Football

Thanksgiving

At center, young women watch a football game. Surrounding vignettes depict William McKinley as triumphant in Ohio, “New Jersey” cleaning up gambling and horse racing, an unidentified man, possibly Whitelaw Reid, eating crow with his turkey, John Y. McKane hiding in a hollow tree labeled “Gravesend” with a dog labeled “Newton” on a chain, families with baby carriages in Brooklyn under Mayor Charles A. “Schieren,” David B. “Hill” in bed nursing a big-head, a tea party in Massachusetts, and Uncle Sam enjoying the Christmas issue of Puck magazine. Poetry accompanies each vignette, describing everything for which Americans ought to be thankful.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1893-11-29

The mote in our neighbor’s eye

Print shows at center, Uncle Sam as a policeman attempting to stop a bullfight, calling it a “brutal and degrading sport.” Vignettes surrounding the main image show a “Six Day Bicycle Race” with exhausted riders trying to continue, a “Foot-Ball” game with one football player jumping on another as medical staff carry off an injured player, “Pigeon Shooting,” “Prize Fighting” where the crowd cheers as a boxer gets knocked down, and a “Base-Ball” game where a baseball player is “Assaulting the Umpire” with a bat.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-07-12

Remarks to high school boys from balcony of high school building, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Theodore Roosevelt reminds the high school students to study hard. He concludes by telling the students to follow a rule he first heard on the football field: “Don’t flinch, don’t fall, and hit the line hard.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-11-22

Rah! Rah! Rah! Harvard vs Yale

Photographs of the 1901 football game between Harvard and Yale. Three of the photographs are wide shots of the field and crowd. The fourth photograph was taken near the goal line as Harvard scored a touchdown.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-11-23

Not so bad

Two fashionably dressed women, a mother and her daughter, attend a football game. Caption: Mrs. Newcome (her first game)–Oh! isn’t it awful? Horrible! Why, they will kill that man underneath! / Her Daughter (an enthusiast)–Oh! he doesn’t mind it, Mother. He’s unconscious by this time!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-12-20

The easy umpire

A battered diminutive football player labeled “The Plain People” tells President Taft, as an umpire, that a player labeled “Aldrich” for the opposing team is playing a dirty game, breaking the rules and cheating, but Taft never penalizes him for his actions. Caption: “He slugs me every chance he gets, and you can’t or won’t see it.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-11-10

Football is a brutal game!

A group of men at a football game is paying closer attention to exposure of a fashionably dressed young woman’s legs as she climbs the steep steps in a grandstand.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-11-12

When duty calls

At the front doorstep of a house, a young man is headed for college. He is wearing a sweater with a large “Y” on it and is carrying a suitcase labeled “Harold Halfback Yale” and a football. His sobbing mother hands him a football helmet and shoulder-pads, and a little girl hands him a “First Aid Kit” and shin-guards. A dog standing with the mother and sister is also crying. In the background, a man sitting in a small horse-drawn carriage waits for the young man to finish his goodbyes. Caption: The Spartan Mother — Go, my boy!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-09-24

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt thanks his father for sending the petition that will allow him to attend church. The bag and clock have arrived but he will need several more books and the key to his bookcase. His room appears comfortable with the pictures hung and the knickknacks placed. Roosevelt attended a football game between the freshman team and Adams Academy. His studies are going well except the class “Theory of Determinants.”

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1876-11-05

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt is glad that his father enjoyed his trip and wishes that he would work less. Roosevelt’s own health is good, except a slight cold. Princeton defeated Harvard in football but it was a close game. There was around 2,000 spectators at the game, including several of Roosevelt’s Princeton friends.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1877-04-29

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Martha Bulloch Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt will spend Thanksgiving with the family but will have to leave Friday morning due to exams. He has been in good health and only felt a little homesick during an illness. Roosevelt traveled to New Haven, Connecticut to watch the football team. Harvard lost as Yale “played very foul.” He is glad he is not a Yale freshman due to the hazing and the “scrubby” look of the students.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1876-11-19

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Quentin Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt is glad that Quentin Roosevelt “got the study” and will play center on the football team’s second eleven. His parents are hoping for a prefectship next year. Roosevelt attended the Rochester convention and is having the usual difficulties with the Progressive Party. Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt has had a heavy cold but appears to be on the mend. Sagamore Hill is being “put up” as Roosevelt and Edith are leaving for South America on Saturday.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1913-09-29

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Quentin Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt is pleased with Quentin Roosevelt’s studies and his efforts on the football team. He enjoyed Quentin’s article.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1914-11-04

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Quentin Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt will send the tickets to Archibald Roosevelt as soon as he receives them. He agrees that the Yale-Harvard football game might not be so bad as Yale is improving. Roosevelt blames the sinking of the SS Ancona on the cowardice of the “Byzantine logothete in the White House” towards the loss of the RMS Lusitania.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1915-11-14

Thanksgiving : a study in proportion

On the left is a pile of over-sized items that are used to fill leisure time, such as golf clubs, a shotgun, a football, a riding crop, a theater mask, and a horn, and also a large turkey, celery, cranberries, and a pumpkin. On the right, in the shadow of these material goods, is a diminutive church, dark and possibly empty.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-11-20

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Anna Roosevelt Cowles

Theodore Roosevelt discusses Anna Roosevelt Cowles’s recent telegram, her letter to Edith Roosevelt, and the health and activities of their family members.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1915-10-29

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Bradley T. Johnson

Governor Roosevelt thanks General Johnson for the possum Johnson gave the Roosevelt family and describes his sons’ reaction to the new pet. Roosevelt also mentions a recent Harvard football game he enjoyed.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1899-11-21

Letter from George W. Ireland to Theodore Roosevelt

George W. Ireland mentions a recent business proposition turned down by General Leonard Wood due to rules outlined in the Foraker Clause. Ireland discusses the Cuban sport, Jai Alai and the trial of Cuban Postal Office General, Estes G. Rathbone, accused of embezzling over $100,000 of Cuban money. Ireland comments on a letter written by James E. Runcie and writes in support of Leonard Wood’s service as Military Governor of Cuba.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-11-24

Letter from James R. Sheffield to Theodore Roosevelt

James R. Sheffield responds to President Roosevelt’s inability to attend the dinner for Commissioner Williams. Sheffield plans a visit to Washington, D.C., that will not conflict with the upcoming Yale versus Princeton football game and applauds the current situation in Panama.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-11-09

Letter from Arthur Woods to Theodore Roosevelt

Arthur Woods believes that Ted Roosevelt should play on the lower football team for his own safety. Ted has agreed that he should not try to join the upper team. Ted has been doing well at Groton School.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-10-08