This photo, likely of the 1914 Raleigh High football team, was unearthed recently by Jay Denmark, whose grandfather Jim Denmark (second row, far left) played on the team.
Jay Denmark of Denmark Photo and Video in Raleigh runs a studio that was founded by his grandfather Jim Denmark in 1918. Jay Denmark has spent years sorting through some 70,000 negatives. Some people tell him he ought to just take the whole batch and give them to the N.C. Museum of History.
"But these are personal pictures," Denmark said. "If they were in a museum, they'd probably just sit there. These are people's past."
One particular picture is a part of his past and may be a big piece of high school athletic history in North Carolina.
Denmark found a picture of a football team in which there are there are 16 players dressed in mismatched sweaters and bulky pants.
One player's hip pads show, and another wears knee pads.
Some players wear early football shoes with leather cleats. Another holds what appears to be a 1910-era football.
Jay Denmark recognized his grandfather (second row, far left), but there was no other information about the picture.
His interest piqued when he came across his grandfather's 1956 obituary.
Not only was his grandfather a charter member of the first Boy Scout troop in Raleigh, Jim Denmark also was a guard on the 1914 Raleigh High football team that won the North Carolina and Virginia state high school football championships.
As far as anyone knows, Jim Denmark never played on another football team, so this probably is a shot of the 1914 Raleigh High team.
Denmark believed the picture was taken at Riddick Field at State College, where the Raleigh team played.
A structure that looks similar to State's Bell Tower is in the background, but if it is the Bell Tower the picture isn't of the 1914 team, because the Bell Tower was built as a memorial to State students killed in World War I. The tower was started in 1920.
The photo may have been taken at an old field near Halifax courts in Raleigh, though. The Halifax site would have been closer to Centennial High, whose athletic teams played as Raleigh.
Centennial opened on Morgan Street in downtown Raleigh in 1905 with 250 students. It was near the present N.C. Revenue Building, First Presbyterian Church and the old water tower that still stands.
The picture would be of great historical significance if it is the 1914 Raleigh team because it would be the oldest known photograph of a N.C. High School Athletic Association championship team.
The NCHSAA was founded in 1913 as a part of the University of North Carolina, and its first state championships were held that fall. Raleigh won the football title, and High Point won in track.
In 1914, Raleigh won the football title by defeating Asheville 117-0. The team averaged 152 pounds per man and was led by quarterback Earle Johnson, the son of Raleigh mayor James I. Johnson.
Following the title game, The News & Observer headline read, "Game, Poor Exhibition. Mountain Lads Unable to Fathom Offense of Raleigh Boys, Whose Interference Was Almost Perfect."
Before winning the North Carolina championship, the team arranged a special Pullman car for the train trip to Richmond, Va., where Raleigh played Virginia champ John Marshall of Richmond.
The team rode the train through the night and played the Thanksgiving eve game at 10:30 a.m. Raleigh defeated John Marshall, 27-0. The Raleigh team was cheered on by the entire University of North Carolina team, which was in town to play a Thanksgiving Day game against Virginia the next day.
The 1914 team, coached by G. B. Phillips, was composed of Earle Johnson, Jim Denmark, Carlyle Weathers, Joe Martin, Joe Batchelor, John Koontz, Eugene Mills, William Brown, Raymond Tyree, Brainard Whiting, Will Bowen, Will X. Coley, Toxy Whitaker, Roy Smith, Ralph Champion and Guy Norwood.
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