Football Newspaper Excerpts (1890)

An All-American Yale player, Stagg brought football to what is now Springfield College and coached the institution’s first team in 1891. After arriving as a graduate student and instructor in 1890, Stagg posted a notice inviting students and faculty to play football for the institution. The first year ended with a 5-3 record, highlighted by a 26-0 defeat of Amherst. After coaching for fifty-seven years at number of different institutions, he became the dean of college football coaches. Stagg pioneered the huddle, the man in motion, the end-around, and the Statue of Liberty play, among others. During October 2006, the refurbished Benedum Field was renamed the Amos Alonzo Stagg Field. In The Fireside Book of Football, Edwin Pope describes Stagg as “football’s Ben Franklin, Alexander Bell, and Thomas Edison all rolled into one.” Dr. Luther Halsey Gulick, father of physical education and recreation in the United States, came to what is now Springfield College in 1887, where he helped found the physical training department and served as its first director. Gulick also created the Springfield College's seal, the inverted triangle, whose three sides represent the whole man - in spirit, mind and body. The symbol was first adopted by the school's students in 1891. Later, it was adopted by the YMCA and is still the basis for the symbol they use today. While at Springfield, Gulick directed James Naismith, who was a teacher at the school, to create a winter sport to be played indoors. Soon after, Naismith created the game of basketball. Gulick left Springfield College in 1900 to work as the physical education director at the Pratt Institute High School in Brooklyn. In 1910, Gulick and his wife Charlotte founded the Camp Fire Girls of America, a youth movement for girls which emphasized camping, outdoor activities and preparing women for work outside the home. Gulick died at his summer home in Maine at the age of 52.

Small damage from staple in top center of all pages. Creasing and small tears in the center of the pages from having been folded. The boarders of the first and last pages have dark discolorations. Writing in pencil at the top of the first page reads "Played in Madison Square Garden NY City in 1890." Small corrections made in pencil on the first page.

This document, compiled by Luther Halsey Gulick M.D., contains excerpts of articles from the New York Sun, the New York Herald, and the New York Times, all of which cover the first ever indoor football game, played between Springfield College and Yale at Madison Square Garden (New York, New York) early December 1890. The last paragraph, written parenthetically, appears to be an addition added by Gulick to the excerpts. Springfield College's team, known as Stagg's Eleven, was comprised of W. J. Kellar, James A. Naismith (inventor of Basketball), J. P. Smith, D. W. Corbett, W. O. Black, W. H. Barton, W. C. McKee, F. N. Seerley, Amos Alonzo Stagg (the captain), A. E. Garland, and W. H. Ball. In the contest against Yale, Springfield College had less than fifty students from which to draw. Stagg was the only experienced player on the Springfield College squad and found his team outsized by an average of twenty pounds per man. In a great contest, Springfield College showed true courage and pride, but ultimately lost 16-10. The newspapers labeled Stagg’s team the “Stubby Christians,” commending the team for the surprise they gave everyone in attendance and how they outplayed the giants from New Haven.