S.S. John P. Poe Liberty Ship Life Preserver

WW II Liberty ship life preserver from the S.S. John P. Poe, named for John Prentiss Poe Sr., Democratic political power and Attorney General of Maryland from 1891 to 1895. Poe was father to six sons who all played football while at Princeton (referenced throughout posts on this blog), several being named as All-American. His sons took part in and made their mark in other sports as well, including lacrosse, hockey and wrestling.

When researching the history of the Liberty Ships, we found it to be an absolutely fascinating subject. At the beginning of the 1940s, there was a critical need for cargo vessels to carry troops, vehicles, guns and munitions and other war related cargo. An emergency program was put in place to build a fleet of ships following the general rules of mass production, and 2710 ships were built in this fashion from 1941 to 1945 (one burned during construction, or the total would be 2711).

The largest of the shipyards manufacturing these ships was the Bethlehem – Fairfield Shipyard in Baltimore, where the S.S. John P. Poe was built, launching on July 25, 1942, hull number 0054. The Poe was scraped in 1972, which was later than most.

Only three of the Liberty Ships still exist, most having been scraped. During the war over two hundred of these ships were lost. The majority of the records show that this was due to causes such as torpedoes, bombardment, kamikazes, explosions and wrecks.

A very unusual find, and a fitting addition to our collection, this life preserver was found in St. Petersburg, Florida and was identified simply as “Original Antique Life Maritime Life Preserver Baltimore” - we were lucky to have come across it.

Wonderful New Website On Frank Hinkey

It is not often that we find what we consider a great football site, especially  from the perspective of bringing to light well executed historical research.

One such site, that is new to the internet, can be found at https://www.frankhinkey.com/ .  Well researched, photographed and scanned, it gives the reader information that cannot be found elsewhere. We greatly appreciate a researcher that shares such knowledge and does so on a subject that is of interest to all of us that collect, research or follow the early history of football, Frank Hinkey.

This is a wonderful site that we wholeheartedly recommend and we look forward to the updates as they are made.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Championship Team Photo 1888

MIT won the Eastern Inter-Collegiate Football Association title in 1887 and 1888 (co-winning in 1888 with Dartmouth who had the same win - loss record in league play).

Back row standing, left to right:  Charles Garrison, ’91, William M. Duane, ’89, Odin B. Roberts, ’88, Frank L. Dame, ’88, Richard Devens, ‘88

Middle row, seated: F. Goodhue, Jr., ’90, Edgar L. Hamilton, ’90, Frank M. Ladd, ’88, Robert C. Mitchell, ’91, Edward W. Herrick, ’88, P.H. Tracy, ’90, Clarence B. Vorce, ‘88

Front row, seated on ground: Frederick E. Ellis, ’88, Otto Germer Jr., ‘91

Photo approximately 10" x 15"

                                                                Close up of banner

From The Scrapbook Of Princeton All-American William Church

There are hundreds of items in William Church's scrapbook, and we have posted some of the more interesting photographs and ephemera previously on this blog (Jan 2, 2014, Sept 14, 2013, Feb 13, 2014, Nov 2, 2014, July 21, 2013).
Going through one of our bins tonight, we chose a few more pieces that we thought interesting to post. Church kept absolutely everything.

    Church's scrapbook contains over one hundred newspaper clippings and articles.

                          Church even kept his train tickets - this selection from 1895.

                                  ..."do up Yale at all hazards". What a great quote!

Extremely Rare Sheet Music Featuring Native American John Levi

Published in 1929, this football themed sheet music is nearly impossible to locate a copy of, and our interest in Native American football made this something of great interest to us. The cover features Arapaho Indian John Levi, who rivaled Jim Thorpe as the greatest Native American athlete. Tradition holds that Thorpe considered Levi the greatest athlete that he had seen. Levi played and coached at the Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas (All-American) and was a player/coach for the professional Hominy Indian team (see our blog entries of August 14, 2013 and August 3, 2015).