Summer Live and Premium 2018
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/2/2018
This offered Albert Russel Erskine Award was presented to legendary Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne on January 18, 1930 for the team’s successful 9-0 National Champions 1929 campaign. This award measures approximately 16 x 20 and has been professionally matted and framed in a 19 ½ x 26 inch display. The award is an off-white color, hand-printed and drawn in black on parchment paper that reads:
“Albert Russel Erskine Award 1929 Collegiate Football Championship of America
To all to whom these presents may come, Greeting: Know ye that the Committee of the Albert Russel Erskine Award does present this scroll, as sign and token of the American Collegiate Football Championship of 1929 to Knute Rockne Coach of the victorious team of the University of Notre Dame Resolved: that the Committee takes pleasure in felicitating both coach and team for the high levels of sportsmanship on which they follow this great American sport. Don on behalf of The Committee of Award Miami, Florida, January 18, 1930”
Albert Erskine was an American businessman and President of the Studabaker Corporation during the 1920s and was on the Board of Trustees at Notre Dame. His son, Albert Jr., was also a student at Notre Dame. Erskine was interested in college football and created this award for the top college team in the US. A panel was created to choose the recipient and listed on this award as “Committee of Award” were Walter C. Allen, W.T. Anderson, John McEntee Bowman, Avery Brundage, Walter M. Christie, W. L. Clayton, Martin J. Collins, T. Morris Dunne, W.R. Morehouse, Feg Murray, Will Rogers and Theodore Roosevelt. Most of certificate is hand-drawn and lettered. This may have been an award that actually went to the University and ended up in Rockne’s possession. This award is synonymous with what today is the National Championship. There was only one trophy. The trophy was given three years, and moved from school-to-school after it was presented. There are no visible cracks or damage to the parchment and this is a very attractive framed display celebrating the achievement of America’s most beloved college football coach and comes from the 1995 Rockne Family Estate Auction.