Friday, September 27, 2024, is Homecoming at Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School. The game will be held in the Thompson Oval, to the east of The Football Game by David Evans.
Sculptor David Evans (1895-1959) was hired by the Cranbrook Foundation (through George Booth) as Professor of Sculpture and Life Drawing at the Academy of Art for 1929-1930. During that time, Booth commissioned him to create this bas relief for the football field at Cranbrook School for Boys. It is not just a bunch of nameless faces on the relief; it actually features members of the first football squad at Cranbrook School for Boys.
During the 1930 football season, thirteen boys posed for Evans.
Members of the 1930 Cranbrook Football Team featured on The Football Game. Photos taken from 1931 and 1932 copies of The Brook. Courtesy Cranbrook Archives
The bas relief is in its original location – mounted above the steps leading to Alumni Court and overlooking Thompson Oval. If you are on campus for Homecoming, pose for a photo in your CKU green and blue with the 1930 football squad.
– Leslie Mio, Associate Registrar, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research
Ed. Note: The Football Game was recently cleaned and waxed by our friends at McKay Lodge Conservation Laboratory. They also touched up other Upper School favorites: Hermes, Discus Thrower, The Wrestlers, Running Dogs, Masque Art, Diana, Dancing Girls, and Aim High.
Discover more from Cranbrook Kitchen Sink
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Cranbrook Kitchen Sink 
That is so cool that you tracked down the guys who actually posed for this sculpture that I have always loved since I went to Cranbrook from 1965-1969. Great job and thank you.
Mark Shwayder ’69
LikeLike
Mark – the previous Archivist did all the work, but it is fun to share it.
LikeLike
Thank you, Leslie. That’s an amazing story about a work I’ve always admired. Playing football at Cranbrook was a wonderful experience–striving with my teammates in such an inspiring setting. I wish I could have met those players. It would have been possible when I was at Cranbrook–they would have been middle-age back then. The stories they could have told. I have my Uncle Bill’s helmet from his playing days there in the 1940s.
Aim High,
Marc Stadler ’71
LikeLike
Marc –
If you ever decide to donate the helmet, it would look great with the football sweater!
LikeLike