Princeton Athletic Association, 1876 – 1877, Treasurer of the Princeton Athletic Club, 1875 – 1876, played first base on the Princeton University Baseball Club, 1874 – 1875, rowed freshman crew at the number three position, 1874 and 1875, rowed for the University crew at the number 2 position, 1876, and substituted on the University Twenty Football Team 1876 – 1877.

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.