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New York, November 25, 1913. "Mullins & Sullivan." West Point football players Charles Love Mullins Jr. and Joseph Pescia Sullivan, future major generals from the Class of 1917. 5x7 glass negative, Bain News Service. View full size.
A photo of General Joseph P. Sullivan.
The cadet on the right has to be Omar Bradley. Furthermore, General Sullivan closely resembles the football player on the left.
I've got to admit that the proof is in the pictures. In comparison, the known picture of Sullivan from 1954 does not hold a candle to all the older known pictures of Bradley. That would make Bradley 20 years old at the time of the picture. There is also a very small picture of the team in uniform and Bradley's seems similar to the one above. Here are a couple of Omar Bradley pics, from high school in 1910 and later as a General. They sure seem like the same face as above.
Omar Bradley was on the 1912 Army football team (along with Dwight Eisenhower), so there's no bar to him being on the 1913 team.
I'd bet dollars to donuts the cadet on the right is indeed Omar Bradley. Compare this (apparently earlier) picture of Gen. Bradley at West Point, noting especially his lips and left eyebrow.
When I first saw this I thought it was Omar Bradley (class of '15 and future General of the Army) on the right. The class of '15 produced 59 generals and was known as "the class the stars fell on". Rather than football, Bradley was a baseball star at West Point.
That sure looks like Omar Bradley to me on the right. He was in the class of 1915, "The class the stars rained down on". I also wonder if freshmen played on the varsity football team back then, because if these guys are class of '17, they would have been freshmen in Nov. 1913.
West Point turned out a lot of them, and here are some later pictures of the two young future Generals. General Charles L. Mullins (at left in 1913) with one of his charges in the Philippines in 1943, and (at right in 1913) Major General Joseph P. Sullivan at the Stork Club in Manhattan about 1954 (he and his wife on the left with his good friend General Mark Clark, President of the Citadel in South Carolina, on the right, with his wife).
Does anyone recognize the objects sitting against the wall in the background? I might guess it's some kind of photographic equipment, but it appears to be significantly bigger than my old Brownie camera.
[A holder for the 5x7 glass photographic plates used in the camera that took this photo, plus a carrying case for same. - tterrace]
You figure that out of all the schools out there, West Point would be the one to give their players matching uniforms.
I was able to use my super secret Homeland Security software to decipher the graffiti on the wall behind the guys: "Kaiser Wilhelm sucks!"
I guess the leather 'helmet' was to keep those belt buckles from accidentally injuring someone!
Major General Charles Love Mullins Jr., U.S.
Happy Birthday to the most interesting site on the web, one day the Beaver and Ward pop up then later the girl with the dice (what dice?) How can you forget the floating woman or tterrace's life?
Dave you picked a good day to start because we all love Shorpy!!
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