The origins of collecting....

[tackler7]

At a recent rugby collectors get together the question was asked "What are the origins of collecting (sports memorabilia)."

What is the oldest reference to someone collecting sporting memorabilia, in the context of some one collecting memorabilia that they were not originally connected to.

So this would rule out a player keeping his old shirt or boots or a person retaining a match programme for a game they went to.

Any ideas?

[Eck]

I expect sports memorabilia collecting started shortly after sports started being played but especially in the modern era when programmes were first produced, you had a memory of the event you attended, to start collecting would be a natural progression for some people.

[littlewiggy]

Yes Eck, I'm sure I read somewhere once that collecting footy memorabilia began with the advent of organised league football and the issue of the very first team cards, the precursor to programmes, that had the team line-up on one side, and obligatory Bovril advert on the other.

Instead of discarding them after the game as was their intended nature, pretty much like the match ticket, many folk took them home to keep and thus was born an addiction.
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