OT: Help with Identifying New Jersey Baseball Team?

[smokelessjoe]

I posted this in the pick-up thread on the other side and have since tried to figure out what team this may be. The sign reads "Lyceum F.C. Perth Amboy N.J.". Any ideas on what the "FC" stands for? I would think the "C" is college but again I am having trouble with this other than Fordham College and that doesn't seem to make sense??

Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks

[smokelessjoe]

I found this 1927 article referring to this team "Perth Amboy Lyceum" as a semi-professional ball team. Interestingly it refers to Ed Brown manager as "popular sports leader", any guess as to who this is? Any ideas as to the date of the Cabinet Photo?

Thanks
Shawn

[slidekellyslide]

Probably a school team...on the steps of a building is almost always a high school or college team. In this case I would guess High School. I saw something on the google that "Lyceum FC" was a German club.

[smokelessjoe]

Thanks Dan,

Upon closer inspection I can see "1906" written on the back?? Also, I looked through a Loupe and could see "Spalding" written on the bat and what appears to be the words or word "Gold Mean" underneath the word Spalding??? It is very hard to make out what the second phrase is... Thats my best guess, I figured that might be enough for a "bat" guy to translate.

11 names on the back but I can only make out 7 for sure.

O'hara ???
Golden ??
Deegan ??
Dwyer
Yank
O'mara
Dahl
Carroll
Wagner
Antonides

[judsonhamlin]

Deegan makes sense - they are an old Amboy family. The FC may be a "fraternal club" that hosted the team. Great photo. Too bad there isn't more of the building showing. Enjoy

[slidekellyslide]

Probably says "Gold Medal".

[smokelessjoe]

Judson, Thanks that is good to hear about the Deegan family... I am going to research "fraternal club", I do not know why I did not think of that.
Thanks again

Dan, Thanks... That has got to be it. Again, I do not know why I did not think of that. Sometimes when you try to read real deep into something, you miss what is staring you right in the face!

A side note: Of the guys hats I can see, two have the letter "P" and two have the letter "L". ???

[Butch7999]

"FC" first and most immediately suggests "football club," meaning soccer -- the abbreviation is ubiquitous among soccer teams. The article Shawn posted mentions Keystone AA -- surely "Athletic Association." It was fairly common way back when for men's clubs, youth clubs, &c', to field teams in several sports, often with the same amateur athletes. Maybe this group was first formed as a soccer club, then dabbled successfully in baseball and perhaps other sports as well.

[vintagesportflips]

My first thoughts when looking at the photo was also that the FC stood for football club, but fraternal club makes sense too. The reason I thought football club (american football, but I guess soccer is possible as well), was that you can see alot of the players are wearing a long sleeve striped shirt with LYCEUM lettered on the front, under their baseball uniform that is lettered as well. I think this would be odd to wear two different lettered uniforms in layers. My thought was this organization had both football and baseball teams, and perhaps it was an early season cold weather game, so the players wore their football sweaters under their baseball uniforms. Just a guess on my part.

[smokelessjoe]

Thanks for the great input guys.

I to thought about the way the team is wearing two types of uniforms... But when I saw that the hats were different also, that made me think the team had separate uniforms perhaps for away games??? The dark hats have the letter "L" and the white hats have the letter "P". It certainly seems this team had some money backing them up?

Also the two baseballs that are being held up by the two guys, appear to be black or dark in color?

I am researching any football or soccer reference... Does 1906 seem like a valid date???

[smokelessjoe]

Also, I did find this info on Dummy Deegan.... Could it be? He was deaf and played MLB for one year in 1901. Here below is his stats for a Minor League team the "1907 Jersey City Skeeters".


Dummy Deegan
William Joseph Deegan Bats: Unknown , Throws: Unknown
Born: November 16, 1874 in Bronx, NY, US
Died: May 17, 1957 in Bronx, NY,
Major League Stats

Minors PitchingGlossary · Click headers to sort · CSV · PRE ·
Year Age Tm Lg Lev Aff W L W-L% ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP BF WHIP H/9 HR/9 BB/9 SO/9 SO/BB
1907 32 Jersey City EL A none 2 4 .333 6 39.0 27 16 8 0.897 6.2 1.8
1 Season 2 4 .333 6 39.0 27 16 8 0.897 6.2 1.8

A 7890 value in the totals indicates career mark is incomplete.

[smokelessjoe]

Here is a sporting life article from 1907... Talks about Lyceums and refers to a Field Club.



Sporting Life 1914 Talks about the Perth Amboy Team and Dick Hennessey.

[smokelessjoe]

I contacted the local Perth Amboy historical society some time ago asking for any info they could provide about the cabinet photo. I have copied there response below along with two images that they manipulated and perhaps made it easier to see.

Quite interesting and I thought you folks would like to read...

"The Lyceum movement was started by Josiah Holbrook who wrote an article in American Journal of Education (October 1826) containing a plan for "Associations of Adults for Mutual Education." It was an important phase of the early adult education and public school movements, utilizing, principally, lectures and debates. Holbrook began the first lyceum society in November 1826 at Millbury, Mass. Many more lyceums had originated such as in Worcester County, Mass., and in Windham County, Conn. The movement was given a boost by a meeting of prominent Bostonians, presided over by Daniel Webster, in 1828. By 1831 lyceums came about in all the New England states and in northern New York. State lyceums were organized in 1831 in Massachusetts, Maine, and New York, and in the same year the New York State Lyceum called a meeting in New York City to organize a national lyceum.

The word “Lyceum” comes from ancient Greece where the Lyceum was a school where Aristotle taught.

The supplementary education of those who attended the lyceum was usually grades 9-12. Besides improving the public schools and giving a supplementary education to those unable to attend high school or college, the early lyceums led to some permanent institutions, for instance the Lowell Institute in Massachusetts and Brooklyn Institute in New York.

The photograph was taken outside of what is now the Administration Building at 123 Barracks Street. This school was once a Perth Amboy Grammar School. Before it was a grammar school it was the headquarters for the British Army hence the name Barrack’s Street. It was torn down in the late 1800’s and the grammar school was built.

The Lyceum Program was popular in Perth Amboy as in many other smaller communities. The Lyceum movement hoped to enrich the lives of America’s youth in many aspects as well as athletics. Like many other cities Perth Amboy had many baseball teams and organizations that sponsored them in the early 1900’s. The Lyceum organization was one of them. The photo you sent us shows one aspect of the Lyceum organization in Perth Amboy – their baseball team.

There were many other baseball teams in Perth Amboy in early 1900’s such as American Smelting and Refinery as well as General Cable which played in the same league. Many immigrants played baseball. The Raritan Copperworks sponsored baseball teams as well. Many workers of factories and so forth played in the industrial league. The industrial league, like the Marinos, which was a factory team that launched the careers of many semi-professional baseball players such as Mr. Galvin who went professional and Mr. Connolly who also went professional."

[bmarlowe1]

Note that there are no known images of Dummy Deegan.