Sports & Leisure - Overview
The nation's passion for sports is obvious every day—at NASCAR races, kiddie soccer matches, and countless other contests. From a handball used by Abraham Lincoln to Chris Evert's tennis racket to a baseball signed by Jackie Robinson, the roughly 6.000 objects in the Museum's sports collections bear witness to the vital place of sports in the nation's history. Paper sports objects in the collections, such as souvenir programs and baseball cards, number in the hundreds of thousands.
Leisure collections encompass a different range of objects, including camping vehicles and gear, video games, playing cards, sportswear, exercise equipment, and Currier and Ives prints of fishing, hunting, and horseracing. Some 4,000 toys dating from the colonial period to the present are a special strength of the collections.
"Sports & Leisure - Overview" showing 24 items.
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Louisville Slugger Baseball Bat
- Description
- St. Louis Cardinal Stan "The Man" Musial (b. 1920) used this Louisville Slugger to collect his 3,000th hit on May 13, 1958, in Chicago's Wrigley Field. The umpires later presented him with the bat.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1950s
- date made
- 195
- 1958
- associated institution
- Saint Louis Cardinals
- user
- Musial, Stan
- maker
- Hillerich & Bradsby Co.
- Louisville Slugger
- ID Number
- 1979.0620.01
- accession number
- 1979.0620
- catalog number
- 1979.0620.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Baseball, signed by the 1957 Washington Senators
- Description
- Baseball signed by members of the 1957 Washington Senators. That season the Senators finished 55-99, 8th in the National League.
- Autographs include Herb Plews; Cookie Lavagetto; Chuck Stobbs; Pete Runnels; Dick Hyde; Bill Jurges; Bud Byerly; Jerry Snyder; Tex Clevenger; Bob Usher; Pedro Ramos; Camilo Pascual; Ed Fitz Gerald; Joe Black; Roy Sievers; Ted Abernathy; Jerry Schoonmaker; Rocky Bridges; Jim Lemon; Ellis Clary; Walter Beck.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1957
- associated institution
- Washington Senators
- ID Number
- 2002.0124.05
- accession number
- 2002.0124
- catalog number
- 2002.0124.05
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Hand-Carved Yo-Yo
- Description (Brief)
- This dark brown wooden hand-carved yo-yo has a floral design and is marked “1951” and "TONY FRANK." Demonstrators carved yo-yos as awards for contest winners during the 1940s and 1950s.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1951
- ID Number
- 2002.0246.09
- accession number
- 2002.0246
- catalog number
- 2002.0246.09
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Duncan Yo-Yo Award
- Description (Brief)
- This blue wooden yo-yo was made by the Duncan Toys Company in 1952. It was given as an award to 1952 yo-yo champion, David Jarol.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1952
- maker
- Duncan
- ID Number
- 2002.0246.66
- accession number
- 2002.0246
- catalog number
- 2002.0246.66
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Duncan Tournament Yo-Yo
- Description (Brief)
- This wooden yo-yo was made by the Duncan Toys Company during the 1950s. It is green with a red stripe. The decal reads “Duncan Genuine Yo-Yo Tournament Top.” This model is known to collectors as a “broken Y pedestal 77.” It is called this for the following reasons; there is a line halfway down in the “y"'s” of the word “yo-yo;” the logo, Mr. Yo-Yo is presented atop a small pedestal; and the decal is marked “77” (chipped off in this example).
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1954
- maker
- Duncan Company
- ID Number
- 2002.0329.02
- accession number
- 2002.0329
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Baseball, signed by the 1951 St. Louis Browns
- Description
- Baseball autographed by Satchell Paige and the 1951 St. Louis Browns.That season the Browns went 52-102, 8th in the American League.
- Autographs include Satchel Paige; Ken Wood; Bob Young; Matt Bates; Fred Marsh; Sherm Lollar; Hank Arft; Frank Saucier; Jack Maguire; Bill Jennings; Jim Suchecki; Jim Delsing; Bob Mahoney.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1951
- signer
- Paige, Satchel
- maker
- Spalding
- ID Number
- 2005.0195.01
- accession number
- 2005.0195
- catalog number
- 2005.0195.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Baseball, signed by the 1957 St. Louis Cardinals
- Description
- Baseball, signed by the 1957 St. Louis Cardinals. That season the Cards finished 87-67, 2nd in the National League.
- Autographs include Dick Schofield; Billy Muffett; Bobby Smith; Herm Wehmeier; Bob Miller; Del Ennis; Hobie Landreth; Wally Moon; Von McDaniel; Don Blasigame; Hal Smith.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1957
- associated institution
- St. Louis Cardinals
- maker
- Spalding
- ID Number
- 1996.0208.01
- accession number
- 1996.0208
- catalog number
- 1996.0208.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
1953 Glasspar sports car
- Description
- This 1953 Glasspar is an example of fiberglass-body sports cars made in small quantities after World War II. Some American motorists, particularly veterans returning from overseas duty, wanted European-style sports cars. Several American companies began small-scale production of sports cars with molded fiberglass bodies. This type of body could be made in small quantities without the expensive tooling, dies, and presses needed to make steel bodies. William Tritt, a California fiberglass-boat builder, introduced the Jaguar-like Glasspar in 1951 and sold several hundred bodies. The Glasspar body fit on a used automobile chassis that the owner obtained and customized by shortening the wheelbase. A fiberglass body was not only simpler to make; it was lightweight, rustproof, dent-resistant, and easy to repair. And it was inexpensive; a Glasspar body sold for only $950, one-fourth the price of a Jaguar and less than half the price of a Ford convertible. Tritt improved the technique of making fiberglass bodies and made more bodies of this type than his competitors. He understood the importance of casting an automobile body in one piece, and he developed techniques to avoid shrinkage, tearing at metal joints, and mismatched parts. Dale L. Dutton, a Glasspar enthusiast, donated this car to the Smithsonian in 1996.
- Major auto manufacturers dismissed plastic bodies following an unsuccessful Ford experiment in the early 1940s, but William Tritt demonstrated that a body made of polyester resin and glass strands was practical, economical to produce, and superior to steel in many ways. Tritt introduced the Glasspar in 1951 and made about 300 sports car bodies by hand over a period of several years. Despite its advantages, the plastic car seemed destined to remain a low-volume vehicle because of slow production and limited capital investment; only one Glasspar body was made per day. But in 1953, General Motors decided to make Corvette bodies of fiberglass and consulted with Tritt
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1953
- maker
- Glasspar Company
- ID Number
- 1996.0401.01
- accession number
- 1996.0401
- catalog number
- 1996.0401.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Baseball, signed by the 1952 Brooklyn Dodgers
- Description
- Baseball signed by the 1952 Brooklyn Dodgers. That season the Dodgers finished 96-57, 1st in the National League, losing to the New York Yankees in the World Series 4 games to 3.
- Autographs include Jackie Robinson; Roy Campanella; Carl Erksine; Chuck Dressen; Ralph Branca; Gil Hodges; Joe Landrum; Johnny Rutherford; Joe Black; Ray Moore; Clyde King; Billy Cox; Duke Snider; Pee Wee Reese; Car Furillo; Rocky Bridges; Bobby Morgan; George Shuba; Warren Giles.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1952
- maker
- Spalding
- ID Number
- 2009.0243.17
- accession number
- 2009.0243
- catalog number
- 2009.0243.17
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Baseball, signed by broadcaster Red Barber
- Description
- Baseball signed by baseball broadcaster Red Barber (1908-1992). At the time, Barber was the play-by-play announcer for the Brooklyn Dodgers, for whom he worked from 1934 to 1953. Barber also served in as announcer for the Cincinnati Reds (1934-1938) and New York Yankees (1954-1966.)
- The ball is inscribed " For my Friend Ronald Gabriel, good luck, Red Barber /1/13/53."
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1953
- signer
- Barber, Red
- maker
- Spalding
- ID Number
- 2009.0243.18
- accession number
- 2009.0243
- catalog number
- 2009.0243.18
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center