Help w/ vintage photo - Baseball or Football or?

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Posted By: Keith

Hello all,

I just came across this vintage photo. The photo is 5 x 7 is mounted to a board. What sport do you think this is? Also, what era? I am not that great at dating. The young men are wearing turtlenecked jerseys, so I would assume it was a cold weathered sport, and thus I guessed it is football. I guess it could be anything. The pants and footwear don't look like football at all. What do you think about time frame? I was thinking 1890's?.
Also most of the jerseys appear to have a B, on them but the woman? in the right middle row appears to have more of a D on the jersey. One child is wearing a sweater with RIEN A. C. I cant make out the possible letter before the R.

Lastly there is writing on the left side of the photo (on the left border). It actually looks like the photographer wrote it on the negative or something because it is written backwards on the photo. It is very difficult to make out, but after photoshopping it, reversing it, and messing with contrast, I can make out the 2nd of the 2 words, and it is "Buckis".
I was hoping the writing would be a location, or team name or something, but instead I am guessing its the photographers signature.

Any help/opinions would be greatly appreciated. thanks guys, KJ

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Posted By: jay behrens

my money is on a baseball team as there appears to be 9 players in uniform, a mascot and an umpire.

Jay

I like to sit outside, drink beer and yell at people. If I did this at home, I would be arrested. So, I go to baseball games and fit right in.

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Posted By: Keith

Thanks for the input Jay, what do you think about time frame, any ideas?

Keith

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Posted By: Andrew Parks

My money's on a frat house visiting a brothel. Kidding of course...

It does look like a college team of some sort though. Maybe early 20th C?

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Posted By: jay behrens

I'll let David or one of the other photo experts speak on the matting/framing. I don't know much about that area.

Jay

I like to sit outside, drink beer and yell at people. If I did this at home, I would be arrested. So, I go to baseball games and fit right in.

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Posted By: steve f

Terrific old photo. 1890's?

I'm guessin' Hockey "_Bien__" (minors), "AC"= Athletic Club. The kid top center, without Jersey appears to have the dark undersweater and possibly elbowpads? The house looks similar to those found in the Maritime provinces and NE coast ie; shakes rather than clapboard. The player,woman ?, in the center has a "D" emblem. The teams played with a "rover" back then 7 players on ice. Though, the weather looks far too mild for any hockey game as the window is open, banner in the window significant? Was there street hockey back then (dirt hockey).

As far as the year produced, I haven't a clue. I believe they still dress in that fashion up there.

Added; The letter now looks like a 'C and B' morph; Cape Breton in Nova Scotia; Old hockey hot spot. I've had a few C56 cards and that font style was popular with the 1900's Pro hockey clubs.

Even furthur scrutiny reveals "AC" could be an "HC" due to the kids' shirt folds.

Thanks Keith, This is a fun challenge.

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Posted By: Keith

Thanks guys.

I don't think thats a banner in the window. It appears to be an umbrella. I too thought it was a pennant at first glance.

The player in the back row does have a hockey look to him. I think those are stripes on the sleeves that are contiguous with a stripe on the sweater below the chest area, and not elbow pads. That sweater does have a vintage hockey look to it. I guess the players wearing all different type of shoes, that don't look to be of the football or baseball type would make sense, if they hadn't laced up in their skates yet.

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Posted By: Jim F

The sweaters do have a hockey or more likely a lacrosse look to them. Since the weather seems to be milder than hockey weather and someone mentioned an east coast look to the building, lacrosse would be what I would lean towards. The umpire looking guy may be a ref, I don't think the refs in hockey dressed like that. Lacrosse and hockey players wore very similar sweaters and most played both sports. As for dating the piece, it is late 1890's to about 1905. Jim

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Posted By: Keith

What letter do you think lies on the players sweaters? I am not good at all with this type of vintage font. The woman appears to be wearing a D. Do you think the men are wearing a B? or a D?

The child's sweater appears to read RIEN, with a letter in the beginning and a letter at the end which is unreadable. Playing with letter combinations, one possible city I came up with was ORIENT. Orient is a city in Maine. That would fit with the East coast building look as well as the hockey/lacrosse team, but I don't see how that fits with the lettering on the sweaters.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

The photo's from the early 1900s. It may or may not
be a sports team. Could be a local sing/dance/acting team
and the young women were partners. Period colleges
an perhaps high schools had letter sweaters like this, likely
for both sport and non-sport achievers. There's a photo of
Christy Mathewson warming up wearing his like-style Bucknell
sweater.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

I think it's definitely a sports team...The AC on the kids sweater, the elbow pads on the kid at top....It looks like probably before a match or game since none of them have on athletic footwear or pants. I doesn't look baseball to me...it's most likely hockey as someone already pointed out.

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Posted By: martindl

The women are all older than the boys - their mothers by the looks of things, though there may be a sister or two in there also. One Mom is linking her two sons.

Too many dark pants and light shoe combo's to be a coincidence, though it could just be the fashion of the day I guess. I think they're dressed as they would when they do whatever it is they do, so hockey is out, and football, baseball too - lacrosse remains a possibility, field hockey maybe.

My first thought when i saw the picture was that it was a group of 'rooters' for some team - the cheerleaders of their day. I think its that or a dance group as David suggested.

Great photo - lots of history in those peoples' lives.