Envelope from a letter to Amos Alonzo Stagg from Amherst College sent September 27, 1891
Description:
Envelope from a letter to Amos Alonzo Stagg from Amherst College sent September 27, 1891. The letter is part of a series of letters received by Stagg regarding arrangements to play Springfield College in Football.
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In 1890, Amos Alonzo Stagg, a Yale all-American and major league baseball pitching prospect, came to Springfield College (then known as the YMCA Training School) and started the college’s first football team. Stagg graduated from Yale in 1888 and from Springfield College in 1891. As a graduate student in a one-year program to become a YMCA Physical Director, he served as Coach, Manager, Captain, and Player. On an open field overlooking Lake Massasoit, the team would practice and play the less important games, while playing bigger games downtown. Stagg served as an assistant physical education instructor at Springfield College from 1890-1892. His football teams at Springfield College were known as "Stagg's Eleven" or the "Stubby Christians". During the two years he coached and played football at Springfield College, the "Stubby Christians," went 10-11-1 and played in one of the first indoor football game on December 12, 1890 at Madison Square Garden against the Yale Consolidated team. In a career spanning more than 50 years, Stagg came to be known as the "Grand Old Man of Football". He coached football at the University of Chicago (Chicago, Ill.) from 1892-1932 and at the College of the Pacific from 1933 until his retirement in 1946. Over his career he won 314 games. Stagg died in 1965 at the age of 102. He pioneered the huddle, the man in motion, the end-around, and the Statue of Liberty play, among others. During October 2006, the refurbished Benedum Field was renamed the Amos Alonzo Stagg Field. In The Fireside Book of Football, author Edwin Pope describes Stagg as “football’s Ben Franklin, Alexander Bell, and Thomas Edison all rolled into one.”
A letter was contained in this envelope. To see letter, click here: http://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15370coll2/id/13586/rec/6
