1910 Philadelphia Collegians Football Team

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries football is spreading throughout the country gaining widespread popularity. While there is a well researched history of African Americans participating in organized baseball leagues during this time, little is documented about football.

William Henry Lewis was one of two black players on an integrated football team at Amherst

College in 1891 becoming the first black player to captain an integrated football team. He later

attended Harvard College and was the first black player to be selected as an All-American.

There is documentation of other black players on primarily white college teams toward the end

of the 19th century but the list is sparse and far from complete.

The first HBCU football game was played between Biddle College and Livingstone College on

December 27th 1892. Other contests between HBCU’s began to sprout up toward the end of

the 19th phiacentury and even more into the 20th century. Trying to find images and information

about these games is very difficult due to the lack of resources they had and major newspapers

not covering them.

I recently came across an image of an all black football team labeled Collegiate Foot Ball Team

Phila. PA with a photographer stamp of Hansen photo. At first glance I figured based on the

uniforms and equipment it was an HBCU team around 1905-1910. Most of the early black

football team photos around this time show them using older equipment around the late 1890s

so it isn’t always easy to date these photos. As I began to look closely at the photo I noticed

that many of the players were older and had letters on their uniforms not matching a single

school. I began to wonder if this could be a post collegiate segregated team? Pennsylvania

became a prominent area for early semi pro and professional football teams during this time, but

I had never heard of a post collegiate segregated team.

Common search engines pulled up no information about a possible team in this area so I turned

to some of the newer research technology out there. By pulling articles from the earliest black

running newspaper the Philadelphia Tribune I was able to find out my image was a match with a

cropped image from the December 3, 1910, Philadelphia Tribune with the caption “The

Collegians, champions of the colored elevens, who humbled the mighty Bethlehem Steel

eleven, 12 to 5, before 3,000 at Shibe Park.

” Below the caption was a second line identifying

the front-row players. This was an exciting discovery because I now had a name of the

Philadelphia Collegians.

The Collegians were organized in 1908 by Prof. Charles A. Lewis a principal of the Robert Vaux

Consolidated School. According to the April 19, 1908 tribune “The object is to promote clean,

scientific football among colored young men of education and character, and to demonstrate

that colored athletes can compete with the best.

” The first game was scheduled against the

Pythians, who were primarily an early organized baseball team. The article went on to list the

starting football team with some notables being J.B.A. Yelverton and Henry Rives who were on

the 1892 Livingstone team who played in the first HBCU football game.The Collegians would go on to play from 1908 to 1915. Their main rivals were the Philadelphia

Pythians who were known for their baseball team and the Smart Set AC of Brooklyn famous for

their early black basketball presence. They would also play all white athletic club and semi pro

teams and other HBCU squads. Their home field was Shibe park or whatever park was

available but would travel to other states playing similar teams. The 1910 win over the

Bethlehem Steel team was a huge upset during the time for an all black team to defeat a

prominent white athletic club. Bethlehem Steel had players such as John “Big Jack” Kelly who

later won olympic medals in rowing and other pay to play athletes.

The collegians continued to play after their upset of Bethlehem Steel until 1915. This coincided

with the beginning of WW1 and the end of the Collegians. This is a team that has seemingly

disappeared from the history books. Thanks to a chance encounter with a photo and a little

help from modern technology linking articles from the Philadelphia Tribune, I was able to help

bring the Collegians back to light

1893 Auburn University football team

Auburn was known during this time as Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama.  This is a special image because not only was it given to me by a friend, it also is rare to come across early football images of southern teams.  Auburn went 3-1-1 this year beating the University of Alabama twice.

1894 women’s football team photo

 This is an interesting photo I found of a female football team.  This is very early for any female team sport. They were playing some interclass games in 1894.  Probably a New England women’s school such as Wellesley due to popularity of the sport in the area.  Around this time the flying wedge came about and the game was very brutal.  The one woman on the left had her head bandaged most likely what would have been seen after a bloody Harvard vs Yale match.

The next image is a little later comedy sketch I have from an 1800s periodical.  It shows women of the all female college Vassar throwing around the Harvard football team males around like ragdolls.  It reads:

The Coming Game Between Harvard and Vassar

“If the American girl becomes to grow more stalwart and athletic and the American dude sticks to his cigarettes this is what will come to pass.”

1860s Princeton College glass stereoview photo with roundball

 Glass stereoviews were popular in the 1850s and 1860s.  In the 1870s they were basically replaced by paper backed photos and magic lantern slides.  Here is an example of a glass stereoview of Princeton College by Ferrier, Soulier and Levy.  In 1864 the photography studio became Leon and Levy.  Posed in front of Nassau Hall are a group of Princeton students.  In the middle is a gentleman presenting a roundball.  While organized football had yet to be established at Princeton until around 1868 and then the first football game in 1869.  For many years class rivalries had existed between the students.  This is the earliest photographic example I have seen of football at a university.

1896 Fielding Yost signed cabinet photo

 In 1896 Lafayette College coached by Parke Davis played West Virginia University 3 consecutive days in October beating them in all three contests.  In a truly bizarre turn of events the star player for WVU ended up joining Lafayette one week later to play at the University of Pennsylvania.

Lafayette ended up beating UPenn 6-4 and snapping their 34 game consecutive win streak.  There was backlash with Yost playing in this game since afterwards he ended up transferring back to West Virginia.  Lafayette was recognized as co-national champions this year with Princeton.

Here is a signed cabinet photo depicting Yost with his Lafayette jersey.  He went on the have an illustrious career coaching specifically at the University of Michigan winning 6 national championships.  He was inducted into the college HOF in 1951.

1882 Mcgill University Football

Harvard and McGill played 2 contests in Cambridge Massachusetts in May 1873, one association style and one rugby style.  This rugby style match eventually changed football as we know it from more of a kicking game to a carrying game we are accustomed to now.

Harvard and McGill continued to play each other until 1882.  Here is an image of McGill from that 1882 season.

1879 O.D. Thompson Yale Grad photo

 

I have done a previous write up on the importance O.D. Thompson had not only to early college football but also the beginnings of professionalism.  I found this photo in a grouping of normal photos and immediately knew who it was.  Definitely a great find of one of my favorite early football stars.

1896 Green Bay Wisconsin Football Players

This is one of the oldest Green Bay football images I have seen with the football dating to 1896.  The first unofficial game was played in 1895 between Green Bay East High and West.  They also had a town team that started around this time.

1899 Indiana University football Player

 Here is a very interesting image of an 1899-1900 Indiana University football photo.  Fresh with a Spalding #50 helmet, Morril nose guard  and sewed on padding.  

1880s Penn State Football Medallion

 One of the oldest football related jewelry items I have come across.  This gold medallion displays the old colors of Penn State from 1887-90 on an enamel melon football.  Their first colors was a combination of Pink and Black.  They changed to the blue and white colors we are accustomed to in 1890.  

I included a collotype photo I have of the 1889 team along with the color chant from an old La Vie yearbook I have.  Here is a more in depth article on the color exchange  https://www.psu.edu/news/campus-life/story/dear-old-state-pink-and-black-blue-and-white.  I also took a few snippets of the interesting parts of the article if you don’t want to read.

1888 Albert Holden Harvard Pach Bros photo

 Here is an amazing Pach brothers cabinet photo of one of the premier football players in the 1880s Bert Holden.  He was captain for Harvard in 1887 and 88.  The 1887 team went 10-1 with their only loss being a close one to Yale in which Holden starred as rusher.

1884 Dartmouth Football Team

 Here is an amazingly vivid image of the 1884 Dartmouth football team.  They only played 4 games this season going 1-2-1.  They suffered the worst loss of early football getting beat down 113-0 from the powerhouse Yale men.