1892 St. John's Military Academy Football Team / Bill Edwards

William “Big Bill” Edwards is best known for authoring one of the best known books on 19^th century football, Football Days, published in 1916. Edwards played on two National Championship teams while at Princeton in 1898 and 1899, captaining the later.

A little known fact was that Edwards’s first experience playing football was at St. John’s Military Academy in 1892. Much better known are his playing days at Lawrenceville and then for Princeton. The pictured photo is the first team that Edwards played on (he is at the far right). He wrote about this time that “I was only seventeen years of age and weighed 217 pounds”, large even for college players at this time.

This is the largest football albumin photograph we have come across, by far. We had it framed to protect it, which matted out several inches to the dimensions, and yet the sight still measures  21 1/2“x 16“. A significant photograph of a significant football figure.

Dr. Robert M. Lurie, February 24, 1931 – February 10, 2019

To the man who took me to my first professional football game, to see the Patriots at Harvard Stadium -  to my first and last professional hockey games at the old Boston Garden, when Orr, Sanderson and Cheevers were all playing -  and took me to watch the Celtics run the floor, with Bill Russel, Sam Jones, and company -   thank you for that and for a lifetime of great memories.  Dad, we will all miss you.

1892 Yale Football Team Photo Mitchell C. Lilley Jr.

This 1892 team photo is from an extensive collection of football, Yale, Lawrenceville and family photographs and documents all originating from Mitchell C. Lilley, Jr.  Lilley is pictured in this photo, his name being misspelled as Lilly on the mat (see photo below). Additionally, among those listed that appear on the Mayo Cut Plug football card set of 1894 are Beard, Hinkey, McCrea, Buttersworth, Armstrong, Stillman, Adee and Greenway. A pretty rare photo that we were lucky to come across.

                                                         Period cabinet photo of Lilley.

                                                                     M.C. in uniform.

We always loved these muscular football back poses. They are very hard to come by. M.C. Lilley posing.

Mitchell with his brother Alexander S. Lilley. Alexander played quarterback and end for the Princeton Tigers in 1889 and also served as Ohio State University's first football coach.

Boating photos with Francis Edward Barbour (football Y in 1890 and 1891) '92S at the wheel. In top photo Heffelfinger is second to his right. Also identified on the back are Isaac Chauncey McKeever, '93 and Oliver Peter Nicola, '93. 

Antique Walnut Folio Stand C.1855

If you are like us you have drawers, bins and larger piles of sports ephemera in any number of rooms. Our problem became the storing of larger photos in the upright position, rather than piled one on top of the other. The pictured walnut folio stand, circa 1855,  was a beautiful solution to our problem and fit in perfectly with the collection.  It stores the largest photographs and broadsides, and each side opens to many angles, including laying flat in order to find or view what we are putting in to it.

1891 Tiffany Silver Yale Match Safe

It was a hot and very humid day at Brimfield today (Sept 4), but it was worth the hours spent and the miles walked in the heat to come away with the match safe pictured above.

This is a Tiffany silver match safe commemorating the year’s record for the 1891 Yale football team (Yale 492, Opponents 0), and the games and scores against Harvard (Yale 10, Harvard 0) and Princeton (Yale 19, Princeton 0).  We knew of two examples of this marvelous match safe previously, one coming out of Leland’s in 2002 (having belonged to Frederick William Wallace) and the other snuck through virtually unnoticed at Julia’s in 2014 (having belonged to William Herbert Corbin and now in the possession of Tiffany's private collection).

All three of the match safes being handmade show artist variations in the work, and of course differ in their monograms.

This particular match safe belonged to William Burnet Wright, Jr., class of ’92. Wright earned his football letter and was the president of the Yale Football Association in 1891. He was also the Captain of the Yale Athletic Association team 1890 - 1891, the half-mile run being his specialty. 

These match safes were presented to team members and coaches on February 26, 1892 at a dinner at Madison Square Garden, attended by 400 individuals,  held to honor Walter Camp for his service to Yale's football team and to the University. It was at this banquet that Camp was also presented with the famous Tiffany silver loving cup with three players supporting a football on their backs (McClung, Hefflefinger and Bayne posed for artists at Tiffany, and their likenesses are represented on the cup).

Note (added May 01, 2022): In December of 1890, an exhibition game was played between the Yale ’91 and Alonzo Stagg’s Springfield Christian Workers as part of a larger organized sporting event. This took place indoors at Madison Square Garden and was considered to be the first indoor football game. William Wright played RE in this historic match. The Yale roster for the game was Hartwell, Funk, Hefflefinger, Lewis, Adams, Ely, Wright, Twombly, Williams, McClintock and B. Morison. Springfield’s roster included James Naismith (inventor of basketball) playing center and Stagg playing FB as well as coaching. Referee for the game was Alexander Moffat (Princeton). Yale won over Springfield 16 to 10.

1878 Trinity vs. Yale Football Program

I have never asked Jacob which of our football programs is his favorite, but this one is mine. It is quite early in the scheme of American football, and there are a number of things about it that appeal to me. It is a tremendously scarce example, being the only program from this game we are aware of. It is a vibrant orange, as opposed to the muted pastel beige, blue or white colors normally associated with 1870’s programs, and what makes it very unusual and of particular interest to me is the fact that it calls out four Yale players that played for Trinity, as Trinity did not have enough people to form a team (at this time fifteen men on a side was generally the norm). From Yale, playing for Trinity, were Crouch (Forward), Hill (Half back), Bacon (Forward) and Wilson (Forward). Bacon went on to play for the varsity from 1879 through 1883.

On November 9, 1878, Yale played Trinity College at Hamilton Park. Accounts of the game numbered the crowd only in the low hundreds, one of the reasons for this programs rarity.

On November 13, a second game, this time at Hartford (Baseball Grounds) was played between Yale and Trinity. Again Yale supplied four players to their opponent, changing out Crouch and Bacon for Miller and Fuller. The biggest difference in this game was that Walter Camp played for Yale, scoring two goals. This game was played “in presence of a small assembly”.

Of the six games Yale played in 1878, two were against Trinity, two against Amherst and one each against Harvard and Princeton (Yale’s only loss was to Princeton; they also had one draw with Amherst). Walter Camp (Captain) did not play in the first game against Trinity or in the second game against Amherst, being “away”. It appears the two games with Yale were Trinity’s only games of the year.

See also related blog entries dated August 17, 2013 and January 24, 2014.

Josh Hartwell of Yale

John Augustus Hartwell, better known by his nickname “Josh”, was one of Yale’s more noteworthy athletes. Hartwell played at the end position on the varsity football teams of 1889, 1890 and 1891, being named an All-American in 1891. A prominent oarsman, he rowed in 1888, 1889 and 1890 all at the #4 position, and in 1892, while captaining the varsity, and as a senior in the Medical School, at the #6 position. He did not row in 1891.

Hartwell Entered Yale as a freshman in 1886 at 16 years of age, a member of the class of ’89s. He subsequently graduated Yale Medical School with his M.D. in 1893. For roughly four decades he practiced and taught surgery (mainly associated with Cornell Medical School), his experience and credentials second to none, and during WWI was a major in the Medical Corps serving in Europe.

Hartwell continued in various capacities after graduating from Yale in coaching and instructing for both their Football and Crew, especially during the 1890s. It was the practice at that time, for many of the graduates who were stars in their respective sports to return to assist in these duties, particularly when looking over candidates for the varsity or preparing for big games and competitions. Hartwell was the head coach for Yale in 1895 (national champions) and had also coached Lehigh in 1892 and was the head football coach for Navy in 1893 and NYU in 1894. The man never rested.

See also blog entries for August 23, 2016 and September 24, 2014. 

Oversized 10” x 13” Pach albumin of Sherwood Bissell Ives, ‘93 (L), Captain of the 1893 crew and Josh Hartwell, Captain of the 1892 Crew, “at the fence.” 

                                                Close up of Hartwell from the photo above

                                                                 The Yale Boathouse 

                                                Hartwell football cabinet photo, "at the fence"