Imperial 1878 Harvard football freshman Notman Cabinet

 This is a very early Harvard football image.  The 82 on their uniforms is for the class of 1882.  This image was taken in 1878.  Many of these players went on to play important roles on the varsity squad from 1878-1881.  One in particular William H. Manning was a 4 year varsity letter winner and 2 year captain of the 1880-1881 team.

William H. Manning

1900 Yale Football Team Large Albumin Photo

 This was one of Yale’s best teams of all time.  After 1894 Yale started losing some of the games they had previously dominated since the 1870s.  This changed in 1900 by the Gordon Brown Captained football team that cruised to a perfect season routing their opponents.  They are often dubbed the “team of the century.”  Gordon Brown had a very successful career at Yale and became one of a handful of other college players as a 4 time All-Anerican.  Every single starting player from this team went on to earn either first, second, or third team All-American votes.

c.1894 Victor Hungerford Columbia University football cabinet

19th century Columbia University photos are very hard to come by.  One of the reasons for this is the fact that they did not play outside competition for many years in the 1890s.  This image of Victor Hungerford is during the days when they would play class vs class.  Below is his individual cabinet with a team image showing the inter scholastic trophy.

1886 University of California Football Team Photo

 Beautiful early photo of the 1886 University of California football team.  They went 6-2-1 mainly playing athletic clubs available in the area.  During this time most of the West Coast schools did not have football teams and most of the action was on the east coast.

1894 Buchtel Football Cabinet with John Heisman

     The 1894 Buchtel football team now University of Akron went 1-0 defeating Ohio State.  They were coached by the legendary John Heisman.  

     John Heisman is pictured in his University of Pennsylvania sweater where he played from 1889-91.  He went on to a long HOF coaching career for many colleges including a 1917 Georgia Tech national championship.  The Heisman trophy given out to the top college football player is named after him.

1887 Phillips Academy Andover

 Here is a team photo of the 1887 Philips Academy football squad.  Future Yale player and early Stanford coach C.D. Bliss is pictured here.

Mid 1890s Cornell Football Player Cabinet

 This is an early Cornell University football player I haven’t been able to identify.  I especially like the mounted cabinet with the Cornell flag on it.  I could find similar examples in the mid 1890s with other players in similar poses with the same sweater.  One such player was Glen Pop Warner who was the captain of the football team in this era.