On October 10th 1931, Stanford played the Minnesota Golden ”Gophers” and this fabulous cover shows the perplexed Stanford Indian trying to figure out what’s going on.
The 1931 Stanford team was coached by the legendary “Pop” Warner.
Darn Varmint!!!
February 1, 2010 by collectableivyThe Stanford Indian in 1949 Football Programs
January 16, 2010 by collectableivyThe Stanford Indian mascot had quite a year in 1949. He was featured on the program cover in various activities preparing for opponents.
It looks like he is going to be outsmarted in this Stanford v. Harvard 1949 cover:
But has a distinct advantage on Berkeley in this Stanford v. California 1949 program:
But looks in a prone position in this program cover of the same year vs. Michigan:
The covers were illustrated by Don Bloodgood and all the games were played at Stanford. It is rare to see such a common theme throughout programs.
Rutgers v. Yale Football Program 1873
January 1, 2010 by collectableivyAs collectors and dealers in old football programs we love the thrill of a new discovery. So it was recently when we stumbled upon a program for sale on eBay for a Rutgers v. Yale Football Program from a game play in 1873 at Hamilton Park in New Haven, CT.
Hamilton Park was the site of many early Yale games (and thus many early football games in the U.S.). Remember that the Harvard v. Yale 1881 program was played at Hamilton Park as was the Columbia v. Yale Program of 1872. This latter program is the oldest program we have ever seen come up for sale, making this Rutgers v. Yale Program the second oldest we’ve seen.
As students of early football history know, Rutgers was involved in the first football game played, which occurred against Princeton in 1869, although no program is believe to have existed for this game.
The program is a simple four page affair and list the players on both teams inside and is 5 3/4 x 4 inches in size.
As far as definitively declaring this the second oldest, we remain wary as collecting is a constant process of discovery and “never say never”. This program does predate another known early program which was Eton v. Yale of 1873. This game occurred in October, beating the Eton game by two months as it was played in December.
The program was listed at a very high price and thus did not sell, so we have no way to determine its true value at this time.
Nice Cover! Harvard Football Program 1936
December 20, 2009 by collectableivyIf you ever wondered how some of the beautiful program covers of past generations were created, here is a little insight. A.B. Savrann, who illustrated Harvard Program covers in the 1930s provides some insight. For sale recently were a series of large paintings done by Savrann which shows how it was done. The beautiful program vs. Princeton is seen below.
He painted on a large size board, in this instance on a 15″ X 21″ board with an image size of 13 1/4″ X 18 1/4″. On the back of the board, it gives instructions on what size to “shrink” to in order to transfer the image onto a program cover.
A nice close up of the Princeton Tiger.
These rare remaining boards give us great insight into how these special programs were created. It’s too bad the quality of current programs is so poor with simple photos of players featured on most. All the creativity has been sapped out.
Got Milk?
December 10, 2009 by collectableivy
We stumbled across this fabulous advertisement for Milk in a Stanford v. California (“Big Game”) program from 1966
Princeton Wedgwood Plates
December 4, 2009 by collectableivyLooking through an old Princeton Commencement program from 1930 we stumbled across an ad for Wedgwood Princeton Plates. The Ad is for “Staffordshire Blue Princeton Plates made by Wedgwood,” and they adversite that each plate bears a different Princeton View.
Sold by subscription only in complete sets of one dozen. The proceeds from the sale of the plates was used to publish The Princeton War Record. The plates were $15.00 for the dozen.
There is a little mail in coupon you clip off and include a $5 deposit. The check was mailed to the Office of the Secretary at Princeton University indicating that these plates were endorsed by the university.
The border on these dinner plates ia a direct reproduction of that used on the 1830 series of armorial plates designed by T. Mayer of Stoke-upon-Trent.
We have a nice selection of Wedgwood plates from Ivy League schools at our website:
Happy Thanksgiving
November 21, 2009 by collectableivy
A nice thanksgiving themed cover on this Harvard v. Yale football program from their meetin on November 21, 1941.
Happy Halloween
October 31, 2009 by collectableivy
Early College Football Program – Princeton v. Stevens 1875
October 17, 2009 by collectableivyThis very rare Princeton v. Stevens college program from 1875 sold recently at auction for $600. The program is four pages and this particular program has come apart. Never-the-less, an 1875 program in any condition is quite rare.
This game was played at Princeton. The Stevens Institute of Technology is a college based in Hoboken, New Jersey founded in 1870, specializing in the sciences.
Other early football programs:
Harvard v. Yale 1891
October 2, 2009 by collectableivyWe thought of the popular game show To Tell the Truth recently when looking at some Harvard v. Yale Football Programs from 1891. The premise of the game show was to have multiple contestants answer questions posed by celebrities. Only one contestant was the actual person they were posing to be, leaving the tag line at the end of the show “Will the real [person's name] please stand up?”
Below are two wildly different formats of a program for the same game. Perhaps one is a program and the other is a scorecard? Except, they both say “score card” on the top.
Perhaps one was issued by each team? Perhaps they were issued by competing companies each being sponsored by a different advertiser?
The actual game day program for the game, a separate and distinct item, was 32 pages and 8 1/2 x 5 inches inches in size and seen below:
