1880s-1890s Football Memorabilia

VintagePigskin

Hello everyone,

I wanted to start a thread concerned solely with old-time football memorabilia and items from the 1880s and 1890s. Does anyone have any interesting gems in their collections they've come across over the years they'd like to write about?

cfhofer

I collect pre-1900 college football autographs and photos. Here is a signed photo of Pat O'Dea, who was an All-American kicker and fb for Wisconsin from 1898-99. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1962.

Stone193

Wish I did.

Would be nice to see some more discussions on stuff "like" this.

I think you'd have a chance to discuss over at net54?

I've seen guys discuss older equipment that was anything but protective.

That Pat O'Dea is a beauty! Is it me or was the FB bigger back then? Who's Gordon Foster?

ReggieCleveland

<< <i>I collect pre-1900 college football autographs and photos. Here is a signed photo of Pat O'Dea, who was an All-American kicker and fb for Wisconsin from 1898-99. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1962.

>>



Did they have green ink pens pre-1962? (honest question)

Stone193

<< <i>Did they have green ink pens pre-1962? (honest question) >>

Did Ty Cobb traditionally sign in green ink?

otwcards

Here are a couple of Pop Warner related items from his days at Cornell...

A 5x7 cabinet:




And an 11x14 Imperial sized cabinet sans the mounting matte:

cfhofer

The O'dea photo was signed later life, probably around 1940s.

cfhofer

Very nice Pop Warner photos. Thanks for sharing.

cfhofer

Here is a banquet menu (front and back) signed by the 1893 Princeton championship football team after their upset win against Yale. For those who collect 1894 Mayo football cards you will notice 9 signatures from that set.



Mark

scooter729

I've been collecting early Harvard items since I began working at Harvard several years ago. Here are some of my football-related items:

1894 Harvard football pennant - one of the earliest pennants of any variety I have seen.
1903 panoramic of the opening day of Harvard's Soldier Field stadium (still in use!)
1882-83 Harvard baseball and football team photos
Various ticket stubs, postcards and programs



1900 Harvard football team cabinet photo

Stone193

This is great stuff guys!

I went to Columbia and visited the Harvard campus - Cambridge is a cool place to attend school. Way nice than where the campus is in NYC.

cfhofer

Those are an amazing group of Harvard photos Scooter! Here is my oldest Harvard piece - an 1876 Yale-Harvard football program. Really it's nothing more than a folded piece of thick paper. Of note...This was the first football game that Theodore Roosevelt ever attended (he was a college freshman at Harvard).





Cheers

Mark

QUITCRAB

Worchester Mass. 1897? Any help

cfhofer

Here is an 1893 Princeton-Pennsylvania football program I recently picked up.