Today's Tidbit... The Huddled Masses of 1905

Football history generally focuses on the stars, the winners, and the championship teams from prominent programs. But those people and teams are exceptions. Most who have ever played football toiled in obscurity, even if they were local stars. Many were unknown to people in the next state or county. Even those who played for nationally prominent programs or were All-Americans back in the day are now largely forgotten.

While most those who played football over the years did so in obscurity, some left a record of their football days in the form of Real Photo Postcards (RPPCs) or fancier postcards, so I'll periodically present their images here to make us aware of their glory days. And, even though most images will show those who played before teams huddled regularly, we'll refer to them in the Statue of Liberty's sense of The Huddle Masses.

The following is a collection of The Huddled Masses from c. 1905.

We have some information about the identity of certain teams or players because the RPPCs are labeled or the images themselves provide clues. The Freehold Military School team is easy to identify, but not the year this team played.

JCC or TCC played for Perkiomen School (PA) in 1905, but we don’t know much else about him.

The ball tells us the Crescents played in 1905, but where they played is unknown.

Read the note on the next card and see if you can guess which of the Hastings College players is Elmore.

Who knows where these guys are from, but the left end had the worst stance in football history.

Below is my favorite image of the bunch, so I saved it for last. The huddled masses passage on a plaque inside the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal promises to welcome immigrants regardless of the country they previously called home. The image of the c. 1905 team shows a team of substantial ethnic diversity. I’m guessing the team played in Hawaii or California, but who knows?

You will see other images of The Huddled Masses in future installments.

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