The New York Giants will celebrate their 90th season in 2015. The franchise has a rich history and a huge following but like the rest of the NFL, its beginnings were pretty humble.
A photograph up for auction this weekend offers an important slice of league history, showing game action from that inaugural 1925 campaign. The 6 ½” x 8 ½” Underwood and Underwood news photo was recently uncovered in a newspaper archive.
Our RMY Auctions Photo of the Day shows Giants’ running back Heinie Benkert, a 24-year-old Rutgers grad who by accounts of the day stood 5’9 and weighed all of 168 pounds, dashing for 30 yards in a game against the Rochester Jeffersons on November 11.
The game was held on a Wednesday, which was Armistice Day, a celebration of the end of World War I exactly seven years earlier.
About 10,000 people showed up at the Polo Grounds that day to watch the Giants win 13-0. They would finish their first season in the NFL with a record of 8-4 under coach Bob Folowell.
Benkert, by the way, played for a few different teams during a five-year pro career.
The photo remains in excellent condition and includes the original photo caption (which apparently served as the description for several photos) on back.
Bidding for more than 300 original news photographs continues through Sunday night at RMY Auctions.
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