Today's Tidbit... The Captains of 1898

Stories and images from an 1898 issue of Munsey's Magazine provide insight into football of the period. College football was at the height of celebrating itself as a game played by amateurs, gentlemen in every way, as it was dominated by elite schools in the East that formulated the game. Yes, folks played professionally here and there, but those games involved working men or former college players who should have known better.

Munsey's was a monthly with a circulation of 700,000 in the late 1890s. Most of its coverage focused on international and national events -such as the Spanish-American War- the stage, the arts, with a smattering of sports. Its layout was odd in that images related to an article might be printed several pages before the accompanying text, as occurred when they made the following observations about the game of football early in the 1898 season.

The interest in football this season has in no way diminished. The sport has extended to all sections of the country. Not a university or college, not a boys' school in the land, has not put its eleven on the field. Naturally a college game, one which by some right of inheritance seems to belong to college men, has had few followers among professional athletes. Its unquestioned amateur status, and its freedom from the evils of professionalism, are features that give it a peculiar prestige among sports.

At the time of this writing it is impossible to forecast the result of struggles between the teams of the great American universities. Harvard and Yale have not forgotten Princeton's victories, nor have Pennsylvania and Cornell ceased to realize that a single triumph over their great antagonists is an everlasting glory.

'In The Public Eye,' Munsey's Magazine, Vol 20, 1898.