I rarely check out the 1901 to 1903 University of South Dakota football teams, but I know I will find some good stuff when I do. I looked at their yearbooks while seeking information about A. H. Whittemore, the USD coach for two of those years. You may recall Whittemore was mentioned in a recent Tidbit for being slapped in the face by a Nebraska fan who thought Whittemore was coaching from the sideline.
Yearbooks back then often contained little information on the football team other than a team picture and one page of scores or commentary. The 1903 yearbook (produced by the Class of 1903 and issued in 1902) included a typical studio image of the team.
As was often the case with less well-funded teams, their uniforms are a mishmash. One player wears the canvas of a union suit, one has a homemade USD across his chest, five have versions of an encircled SD logo, and there is one fella sporting a ROSY jersey. Not a helmet or headgear in sight, though the guy standing on the far left looks like he suffers from cauliflower ear so investing in a headgear might have made sense.
The 1902 team went undefeated and unscored upon in Whittemore’s first year as coach. Whittemore stands to the far left in the image below, and while the players still have a mishmash of light and dark jerseys and one with stripes, all but one bears the encircled SD logo. Whether the coach mandated the logos or the team opted in like today’s turnover chain is unknown.
However, the SD logos were largely a thing of the past in 1903. Only one player wears the logo, and another appears at the image's bottom. More interesting are their shoulder pads. Seven or so wear consistent-looking pads, others wear leather pads, and there’s a guy on the floor to the left with a sternum pad. My favorite is the guy seated to the far left with standard shoulder pads and two others protecting his collarbones.
Back then, the varsity played other schools or athletic clubs while the class teams played one another. Since many students had limited money, the class team players might borrow the football equipment of varsity players rather than buy equipment of their own. That appears to be the case here based on the images of the senior and junior teams.
The collarbone-padded jersey seen on members of the senior and junior teams looks a lot like the one in the varsity picture. Likewise, the tattered union suit that appears in the varsity picture resembles the one seen in the junior picture.
I don’t know what any of this means other than that teams and players made do back then with less than we accept today, but they still went out there and played the game.
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