1897-1899 “Big Game” Stanford v. California Programs

Stanford v. California is one of the oldest rivalries in college football, first played in 1892. A program from their fifth meeting, held in 1897, sold at auction recently for an impressive $3,640.

The game was played in Recreation Park in San Francisco and Stanford won by a score of 28-0. The two teams met on Thanksgiving day between 1896-1899.

The 1898 program sold in 2006 for $1,600 and was also played at Recreation park in San Francisco

 

The Thanksgiving game played in 1899 was also played in San Francisco at the field located at Sixteenth and Folsom. This program sold in 2006 for $1,600.

Each of the programs was originally issued with a tie-string (seen in the 1897 program) to hold it together through the two punched holes.

We have a nice selection of Stanford California vintage programs in stock at www.collectableivy.com

Harvard Yale 1922

There is no way he could have actually kicked the ball given his stance and where his leg is positioned.  The most surprised person in the stadium is the kicker based on the expression on his face, “you mean I actually kicked the ball?”

He was so confused he forgot to put his helmet on.

One of the more desirable and collectible Harvard Yale Programs.

The Dartmouth Indian Part II

Famous Illustrators – John Held, Jr.

John Held, Jr was the preeminent artist of the Jazz Age who was widely published in the New Yorker, Harper’s Bazaar, Life Magazine and Vanity Fair. Held was famous for his depiction of the popular Roaring Twenties dance ‘The Charleston’ and his depictions of college-age women and in particular “the flapper”. 

Held’s images were done in an angular stype. His scantily clad flapper was accepted by scandalized elders as the prototype of modern youth, the symbol of our moral revolution….Week after week in Life and Judge and College Humor, they danced the Charleston with ropes and beads swinging and bracets clanking and legs kicking at right angles…

 A Yale Princeton Program from 1927, cover design by John Held, Jr.

Held lived for a long time near Yale in Westport, Connecticut.  He was also known for infusing his works with a sense of humor, which is evident in the Yale v. Princeton program he did for Yale in 1927 with his depiction of a Chinese football player being cheered on by Yale and Princeton fans.

Harvard v. Yale Program 1928

Held was also known for his maps/illustrations including the one in the Harvard/Yale Program above.  He also did illustrations on Trout Fishing, Winter Sports, Americana, The Sportsman’s Map of Florida, Saratoga Springs.

 

Many of Held’s illustrations featured his unique sense of humor and buxom women or people living the life of sin:

website of collectableivy

Pick A Cover

Same game, different program covers.

The 1913 meeting between Stanford and the University of California at Berkeley (Cal), was held on Stanford Field on November 8, 1913. This was a unique game in several respects. First, it was played under “Rugby” rules, which Stanford and Cal did for a multi-year period around World War I.

Second, the program was printed with two different covers. Possibly, depending upon what team you were rooting for: Indian fans got the red big “S” program and Golden Bear Fans got the blue “C” program?

website of collectableivy

You’re holding it upside down!

See this imaginative program from the 1941 Harvard v. Dartmouth Game played at Harvard that year. The program cover can be held so as to please the fans of both teams. Held upright it shows the Dartmouth Indian on the right.

Flip the program over and the Harvard mascot is facing the appropriate way on the right side of the program.

The program cover was done by longtime Harvard program illustrator A.B. Savrann.

website of collectableivy

John Wayne in College Football Programs

It took us a while to stumble upon this, John Wayne played college Football for U.S.C. in the 1920s. As a collector of Stanford Football Programs, it was a treat to find him in this Stanford v. U.S.C. program from 1926:

Born Marion Morrison and featured in the program as such, you will no doubt recognize that distinctive face in this action shot from the program:

We also spotted John in a 1939 Navy v. Dartmouth football program, this time as an actor instead of an athlete. The program features a full page advertisement for a new movie “Allegheny Uprising” co-starring Claire Trevor.

 

website of collectableivy.com

‘Rummy in the Ivy League

Donald Rumsfeld as a footballer?

Indeed. Before he would go on to fame (or infamy depending on your political point of view), Donald Rumsfeld was featured in an Ivy League Football Program.

The 1967 University of Pennslyvania v. Princeton Program coinidently happens to have one of our favorite covers on it, featuring the Princeton Tiger mascot holding up a box of Quaker Oats with the face of the Penn mascot of Ben Franklin.

The program also features a two page write-up detailing the career of then Congressman Donald Rumsfeld (Princeton ‘54).  The 35 year old congressman looks clean-cut as you would expect. Rumsfeld was then in his third term as a congressman from “Illinois’ fashionable North Shore”.

 

Rummy was the captain of the Tiger 150-pound football team (read: lightweight) and of the wrestling team as a senior. Since the lightweight team and the wrestling team didn’t publish programs, this is a rare feature having the future Defense Secretary appear in a program.

Prior to serving as a congressman he served as a Flight Instructor in the Navy, an organization he described as “the most important entity in the world today”. You can see even then, Don was quite modest!

He goes on to be quoted in the program as saying “I have great interest in Congress as an instrument of government”, which is ironic since he would go on to ignore that particular branch of government while Defense Secretary.

website of collectableivy

Lon Keller Football Program Illustrations

Cover illustrations have a rich history of craftsmanship and artisan-ship. We have previously written about cover illustrations done by long time Army-Navy program illustrator Gib Crockett. Today, we feature another illustrator/artist who designed program covers for an extended period of time, Lon Keller.

Keller designed his forst program for a 1932 Cornell-Penn Thanksgiving Day game, one of the oldest rivalries in college football.

,Keller program from 1935

Keller was also one of the first artists to be involved in producing cover illustrations that were ’syndicated’, or widely used by many teams across the country. Originally produced with the help of tobacco company sponsors in the 1930s several companies started to offer mass production of programs at a lower cost.

Keller designed program for many college, the Army, Navy and Air Force academies, Princeton, Cornell and other colleges as well as for high school programs. His most popular program were for his depiction of women on program covers.

For an in depth look at Lon’s career and illustrations please see www.lonkeller.com

website of collectableivy

Columbia University Football and Lou Gehrig

Everyone knows Lou Gehrig as one of the greatest baseball players to ever live. What most people don’t know is that Gehrig also briefly played football while attending Columbia University. Gehrig is seen practicing at Columbia above in 1922.

Lou went to Columbia on a football scholarship to pursue a degree in engineering. Before his first semester began he played summer professional baseball under an assumed name, which was not legal.

Gehrig was discovered after playing a dozen games for Hartford in the Eastern League. As a result, he was banned from intercollegiate sports during his freshman year.

During the 1922 season, his sophomore year at Columbia, he was allowed to participate in sports again and Gehrig played right half back for the Columbia Lions football team.

The 1922 Columbia and Cornell program, seen above, lists the future Yankee Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig, although he is not pictured in the program.

Gehrig played for the Columbia baseball team in 1922 as well. It was while playing baseball at Columbia that Gehrig was discovered and signed to the Yankees the following year, 1923. He never graduated from Columbia.

Columbia programs from the 1922 season are highly collectable due to Gehrig’s affilation with the team.

website of collectableivy.com