This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/6/2022
Julian Wheeler Curtiss (1858 - 1944) was president of the Spalding sports equipment company and a pioneering promoter of golf in the United States. When he took a trip to London in 1892 to buy leather for making footballs in the U.S., he was introduced to golf. He brought home $400 worth of equipment and started the first manufacturer of golf equipment in the United States. In 1892 with his brother, Edwin Burr Curtiss, and others he started the Fairfield County Golf Club, today known as the Greenwich Country Club. Curtiss served as the club's first President, from 1892-96, and again from 1921-34.
Curtiss was affiliated with the Amateur Athletic Union and became treasurer of the American Olympic Committee. He was one of the figures, together with Walter Camp and others, responsible at the turn of the twentieth century with popularizing sports in the U.S. and making it a central part of American culture. He designed the first basketball in association with James Naismith, the inventor of the game. From 1902 to 1911 he served as graduate coach of the Yale crew team, turning out five championship outfits, and from 1918 to 1940, he refereed many of the foremost crew races in the East. Today, he is one of those forgotten figures in sports history, but the significance of his achievements can’t be underestimated. He’s a prime candidate for both the Basketball and Golf Hall of Fame.
We offer a document (8 x 13 inches) that appoints H. Boardman Spalding as the attorney for the Spalding & Bros Corporation. It’s signed by Curtiss, the Spalding Corp President, and the Assistant Secretary, C.E. Thorne. Very Rare!!