Hey everyone,
For those of you that don't know me, I created
www.antiquefootball.com a few years ago to provide free research on vintage football equipment. My main focus is pre-1920 equipment and memorabilia.
I've been a long time Net54 lurker and am amazed at the knowledge and passion of the baseball memorabilia collectors who frequent this site. Incredibily early and rare artifacts seem to pop up daily, and the collecting community is always willing to share information and provide advice assistance.
There is no comparable forum for vintage football collectors. My question to you all is why?
Since I was young (I'm 45 btw), I've always had a preference for football over baseball, and depending on who you ask, the number of current football fans across the country rivals those of baseball. Football went through a fascinating transformation from the violent, no holds barred melees played during the Civil War, to the rugby style game played for most of the remainder of the nineteenth century, to the evolutionary rules changes around the turn of the century in response to the increase of debilitating injuries and deaths on the field.
Despite what I see as an incredibly rich history, I estimate that the number of true vintage football collectors to be 1/10th to 1/20th of the number of baseball collectors.
Why doesn't the current popularity of the sport translate to collecting interest?
Are there fewer surviving artifacts?
Did more current sports collectors grow up in an era and location where baseball and its heroes were simply more relevant?
Have most baseball collectors had a more tangible connection to the sport (participation in their youth) than football collectors?
I'd love to hear your opinions on this issue and link to the discussion from my site with Leon's permission of course!
Chris Hornung
www.antiquefootball.com