Carl Lundgren, Red Grange, Joe Gum & 1924 University of Illinois Baseball

[rainier2004]

Nice Bryan, I am starting to really like your research projects and uncovering some things.

So I have no experience in it, but what part of the Joe Gum auto is resembling in that inscription? They look different to me, but I know nothing.

Do you have any other guesses who may have signed Joe Gum? How many invitees do not have a sig? How many have you yet to identify? At least its from 1924 because if it 2014 none would be legible.

[timn1]

Bryan, great stuff there, especially for someone like me who lives about a mile from Illinois Memorial Stadium where many of Grange's exploits took place.

Several surnames among the attending businessmen will still be familiar to anyone who lives in Champaign-Urbana (like Krannert, the family that endowed our world-class performing arts center).

Also I noticed at least one other major leaguer on the squad besides Lundgren, the "team captain" Wally Roettger.

Thanks for posting all that-

Tim

[the-illini]

Bryan

What an amazing piece! As you might guess from my username, I LOVE the subjects in this!!!

[Kawika]

Very neat collection.
Picked this up several years ago.

[brass_rat]

Bryan,

Great write-up!!

Your post sent me down a rabbit hole and I ended up reading this lengthy but very enjoyable SI article on Grange from 1985:

https://www.si.com/vault/1985/09/04/...st-of-all-time

With respect to the signature, I agree that the G looks like that from Grange... But the "e" in Joe looks different. It's tough because most of the handwriting examples I could find online are from his later years, and obviously people change their styles over many years. The e in Joe is upright whereas the other e examples I can find are all heavily slanted. I also looked for examples of how tight Grange wrote his letter m, but again, I didn't find much of anything from the 1920's.

You do make a compelling case though...I hope someone with more handwriting expertise will chime in!

Steve

[Jobu]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I am definitely not a handwriting expert and but saw some similarities and I know writing changes over time. I had a hard time finding a non-signature writing sample and I don't think I saw any writing from his college or early pro days, so I have my fingers crossed that someone who knows hand writing will chime in. Would PSA, JSA, etc, authenticate something like this as being signed by Grange if the writing is in fact a match?

The Saturday Evening Post story seems like such a match for Grange that it feels likely to me that he signed that way as a joke - though that is obviously what I am hoping for too.

David, I love that Grange photo - it must have been taken at the same time as mine. What are the dimensions?

Steve, I just added some info on who signed and who didn't.

Other Steve, I spend a lot of time in chasing things down rabbit holes, I love that part of collecting.

[Jobu]

I posted the Grange/Gum question on the memorabilia side (and now see that there is an autograph forum where I probably should have put it). I wanted to link the two in the main thread:

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=246633