Columbia v. Cornell Football Program 1922 - Lou Gehrig

Columbia v. Cornell Football Program 1922, game played at Schoellkopf Field November 4.

What makes the program so special is that Lou Gehrig played for the Columbia Football team in 1922, prior to the launch of his spectacular baseball career. Lou went to Columbia on a football scholarship to pursue a degree in engineering. Before his first semester began he played summer professional baseball under an assumed name, which was not legal. Gehrig was discovered after playing a dozen games for Hartford in the Eastern League. As a result, he was banned from intercollegiate sports during his freshman year. During the 1922 season, his sophomore year at Columbia, he was allowed to participate in sports again and Gehrig played right half back for the Columbia Lions football team. Gehrig played for the Columbia baseball team in 1922 as well. It was while playing baseball at Columbia that Gehrig was discovered and signed to the Yankees the following year, 1923. He never graduated from Columbia. Columbia programs from the 1922 season are highly collectible due to Gehrig’s affiliation with the team.

The program is 20 pages, although paginated differently as pages 13-30 are not present, although there appears to be no break in the content; perhaps an advertising section that was removed? Gehrig's name is listed on page 11 as a starter for Columbia. Overall the program is in good condition, it was folded lengthwise at one time and thus is creased. Cornell won this game 56-0. A rare collectible program.