Cool eBay/Football story
 

I'm an eBay troll and a die hard Los Angeles Ram fan and collector. I spend way too much time on eBay looking for cool and unusual things to buy. A few months back a guy had something pretty interesting....Some of you may remember as I started a thread about it back then:

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A hat given to famed Santa Clara/Los Angeles Ram/San Francisco 49er trainer Henry Schmidt...Signed by too many Rams to mention but Norm Van Brocklin, Tom Fears, Tom Dahms and Deacon Dan Towler to name a few. There were many other NFL and non-football dignitaries on there as well. So many that I naturally questioned if these could be original signatures. The hat above was one of three this seller had from the Henry Schmidt estate. I bought two of them. Marc (Bocca001), Net54 member and Santa Clara collector, bought the third. Real or not, I thought these were too cool to pass up. Since then I've wondered how to go about authenticating...was it possible...what it would cost...and did I really want to.

Well...Fast forward to about a month ago. I'm trolling for pennants on eBay and I find a guy selling an old Rams pennant. I shoot him a message to see if he has any others...turns out he does...He's a pennant collector too and also a die hard Rams fan. We quickly become pen pals via Ebay's messaging system. We've since graduated to exchanging phone numbers and letters in the mail. He's quickly become a very good friend.

What an interesting guy...former baseball writer (Baseball Digest and Sports Collectors Digest)...published author...and amazingly enough, he was friends with Norm Van Brocklin and he spent quite a bit of time hanging with the Rams greats of the 1950's and 60s.

So we're both very interested to see each others collections and exchange pictures. After showing him most of my pride and joy...and finding out he lives about three hours from Santa Clara...I ask if he's heard of Henry Schmidt...to which he replies of course. I proceed to tell him about my Schmidt hats and he asks if I can send pictures...which I do.

Then today in the mail I receive this from him:

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That's Norm Van Brocklin, Tom Fears, Tom Dahms and Deacon Dan Towler presenting a signed ball and hat to Henry Schmidt. Now I'd love to say that the hat Van Brocklin is signing is one of the ones I own. It's definitely the same style of hat, but I can't match up the signatures. I have no idea how often these hats were presented to Henry Schmidt, apparently at least three times...but regardless, what a great addition to my collection and probably all of the authentication I'll need to put to rest whether these signatures are real or not.

For Marc...Is that yours in his hand?

Bigger Picture
 

Here's a bigger version for more detail on the hat.

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Great story.

Rob M

Cool. Thats gotta be one of them....i bet it would be a bit dirty from sweaty football men carrying it/touching it. Check for grime!

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An amazing turn of events. Very cool.

Great story. These kinds of connections is what “it’s all about.” :D

Great stuff Rob!! I love stories like this. Congrats!

Hats
 

That's really cool, Rob.

I do not believe that these hats were presented to Henry Schmidt. I belive that he made them. I am attaching a picture of my Schmidt hat, which focuses on the 1949 Santa Clara team (they defeated Bear Bryant's Kentucky team in the 1950 Orange Bowl). It also has some signautres from Rams players, including Van Brocklin, Fears, Hirsch. Fears actually attended Santa Clara before WWII... but ended up at UCLA after the war.

I believe that the hats were made by Schmidt because of the 1937/1938 Sugar Bowl hat from Schmidt (not mine... I'm pretty sure it is owned by Santa Clara). This was his hat.

Next to my hat is a signed picture from Schmidt to Mickey Rooney. I have had this picture for several years, but just now noticed that he is wearing a signed hat like the ones we own.

Very interesting Marc! That would explain why there were three. And that would explain the diversity of signatures on the hats. The one I pictured, in addition to having probably close to 30 Rams signature, also has Doak Walker, Art Donovan, Gino Marchetti, Y.A. Tittle, Joe Perry, John Henry Johnson, Lou Creekmur, Buck Shaw, Bert Bell and others with no connection to the Rams. Plenty of San Francisco and Santa Clara ties there though.

One other thing Marc that intrigued me about your hat....It has a couple caricatures on it if I remember correctly. One is visible in the picture you shared. Any idea who drew those? He seemed to have friends in all walks of life. Curious if there's somebody famous behind those.

Schmidt
 

And this picture and caption, from late 1937, seems to cement it, with "paint and brush" being Schmidt's "best known tools of the trade." He is again wearing one of these hats. My guess is that he made a new one each year he served as a trainer. My hat from 1949/1950 includes both college and professional signatures. Rob's hats seem to include only professional player signatures. Santa Clara's football program ended in 1952. Makes me think that Rob's hats might be from post-1952. Not sure if that fits with the actual signatures that are on the hats.

If anyone is interested, this picture is from a book titled "Bronco Sundays" which is an interesting read. Santa Clara, USF, St. Mary's and other schools played football on Sundays, because many of their working class fans worked on Saturdays. When professional football came to California, these schools lost fans and access to stadiums.

Somewhat ironically, the 49ers were founded by a Santa Clara grad (Tony Morabito) and coached by Santa Clara's former coach (Buck Shaw). The 49ers colors are Santa Clara colors, although they used silver instead of gold for a few years because Shaw was known as the Silver Fox.

Santa Clara often played in San Francisco to get more fans. Now, the 49ers have moved from San Francisco to Santa Clara. Kind of funny.

Wow.... the coolest thread I've seen here lately.

Absolutely love it when the pictures tell the story (as opposed to the authenticators). Great connection and amazing stuff!

Smitty's 19 Red Hats!
 

Perhaps this helps a little.

That is awesome. Where is the article from? I'd love to get a copy.

So there's 19 of these hats out there. I wonder where the other 16 are?

You're right Marc. One of my hats includes the signature of Ed Beatty who was the Rams first round pick in 1954.

That was some defense they had. You give up just over one point per game and you're probably going to win a few.

And one correction to my original post...That's not Tom Dahms in the pic, it's Don Paul, whose name also appears on the hat.

Smitty
 

Yikes, sorry about that. I found it online.

The Santa Clara March 26th 1953 newspaper

Here is another article I found with two pics of hats. In the original source you can "sort" of make out some of the text - I'm guessing especially if you had that same hat.

The Redwood
Topics College yearbooks
Publisher Santa Clara College
Collection santaclarauniversitylibrary; americana
Digitizing sponsor Santa Clara University Library
Contributor Santa Clara University Library
Language English
Volume 1962

Just another clue that my hat might be from 1954.

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Hats
 

Yeah... I think that one might be from 1954. And, Shawn, thanks for the article. Sounds like Rob, as a Rams fan, has the right ones for him. I love the Santa Clara one. Perfect for me. I'd love to get one (some) from the Buck Shaw/Sugar Bowl era.

Thanks for starting this, Rob.

Is the book BRONCOS ON SUNDAY still available for sale through the alumni association or at the college bookstore?

Bronco Sundays
 

SCU still has a webpage listing it for $30:

http://www.santaclarabroncos.com/gen...052901aaa.html

There is a similar book about St. Mary's football, Santa Clara's rival. I think it is called "They did it every time." Both teams had former Knute Rockne players as coaches and both traveled across the contry to play major opponents.

There's one on Ebay too but slightly more expensive.

Thanks guys! The St. Mary's book is well done. Madigan used to bring his team south after the Fordham game stopping here in Hot Springs, Arkansas when possible. His excuse was to give the team a couple of days rest but the real reason he loved the casinos that flourished here in the 1930's..

The Gaels would work out with the local high school team which was a great thrill for the locals. My Dad said they all were very impressed with the satin jerseys worn by the Gaels.

Marc one of my favorite pennant posts was your Santa Clara collection, very impressive.!

Seems appropriate for this thread...
 

Picked this up...Super cheap. Not much love for college football pennants out there but I'm happy to have it.

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Santa Clara
 

Thanks, Mike. Here are some updated photos.

Rob- I was the underbidder on that pennant. I'm starting to learn that I am the underbidder on many of the things you win. It's a pretty cool pennant. I would have pushed you higher, but I felt guilty about collecting SCU's main rival.

One more
 

And... one more, because, why not? You guys seem to appreciate this kind of stuff and I don't get to show it very often. Other people just don't understand. Collecting this stuff is like meditation for me.

All kinds of fun things in here, like a piece of goal post from the 1936 Little Big Game, SCU vs. Santa Clara Disney character tickets, a 1910ish post card with a student talking about the baseball team playing the Oakland Oaks.

There is also a 1925 SCU vs. USC field pass from a Santa Clara coach, with notes on the back, including the fact that M. Morrison (John Wayne) was injured and could not play.

I missed out on a 1938 (or maybe it was 1937) Sugar Bowl ticket a week or so ago. It got rather expensive, probably due to the LSU connection.

Wow Marc...Beautiful room. So much football history in there. Definite awe inspiring collection. Thanks for sharing.

Sorry...I've been selling off my baseball pennants to expand my football collection so I've had a little extra in the paypal account and have been pretty aggressive lately. The good news is...well for everyone else out there...not so much for me...is that the funds are drying up...so it's back to picking my battles for now. :mad:

Great collection and beautifully displayed. Thanks for posting the photos.

Maybe I should start collecting my alma mater along with the SF Giants.

Yeah, that’s all I need! :p

Good starting point....

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Vintage-M...YAAOSwgBNaxj7c

Thanks Marc! Made my day. I am struggling with mixed emotions, my beautiful daughter is getting married on the 19th so we have spent the last three weeks moving stored items out of my study,

I can now begin to fix it up but losing my baby although to a great guy has been getting tougher and tougher as stuff moves out to their new house. Actually more than furniture has been moved out. Who knew flowers and a photographer cost so much? :) Not to mention the reception! Oh and a new refrigerator and stove and...........