Ode to Pre-War Football Cardboard

[cfhofer]

Hey guys,

When I acquired the Gelbert estate last year there was an old hairbrush included in the lot. I knew it was some sort of football award based on the center emblem ("UofP 1896"). However it was so nasty I just tossed it aside and thought nothing of it. It sat in my desk drawer for at least a month or so when my wife saw it one day and said the metal looked liked tarnished silver. Knowing absolutely nothing about jewelry, I spent the following weekend polishing it with a cotton ball and Goddard's Silver polish cream. Needless to say the brush is now proudly displayed with my other treasures.

Posted are before and after pics. The inscription along the top are Charles Gelbert's initials (CSGJr.) and along the bottom is his position that year (Left Half Back).

Mark

[TanksAndSpartans]

Nice item! I just googled him - an early pro player as well - he should have been in the Mayo set.

[cfhofer]

Thanks John. Penn was not yet at the same caliber of play as Harvard, Yale and Princeton in 1894 - hence their likely omission from the Mayo set. However from 1894-98 they were dominant (arguably second to only Yale).

Gelbert's grandson and I wrote an article regarding Charles Gelbert in the Fall 2015 issue of Gridiron Greats, if interested in learning more about him.

[TanksAndSpartans]

Thanks Mark - I'll add that to my GG back order list.

So do you think Mayo got it right? Harvard, Yale, and Princeton were the top teams? If they had just wanted to include top players instead, was there an All-American team they could have looked at or that didn't exist?

[cfhofer]

Caspar Whitney (along with Walter Camp) started the "All-American" team selection in 1889. The vast majority of these players were from the Big Three until 1894, when Penn went undefeated and beat Harvard 18-4. In 1894 there were 3 or 4 (depending on which source) Penn All-Americans.

I think Mayo did pretty well overall. They used the 1893 team photos for their cards.

[TanksAndSpartans]

Thanks Mark - great info.

[jefferyepayne]

Boy that piece cleaned up nicely, Mark! Great pickup.

I grabbed this commemorative watch last night in Heritage. Gus Welch was Jim Thorpe's roommate at Carlisle, also a member of the 1912 Olympic team, AA QB at Carlisle, and QB for the Canton Bulldogs before going to law school and having a long career as a football/lax coach.





jeff

[clamendo]

Originally Posted by cfhofer

Hey guys,



When I acquired the Gelbert estate last year there was an old hairbrush included in the lot. I knew it was some sort of football award based on the center emblem ("UofP 1896"). However it was so nasty I just tossed it aside and thought nothing of it. It sat in my desk drawer for at least a month or so when my wife saw it one day and said the metal looked liked tarnished silver. Knowing absolutely nothing about jewelry, I spent the following weekend polishing it with a cotton ball and Goddard's Silver polish cream. Needless to say the brush is now proudly displayed with my other treasures.



Posted are before and after pics. The inscription along the top are Charles Gelbert's initials (CSGJr.) and along the bottom is his position that year (Left Half Back).



Mark

Well many years ago I picked up this lineup card that were inserted in the Philadelphia Inqurer from Ron Barksdale. The closest thing to a championship game was the Thanksgiving day game. In 1895, you are correct Penn was a powerhouse
Out scoring opponents 480-24, they were 14-0 and crushed Cornell in this game 46-2! Interestingly enough Wharton (I assume related to the Wharton School of Business) and your buddy Gelbert are pictured on the Penn side of the ball. I wonder why they didn't play Yale.

[cfhofer]

Carl,

That is a great lineup card. Charles "Buck" Wharton was another Penn All-American in 1895 and 1896. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1963. Below is an 1894 Penn team photo, with Wharton in the back far right.

"I wonder why they didn't play Yale"....Likely because of graduate students playing for Penn.

In 1893 Yale commented after a tightly fought contest that Penn players were "mature married men, age twenty-two to thirty, one with a child eight years old". The Intercollegiate Football Association (where Yale had a heavy influence) made attempts to restrict the use of graduate students at the end of that season, therefore Penn withdrew from the league. In 1894 only six of the eleven Penn starters were students of the College (undergraduates).

Yale didn't play Penn for over thirty years after that 1893 game.


Mark

[clamendo]

He looks like a pretty tough customer. That would have been a heck of a game in 1895. Yale (13-0-2) vs. Penn (14-0)....wow !

[Angyale]

Mark,

When Win Osgood left Cornell in 1892 he enrolled at Penn in 1893 and 1894 and played football for them. Likely his 6th or 7th year playing college football. Does he appear in your photo?

Eric

[jefferyepayne]

Great pickups, Carl and Mark!

Finally snagged this 1905 Rotograph of Fielding Yost.



Love what someone wrote on the front about Yost!

"More Prominent than the President"

jeff

[cfhofer]

Jeff: That is my favorite photo of Yost. As a huge Michigan collector and fan, you couldn't post a better picture on this forum. Very cool piece. Congrats!

Eric: Osgood is not in that photo, but he was on the 1893 and 1894 Penn teams. Here is another 1894 Penn photo I acquired from the George H. Brooke estate. Brooke is seated in the center, middle row. Osgood is to the left of him.