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Originally Posted by Michael B
It is odd how many non-Olympians are included in the swimming and track in this set. Sedley is one of them. I do not collect cards, but I have been very tempted to pick up some of these as they are nice looking. I have original photos of almost all of the Olympians in the set. At least from what I can tell - Hartranft, Eller, Flanagan, McGrath, J. Sullivan M. Sheppard, M Sheridan, Hillman, C M Daniels, Ewry, Ruddy, Platt Adams, SP Gillis (last name misspelled on card), Riley, Pilgrim, Porter, Bacon, H Wilson, Crowley, Lawson Robertson, Budd and Kiviat. I have also had the signatures of many of them and currently have Hillman, Robertson and Kiviat. Kiviat was the last living person in that set from what I know. He died in 1991. Kiviat and Platt Adams played in the demonstration baseball games during the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden. Adams pitched for a mixed team which included members of the Vösteras Bäsboll Klubb. He did not fare so well, giving up four runs in the first inning. Kiviat played shortstop for the U.S. team going 2 for 4, including a triple, and stole a base.
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I'm sure I'm not the only one that would love to see some of your photos of these guys. The track cards are the 'leftovers' in T218, but I love them. Gorgeous cards and super cheap usually.
I don't know much about track history beyond what I've researched on T218 subjects, but it seems there are many fairly obscure track athletes featured, and many Olympians who were not. I think this probably has to do with Frank G. Fullgraff's (the American Lithographic salesman/project manager with tobacco connects who apparently devised, designed and out together many of the T card sets) social network and the release contracts for their images. Fullgraff was a long time sportsman and member of the New York Athletic Club, so the man who made up the sets and was probably in charge of the releases (judging from T225/T220), knew Sedley and many of the others personally. I have found little information out there on Sedley, he seems one of the most obscure of the subjects.
I like that they originally spelled Gillis correctly on the back but wrong on the front, and then created a variation by making the back wrong too instead of fixing the front.
Kiviat passed away at 99, 4 months after I was born. I've been looking for a signed Kiviat T218 card for a long time, there have been some blatantly fake signed T218's on eBay a couple of times, but some of the sets roster lived long enough for an autograph card to be a significant possibility. Kiviat seems the most likely to be out there somewhere.