Cool eBay/Football story

[ooo-ribay]

Great story. These kinds of connections is what “it’s all about.”

[pherbener]

Great stuff Rob!! I love stories like this. Congrats!

[bocca001]

That's really cool, Rob.

I do not believe that these hats were presented to Henry Schmidt. I belive that he made them. I am attaching a picture of my Schmidt hat, which focuses on the 1949 Santa Clara team (they defeated Bear Bryant's Kentucky team in the 1950 Orange Bowl). It also has some signautres from Rams players, including Van Brocklin, Fears, Hirsch. Fears actually attended Santa Clara before WWII... but ended up at UCLA after the war.

I believe that the hats were made by Schmidt because of the 1937/1938 Sugar Bowl hat from Schmidt (not mine... I'm pretty sure it is owned by Santa Clara). This was his hat.

Next to my hat is a signed picture from Schmidt to Mickey Rooney. I have had this picture for several years, but just now noticed that he is wearing a signed hat like the ones we own.

[Fballguy]

Very interesting Marc! That would explain why there were three. And that would explain the diversity of signatures on the hats. The one I pictured, in addition to having probably close to 30 Rams signature, also has Doak Walker, Art Donovan, Gino Marchetti, Y.A. Tittle, Joe Perry, John Henry Johnson, Lou Creekmur, Buck Shaw, Bert Bell and others with no connection to the Rams. Plenty of San Francisco and Santa Clara ties there though.

[Fballguy]

One other thing Marc that intrigued me about your hat....It has a couple caricatures on it if I remember correctly. One is visible in the picture you shared. Any idea who drew those? He seemed to have friends in all walks of life. Curious if there's somebody famous behind those.

[smokelessjoe]

Perhaps this helps a little.

[Fballguy]

Originally Posted by smokelessjoe

Perhaps this helps a little.

That is awesome. Where is the article from? I'd love to get a copy.

So there's 19 of these hats out there. I wonder where the other 16 are?

[bocca001]

And this picture and caption, from late 1937, seems to cement it, with "paint and brush" being Schmidt's "best known tools of the trade." He is again wearing one of these hats. My guess is that he made a new one each year he served as a trainer. My hat from 1949/1950 includes both college and professional signatures. Rob's hats seem to include only professional player signatures. Santa Clara's football program ended in 1952. Makes me think that Rob's hats might be from post-1952. Not sure if that fits with the actual signatures that are on the hats.

If anyone is interested, this picture is from a book titled "Bronco Sundays" which is an interesting read. Santa Clara, USF, St. Mary's and other schools played football on Sundays, because many of their working class fans worked on Saturdays. When professional football came to California, these schools lost fans and access to stadiums.

Somewhat ironically, the 49ers were founded by a Santa Clara grad (Tony Morabito) and coached by Santa Clara's former coach (Buck Shaw). The 49ers colors are Santa Clara colors, although they used silver instead of gold for a few years because Shaw was known as the Silver Fox.

Santa Clara often played in San Francisco to get more fans. Now, the 49ers have moved from San Francisco to Santa Clara. Kind of funny.

[perezfan]

Wow.... the coolest thread I've seen here lately.

Absolutely love it when the pictures tell the story (as opposed to the authenticators). Great connection and amazing stuff!

[Fballguy]

Originally Posted by bocca001

And this picture and caption, from late 1937, seems to cement it, with "paint and brush" being Schmidt's "best known tools of the trade." He is again wearing one of these hats. My guess is that he made a new one each year he served as a trainer. My hat from 1949/1950 includes both college and professional signatures. Rob's hats seem to include only professional player signatures. Santa Clara's football program ended in 1952. Makes me think that Rob's hats might be from post-1952. Not sure if that fits with the actual signatures that are on the hats.

You're right Marc. One of my hats includes the signature of Ed Beatty who was the Rams first round pick in 1954.

That was some defense they had. You give up just over one point per game and you're probably going to win a few.

And one correction to my original post...That's not Tom Dahms in the pic, it's Don Paul, whose name also appears on the hat.

[Fballguy]

Just another clue that my hat might be from 1954.

[bocca001]

Yeah... I think that one might be from 1954. And, Shawn, thanks for the article. Sounds like Rob, as a Rams fan, has the right ones for him. I love the Santa Clara one. Perfect for me. I'd love to get one (some) from the Buck Shaw/Sugar Bowl era.

Thanks for starting this, Rob.