Library of Congress Film Archives - Michigan vs. Chicago 1903
Scrolling through the Teddy Roosevelt era, and found this.
1903: Michigan 28, Chicago 0
https://www.loc.gov/item/mp73006300/
There are lots of cool videos and photos archived.
Enjoy!
Cool to see an actual grid!
In NCAA Football 2013, I’d always add Chicago back into the B1G, and they were a powerhouse that anchored the West.
I hate the Maroons.
Cool video!
Among the many things I noticed in the video:
- No-huddle offense
- Suites (?) along the upper sideline
- Officials already ignoring blatant holding on the part of Michigan's opponent.
Seriously though, great find and thanks for posting it!
Brian's seriously overdue for the UFR on this one.
I noticed the film maker:
Thomas A Edison
That is actually the 1904 game played at Ferry Field, correction, Regents Field in Ann Arbor. The 1903 game was played in Chicago in six inches of snow. The LOC has labeled it incorrectly. Yes - Stagg vs Yost written by John Kryk is a must read for anyone who wants to know more about that era. I highly recommend it!
I don't know squat about Michigan football from that era, but this sure looks like Regents Field (which I guess is the same thing as Ferry Field) as presented in RF's wikipedia entry (which has a picture of the 1904 game).
https://www.loc.gov/item/2007663753/
Here's the real Marshall Field from the 1905 version of The Game. Built on land donated by...Marshall Field of department store fame. Soon renamed to Stagg Field. Famous for Enrico Fermi creating the first sustained fission reaction underneath it as part of the Manhattan Project.
As Dr. Sap and others have already pointed out, the LOC screwed up on the game ID.
My grandfather attended UM from 1901-1904, and this page in his college photo scrapbook has a pic from the 1904 game, with the Ferry Field covered grandstand in the background. I don't know where he got the photo print—while he was an enthusiastic amateur photographer, I doubt he was on the sidelines taking photos. I'd guess it was a commercially available print.
It's clearly from the same game that the LOC mislabeled as being the 1903 game in Chicago, which was played at Marshall Field. Marshall Field didn't have any covered grandstands at the time, as this shot from 1905 shows:
“Marshall Field” Field, perhaps?
If you want a good read, pick up the book Stagg vs. Yost. It's a great chronicle of the Michigan/Chicago rivalry. Yost had the better of it for most of the time.
Thing I noticed was people dropping like flies!
Great find, thanks! Although I must say, that seems like it would be really boring to watch as a fan. A bunch of scrums that don’t gain much, with a few bursts when guys break free periodically.
But at least no TV timeouts!
I had the same impression m, hard to see how the sport caught on. Perhaps this was just a case of two elite teams in a slug fest? Both were great programs in that era
It's easy to see the rugby origins of the game in these film clips. Opening up the game with the forward pass must have seemed incredibly revolutionary to fans at the time.
I clicked the University of Michigan tag on the page. It takes you to https://www.loc.gov/search/?fa=subject:university+of+michigan. Goodness... one could spend a lot of time going through all the artifacts. Good times!
Thanks OP!
Twas a silly game back then. Truly was 3 yards and cloud of dust.
Kinda cool. I'm gonna assume the up/down motion of the camera as it pans around the crowd is from the dude hand winding it.