Football at Fort Greene, Brooklyn, ca. 1872-1887.

Football at Fort Greene, Brooklyn, ca. 1872-1887.

Image by Brooklyn Museum
George Bradford Brainerd (American, 1845-1887). Football at Fort Greene, Brooklyn, ca. 1872-1887. Wet-collodion negative. Prints, Drawings and Photographs. Brooklyn Museum/Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn Collection, 1996.164.2-1790. (1996.164.2-1790_glass_IMLS_SL2.jpg)

Thank you, lochnessa1! This image has been geotagged by lochnessa1 so Brooklyn could be part of the Historypin launch on July 11, 2011.

Want to help? See if you can place any of these images on a map!

More about #mapBK: www.brooklynmuseum.org/mapbk

Football: Jets-v-Eagles, Sep 2009 - 19

Image by Ed Yourdon
Note: for some reason, this photo was published as an illustration on a Sep 2009 Mahalo blog titled "College football results," at www-dot-mahalo-dot-com-slash-college-dash-football-dash-results. And it was published in a Sep 25, 2009 blog titled "How scammers work – the 'learn internet coaching to thrive' niche." It was also published in a Dec 11, 2009 blog that has the same title as the caption that I put onto the Flickr page, i.e., "Football: Jets-v-Eagles, Sep 2009 - 19." And it was published as an illustration in an undated (May 2010) HeartsForU blog www.heartsforu.com/13097/football-jets-v-eagles-sep-2009-19/ , with the same title as the caption that I used on this Flickr page. It was also published in a Jun 4, 2010 Canon Digital Camera Lens blog, with the same title as the caption that I used on this Flickr page.

I recently discovered that the photo was also published in a Dec 23, 2009 Wikimedia Commons page with the title New York Jets cheerleaders.

It was also published in a Jul 11, 2010 blog titled "Nice Life Coaching Tips Photos." And it was published in an Aug 27, 2010 blog titled "Fantasy football with razzmatazz," as well as another Aug 27, 2010 blog titled " Our £1,000 jackpot gets easier to win everyday." It was also published in an Oct 31, 2010 blog titled "Jets Packers play most boring game in NFL history." And it was published in a Nov 9, 2010 blog titled "Where can I find an affordable, reputable, preferably Christian or Buddhist life coach?" It was also published as an illustration in an undated (late Nov 2010) "Jealous Brothers" blog titled "Fantasy football is a wee bit gay, no there's nothing wrong with it - it's a manly thing."

Moving into 2011, the photo was published in an undated (mid-Jan 2011) Fanseyeview blog, with the same title and detailed notes as what I had written here on this Flickr page. It was also published in a Mar 17, 2011 blog titled " Latest Football News." And it was published in an undated (early Apr 2011) blog titled "Psychological assistance needed big time? Advice?" It was also published in an Aug 11, 2011 blog titled "American Football." It was also published in an Apr 26, 2011 Sports Photography Tips blog, with the same caption and detailed notes that I had written on this Flickr page. And it was published in a Nov 7, 2011 blog simply titled "NFL Jets."

Moving into 2012, the photo was published in a Jan 23, 2012 Gogojc blog, with the same caption and detailed notes that I had written on this Flickr page. It was also published as one of several illustrations in an undated (late Apr 2012) Mashpedia article/blog titled "Football." And it was published in an undated (early Jun 2012) blog titled "Football is the king of all the games." It was also published in a Jul 14, 2012 blog titled "Beyond thinking, beyond thought, beyond sleep." And it was published in an Aug 17, 2012 blog titled "iPhone 5 pre-orders begin September 12." It was also published in a Sep 29, 2012 blog titled "What Boise State Vs Virginia Tech Really Means to the College Football Season."

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I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that, until last night, I had never been to a professional football game in my life. Baseball, basketball, and tennis: yes, of course. High-school and college football games: sure, though that was a long time ago. Indeed, the last college football game I watched (in person) was in the mid-60s, when I was invited to the annual Harvard-Yale game by a Radcliffe student I had begun dating -- a development to which my MIT college roommate reacted, in shock, by howling, "Radcliffe? You're dating a Cliffie? She must be a pig!" After which he pulled out his flute, every time he thought she might be present when he returned to our off-campus apartment, and played "Old McDonald Had a Farm" until he collapsed in gales of laughter on the stairwell. Highly inaccurate, I hasten to note, and totally unfair. But I digress...

Anyway, a freelance writer, Mitch Ligon (whose photo you can see here in one of my Flickr sets), invited me to accompany him last night to the New York Jets - Philadelphia Eagles game out in the New Jersey Meadowlands -- another first-time experience. I was given a photographer's press pass, which gave me access to the locker rooms, press box, various other "inner sanctum" locations ... and, most important, the football field itself. I was given a red jersey to wear, told to stay outside the yellow dashed lines that ring the field, and turned loose for the evening. I felt somewhat inadequate, because I knew that the "real" professional photographers would be equipped with high-cameras and monstrous telephoto lenses beyond anything I had ever touched, or could possibly afford; and even though my Nikon D300 and 70-300mm zoom lens is fairly respectable in amateur circles, I had no idea if I would be able to take any decent photos at all...

The other problem is that I know little or nothing about the nuances of football, beyond the obvious fact that the quarterback either passes the ball, or hands off to someone who attempts to run the ball downfield. Punts and field-goal kicks are also a familiar concept, but if you don't have a good anticipatory sense of who is about to do what to whom, it's easy to miss the "moment" when the perfect shot might be available. Also, I didn't really know anything about the players, aside from the respective star quarterbacks: Philadelphia's controversial Michael Vick, and New York's newly-named starting quarterback, Mark Sanchez. I had looked at the team rosters on the Internet before the game, so at least I knew their jersey numbers (#6 for Sanchez, and #7 for Vick, as you'll see in the photos) -- but the "action" was often so far away (at the other end of the field) that I couldn't tell whether the starting quarterback, or one of the substitutes, was making the plays.

Nevertheless, by the beginning of the second quarter I was feeling a little more comfortable -- if only because I found it easy to follow along behind the other professional photographers as they marched (or ran) from one end of the field to the other, in order to get their equipment set up for what they expected would be the next great shot. By the end of the game, I had taken 1,100+ photos, including several of Michael Vick in a post-game locker-room interview; and from the sound of the clickety-click-clack of my fellow photographers, I could tell that many of them had taken several thousand. I'll spare you the technical details of my feeble attempts to get some decent shots; I had picked up some good tips from the sports-photography chapter of Scott Kelby's Digital Photography, and I did my best within the limitations of my equipment and my lack of familiarity with the situation.

What impressed me most about the whole experience was the scale of modern professional football -- the scale of everything. It's one thing to read that there are 80,000 people in a football stadium; it's another thing to actually be there and hear the simultaneous roar of those 80,000 people as a quarterback is sacked or a long pass is completed. It's one thing to read that a professional football player is 6 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs 350 pounds; it's another thing to stand next to several dozen such giants. Heck, I thought there were only 20 or 30 such giants on each team; I had no idea that there were 64 of them (a number which will be pared down as the pre-season comes to an end), or that there might be 20-30 different coaches. And then there are the hundreds of "staff members" scurrying around all over the place, carrying out their various duties and assignments; and there are the security guards and State Police, who spent most of the time scanning the stadium crowd rather than watching the players, presumably watching for scuffles or fights or ... well, who knows what. There are cheerleaders too, in this case bearing the official name of New York Jets Flight Crew; I had expected half a dozen, but there were two dozen perky, long-haired beauties, with permanently frozen smiles, who who danced and pranced before the crowd at every conceivable opportunity.

All of this has resulted in the photos you'll see in this album. I had to delete roughly a hundred of my original images, because they were out of focus, or because a referee decided to walk in front of my camera at the wrong moment; and another 900 were "okay," but not terribly exciting. I'm sure that none of them are as crisp, sharp, and well-composed as those taken by the Sports Illustrated photographer and the other professionals on the field; but I did end up with 72 "keepers" that I hope you'll enjoy...

... and, yes, I probably will attend another football game or two in the years ahead. Whether I'm lucky enough to get down on the field again is anyone's guess....

The Countrymen: The History of Hallam Football Club by John A. Steele

Image by footysphere
150th Anniversary Edition 2010.

The Story of Hallam Football Club. The World's Second Oldest Football Club.

www.theoldestfootballgroundintheworld.com

football nostalgia at footysphere

Oldest football

Image by delphwynd
A visit to the Smith Art Gallery and museum in Stirling. Found our first geocache in to the bargain. This is apparently the world's oldest known football, found in the rafters of a bedroom in Stirling Castle and dating from around the time Mary Queen of Scots was resident there, around 450 years ago.

Film History Recovered! UM-Navy Football Game 1950

Image by University of Maryland Press Releases
See this release and the video online at: newsdesk.umd.edu/universitynews/release.cfm?ArticleID=2217


COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The University of Maryland Archives has recovered a rare film treasure - on the eve of the Maryland-Navy football game this Labor Day. The film shows portions of the first-ever game between the Terps and Middies at a brand-new Byrd Stadium on September 30, 1950. That opening game was a 35-21 Maryland victory.

Archivist Anne Turkos says that finding this previously unknown film "is particularly remarkable" since the rare footage captures highlights of future All-American and Heisman Trophy candidate Jack Scarbath leading the Terps to victory and Maryland's stalwart defense on that auspicious day.

The Archives is currently working to preserve more than 400 reels of game films, dating from 1946 to 1989, that are facing a relentless enemy - Father Time. Turkos notes that 68% of the football film collection is in an advanced state of chemical deterioration. "We are in a race against time to ensure that none of these important moving images are lost forever," she says.

University Archives is working with Scene Savers, a professional archival services company located in Covington, KY, which focuses on preserving historical films and videotapes, to save the films. Scene Savers is cleaning and restoring the films and creating digitized copies of each of them. The digital files will be streamed on the Web via the Archives' online image repository, University AlbUM.

Recently the firm returned the first batch of digital files, among them aerial shots and highlights of the first game in Byrd. "It's amazing to see the stadium so soon after construction was completed and to see the huge crowd, including the entire corps of midshipmen, that was there for the opening game. The colors and the quality of the film are quite amazing, given its age and the high temperature and humidity conditions under which it was stored in years past," said Turkos.

Scarbath had a chance to share the footage of his exploits against Navy with friends and family during a birthday celebration this August, and they marveled at the quality of the film. "It's a wonder you could bring [the film] back as far as you could," Scarbath said.

The Archives is eagerly anticipating the return of additional digital files and sharing one of the most important parts of the university's athletic heritage, its historical football footage, with former Terrapin players and Terp fans across the state and around the world. "Seeing the early results of this project only makes me more excited about what is still to come," Turkos says.

This preservation effort is being funded by contributions from the University's M Club and Terrapin Club and the Maryland Gridiron Network, as well as numerous individual contributions from former players, alumni, and fans of the Terps. Turkos is working closely with University Relations staff members Joan Patterson and Sammy Popat to raise the funds necessary to support this rescue mission. Only ,000 is needed to completely fund phase one of the project, and Turkos hopes to reach that goal this fall.

In addition to financial commitments, Terp fans and former players and coaches can also help in another way. If anyone owns or has access to any Maryland football game film, the University Archives would like to preserve it. There are many games that are not currently represented in the collection, and any additional footage that could be added to Maryland's athletic heritage would be greatly appreciated.

To make a financial contribution to this preservation effort, contact Joan Patterson (301.405.4676, jpatter2@umd.edu). For information about the film collection or to donate films, contact Anne Turkos (301.405.9060, aturkos@umd.edu).