1905/6 Eddie Collins Pre Rookie Columbia Team Imperial Cabinet

[bcbgcbrcb]

Rhys indicated that he has a photo of the same Columbia football team, once he posts his, let's see if the uniforms match. That will still not prove that Collins is in the photo but at least we know if the correct team is being identified.

Also, from the 1905/06 game scores that were provided, that team went 4-3-2, I highly doubt that record would be good enough for city champs, not sure who the competition was though (not their game opponents but to be considered for city champs).

The photo of Collins added alongside is definitely him but not the player pictured in the team photo.


Here is a clip from an online baseball biography website:

After his junior year, Collins played briefly for the Philadelphia Athletics, using the name "Sullivan" to avoid losing his college eligibility. But, when he returned to school in the fall of 1906, he found that he had been ruled ineligible for playing as a semi-professional. Unable to play, he coached the Columbia baseball team during his senior year.

[earlybball]

Hi Phil, thanks for the reply. It will be interesting to see Rhys' scan which should put it to bed one way or another.

Until then I would like to make a few more observations.

On whether they were good enough to be NY's best football team, they were. All but one of Columbia's wins were against NY opposition (going 3-0 against their immediate rivals). Their losses were mainly against the big Ivy League teams like Yale, Princeton and Amherst (see the results schedule in my 2nd e-mail).

On his eligibility, Collins was banned from the 1906/07 season (Graduated in 1907 before returning to the A's). I believe the Columbia photo was taken at the end of the academic school year of 1905/06 (I.E. January 06).

[bcbgcbrcb]

I'm not sure where the split date of 1905/06 is coming from. The photo shows a 1906 date and your 1905 schedule provided includes all games from 1905, none in 1906. I believe that if the photo pictured the 1905 squad as you seem to think then the date on the ball would say 1905. I believe that this team was the 1906 squad, likely playing from September - November, 1906, when Collins was not eligible.

[barrysloate]

Hi Jason- hope you are well. I didn't want to be the only one to disagree, since you were getting congratulations from everyone. But my first reaction was that doesn't even look close to Eddie Collins, save the fact that the player in your picture has big ears. I'll have to go with the opinion that it is not him. And I did no research on the team, I simply made an observation.

[VintageBall]

Here's the same photo that Al has, only this one is trimmed and is dated 1908 on the reverse:

[bcbgcbrcb]

As Mark said, the lips are a dead giveaway, you cannot see one of Eddie's ears in the cabinet card due to the angle of his head so you cannot make a good determination based on comparing the ears to that photo.

[HTBB]

The attached photo clip is from Rick Huhn's wonderful book "Eddie Collins" (page 24) published by McFarland. Please note the caption. I am an avid Collins collector and, although that is a neat cabinet, I do not feel that is Collins in the original posted cabinet photo.

Mike
collins football.jpg

[vintagesportscollector]

Originally Posted by bcbgcbrcb

I'm not sure where the split date of 1905/06 is coming from. The photo shows a 1906 date and your 1905 schedule provided includes all games from 1905, none in 1906. I believe that if the photo pictured the 1905 squad as you seem to think then the date on the ball would say 1905. I believe that this team was the 1906 squad, likely playing from September - November, 1906, when Collins was not eligible.

As much as I'd like this to be the Columbia U team and Collins too, I'd have to agree with others that I don't think it is. The key point will be seeing if the uniforms match, but the point above about the year of the ball is the most compelling argument against. I am not sure either why a split date is even being used. The record is from 1905 and didn't split across two years - I can't see why there would be any reason the ball would say 1906 if it was for the 1905 seaon. I am afraid your are seeing what you want to see and fitting this data in the conclusion you would like, but it just doesn’t fit. Columbia didn't play football in 1906. "City Champions" also doesn't seem very logical since none of their opponents in 1905 were even in NYC. Maybe the picture from Rhys will show otherwise, but not much here yet to conclude this is Columbia U.