Vintage Sports Pictures

Remember when tug of war was a Olympic sport? How about when Yale was a powerhouse in football? This is a collection of vintage sports photos from the earliest years of photography until 1995.

[vintagesportspictures]

Members of the LPGA international team at the Titleholders tournament in Augusta. Kneeling in front, from left: Patty Berg, Bonnie Randolph, Louise Suggs, Marlene Hagge and Wiffie Smith. Standing in back, from left: Kathy Cornelius, Mickey Wright, Betty Jameson, Marilynn Smith, Beverly Hanson and Fay Crocker. (1959)

[vintagesportspictures]

Rashaan Salaam (1993)

[magnoliablossom2]

White Baseball Players Kneel in the 50’s to protest Black Lynchings.

Then I saw this which takes away from their original purpose:

“Archival photos reveal several white baseball players kneeling during the national anthem in protest of the lynching of innocent negroes and Jim Crow laws. The practice was quickly ended when the players realized that most of their fans were either KKK members or sympathizers.”

http://www.breakingnews247.net/59f31b71e36be/white-baseball-players-kneel-in-the-50-s-to-protest-black-lynchings.html

[michiganpast]

Detroit News Aerial View of Detroit Corktown and Briggs Stadium - July 1959

Source: WSU Reuther Library

https://digital.library.wayne.edu/digitalcollections/item?id=wayne:vmc15607

[rosscountyhistoricalsociety]

    A photo of the world champion Cincinnati Reds team, 1920. One wonders if there was an inside joke, now lost to history, in the 3-2-1 hand gestures of the men on the left side of the bottom row.

[centralidahohistory]

Bill Janss pulling a stunt, circa 1960

From the Dorice Taylor papers

[iowacitypast]

Iowa-Nebraka football game at Iowa Stadium, The University of Iowa, November 5, 1932

Photographer: Kent, Frederick W.

Nebraska won 14-13. Iowa football games were played at Iowa Field until Iowa Stadium opened in 1929. Iowa Stadium was renamed Kinnick Stadium in honor of Heisman Trophy winner Nile Clarke Kinnick in 1972.

Source: http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ictcs/id/6185

[this-day-in-baseball]

August 21, 1926

Ted Lyons of the Chicago White Sox pitches a no-hitter over the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, winning 6-0 in only 1 hour, 7 minutes.

[vintagesportspictures]

Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin (Undated)

[vintagesportspictures]

Vintage Sports Pictures turned 5 today!

[vintagesportspictures]

In the exercise yard at Eastern State Penitentiary (1964)

[detroitlib]

On this day in baseball history, August 16, 1920 – Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is hit on the head by a fastball thrown by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees, and dies early the next day. (Wikipedia)

1. View of Ray Chapman, baseball player for the Cleveland Indians, swinging a baseball bat. Handwritten on back: “Ray Chapman, Cleveland.”

2. Portrait of Carl Mays, pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. Stamped on back: “Charles M. Conlon, Evening Telegram, New York.” Handwritten on back: “Mays, Carl, Red Sox, 1915.”

Courtesy of the Ernie Harwell Sports Collection, Detroit Public Library

[hclib]

The 1944 Minneapolis Millerettes

The Second World War welcomed a new tide of women’s empowerment in the United States. With men gone in the war, there were gaps in the workforce that finally let women step up to the plate. 

For the Chicago Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley, that also literally meant baseball.  With so many popular Major League players gone, Wrigley was afraid that baseball was being forgotten in the American culture. He recognized that there were players out there who could fix this: women.

In 1943, Wrigley created the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, or the AAGPBL. The league was originally made up of four professional teams. A nationwide talent search was conducted, looking for the best female players in the country.

After a successful first year, Wrigley expanded the AAGPBL into two larger Midwestern cities, including Minneapolis. The Minneapolis team was named the “Millerettes” and included players from as far away as Canada and Southern California.

The 1944 season proved to be the Millerettes’ first and last year. By the end of the season, the Minneapolis Millerettes had come in last place out of all six teams. Despite a few wins and exceptional games, the Millerettes struggled. Teammates left. Local businesses refused to support them. Ticket sales were low. Even the Minneapolis press stopped covering them. Nicknamed the “Orphans,” the Millerettes were destined for other things. 

In 1945, the Millerettes were relocated to Fort Wayne, Indiana. As the new Fort Wayne Daisies, the remaining players gained a devoted fan base and made it into the seasonal playoffs multiple times.

The AAGPBL, like the Millerettes, had a brief run–formally ending in 1955 after a series of controversies. But their legacies in women’s sports live on, both in Minneapolis and the world. Learn more about the AAGPBL in “A League of Their Own.”

From July 24-30 the International Women’s Baseball Center is celebrating Women in Baseball Week. Follow along on Twitter with #WomeninBaseballWeek.

Scans from the Millerettes vertical files in the Minneapolis History Collection at the James K. Hosmer Special Collections.

This post was researched and written by James K. Hosmer Special Collections intern Catherine (Cat) Dang. Cat is a digitization intern and a 2017 Urban Scholar. She is a recent graduate of the University of Minnesota.

[oldandgoldmn]

A basketball legend has died. John Kundla played for and coached the Gophers before entering the military during World War II. He would go on to win five championships at the helm for the Minneapolis Lakers, returning to his alma mater when the Lakers moved to L.A. Rest in peace, Coach.

[pittrarebooks]

Happy Women in Baseball Week!

Did you know that this week is the first annual International Women in Baseball Week? Women and girls have been playing baseball since the game was invented and this week was created in order to help raise awareness of the importance of women and girl’s inclusion in the sport. In recognition, Special Collections will be highlighting materials throughout the week with a focus on women in baseball and a variety of other sports as well! Be sure to check out the International Women’s Baseball Center (IWBC) for more information.

Young Margaret excitedly sits in the stands, watching as her home team, the Racine Belles, compete against the Rockford Peaches in the 1946 women’s baseball championship game. This is the point where Dirt on Their Skirts opens, and in only a few pages and heart-pumping minutes of game time, the Racine Belles win their championship. The Belles were part of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which was formed during World War II and enjoyed much popularity. 

In the book, which is part of our Nesbitt Children’s Book Collection, Margaret’s mother remarks, “You have to be tough to play baseball in a skirt.” The Racine Belles are indeed tough. Their game went to 14 innings instead of the usual nine, without anyone hitting home plate. Belles’ player Sophie Kurys runs, steals, and slides her way to the first and only score the Belles need to win. When they do and the crowd rushes the field, Margaret thinks to herself, “It felt like the last day of school, the Fourth of July, the end of the War.”

-Lauren Galloway, student employee

[mhc-asc]

How’s your Monday going? We’re just hanging out!

Really though, we’re working on an exhibit on physical education at Mount Holyoke for the fall semester. Here are students using “stall bars” in the old gymnasium (now known as Blanchard). Check out those uniforms!

Gymnastics class :: Mount Holyoke Archives and Special Collections Digital Images :: circa 1911

[this-day-in-baseball]

July 5, 1987

A’s first baseman Mark McGwire becomes the first rookie to hit 30 homers before the All-Star Game as Oakland defeats the Red Sox, 6-2. The Oakland infielder will finish the season with 49 homers, establishing a new rookie mark previously shared by Wally Berger and Frank Robinson with 39.

Photo credit: Brad Mangin