Part 2  

THE TROPHIES

The Lee Family Hall of Athletic History is about 40 ft. by 25 ft. There are two double door entrances with a fireplace between. Inside, each doorway is flanked by display cabinets recessed into the wall, four cabinets total. Each cabinet was about nine foot tall by 2 foot wide by probably 16 inches deep. Each reached to the ceiling and had three glass shelves, allowing four compartments for display. These four cabinets were where most of Harvard's silver and silver plate trophies were. There were probably about forty works total displayed of varying size. 

I had to shoot thru glass with big time reflection and I had no ladder to negotiate my best shots. So I just settled for about a dozen photos to capture a basic idea what was there. The trophies appeared vintage and at least a few looked to have been "presentation silver", i.e., one of a kind commissioned works as opposed to ordinary stock trophies. I only noticed a few figural ones, but none with figures of athletes. I can't speak on them historically as there wasn't time to examine them carefully and read the engravings, plus Renny didn't have the key to the cabinets with him. My visit wasn't meant a comprehensive examination of the trophies anyway, but more a quick summary and photo opportunity. One trophy that stood out was a dynamite presentation bowl with an engraved scene of polo players going for the ball, flanked with crossed polo mallets in relief. 

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74" x 25 3/4" Oil Painting in Murr Center

After seeing the trophies we left Lee Hall and walked thru a hallway where I saw a great c1920ish oil painting of a Harvard Yale football game. It had kind of a WPA feel and was one of the best football paintings I've seen. From there we left Murr Center and Renny walked me over to the football coach's office in the Dillon Field House. Although it was modern in design, the Football Coaches lobby, or lounge as Renny called it, had a remarkable cozy feel and some great memorabilia. In the hobby you occasionally see 19th century cabinet photos called "Imperials". Imperials are the largest and most desirable format of cabinet photos....There was at least one 1914 team photo in the lounge that dwarfed them....the biggest jumbo deluxe team photos I've ever seen. Click the bottom right photo in the group below of Renny standing by it, which illustrates it's size. It's a monster, I've never seen a team photo that big in an auction, show, or anywhere.

Football Coaches Lounge in Dillon Field House

Renny needed to get somewhere and was kind of rushed to wrap up our visit. So I basicaly got a look at stuff but there was very little time to take it all in. There were some built in display cabinets in the lounge that had very interesting memorabilia. There was an extrodinary loving cup with one of the best engravings of a football scene I've seen. The cup had an interesting story. In 1895 Harvard couldn't afford to travel to West Pont to play Army. Army took up a collection and sent it to Harvard. Later when Harvard found out their trip had been funded by individuals they acquired the money and sent it back to Army. Army took the money and had the trophy made and sent it to Harvard as a good will gift. The trophy was in such remarkable condition I thought it had been re-silvered or something....Renny said no that it was just well cared for. See two photos of it above with the red and white "H".

Booklet on 1920  Tournament of Roses	Original 1920  Tournament of Roses poster

Another very great piece was an original poster to the 1920 Tournament of Roses football game between Univeristy of Oregon and Harvard. I learned there had been another example of the poster that is now missing. At one point Harvard made up a booklet on the history of that game and sent their poster to the printer to photograph and use as the cover to the booklet....and that poster never came back...A Harvard alumni had another one and donated it as a replacement. All I can say is it's very amazing they located another as they are extremely rare. I happen to have a copy in my own collection and those others are the only I know of. Above is a photo of the pamphlet featuring the missing poster on the cover.

And that about wraps it up our Harvard trophy coverage...Below is a link to all the photos I took, about 144 total. Hope you enjoyed the tour!

END OF HARVARD TROPHIES