Ode to Pre-War Football Cardboard

[TanksAndSpartans]

Nice item! I just googled him - an early pro player as well - he should have been in the Mayo set.

[cfhofer]

Thanks John. Penn was not yet at the same caliber of play as Harvard, Yale and Princeton in 1894 - hence their likely omission from the Mayo set. However from 1894-98 they were dominant (arguably second to only Yale).

Gelbert's grandson and I wrote an article regarding Charles Gelbert in the Fall 2015 issue of Gridiron Greats, if interested in learning more about him.

[TanksAndSpartans]

Thanks Mark - I'll add that to my GG back order list.

So do you think Mayo got it right? Harvard, Yale, and Princeton were the top teams? If they had just wanted to include top players instead, was there an All-American team they could have looked at or that didn't exist?

[cfhofer]

Caspar Whitney (along with Walter Camp) started the "All-American" team selection in 1889. The vast majority of these players were from the Big Three until 1894, when Penn went undefeated and beat Harvard 18-4. In 1894 there were 3 or 4 (depending on which source) Penn All-Americans.

I think Mayo did pretty well overall. They used the 1893 team photos for their cards.

[TanksAndSpartans]

Thanks Mark - great info.

[jefferyepayne]

Boy that piece cleaned up nicely, Mark! Great pickup.

I grabbed this commemorative watch last night in Heritage. Gus Welch was Jim Thorpe's roommate at Carlisle, also a member of the 1912 Olympic team, AA QB at Carlisle, and QB for the Canton Bulldogs before going to law school and having a long career as a football/lax coach.





jeff