More Vintage Hoop Shots!

These were too good not to share --- part of a little something I'm working on today, here are some University of Alabama basketball action shots and players from the 1940s-60s! Roll Tide!

Our Super Starr: Alabama and Green Bay's Bart Starr

Detail from Quarterbacking by Bart Starr with Mark Cox (Prentice-Hall, 1967) from the Hoole Alabama Collection

The Green Bay Packers will make their fifth Super Bowl appearance this Sunday, and what better way to celebrate is to talk a little bit about someone who who knows a thing or two about winning Super Bowls for the Packers.

Detail from A Perspective on Victory (NFL Books, 1972) from the
Hoole Library's Alabama Collection

Bart Starr donned a #15 green and gold jersey to play quarterback for the Packers from 1956 to 1971. Starr’s first season as starting quarterback was 1959, Vince Lombardi’s first year as coach of the Packers. With Starr at quarterback, the Packers won five NFL Championships in seven seasons. Starr led Green Bay to defeat the Kansas City Chiefs and the Oakland Raiders in the first and second Super Bowls, respectively. And Starr was named Most Valuable Player of both of these games (Guess who was MVP of Superbowl III -- Fellow University of Alabama player and graduate, Joe Namath!). After Starr concluded his playing career, he remained with the Packers, first as an assistant coach in 1972 then as head coach from 1975 to 1983. Starr appeared in the Pro Bowl four times, was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1976 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977, and has a National Football League award named in his honor, given annually to an NFL player of outstanding character. He is one of five Green Bay Packers alumni to have his number retired.

Bart Starr, from the 1956 Corolla in his uniform as Quarterback for the Crimson Tide.

Bryan Bartlett Starr was born in Montgomery, Alabama on January 9, 1934. Prior to his professional career with the Packers, Starr played football at Sidney Lanier High School in Montgomery under head coach Bill Moseley. As a senior quarterback and punter, he earned all-state honors. Under both “Red” Drew and J.B. Whitworth, Starr served as quarterback for the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Starr is featured in the book, Crimson, sharing that The University of Alabama is one that “has always offered uniquely strong foundations for athletic achievement, as well as academic excellence.” Of his time here he says in Crimson, “It was at The University of Alabama where I was privileged to meet so many people who have left their footprints on my life, and where still today, I gain strength and feel a strong sense of pride for what my alma mater has done for me and for so many others who came before me, after me , and for those still to come.” Starr is a successful businessman, inspired public speaker, and tireless charitable work, including the Rawhide Boys Ranch, which was established by Starr in 1965 to work with at risk youth and their families.

On Superbowl Sunday, Alabama fans can lend their support to both the Packers and the Steelers, as we have two former University of Alabama football players competing on opposite sides of the football field in Super Bowl XLV this Sunday. Charlie Peprah now plays for the Green Bay Packers and Anthony Madison plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The cheering will be extra loud at Hoole's own Allyson Holliday's house -- a native of Green Bay, shown here with Bart Starr as a little girl, with her dad and sister, but we should all give a cheer for Bart Starr, Alabama's very own Super(bowl) Starr!

Hoole Library's own Allyson Holiday, being held by Bart Starr (on the left). Her dad (in pre-cheesehead Packers gear) and sister are on the right.

Thanks to Jamie Burke for her Bart Starr Super-sleuthing and scanning!

Football! Football! Football!: Images from early 20th century Corollas

From the 1903 Corolla

From The 1909 Corolla

From The 1901 Corolla

From The 1906 Corolla

Provenance Times Two: An Early Gift and the Origins of Crimson and White (o Rosso e Bianco)

One of the many projects we are working on at the Hoole Special Collections Library centers around our foreign language rare books. Right now we're spending some time with the Italian rare books in our collection. One thing we find is that no matter the origin or provenance of any particular item, it's always cool to look at any book and see where it can take you. Sometimes it's far beyond the actual content of the book where you can find the most interesting stories.

Giovanni Domenico Romagnosi

For example, we have in the Hoole Library's Rare Books collection a book on criminal law entitled Genesi del Diritto Penale (or the Origins of Penal Law), written by Giovanni Domenico Romagnosi and published in Milan in 1823. There is a faint inscription on inside of the front cover - "University of Alabama. Presented by -- Ex Libris J. Walker Fearn, N.O. 26 June 1885."

Inscription on the inside of the front cover

It is said that Romagnosi conceived the Genesi del Diritto Penale in Piacenza, completed the work by 1787 and first published it in Pavia in 1791. It was enlarged with the 5th and 6th parts in the 1823 edition published in Milan, and this is the edition that the Hoole Library holds (and one of only three in WorldCat!). The concepts, theories and reflections on the natural and metaphysical origins of the right to punish that the author exposed remain to this day important in legal scholarship. His theories and ideas were even more broadly explored in this 3rd edition.



While the book itself is interesting and important, it was fascinating to discover through a little sleuthing how and from whom we acquired this book.

The inscription above shows us that it had belonged to and was given to The University of Alabama by John Williams Walker Fearn, a lawyer and diplomat. Fearn was born on January 13, 1832 in Huntsville, Alabama, and named for his grandfather, John W. Walker. Walker was was an important person in early Alabama history -- he was President of the Convention which framed the constitution preceding Alabama’s statehood and was the very first Senator for the State of Alabama.

His grandson and namesake, the owner of this book, did not attend The University of Alabama, but graduated from Yale University in 1851. He studied law in France and in 1853 was admitted to the Mobile bar. Soon after, in 1854 he was entrusted with several diplomatic missions in Europe in behalf of the government of the Confederate states. During the Civil War he attained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, serving on the staff of General Preston. After the war, he practiced law in New Orleans until 1885, when he was appointed Minister to Greece.

So what does this rare Italian law book have to do with Crimson and White? Those colors are everywhere -- crimson representing school spirit, pride, and of course, brings to mind that ubiquitous name for The University of Alabama, The Crimson Tide!

It just happens to be that the very year that John Williams Walker Fearn was appointed to serve as Minister to Greece, his daughter, Mary Fearn served as a sponsor for a drill competition held in New Orleans. 1885 was also the very same year that he inscribed and gave this book to The University of Alabama.

UA was a very different place in 1885 -- a military school, in fact. And The University of Alabama Company E cadets were in the competition. The story goes that Mary Fearn asked the UA cadets what their colors were so that she could plan her own outfit for the day. When they responded that they had no official colors but wore black caps, gray coats and white trousers for competition. She was purported to have responded that black is too funereal, and gray was too neutral. So she picked crimson, white and gray for her outfit.

It's exciting to point out that The University of Alabama won this competition! And it's very cool to ponder about this very book may have travelled back with the cadets from New Orleans to Tuscaloosa. Perhaps it was a token of his esteem to the winning team, or given in honor of his daughter, the team's sponsor in New Orleans.

The rest, as they say, is history. Beginning in 1892, the football team always wore white uniforms with crimson stockings and large “U of A" in crimson on their sweaters. Other athletic teams at The University followed suit. Within a year, in spring 1893, the annual dance was decorated in crimson and white, and our student newspaper (the oldest student newspaper in the Southeast!) was named the Crimson-White.

The 1892 University of Alabama Football Team

Mary Fearn joined her family in Europe where she met and later married an Imperial Russian Prince, one Sergei Mikhailovitch Volkonsky. (Серге́й Миха́йлович Волко́нский). He was an interesting man, extremely influential in the Russian theatre and one of the the first Russian proponents of eurhythmics, pupil and friend of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, and creator of an original system of actor's training that included both expressive gesture and expressive speech.

So if anyone asks where Crimson and White came from, tell them they were chosen by a Princess. And how did we find that out? Provenance!

A Roast of another Kind -- Congratulations Graduates!

Among the 900 students to graduate on December 15th, 2007, one of them just happens to be legendary Crimson Tide and NFL football star Joe Namath. Congratulations to you Joe, and to all of the UA graduates!

Joe Namath first came to The University of Alabama as a student in the early 1960s, and went on to an incredible career that included and transcends professional football. He is a true celebrity -- beloved on this campus and all over the world.

The image featured here is held at the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, and is from a Dean Martin Celebrity Roast from the 1970s. He is pictured with legendary coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, and host Dean Martin. It is a great example of the Hoole Library's ongoing efforts to document University of Alabama history and culture -- from the classroom, to the gridiron, to Hollywood and beyond.

The Hoole Library's photographs are growing and diverse collection of historic and contemporary photographs occupying approximately 150 linear feet. Included are photographs of individuals, structures, and scenes from around Alabama, as well as of people, buildings, and events at The University of Alabama. The earliest photographic image of the University dates to 1859. The Hoole Library is home to an impressive collection of photographs of nearly every format and type including salted paper print; matte collodion; daguerreotype; tintype; cyanotypes; ambrotype; and albumen.

To access a growing digital resource of University photographs, something we're calling "The University of Alabama Encyclopedia" click here.

Congratulations again to UA grads! And remember, the best place in the world to better understand, document, and access the history of your soon-to-be alma mater is right on The University of Alabama campus! Roll Tide!