Another beautiful large cabinet photo, this one of the 1892 squad. This year they had a 5-2 record led by captain W.A. Allen.
Another beautiful large cabinet photo, this one of the 1892 squad. This year they had a 5-2 record led by captain W.A. Allen.
This is probably the best Dartmouth team of the 19th century. I had touched a little about Clarence Howland the father of Dartmouth football in another post. William Odlin was the captain of the 86-89 squad pictured in the image with the football. He was responsible for renewed interest in football at the university. The 1889 squad went 7-1 with their only loss to Harvard that year.
Continuing on with the theme of the major prep schools of the 19th century is Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. While Exeter was the feeder school for Harvard, and Andover for Yale, many Lawrenceville students would find themselves continuing their studies at Princeton.
Here is a very nice imperial size Pach Brothers photo of the 1889 football team. The captain of the team was M.C. Lilley who actually went to Yale and the estate my 1891 Yale team photo came from that came from an earlier post. In the middle is the coach William George who was on the first all American team of 1889 for Princeton.
Westminster school was started in Dobbs Ferry, NY in 1888 by William Lee Cushing a graduate of Yale. Following his graduation from Yale, William “Pa” Corbin began teaching at Westminster school from 1889-1892. I found an article in 1889 in which he actually played on the team in his normal star position of center. The idea of something like this happening today would be crazy to think about a star college football player going to a high school to teach and competing on the football team.
When I originally saw this photo I had to double take. Pa Corbin was known for his signature mustache, but here he is with a beard. I was able to find an article talking about how the 1891 team dominated their opponents, but nothing about Corbin’s role on that team.