A visual retrospective of the 1925 Giants.

One of the curiosities of my research/study/hobby of football history and photo achiving is noting the ususual amount of photos of the Giants in 1925. Between 1926 (of which I have hardly anything) and 1932 there is not much, not even in newspapers until 1929. Not only do I have many photos from 1925, I have quite a few tha are high quality. I figured I'd share some here. I've always attributed this to pro football being a new thing in New York in 1925 and drew some curious onlookers. Then in 1926 there was the rival AFL with Red Grange playing across the Harlem River which did draw attention away from the Giants and NFL that year. The NFL downsized in 1927 in attempt to recover from the salary war between the two leagues (the Giants nearly went bankrupt).

The Giants first coach, Bob Folwell, in the Polo Grounds.


Folwell shaking hands with the Giants headline attraction, Jim Thorpe.


Jim Thorpe in game action, Giants at Frankford Yellow Jackets. This was the igants second ever game played, I still do not have a photo of their first game at Providence the previous week. This photo comes from teh Philadelphia Inquirer.


Sideline portrait from the Giants first home game against the Yellow Jackets, the day after the game at Frankford. The Yellow Jackets were forbidden to play on Sundays due to contraints of local blue laws. they typically played on Saturdays, then took a train to the city of the same team and played the next day. This was thorpe's last game in a Giants uniform, the last straw was him issing a drop-kick FG attempt, one of the few things he was still supposed to be good at. The players, left to right: Dutch hendrian, Jim Thorpe, Babe Parnell and Paul Jappe.


Player profiles from the original game program, which was reprinted in 1976.


After Thorpe left, Hinkey Haines became the main attraction for the Football Giants. He was a multi-talented playermaker with speed who could score from anywere on teh field. He scored the first touchdown in Giants history on Noivember 1, a 5-yard rush, which was also the giants first ever victory, 19-0 over the defending NFL champion Cleveland Bulldogs. He also cough the Giants fist TD pass in the same game, 25 yards from Jack McBride.


Haines broke his nose in November, and not wanting to miss time, he wore this excellent helmet with what has become known as the "exicutioner mask"!


This game agains the Rochester Jeffersons was the last game the giants wore brown helmets. That's Heine Benkhert totoing the rock for the G-Men.


The following week against the Providence Steam Roller the Giants helmets were white. They wore white helmets through 1928. The photo is from the NY Daily News.


The Giants starting backfield from the Steam Roller program.


One of my personl favorite uniforms of 1925 was worn by the Dayton Tiranlges. The game summary in the NY Daily News called them "jail-break uniforms."


The big game of 1925, not only for the Giants but the NFL as a whole, was Red Grange's visit to the Polo Grounds on December 6.

Jack McBride, considered one of the best passers in the game before statistics were recorded, was featured in the Grange program. Look at size of that ball in his hand, compared to the size of the modern ball, which would not be established until 1934.


The offical seems to be point Phil White towrd the hole in teh Bears front line in this photo. White is one of only eight players to wear the jersey number "0" for the Giants. The Giants didn't wear numbers on the front of their jerseys until 1929.



A week after losing to Chicago in New York, the Giants exacted some revenge on the Bears (who were without the services of an injuerd and exhausted Gragne) to finish their first campaign 8-4, good for 5th place in the league standings. The photo is from teh Chicago Daily Tribune.