Art of Football
Football
Program Cover Art, 1930-1939
Michigan State College, 1930 |
Ohio State, 1931 |
Princeton, 1932 |
| Programs in the decade of the thirties featured several distinctive styles. U of M student Melvin Ivory's photos of campus buildings graced the 1930 and 1931 programs. Shown here are the courtyard of the Lawyer's Club and the facade of Angell Hall. The 1932-1934 covers featured pictures of Michigan All-Americans. The photos are from Ann Arbor's Rentschler Studio which took the official team, captain, and All-American photos from 1896 to1969. | 
Minnesota, 1933 |
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Georgia Tech, 1934 |
Michigan State College, 193 |
Indiana, 1935 |
| The 1935 programs are some of the most graphically interesting the U of M ever produced. In a style reminiscent of late art-deco, they represent virtues needed
for or produced by college football: courage, activity, effort, endurance and achievement. Could these possibly have been intended as inspiration to a team coming off a 1-7 season? The artist for these highly stylized covers is not credited. |
Penn, 1935 |
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Minnesota, 1935 |
Ohio State, 1935 |
Illinois, 1936 |
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The 1936 covers feature the vivid colors of H. Alonzo Keller's football action paintings. Lon Keller was one of the best known sports illustrators of the day and his work was featured on the programs of many teams. He also designed the logo of the New York Yankees. Three of the grand old men of Michigan athletics graced the covers of 1937 programs: coach and athletic director Fielding Yost; Charles Baird, who started as undergraduate football manager in 1893 and then served as graduate director of athletics until 1908; and Keene Fitzpatrick, athletic trainer and track coach, 1896-1911. Fitzpatrick's portrait on the 1937 Chicago game program is from a painting by Roy Gamble that hangs in the north lounge of the Michigan Union. San Francisco artist Michael Kady's "Kid" cover for the 1937 Michigan State program proved so popular with U of M football fans he was invited to do a whole series for the 1938 programs. Kady's own son served as the model for the Norman Rockwell style paintings. Portraits of the opposing captain highlighted the 1939 programs in a style that mimicked LIFE magazine. |
Chicago, 1937 
Michigan State College, 1937 |
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Northwestern, 1938 |
Chicago, 1938 |
Minnesota, 1939 |