William J. Leggett cabinet photo first college football captain 1869 game

 Here is one of my favorite images, a cabinet photo of William J. Leggett.  He was captain for Rutgers in the first college football game in history when they played Princeton on November 6th 1869.  They ended up winning this game 6-4.

1887 Lafayette College football team photo

 Here is a great imperial sized photo of the 1887 Lafayette football team.  They went 7-2 this season led by Captain Frederick Paye.  

Bill Hickock 1892 Yale Football Cabinet photo

 Here is a c.1894 Pach Bros cabinet photo of Yale football and track star “Wild” Bill Hickock.  He played during the dominant years of 1892-1894.  He played guard and was twice selected All American.  After graduation he coached in 1896 at Carlisle Indian School.  He was later inducted into the College Football HOF.  

1895 West Point Football photo

 Here is a beautiful Pach Brothers cabinet photo of the 1895 Army football team.  This team went 5-2 under Captain Edward  King and head coach Harmon Graves.  

1880 Yale football team imperial cabinet photo with Walter Camp

The captain of the 4-0-1 Yale Bulldogs in 1880 was R.G. Watson.  This would be Walter Camp’s 5th year with the program as he was attending medical school.  

The annual Yale vs Princeton game was played for the first time this year at the Polo Grounds in Manhattan New York due to the increased popularity in the game.  It was a snowy freezing game and Princeton held onto the ball most of the game without trying to advance the ball.  The poor product of this game prompted Walter Camp to eventually come up with downs in football that would change possession to other team if the football wasn’t advanced.  

This is an imperial sized Pach Brothers photo of the team.  I have never seen another football image with Walter Camp in an imperial sized format like this.

1870s Harvard Cabinet photo with Fred Thayer

 This is an amazing photo of Fred Thayer sitting on the left.  He was a football star for Harvard playing in the 1870s.  He also played baseball and is credited as the invention of the catchers mask.

1898 Harvard football team oversized imperial photo

 Harvard went 11-0 this season and were retroactively named national champions.  This was their second national championship of the 1890s with the 1890 team highlighted in another post.  College football hofers Charles Dudley Daly and Percy Haughton are both pictured in the image.  This is one of the more common 19th century team images, but I was very happy to pick up in such a large and clear display.