1903 Princeton Football Mogul Cigarette Insert

Sports and tobacco advertising have gone hand in hand for generations. It is very common when we talk of baseball, but quite rare when we consider late 19th, early 20th century football. Besides the 1894 Mayo Cut Plug card set, very little else in this realm is known to exist. The pictured 1903 Mogul Cigarette "insert" is a significant rarity; we have not seen nor are we aware of another example. This is a 21 panel insert that has 18 panels devoted to Princeton Tigers players and personnel. Princeton was 11-0 in 1903 and was retroactively awarded the National Championship. The insert when unfolded measures an astounding 43" in length, each panel measuring 2" x 3 1/2". Of the 16 players pictured, 6 received All-American honors, including Henry, Davis, Short, Kafer, Miller and Captain John DeWitt. Former star player, head coach "Doc" Hillerbrand is also pictured on one of the panels. S.Anargyros was an importer of Egyptian cigarettes and produced the well-known brands Murad, Helmarand and Mogul, amongst others.

Bart Starr 1934 -2019

A true gentleman and one of the all-time greats. Jacob was fortunate to have met Starr on two occasions, and of all of the athletes he met over the years, Starr was clearly one of his favorites. Photo of Jacob and Bart Starr. 2003.

Roxbury Latin School Football Elevens 1883 and 1884

Front row, left to right, Joseph Hamblen Sears, Edmund Channing Stowell, Francis Call Woodman (Captain), Wilder Dwight Bancroft, Arthur Pierce Butler and Oliver Fairfield Wadsworth.

Back row, left to right, John Balch, Thomas Williams Slocum, Franklin Greene Balch, Asaph Churchill and Elliot Hardon.

Front row, left to right, Charles Garrison, Robert Beverly Hale, Elliot Hardon, Moses Williams and Robert Sever Hale.

Back row, left to right, Garceau, George Lewis Batchelder, Thomas Williams Slocum, Hunneman, George Snell Mandell and Bernard Coffin Weld.

Two rare and wonderful oversized albumin cabinet photographs of the Roxbury Latin School Football Elevens for the years 1883 and 1884.  Sight measurements for the 1883 albumin is 16 3/8” x 11 7/8”, and for the 1884 photograph 16 5/8” x 12 ¼”.

We in the hobby are more familiar with schools in New England like Phillips Exeter or Phillips Andover, in large part due to a much greater availability of photographs and ephemera that has become available over the years and to the two school’s well-documented rivalry. In contrast, Roxbury Latin material rarely becomes available in the marketplace. We should however, take note of Roxbury Latin, its football history and its place as an Ivy League feeder school and give it its proper due.

Roxbury Latin is the oldest school in continuous existence in North America, founded in 1645 (as a point of comparison Andover was founded in 1778 and Exeter was established in 1781).

Roxbury Latin was playing the collegiate football game since 1882, and previous to this played the carrying game in the mid-1860s, the Boston Rules game in the mid-1870s and the American Rugby game from 1876 to 1881. In the 1880s an Interscholastic Athletic Association was formed inclusive of Roxbury Latin, St. Mark’s and Hopkinson. It is believed this was the earliest example of such an organization amongst schools at this level of play.

Roxbury sent the overwhelming majority of its students during the 1880s to Harvard.  In fact, of those in the photographs that were able to complete their schooling at Roxbury, over ninety percent went on to attend Harvard.

The following Roxbury players from these two photographs went on to play for the Harvard Varsity Eleven (note: Harvard banned football for the year 1885):

Joseph Hamblen Sears, Harvard ’89, played on the Harvard varsity in 1886, 1887 and 1888. Sears was one of the leading players of the period. He captained the Harvard Eleven in 1888.

Francis Call Woodman, Harvard ’88 and LS, played for the Harvard Eleven in 1886, 1887 and 1888.

Wilbur Dwight Bancroft, Harvard ’88, played for the varsity Eleven in 1887.

Arthur Pierce Butler, Harvard ’88, played for the Varsity Eleven in 1886 and 1887 and also rowed crew these same two years.

Bernard Coffin Weld, Harvard ’89, was the manager of the varsity Eleven in 1888.

Other varsity sports were played by:

 Franklin Greene Balch, Harvard,’88, competed for varsity track in 1888 and crew in 1887.

George Lewis Batchelder, Harvard ’88, was on the varsity track team in 1891 and 1892.

Interesting note: William Burnet Wright, the original owner of the 1891 Yale match safe pictured in our blog posting of September 4, 2018, graduated from the Roxbury Latin School, in 1888. He graduated from Yale in 1892.

I would like to profusely thank and credit The Roxbury Latin School, and Christopher Heaton (Archivist, Librarian, Faculty Member of the History Department and Assistant Coach of the Cross Country/Track & Field) specifically, for furnishing me with copies of team photographs from the 1880s, with all team members identified. Additionally, he also sent me a spreadsheet with the colleges that RLS students moved on to, with their class years. This information was invaluable.

No.2 Association Football c.1879

A leather, No. 2, association football.  The ball is currently under-filled at 18” in circumference, but would easily measure 19” when properly filled. This ball was likely used in games with younger players or non match play.

According to the Peck & Snyder Football Rule Book from 1879, Rule Number 10, “that the average circumference of the Association Football be 27 inches, and not more than 28 inches; that the ball used in matches for the Association Challenge Cup be of this regulation size”.

These balls came in six sizes, ranging in circumference from 16 to 30 inches. An absolute rarity in any size.

A related note:  In 1875, the ball agreed to be used at the first Harvard – Yale football game was the No. 6 ball, specified in the rules as a leather covered ball 30 inches in circumference and less pointed at the ends than the rugby football which was 27 inches in circumference.  At this time, in all match games the No. 6 was used, the ball supplied by the challenging team and becoming the property of the winning team.

                                   Peck & Snyder Rule Book Photo Courtesy of Chris Hornung

St. Paul’s School Intramural Football Clubs c.1909 / Hobey Baker

All students took part in intramural sports at St. Paul’s School in Concord New Hampshire. St. Paul’s was an exclusive boarding school that was a feeder school for the Ivy League.

New students were assigned to one of three athletic clubs, Isthmian, Delphian and Old Hundred.

The pictured photograph shows each of the athletic clubs during the football season, on the field at one time, with all its members (youngest in the back).

The school eleven would be made up of the best amongst the three clubs.

Of particular interest, in the front row for the Isthmian club is Hobey Baker, later considered one of the best football and hockey players in the country, wearing his I jersey. Additionally, many of those in the front two rows are identified in script on the mat.

After St. Paul’s, Baker played football and hockey at Princeton and was inducted into both the College Football Hall of Fame and the United States Hockey Hall of Fame.

For related details on Hobey Baker see blog entry dated June 13, 2015.

A large and fascinating photo measuring  16 3/8” x 10”.

                                                              Baker front and center

1897 University of Maryland Championship Hockey Team

I am including this recently acquired photo as a separate blog entry to encourage readers to revisit an earlier posting of March 23, 2014. In that posting is the identical photo, copied from the 1898 Ice Hockey and Ice Polo Guide.

It is unclear as to whether the photo pictured above was made from the original negative or is copied from an original photo.

This gelatin-silver photo, stamped November 26, 1939 on its reverse measures 13 7/8” x  9 5/8”. It’s size makes it easier to make out the photo’s details.

Also on the reverse, written in script, are the names of the team members.

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.