Daniels was Captain of the Auburn team that played and beat Alabama. See write-up in Birmingham News for 2-23-1893, pg 3.
Dorsey also played in that game. There are several good photos of him from his Auburn playing days. He was captain the next fall, Fall of 1893. There is a good recognizable image attached to his obit. I include here his senior (1894) photograph - if I am able to do it? - which is in the on-line digital collections of Auburn University. (See History of Auburn Univ.) I think its a match. If necessary can give you the name of everyone else in that team photo. But I'm not going to blow up your (excellent) site arguing about it.
Daniels' career at Auburn was brief, and I identify him in the Feb/Mar 1893 team photo, by process of elimination: he has the ball, and in Auburn team photos of that era, the captain (and only the captain) is always the one holding the ball.
I am writing an account of Auburn football of this era, so I've been diving deep - better to look at the 1890s than to keep seeing Auburn lose to Alabama in the 2020s.
I'd love to add the names of the players in the caption. I agree on the captain always holding the ball in the era as well. You can email me at footballarchaeologytb@gmail.com
Two lengthy reply attempts with names to 1893 team have "failed to go through". One without photo, one with. I have been using the message box. Suggestions?
Two corrections and a comment to the Alabama A&M team photo of 1893: Dutch Dorsey is not holding the ball. That is Tom Daniels the Fullback; Dorsey is the tough guy languishing next to the big man in the center of the bottom row. On the extreme right of the group, against the balustrade? is Walter Riggs, left end; he also sports a nose guard. Riggs graduated in '93, but played in '94 as a graduate student. He was team manager in the '95 season. With his Masters in Engineering he was hired by Clemson as a professor, then formed the first football team. In December 1899 Riggs hired Heisman away from Auburn to become coach. (Clemson and Auburn share similar team colors and a mascot, but Riggs allowed his alma mater to keep their cheers). Riggs became President of Clemson in 1911.
Fun fact about that 1892 Alabama team: one of its recognized lettermen was a reserve named Bibb Graves, who was later twice elected governor of Alabama. Graves graduated in 1893 and enrolled at the University of Texas as a law student that same year, and in the fall of 1893 he was a substitute on the very first UT football team. He is not a recognized letterman at Texas, but the fact that he played on the first varsity teams at two different universities has to be pretty unique.
I've actually seen many of those photos before! Auburn uniform archivist Clint Richardson shared one of the campus photos and the game photos appeared in a book or journal article, the title of which I now can't recall. The game photos had some connection to a Trinity (Duke) player I believe.
And of interest to me is the 1894 Iron Bowl in which Alabama tried to get two former UNC players to play. They didn't, but they show up in the team photo!
I found about 2/3 of the image online, plus others not shown. Still, I could not find several of John's images on the web.
Also, one newspaper report commented on Penn's captain enticing Abbot of Alabama with a Penn scholarship. He stayed and played at Bama the next few years, but there's a reason we have arrived at the NIL we have today.
Daniels was Captain of the Auburn team that played and beat Alabama. See write-up in Birmingham News for 2-23-1893, pg 3.
Dorsey also played in that game. There are several good photos of him from his Auburn playing days. He was captain the next fall, Fall of 1893. There is a good recognizable image attached to his obit. I include here his senior (1894) photograph - if I am able to do it? - which is in the on-line digital collections of Auburn University. (See History of Auburn Univ.) I think its a match. If necessary can give you the name of everyone else in that team photo. But I'm not going to blow up your (excellent) site arguing about it.
Daniels' career at Auburn was brief, and I identify him in the Feb/Mar 1893 team photo, by process of elimination: he has the ball, and in Auburn team photos of that era, the captain (and only the captain) is always the one holding the ball.
I am writing an account of Auburn football of this era, so I've been diving deep - better to look at the 1890s than to keep seeing Auburn lose to Alabama in the 2020s.
I'd love to add the names of the players in the caption. I agree on the captain always holding the ball in the era as well. You can email me at footballarchaeologytb@gmail.com
Two lengthy reply attempts with names to 1893 team have "failed to go through". One without photo, one with. I have been using the message box. Suggestions?
B
Two corrections and a comment to the Alabama A&M team photo of 1893: Dutch Dorsey is not holding the ball. That is Tom Daniels the Fullback; Dorsey is the tough guy languishing next to the big man in the center of the bottom row. On the extreme right of the group, against the balustrade? is Walter Riggs, left end; he also sports a nose guard. Riggs graduated in '93, but played in '94 as a graduate student. He was team manager in the '95 season. With his Masters in Engineering he was hired by Clemson as a professor, then formed the first football team. In December 1899 Riggs hired Heisman away from Auburn to become coach. (Clemson and Auburn share similar team colors and a mascot, but Riggs allowed his alma mater to keep their cheers). Riggs became President of Clemson in 1911.
My source, the owner of the image, told me it was Dorsey holding the ball. Happy to correct it if you can cite a source.
Fun fact about that 1892 Alabama team: one of its recognized lettermen was a reserve named Bibb Graves, who was later twice elected governor of Alabama. Graves graduated in 1893 and enrolled at the University of Texas as a law student that same year, and in the fall of 1893 he was a substitute on the very first UT football team. He is not a recognized letterman at Texas, but the fact that he played on the first varsity teams at two different universities has to be pretty unique.
I read that he became the governor but did not the Texas side of the story. Interesting and worthy of a separate Tidbit!
William Bankhead on that 1st Bama team became Speaker of the U.S. House. His sister was actress Tallulah Bankhead.
I've actually seen many of those photos before! Auburn uniform archivist Clint Richardson shared one of the campus photos and the game photos appeared in a book or journal article, the title of which I now can't recall. The game photos had some connection to a Trinity (Duke) player I believe.
And of interest to me is the 1894 Iron Bowl in which Alabama tried to get two former UNC players to play. They didn't, but they show up in the team photo!
I found about 2/3 of the image online, plus others not shown. Still, I could not find several of John's images on the web.
Also, one newspaper report commented on Penn's captain enticing Abbot of Alabama with a Penn scholarship. He stayed and played at Bama the next few years, but there's a reason we have arrived at the NIL we have today.