The first football card & 2012 Goodwin football cards

The 1888 Goodwin Champions contained the first football card, that of Yale captain Henry Beecher.  Last year (I did this post for the 2011 set) I looked into this card a little bit at first, then found some things worth digging further on.  First, I typed in “Yale” and “Beecher” in a couple of search engines and came up with Edward Beecher, who graduated from Yale in 1822 and was the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe – the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.  Harriet, Edward and their many other siblings were born much earlier, but it seemed likely that the Beecher on this card who played football at Yale was related to the Beecher family of the pre-Civil War era who haled from Connecticut. I found a number of different websites, but the one with the best summary of what I found is linked here.  Apparently Beecher Stowe was this Beecher’s great Aunt, as Henry Beecher’s Grandfather was her brother, Henry Ward Beecher, who was probably the second most famous priest from that era.

The 2012 set also has a bunch of football players – many true legends of the gridiron.  But I’m just gonna showcase 2 here. First, one of football’s first notable names…

Well before his famous “Win one for the Gipper” Notre Dame speech, Knute Rockne was in fact a Notre Dame football player.

From the oldest name to the newest – RG3 became a household name.  I saw his Subway commercial recently where it claims he was a world-class hurdler, and did a little research.  And, yes, he was pretty sick.  A 110-meter hurdle time of under 13.5 – that right there would get you to the Olympic Trials.  And he was better at the 400-meter hurdle race, so my guess is he could very easily have been an Olympic medalist had he gone that route.

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OK, I’ll scan a few more football cards.  These seemed the most interesting pictures, and screamed out “scan me” (and I actually missed the crazy-looking Jim McMahon card)!!!