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Bring Back the Old Names… Sports Stadiums Losing Their Charm…
January 15, 2024 by Laura Heilenman · Leave a Comment
Guaranteed Rate Field, M&T Stadium, Oracle Park… do any of these names ring a bell for you? Perhaps if they are housing “your team” they seem familiar however, for the rest of us (or maybe just me) they seem boring and generic.
Let’s try again with their classic names… Cominskey Park, Camden Yards, Candlestick. Ahhh, now that feels right. The other day I was talking with some friends and mourning the loss of the classic names for sports stadiums. As I am sure you are aware, these days the name is offered to the highest bidder. How long, we wondered, till Yankee Stadium, Wrigley Field, Dodger Stadium, Fenway Park are no more? Thankfully, we have record of these gems in Newspapers: THE NEW YORK TIMES, Sept. 14, 1920 … The top of page 13 has a column headed: “Terms Agreed Upon For Yankees’ Park”
Once again, history is preserved in newspapers of the day. Ok, so it may not be as critical to humanity as the founding of our nation but, to a baseball fan, it is still pretty sweet!
“Black Friday” goes viral…
November 24, 2023 by Laura Heilenman · Leave a Comment
Have you ever been in a room and said something funny and no one seemed to hear or if they did, they didn’t respond until someone else repeated your witty remark and then the room burst into laughter? My youngest daughter (youngest of 6) voices her frustration with this sibling scenario regularly. Apparently, “the louder (and older?) speaker gets the laugh” phenomenon is not my witty daughter’s alone to bear. On November 24, 1975, The New York Times carried an article describing the Friday after Thanksgiving as “Black Friday”. From this “appearance” forward the name took hold and across the country Black Friday became a recognizable label for the day after Thanksgiving. Ironically, other city papers had used this jargon before, however, it wasn’t until the New York Times took up the banner that the term was seared in people’s vocabulary. I have to wonder, was there some reporter from Philadelphia out there feeling the same frustration my daughter feels on a regular basis?
The beginning of a great career… The Traveler…
October 1, 2018 by The Traveler · Leave a Comment
A few days ago I journeyed to New York City by the way of The New York Times dated September 29, 1918 where I noticed the small report: “Notre Dame Beats Case,” which included in part, “…Notre Dame to a standstill in the two opening periods, the Case eleven and Notre Dame won 26 to 6… Coach Rockne immediately pulled out two members of his backfield and sent in Bahan and Gipps… with Gipps in the stellar role ripped through the Case defense for two more touchdowns. Another tally came in the final period.”
This was Knute Rockne’s first game as head coach at Notre Dame. The report was probably not significant as Notre Dame was not yet the powerhouse team as they are today.
~The Traveler
Great Headlines Speak For Themselves… death of Knute Rockne…
April 27, 2017 by The Traveler · Leave a Comment
The best headlines need no commentary. Such is the case with the EVENING HERALD, Los Angeles, California, March 31, 1931: “KNUTE ROCKNE KILLED”
Similar posts may be viewed at: Great Headlines Speak For Themselves
Noteworthy newspapers – one person’s view (part I)…
October 15, 2015 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
At Rare Newspapers, the most difficult to answer yet common question our staff is frequently challenged to answer is, “Do you having anything new to offer that’s interesting?” While some newspapers would certainly rise to the top of the heap and make the answer a no-brainer (Lincoln assassination, Declaration of Independence, an Oxford Gazette, a great Stock Market crash report, etc.), these issues are few and far between – and do not come along very often. What about the periods when no “best of the best” has come our way? Selecting great issues is often quite subjective – and ends up being heavily 
influenced by one’s own interests and knowledge base. This truth makes answering this question nearly impossible. However, just for fun, from time to time we’ll ask the Rare & Early Newspapers’ staff to take turns looking at the issues listed month-to-date to select their choice for the most interesting new item.
I’ll get things started by taking a look at September (to-date), 2015. In my opinion, there are several good issues to choose from: The New York Yankees acquire Joe DiMaggio, the very 1st King Kong advertisement, the announcing of the creation of a Jewish homeland, the execution of the Rosenbergs, and the death of William Randolph Hurst – to name a few. However, as a graduate of Penn State University, my selection of the month is an issue announcing Joe Paterno becoming a starter at Brown University. Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I’m confident my selection may not be the same as yours. You can weigh in on your own thoughts by looking at the first page of our Recent Listings. Enjoy.
Next stop: October, 2015.
Reporting the world of sports…
June 10, 2013 by TimHughes · Leave a Comment
One of the passions held by many is sports, and each season provides a new opportunity to cheer on one’s favorite teams as they follow their efforts through to a hopeful championship. It is not coincidence that “fan” is a diminutive form of the word “fanatic”. The hobby of collecting early newspaper adds an opportunity to broaden support for a team by including an historical perspective possible only through all this hobby has to offer.
Baseball, football, basketball, tennis, golf, horse racing, soccer, and on and on. You name the sport and reports can be found in newspapers going back to the very beginning of the sport, or the beginning of newspapers. We once offered a newspaper from Springfield, Massachusetts—where basketball was founded—reporting the very first public game ever played. It is the holy grail of newspaper reports on basketball, and now resides in the archives of the Library of Congress. Similar gem items can be found for other sports as well.
If a report cannot be found on the very beginning days of a sport, finding reports as old as possible is a quest which never ends. Baseball traces its history back to 1839 (although exactly when & how it was founded is up for some discussion) so finding a newspaper with a bonafide baseball report as close to this year is a worthy goal. We have some issues back to 1855 on our website, and game reports become more frequent during and just after the Civil War.
But with baseball it’s often the golden era that attracts the most attention, from when Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and other standouts from the 1920’s and 1930’s were making headlines. Just following Ruth’s standout career can create a formidable collection, from early mention of him in the majors (how about 1914?), his first Major League game appearance, his first home run, a report of him being sold to the Yankees, and then his stellar career as a home run record-setter. All were reported in newspapers.
And there was a host of notable ball players from a generation before, including Nap Lajoie, Branch Rickey, Henry Chadwick, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson, Ty Cobb, Joe Jackson, & Christy Mathewson to name a few. In fact baseball had its own daily newspaper from the 1880’s titled the “Official Record” which chronicled nothing but baseball reports of the day.
Illustrations of baseball players are a special treat and add a graphic & displayable dimension to any collection. The popular illustrated newspaper “Harper’s Weekly” (and other well-know illustrated issues of the day) had many issues which featured half page or full page baseball prints, as well as a few doublepage centerfolds and front page prints which are particularly desirable.
There are some ancillary items which are intriguing, several found in the scientific-themed periodical “Scientific American”, which featured a new electric scoreboard dating back to the 1800’s, and a 
novel invention of a “mechanical baseball pitcher”. There are baseball reports of Jim Thorpe, who, although was more famous for his Olympic and football prowess, was a notable baseball player as well. Newspapers with reports involving Jesse Owens are equally noteworthy. And just a focus on World Series games would result in a sizable collection, with the goal of owning the championship report for every World Series from 1903 to the present. The “Black Sox” scandal of 1919, which involved members of the Chicago White Sox team being accused of throwing the Series, made headline reports for the next two years as the case was investigated and brought to a painful conclusion.
Although the most collectible of sports, baseball is by no means the only. Football reports became common in the 1890’s and into the early 20th century. Again, “Harper’s Weekly” did much to provide a graphic account of the sport, with both illustrations and photos of players and action, showcasing the minimal amount of protection that was worn in comparison to what’s found in the game today.
Collecting by team makes for even more focused collection. Among the more popular would have to be the Yankees in baseball, and Notre Dame in collegiate football. But any team name for any sport can be 
searched out of our website, whether it be collegiate football, the NFL, or nearly any other sport you can think of. Even something as obscure as pre-1800 boxing reports and ballooning can be found within collectible newspapers. Give it a try.
With golf it was Bobby Jones who gave the sport some prominence with his accomplishments which culminated in the “triple crown” victory, after which he left the sport to pursue a movie career. But again “Harper’s Weekly” put many golf themed prints in its pages, several done by noted artist A.B. Frost, which make for displayable items for any golf enthusiast.
Tennis was another sport which made the pages of “Harper’s Weekly” and those that are framed make great display items for any den. Track and field, bowling, bicycling, curling, fishing (with prints by A.B. Frost and Frederic Remington), hunting, sailing (including the America’s Cup), skiing, automobile racing, archery, and even surfing are a portion of a lengthy list of sporting events found in newspapers of the day.
Whatever sport you follow and whatever the era, the world of rare & early newspapers has much to offer. Add an historical dimension to your hobby. There is much from which to choose.