Book p/u - A History of Yale Athletics, Copyright 1888

[CarltonHendricks]

I picked up this pretty cool book on eBay a couple weeks ago, came today. Got if from Bart White, who I occasionally run into at shows around the Bay Area.

I think I may have heard of it before but it's the first copy I'd ever seen....I wanted to see how rare so I emailed Tom Cardiopoli in Cape Cod who is very knowledgeable...his eBay user name is walnutts. Tom said it was the first example he'd ever seen and that it was very rare... I found another on the web for $5,000.00. It was Walter Camp's personal copy...with his notations.

I looked up the author R.M. Hurd...there's a wiki on him I paste below:

Richard Melancthon Hurd (1865–1941) was a pioneer real estate economist and political activist.

Hurd was born in New York City on June 14, 1865 and attended St. Paul's School.[1] He graduated from Yale University in 1888,[2][3] where he was a member of Skull and Bones and editor of the Yale record.[4] He headed the mortgage department of the U.S. Mortgage & Trust Company in 1895.[5] He married in 1898 and had five children.[1][3] He was president of the Lawyers' Mortgage Insurance Company in 1903 when he published Principles of City Land Values.[6]

During the First World War he was active as an officer of the American Defense Society, an organization that promoted America's entry into World War I and civilian initiatives to suppress dissent during the conflict. He was a close friend of Theodore Roosevelt. In 1917, when he was vice=president and director of the Mortgage Bond Company of New York,[3] he was appointed a New York State Prison Commissioner.[3] He was later President of Lawyers Mortgage Trust, a securitizer of urban commercial property mortgages. The company suffered financial losses and closed during the depression.

He died on June 6, 1941 in a New York City hospital. He had been ill for more than a month.[1]

It's in pretty decent shape, the worst is a 3/4" tear at the top of the binding...the rest not bad, binding's pretty strong, no loose pages.

There's a strange letter left inside that asks for assistance in "examining the whole subject of college athletics" by filling out a questionnaire, which is missing...the letter claims it's authors, (three men who undersigned the letter) were appointed a committee by "the college faculty". The strange part is the letter states it was written from "Cambridge, May 19, 1887"....Cambridge is the home of Harvard....but the book's about Yale!?! I guess when I get the energy I'll have to look into who the three undersigned men were, their names below:
John Williams White (Bart's great great grandfather)
W.S. Chaplin
Albert Bushnell Hart

[Old Hoss]

Thanks for posting this, Carlton. What a great pickup!

I just came across this article, not sure if you have seen it before. It does not explain the letter inside your book, but shows that people at Harvard were paying attention to Hurd's publication when it came out:

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/18...-have-done-in/

Best,
Charles

[Old Hoss]

Another interesting article mentioning Hurd's book, which also includes a paragraph about the Yale fence:

http://theharvardcrimson.com/article...se-ball-is-at/

[CarltonHendricks]

Originally Posted by Old Hoss

Another interesting article mentioning Hurd's book, which also includes a paragraph about the Yale fence:

http://theharvardcrimson.com/article...se-ball-is-at/

Hoss, very good to know...good digging....quite an endorcement from their rival! Thanks for sharing that....and speaking of that old subject "The Yale Fence"...just today as I was researching a Tiffany flask I recently got I came across a photo of an 1891 trophy made by Tiffany that has an engraving of the fence!
9 7/8" tall
Presented to
Our Class Boy
Allen Trafford Klots
By the Class of 88'
Yale College
June 23. 1891