Estate Sale find; 30s-40s sports gear

[4reals]

Visited an old farmhouse in my hometown of Riverside, Calif. The house was built in the 1800s and was situated between 10 acres of citrus trees. I found myself in a shed in the backyard and in the back corner of the shed was a wooden chest where I found the owner’s (now deceased) high school sporting equipment from the late 30’s and early 40’s. Included was a pair of football pants with a stamp inside that reads “Marvid Service 1934”. The pants have been stitched many times over which ads to the character. The school name Chemawa was drawn on the front leg and sewn into the thighs are a hard material of some kind to serve as thigh pads. The tag on the pants say that the manufacturer is Reach out of Philadelphia. The pants also came with a pair of leather adjustable knee pads lined with wool on the opposite side. Both are stamped with a number 3. The same manufacturing tag in the pants is also found on the inside of the the size 9 baseball spikes. The high top leather football cleats have one shoe missing the tongue and lace. The track shoes with sharp spikes round out the footwear collection. Lastly, there was a deflated basketball with laces. After a quick Google search I discovered they stopped using laces on basketballs in 1937. There are no manufacturing markings imprinted anywhere on the ball that I can see.











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[4reals]

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[4reals]

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[clydepepper]

WOW! But, one question:

What's that New England Patriots football doing in there?

[4reals]

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[NiceDocter]

Great collection. Dont you just bet the guy could tell you about plays he made, games they won and lost, people he played with even 50 years after it happened. Those things were a connection to a beloved past and were cherished by the owner as a link to a life long gone but not forgotten. Cant we all as sports guys relate? May he rest in peace and hope you can preserve as much of his history as you are able.