William Clarence Mathews and Harvard
 

As part of a larger trade I had a 7 page manuscript thrown in, dealing with the 1902 Harvard Base Ball Season, apparently written for the Harvard Graduate magazine.
My original interest was in the references to Cy Young, who coached the pitchers and Willie Keeler, who coached batting and bunting. However, I was very interested to find a reference to Mathews, who turned out to be William Clarence Mathews, one of a very few major college black athletes at the time. He was the Harvard shortstop and starting quarterback on the football team for one of the first black major college coaches, W H Lewis, who is also mentioned in the article. Mathews was so good he has been described as the Jackie Robinson of his age, and the Beaneaters almost used him as a second basemen in 1905.
There is more you can find out Mathews online if interested, and a few more interesting things in the manuscript, e.g. the pitching off Clarkson (Walter) who went on to pitch 5 years for the Highlanders.
I attached photos of 2 sample pages but if interested in more just email me.

Cool stuff.

Thanks Jim, like your Cuurier and Ives also. One of John Thorn’s Our Game blogs had some very interesting info on that print I think.