Original Unsigned 1936 "Cap and Gown" Yearbook University of Chicago Very Good

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20130601 Original Unsigned 1939 "Cap and Gown" Yearbook University of Chicago notable alumni Jay Berwanger and Martin GardnerVery Good Overall condition ~ There are a couple of minor issues including foxing (small light brown spots) on a few spots on the page faces but the pages inside are largely crisp, clean and unmarked -- please see photos for condition details 262 + pages total approximately 11 1/4" x 8 3/4" x 1 1/2"About Jay Berwanger from the University of Chicago Press Office: The University of Chicago News OfficeJay Berwanger, first winner of the Heisman Trophy, 1914-2002Jay Berwanger, football star at the University of Chicago and first winner of the Heisman Trophy, died Wednesday night, June 26, at 8:45 p.m. of lung cancer. He was 88 years old.To football aficionados, Jay Berwanger is well-known as the winner of the first Heisman Trophy and the first player chosen during the National Football League’s first draft. Less well-known is that he achieved his athletic successes at the University of Chicago, a school now more closely associated with Nobel prizes than big-time football. Berwanger, a halfback, played for the University of Chicago Maroons at a time when Chicago was a member of the Big Ten Conference–before Robert Hutchins, the University’s president, famously abolished varsity football in 1939. (Division III football was reinstated in 1969.)Even in an era before football teams were divided up into offensive and defensive squads, Berwanger was renowned for his versatility. He called plays, ran, passed, punted, blocked, tackled, kicked off, kicked extra points, and returned punts and kickoffs. Berwanger’s list of nicknames was just as long: "Genius of the Gridiron," "the One-man Team," "the Flying Dutchman" (though his ancestry was actually German) and "the Man in the Iron Mask" (because he wore a special face guard to protect his twice-broken nose).In 1935, the Chicago Tribune awarded Berwanger the Silver Football for Most Valuable Player in the Big Ten. His coach, Clark Shaughnessy, called him "every football coach’s dream player. You can say anything superlative about him, and I’ll double it." Of the 107 opposing team players he faced during his senior year, 104 said the six-foot, 195-pound Berwanger was the best halfback they had ever seen.In November of 1935, Berwanger received a telegram from Manhattan’s Downtown Athletic Club, informing him that he had won a trophy for being the "most valuable football player east of the Mississippi," as well as a trip for two to New York. "It wasn’t really a big deal when I got it," Berwanger recalled in 1985. "No one at school said anything to me about winning it other than a few congratulations. I was more excited about the trip than the trophy because it was my first flight." The prize was renamed the John W. Heisman Memorial Trophy, after the club’s athletic director, the following year.He was born John Jay Berwanger in 1914 in Dubuque, Iowa. In high school, he excelled at wrestling and track as well as football, winning renown as an all-state halfback. After graduation, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Purdue all tried to recruit him, but he opted for Chicago, which had offered only a basic tuition scholarship of $300 a year. To meet his expenses, Berwanger waited tables, cleaned the gymnasium, ran elevators and fixed leaky toilets. "Times were tough then," he said in 1986. "I wanted to attend a school that would give me a first-rate education in business, without special treatment, so that I would be prepared when opportunities were certain to return."During his freshman year, Berwanger was coached by the legendary Amos Alonzo Stagg, who helped define the game of football as we know it today. Berwanger’s first year at Chicago was Stagg’s last. As well as captain of the football team, Berwanger was captain of the track team, senior class president, and head of his fraternity, Psi Upsilon.Berwanger was the only Heisman recipient who was ever tackled by a future president of the United States–Gerald F... read more

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