121 Professional Vintage Sport Photos Taken Before 1925
Ever since photography has been around, people have been photographing sports. In the old days, most of the photos were made on glass plates (so called Collodion process)
This collection of photos will show you weird sports, vintage equipment and most of all pioneers and sport heroes of those days.
All 121 photos were taken before 1925 and each photo has a short explanation of its historic value.
First modern Olympic Games in 1894, Athens.
Bobby Walthour, with pacer Hoffman, about 1903-04
Bobby Walthour started his career as a sprinter and developed into a formidable six-day rider, but achieved his greatest fame as a fearless motor-pacer. Walthour turned professional in 1896. He won America’s greatest race, the six-day race inside Madison Square Garden, with his partner, Canadian Archie McEachern, in 1901. Walthour again won at the Garden in 1903 with fellow American southerner Bennie Munroe. In 1902 and 1903 Walthour won American motor-paced championships. Walthour won the motor-pacing World Championships in 1904 in London and in 1905 in Brussels. Walthour’s cycling career continued until the early 1920s. (Wiki)
author: unkown
Ned Murphy, a member of or visiting player at Christendom Cricket Club, Co. Waterford. Date: 28 July 1902
Cricket Match at Nainital, 1899.
author: Col James Henry Erskine Reid
Syracuse freshmen on the rowing team sit around the dinner table on June 19, 1908.
Queenie Newall. 1908 Olympics London
Sybil Fenton Newall (17 October 1854 – 24 June 1929), best known as Queenie Newall, was a British archer who won the gold medal at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London. She was 53 years old at the time, still the oldest female gold medal winner at the Olympic Games.
Newall was born in Littleborough, Lancashire in 1854.
Newall’s Olympic score of 688 points gave her a victory of 46 points over the second-place finisher, Lottie Dod. (Wiki)
author: here
Saint-Louis 1904-DESMARTEAU Etienne (CAN) 1st in 56 pounds weight throw.
Étienne Desmarteau (4 February 1873 – 29 October 1905 in Boucherville, Quebec, Canada) was a Canadian athlete, winner of the weight throwing event at the 1904 Summer Olympics. For some time, it was thought that Desmarteau was the first Olympic champion from Canada, but it was later discovered that 1900 champion George Orton, who ran for an American university, was also Canadian.
The Boucherville-born Desmarteau, member of the Montréal Athletic Club was one of the top competitors in the 56 lb (25.4 kg) weight throwing event, which is no longer held. In 1902 he had won the American AAU championships, beating John Flanagan. Flanagan broke the world record in the event prior to the 1904 Olympics, making him one of the favourites for the event along with Desmarteau.
To compete in the Olympics, Desmarteau, a police officer in Montréal, had to ask for a leave of absence to go to St. Louis, but he was denied by his employer. He decided to go anyway, which cost him his job. In St. Louis, his first throw was 34 ft 4 in (10.46 m), enough for victory over Flanagan, who didn’t manage better than 33 ft 4 in (10.16 m).
He received a hero’s welcome back in Montréal and was rehired as a police officer. The following year, he died of typhoid fever. A district, a park and a sports arena in Montréal have been named after him; the Étienne Desmarteau Centre was used as a venue for basketball during the 1976 Summer Olympics. The District d’Étienne Desmarteau is part of the borough of Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie. (Wiki)
author: unkown
Cyclists ride in the first running of the Tour de France, in 1903.
Maurice Garin, center with pale jersey, won the event.
Champion Cyclist. Known as “The Little Chimney Sweep”, he was the winner of the first Tour de France. He and his family moved to France from their native Italy in 1885 and he began work as a chimney sweep. He bought his first bicycle in 1889 and started racing in northern France in 1892, the year he adopted French nationality. He won his first race in 1893, in spite of having to commandeer a rival’s spare bike because his own had punctured. His won his first professional event while still an amateur, setting off after the other riders had started. He took home 300 francs which had been collected for him by the enthusiastic crowd after the race organizers refused to recognize his victory. His first official professional victory came in 1893 when he won a twenty-four hour race in Paris. He rode 701 kilometres in twenty-four hours, beating the only other finisher by forty-nine kilometres. He went on to set an hour record for riding behind pacers in 1895, and came third in the first Paris-Roubaix race in 1896. He was to win this event in the following year and again in 1898, when he had a lead of twenty minutes over his nearest rival. In 1901 he won the Paris-Brest-Paris race by almost two hours when the early leader, Lucien Lesna, stopped to take a bath. In 1903 he became the first ever winner of the Tour de France, winning 6125 francs in total prize money and being honoured with a procession in his adopted home town of Lens. He won the Tour again in 1904, but was later disqualified for allegedly taking a train for part of the race. He then retired from racing and ran a garage in Lens until his death at age eighty-five. the “Stade Velodrome Maurice Garin” in Lens was named in his honour in 1933. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=39861139
Circa 1915: American athlete Jim Thorpe posing in a football uniform on a field.
Jacobus Franciscus “Jim” Thorpe (Sac and Fox (Sauk): Wa-Tho-Huk, translated to Bright Path) (May 28, 1888 – March 28, 1953)was an American athlete of mixed ancestry (mixed Caucasian and American Indian). Considered one of the most versatile athletes of modern sports, he won Olympic gold medals for the 1912 pentathlon and decathlon, played American football (collegiate and professional), and also played professional baseball and basketball. He lost his Olympic titles after it was found he was paid for playing two seasons of semi-professional baseball before competing in the Olympics, thus violating the amateurism rules. In 1983, 30 years after his death, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) restored his Olympic medals.
Of Native American and European American ancestry, Thorpe grew up in the Sac and Fox nation in Oklahoma. He played as part of several All-American Indian teams throughout his career, and “barnstormed” (played mainly in small towns) as a professional basketball player with a team composed entirely of American Indians.
His professional sports career ended during the Great Depression; and Thorpe struggled to earn a living after that. He worked several odd jobs, struggled with alcoholism, and lived his last years in failing health and poverty. (Wiki)
author: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Tug of war Lively clash of contestants at Drumleck, Co. Louth. Date: Circa 1907
Two women playing golf on a links in Co. Louth. Date: Circa 1907
Start of a bicycle race in 1901.
Kilkenny Hurler Date: Circa 1923
Supporter “riots”, England, London, 1923.
the public floods the field, just before the game starts. 300.000 tickets have been sold for the 125.000 seats in the new Wembley stadium.
author: Nationaal Archief NL
Boys proudly carrying their football boots around their neck. The Netherlands, 1915-1925.
League soccer match for the Dutch championship between HBS and Go Ahead Eagles (result 4-2). March 1925.
Moment of play in the Go Ahead goal area. To the right Go Ahead goalkeeper Leo Halle. Houtrust stadium, The Hague, the Netherlands.
author: Nationaal Archief NL
Soccer on motorbikes on the footbal pitch of Crystal Palace in London, England 1923.
Women’s football. The team captains greet each other with a kiss. England, Preston, 1920.
Dutch skater Jaap Eden on the ice. Location here, 1890-1900.
Coloured black and white photograph.
Jaap Eden, Dutch cyclist and skater, is by most people associated with the birth of modern speed skating. He became world champion 3 times (1893, 1895 and 1896). His world record 8.37.6 on 5000 meters from Hamar 25 February 1894 was standing for 20 years until finally broken by Oscar Mathisen in Davos 17 January 1914. The Russian Nikolaj Strunnikov went, outside competition, on Febrary 4, 1911 8.37.2 at Frogner during the Norwegian Championship, but this world record was not ratified by ISU until 1967. Eden’s active career was considerably shortened by illness. He died in 1925. (http://evertstenlund.se/eden.htm)
author: Nationaal Archief NL
Ice-hockeying women in bathing suits. Minneapolis, USA, 1925.
Speed skating: Dutch skaters Lijkle Poepjes and B. van der Zee standing ready for the start of a skating race in Leeuwarden (the Netherlands), 1914.
Felix Sellier is angry after being hit by a car. Tour de France, early 1920s.
Félix Sellier (Spy, 2 January 1893 – Gembloux, 16 April 1965) was a Belgian professional road bicycle racer.
author: Nationaal Archief NL
The finish of the first Tour. At the right: the first winner, Maurice Garin. 1903
The famous Tour winner Lucien Petit-Breton (1907 and 1908).
Lucien Petit Breton was born on the 18th October 1882 in Plessé, France. He began his racing career in Argentina where he had emigrated to at an early age. His father thought little of cycling and not an occupation for a young man. He likened it to being a circus clown. As a result Lucien had his Argentinian racing licence issued in the name of Breton and not his family name of Mazan. Petit was added at a race in Paris to avoid confusion with another rider with the name Breton. Along with winning the first Milan San Remo he became the first man to win the Tour De France twice. Another notable victory was the 1908 Paris-Brussels.
During the Great War, Petit Breton was killed. On the night of December 19 1917, 20km behind the front line he was driving a vehicle on a dark road. A drunken peasant with a horse drawn cart turned unexpectedly into his path. There was a terrible crash and Petit Breton was killed instantly. (http://milansanremo.co.uk/petitbreton.htm)
author: Nationaal Archief NL
April 1923. “Firpo.” The Argentine heavyweight boxer Luis Angel Firpo in New York.
Firpo was born on October 11, 1894, in Junín, province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. At the age of 9 he moved with his family to Buenos Aires and at the age of 20 he began training with amateurs boxers. He is considered the father of Argentine boxing, for the massive devotion and support after his fight with Jack Dempsey in 1923.
On December 10, 1917 he began his professional career, measuring 1,88 meter and weighing 98 kilos. He was then nicknamed “The wild bull of the Pampas “, after an American journalist saw him bleeding badly during a fight, but staying on his feet. On April 30, 1920 he became the South American Champion, after a KO in the first against Dave Mills, in Santiago de Chile; where he had arrived by foot (crossing the Andes), due to lack of money for transportation..
With anyone knowing he had a fractured humero, on September 14, 1923, he fought for the World Heavy Weight Championship in New York against Jack Dempsey. The fight turned into a myth and many people think that it was the biggest fight of all the times. Jack Dempsey defeated Firpo by K.O. in the second round, after being thrown out of the ring in the Polo Grounds of New York.
During this intense and historical fight, Firpo fell approximately seven times in the first round; but at two minutes and a half of the first round, after his seventh fall, he recovered and hit Dempsey so hard that he threw him out of the ring for 17 seconds. There was a lot of controversy around this fall because the umpire did not end the fight and ultimately Firpo was defeated. The umpire, Johnny Gallagher, was suspended for five weeks by the Municipal Commission of New York. That day Firpo became a boxing legend for Argentinean fans.
In 1926 he retired from boxing after defeating Spalla for the second time; but returned one more time ten years later at the age 41. On June 11, 1936 he fought his last fight, at Luna Park Stadium, abandoning in the third round. His records indicate that he won 31 fights, tied 7 and lost 4. He died on August 7, 1960. (http://www.easybuenosairescity.com/biografias/firpo1.htm)
author: Library of Congress
July 29, 1922. Newark, New Jersey. “Girl athletes to sail on Aquitania. Stine, Sabie, Gilliland, Batson, Snow.” Contestants bound for Paris, France, and the first international track meet for women.
Circa 1920s, “Boxing at Walter Reed Hospital.”
August 15, 1922. Washington, D.C. “Florence Skadding and Mark Coles.” At the Tidal Basin bathing pavilion.
1920 or 1921. “Lexington. Pike’s Peak car.”
One of two Lexington racecars that placed first and second in the 1920 Pike’s Peak hill climb seen at 1020 Connecticut Avenue N.W., the Washington branch of Hummer Motor Sales Company. E. Adie Hummer, Manager.
author: Library of Congress
New York City circa 1918. “Start of cripples’ one-legged race.”
Washington, D.C., circa 1920. “Donnie Moore in Duesenberg.”
July 11, 1925. “Auto races at Laurel, Maryland.” The 1⅛-mile wooden oval at Laurel Speedway.
June 1, 1918. Six of the eight contestants in the 100-mile Harkness Handicap on Sheepshead Bay Motor Speedway’s two-mile wooden oval in Brooklyn, New York
October 4, 1923. Washington, D.C. Danish athletes at the Pension Office Building
November 10, 1922. “Girls’ rifle team.”
Harry Cody with sports medals. 1916.
The New York Times.
February 10, 1916,
SARANAC LAKE, N.Y., Feb. 9.
-TIED FOR SKATING TITLE.; Osickey and Cody Lead in International Meet at Saranac.-
The international amateur outdoor speed skating championships for the distances of 440 yards, one mile, and two miles were determined here today. Ben Osickey of Cleveland won the quarter mile, Harry Cody of Toronto was first in the one mile, and Arthur Staff of Chicago captured the two-mile race.
authorLibrary of Congress
Babe Ruth, Bill Carrigan, Jack Barry and Vean Gregg of the Boston Red Sox in 1916.
Miss Katharine Harley, former champion of the U.S. won at Chevy Chase, 1908.
Rowing. Cambridge Crew. 1910-1915.
Three young women posing in swimsuits and wearing their swimming competition medals. circa 1915.
Army – Navy game, Polo Grounds, New York. 1915.
Sibyl Marston. 1910-1920.
Huge crowd of baseball fans watching baseball scoreboard during World Series game in New York City. 1911 Oct. 27.
Washington, D.C., circa 1915. “Women’s tennis league section leaders.”
George Goulding. 1910.
Circa 1910. “Woodberry Forest Gymnasium Team.” Prep-school gymnasts from Orange, Virginia.
St. Mary’s County, Maryland, circa 1920. “Charlotte Hall Military Academy baseball.”
Washington, D.C., circa 1911. “Georgetown basketball.” Georgetown Preparatory School junior varsity.
November 14, 1925. “Georgetown-Centre College game.” Georgetown University takes on Kentucky’s “Praying Colonels” at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C.
Two young boys wrestling on the ground as others watch. 1865-1872.
“Stanley Harris, Washington Nationals.” Washington manager and second baseman Stanley “Bucky” Harris at Griffith Stadium in 1925.
July 18, 1925. Laurel, Maryland. “R.J. O’Connor, inter-city championship bicycle races, Laurel Speedway.”
1925. Washington, D.C. “C.H. Milano, Ross School, 5-3/4. Plaza playground.”
Washington, D.C. May 31, 1924. “High school track.”
May 14, 1925. Washington, D.C. “Western High School fencing team.”
Parade of Turners at opening Berlin stadium. 1913 June 8.
April 18, 1925. “Miss Louise Ireland & Miss Helen Marye.”
Pastimes of Central Asians. Wrestling. 1865-1872.
Washington, D.C., or vicinity. “Horse shows, miscellaneous, 1919. Unidentified jumpers.”
US Olympic team 1912 on their way to Stockholm.
Photo shows the Red Star Line ship Finland, which transported the US Olympic team to the 1912 Summer Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden. 1912
author: Library of Congress
Washington, D.C., 1924. “Grade school track meet.”
Another shot from the 1924 grade-school track meet in Washington.
African American baseball team, Danbury, Connecticut. 1880.
Washington, D.C. May 31, 1924. “High school track.”
1924. Washington Canoe Club rowers on the Potomac near the recently finished Key Bridge and older Aqueduct Bridge.
December 1912. “Auto polo,” somewhere in New York.
1924. “Lewis, Maryland Agricultural College.” Gomer Lewis, University of Maryland lacrosse star.
November 3, 1923. High school football in Washington, D.C.: Eastern vs. Central.
Washington, D.C. November 3, 1923. High school football: “Eastern v. Central.”
Mel Sheppard. 1910-1915.
The first man to win Olympic gold medals in both the 800 and 1500, Mel Sheppard made his fame prior to World War I while representing the Irish-American A.C. Noted for being a frontrunner, “Peerless Mel,” as he was nicknamed, won seven National AAU titles in the middle distances, including five outdoors, and set world records of 1:52.8 and 4:03.4 while winning the 800 and 1500 at the 1908 Olympic Games. He earned another gold medal in 1908 as the anchorman on the winning U.S. medley relay team. In 1912, he won a gold medal as lead-off runner on the 4x400m relay team that set a world record of 3:16.6. In three other appearances at the 1912 Olympics, he was second in the 800, sixth in the 1500 and a non-qualifier in the 400. In addition to his world records at 800m and 1500m, Sheppard set indoor world records for the 600- and 1000-yard runs and was a member of several relay teams that held world records. For many years, he was the recreation director of the Millrose A.A. He was elected to the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1989.
author: Library of Congress
November 3, 1923. High school football in Washington, D.C.: Eastern vs. Central. -2-
August 25, 1923. Montgomery County, Maryland. “Auto races, Rockville Fair.”
June 18, 1911. Poughkeepsie, New York. “Cornell Varsity rowers.”
May 25, 1911. Bob Burman and his “Blitzen Benz,” a month after setting a world speed record in the car.
He was born on April 23, 1884 in Imlay City, Michigan. He was the winner of the Prest-O-Lite Trophy Race in 1909. He competed at the inaugural Indianapolis 500 in 1911.
He was killed on April 8, 1916 in a road race in Corona, California, when he rolled over in his open-cockpit Peugeot car. Three spectators were also killed, and five others were seriously injured. His death caused his friends Barney Oldfield and Harry Arminius Miller to join forces to build a race car that incorporated a roll cage inside a streamlined driver’s compartment that completely enclosed the driver. It was called the Golden Submarine.
author: Library of Congress
1923. Swimmers at the Wardman Park Hotel pool in Washington.
September 15, 1922. Washington, D.C. “Scooter skates.” On the right: Clarence Sherrill.
August 15, 1922. Washington, D.C. “Florence Skadding and Mark Coles.” At the Tidal Basin bathing pavilion.
Yankee group, 1921.
H. Danofsky, Class of 1921 at Gallaudet University, the Washington, D.C., school for the deaf.
Recreation (volley-ball). Pauls Valley Training School. April 1917.
April 1910. “1 a.m. Pin boys working in Subway Bowling Alleys, 65 South Street, Brooklyn, N.Y., every night. Three smaller boys were kept out of the photo by Boss.”
Wisconsin crew team in shell. June 29, 1909.
Washington, D.C., in 1913. “Baseball, professional. St. Louis players.”
Washington, D.C., circa 1913. “Jacinto Calvo, ‘Germany’ Schaefer, Merito Acosta, Washington Nationals.”
New York City circa 1908. “Sam Kramer.” Bodybuilder and wrestler.
Eskimo sports.
Olympic Athletes Reception, crowd at City Hall, New York. 8/29/08.
Petersburg, Virginia (vicinity). Playing ball. Camp of 13th New Heavy Artillery. 1861-1869.
Lightweight boxing champ “Bat” Nelson in 1911
After retiring from the ring, Bat (short for Battling; aka the Durable Dane, born Oscar Nielsen) dabbled in fight promotion and vaudeville. In January 1954, “a pathetic little man of 80 pounds, his mind a complete blank,” Bat was committed to the Chicago State Hospital; a month later he was dead of lung cancer at age 71. With 68 wins, 19 draws and 19 losses, Bat once said that although he had “lost several fights,” he had never been beaten.
author: Library of Congress
1912. “Football, Costello; Georgetown-Virginia game.”
Washington, 1912. “Football. Georgetown-Carlisle game; Glenn Warner.”
New York, March 20, 1908. “Wiley C. Grant on his way to London to play in Olympic Games.”
He was born on November 24, 1879.In 1905 he and Edward B. Dewhurst made it to the final round of the lawn tennis doubles championship at the St. Nicholas Rink.
In 1914 he and G.C. Shafer took the title from Gustave F. Touchard and William B. Cragin, Jr., in the championship round of the men’s tennis indoor doubles in New York City. (Wiki)
author: Library of Congress
1911. Washington, D.C. “Football. Georgetown University Game.”
February 12, 1908. “Scarfoglio and companions in Zust car, New York,” at the start of the New York to Paris automobile race of 1908.
The New York to Paris automobile race of 1908, in which the contestants drove west across the continent to San Francisco, continued to Alaska by ship, took a steamer across the Bering Strait and continued the land journey in Siberia.
author: Library of Congress
February 12, 1908. Montague Roberts in Times Square driving the Thomas Flyer at the start of the New York to Paris automobile race.
The Race was sponsored by the NEW YORK TIMES and the LA MATIN (a Paris newspaper). The torturous New York to Paris Race route: NYC, Albany, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Valdez Alaska, Japan, Vladivostok, Omsk, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Berlin and finally Paris. The Thomas Flyer Team covered three continents and over 22,000 miles in 169 days. The Race was ultimately won by the American Thomas Flyer driven by George Schuster Sr. of Buffalo, NY. The feat has never been equaled. They still hold the world record over 100 years later!
author: Library of Congress
Lelouvier and driver in the Werner car, February 1908, at the start of the New York to Paris automobile race. The course was from Times Square to the Eiffel Tower via Alaska and Siberia.
1911: Washington Park – Los Angeles, California
Panoramic photo of Harvard – Dartmouth football game, Saturday, Nov. 14th, 1903.
Panorama of ring & crowds. 1919.
Minnesota State Fair, September 9, 1911.
Two sheets to the wind circa 1900. “Sailing on the beach. Ormond, Florida.
Aboard the warship U.S.S. Oregon circa 1897. “Second round.”
Circa 1897. “U.S.S. Oregon — the athletes.”
July 3, 1899, aboard the U.S.S. New York. “A 10-round bout, anniversary of Santiago.”
Havana, Cuba, circa 1904. “Jai alai hall.” Parimutuel pelotas in a smoke-filled fronton.
Grand golf tournament by professional players–On Leith links 17th May 1867.
Horse racing – race track, Saratoga, July 1913.
Woman posed with shotgun for trapshooting. 1914.
Fraulein Kussin and Mrs. Edwards boxing.
1909: Bicycle riders – Walthour in 6-day Race
Bobby Walthour started his career as a sprinter and developed into a formidable six-day rider, but achieved his greatest fame as a fearless motor-pacer. Walthour turned professional in 1896. He won America’s greatest race, the six-day race inside Madison Square Garden, with his partner, Canadian Archie McEachern, in 1901. Walthour again won at the Garden in 1903 with fellow American southerner Bennie Munroe. In 1902 and 1903 Walthour won American motor-paced championships. Walthour won the motor-pacing World Championships in 1904 in London and in 1905 in Brussels. Walthour’s cycling career continued until the early 1920s. (Wiki)
author: Library of Congress
Swimming – Elaine Golding, Feb. 12, 1915.
Champion Australian girl swimming team. 1919 April 8.
Leon Georget. 1908, Dec. 2.
Leon Georget (2 October 1879 – November 5, 1949) was a racing cyclist from Preuilly-sur-Claise, Indre-et-Loire, France. He was known as The Father of the Bol d’Or having won the race 9 times between 1903 and 1919 in Paris. He was also nicknamed Big Red, or The Brute.
Leon’s younger brother Emile was also a very successful cyclist, winning the Bordeaux–Paris and 9 stages of the Tour de France. His son Pierre Georget won silver (1000 metres) and bronze medals (tandem) at the 1936 Summer Olympics.
author: Library of Congress
Mrs. T. Cassebeer holding tennis racket on court.
Recreation period, Pitcairn, Pa. 1919.
Sam Luzofsky (one leg) and Lon Young (one arm) boxing. 1912.
Roller skating. 1905.
Young man on roller skates that are pedaled. Nov. 8, 1910.
Female students exercising, one with a wall-mounted device using ropes and pulleys, Western High School.
Female students exercising with bowling pins, Western High School.
author: Library of Congress
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