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Sunday, May 1, 2011

Football Game (?) at West Texas Fair Grounds, 1907, Kerrville

Sometimes headlines can pose a problem.  Take this image of a ball game in Kerrville in 1907 at the West Texas Fair.  To me it looks a lot like a basketball court, and most people assume the printer just made a mistake labeling the postcard.
But not me.  I would never blame the printer for such a thing.  Printers are saints.  Perhaps football was played with hoops and backboards here in 1907.  It could happen.
The West Texas Fairgrounds were roughly between the Five Points Area (where Wells-Fargo Bank is today) and the river.  I have several photographs of the fair, but none as intriguing as this one.
Thanks to Lanza Teague for sharing this image with all of us.
Click on image to enlarge
Postcard, "Football" game at West Texas Fair, Kerrville, 1907
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2 comments:

  1. Because of this postcard and a little investigative work, I learned something new today.

    According to wikipedia.org, the first basketball games used a ball called an "association football."

    It looked very much like a modern day soccer ball.

    Therefore, the postcard is correct in labeling the game a football game.

    Very interesting!

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  2. My Grandmother told me that she played on a girl's basketball team in Center Point around 1910 and that at that time no one had thought about cutting the bottom out of the basket net. After a goal, the game was stopped and the ball was poked out of the basket with a long pole. The netting in this photo also appears to be uncut.

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