[earlybball]

Sorry I could not respond last night but I live in England so the time difference makes things difficult.

Apologies too for making things sound like absolute fact when I should be asking the knowledgeable board members for their opinions first (I was a bit excited).

That said, I still believe this to be of Columbia University and of Collins. I am more than happy to hear other opinions and enjoy discussing the pros and cons.

I did consider all the excellent points made already by the board and after further thought and research came to the following possibilities:

1) I did see the “City Champs” on the ball which had me thinking initially. Further research shows that Columbia was the NY city football champs for the 1905/1906 season.

They played a small series of games at the beginning of the season against Union College and Seaton Hall (although NJ competed in the NY circuit) and later defeated Cornell. Since they were less successful against their bigger out of state rivals they preferred to highlight what small successes were available.

Columbia’s 1905/06 Schedule and Results:

G Date Day School Opponent Pts Opp
1 Sep 30, 1905 Sat Columbia Union (NY) Win 23 0
2 Oct 4, 1905 Wed Columbia Seton Hall (NJ) Win 21 0
3 Oct 7, 1905 Sat Columbia Wesleyan (CT) T 0 0
4 Oct 14, 1905 Sat Columbia Williams W 11 5
5 Oct 21, 1905 Sat Columbia Amherst T 10 10
6 Oct 28, 1905 Sat Columbia Princeton L 0 12
7 Nov 4, 1905 Sat Columbia Yale L 0 53
8 Nov 18, 1905 Sat Columbia Cornell (NY) Win 12 6
9 Nov 25, 1905 Sat Columbia Pennsylvania L 0 23

2) Are they a high School or College Team? Well, I arrived very quickly at the latter.

A) First, they are just too old for high school students:

B) They look very professional in nature with equipment and pennant on display.

C) Most lower level high school team shots were done on a smaller cabinet size while the larger Ivy League colleges opted for the imperial cabinet size such the Columbia example. and most importantly

D) The cabinet was taken by the Betty Photographic Studio (photo attached) who were a contemporary of the Pach Bros. Both these studios were contracted at the time by the large Ivy League colleges to take team shots of their athletics programs. High school institutions rarely went to this much trouble or had the cash to contract of the preeminent studios.

3) Does he look like Collins?

A) Very few images of Collins are available from his college days. People’s features when they are younger are often smoother and not as hard and I believe the person in question displays all the facial attributes that Collins was known to have.

One of the best ways to match people’s faces is to look at the ears or so a forensics pal of mine told me. They are a bit like finger prints – everyone’s are slightly different. If you look at the inner ear, the size and the slant on both the Columbia cabinet and Al’s SGC photo, they are identical. This is just one of his facial similarities.

The only other photo (attached) I could compare it with during this period (Collins own copy of the 1905 Columbia Baseball Team) makes a compelling match.

B) If this is a photo of Columbia University’s football team, which I believe the above leads us to believe it is, then Collins should be on it.

Anyway, these are only my observations. What does everyone else think given the thoughts above?