Help with Vintage Photo - St Louis connection?

[Archive]

Posted By: Keith

Hey guys,

I posted this on the memoribilia thread, but wanted to seek some help here as well. I picked up the following photo at an estate sale this week. It is a photo of a baseball team that I believe is of Ohio Northern University (ONU). My major question regarding this item, pertains to 1 of the players. While most are wearing generic baseball sweaters/uniforms, 2 are wearing shirts marked with ONU, while 1 is wearing a uniform shirt that appears to read St. Louis. The style of the St with the T and a dot under it is very similar to the style worn by Comiskey in the scraps series. What are your thoughts about this player. Is he most likely wearing a shirt donated to the school by the Major League club? Could he be a St Louis player visiting the school? Something else?

My real question for this main forum page is to see if anyone has team photos of the 1890's St Louis Browns team. I am trying to match up the uniforms or possibly a player.

Any input is great appreciated.

thanks
Keith

[Archive]

Posted By: jamie

if it is ohio northern, the date would most likely be closer to 1900. there's a good article on the history of athletics there:
http://www.onu.edu/library/onuhistory/athletics/chapter3.pdf

"Baseball
The game of baseball was played very early in the history of Ohio Northern University. The
reference to President Lehr’s cow pasture as a baseball field attests to the fact that baseball
was the first game played at the school. The game of baseball was played in this area prior to
the Civil War. There is no mention of baseball as an intercollegiate sport until 1896. In that
year the Normal School played a game with Bluffton College. This was the only college game
played in that year, although games were played with city teams and high school teams in the
area."

"In 1896, a baseball team was organized and played the first game of intercollegiate baseball
with the baseball team at Bluffton College. Other baseball games were played in 1896, but
these games could not be called intercollegiate because they were played with city teams and
high school teams in nearby towns."

http://www.onu.edu/library/onuhistory/athletics/chapter4.pdf
"In 1902, the ONU placed her first officially recognized baseball and football teams upon the
field. These, however, met with financial reverses and during the five years following, the
athletic record of ONU was rather of a fluctuating nature. This uncertainty led to the formation
of the present Athletic Board."

[Archive]

Posted By: Keith

Thanks Jamie, I'll check out those links. I did find some info on their website previously but didn't find those articles. Its nice to see a school showing such interest in their history. I will also try to email someone there to see if they can help at all.