International Institute for Sport History
IISOH
Library and Museum


The IISOH is a Pennsylvania non-profit, educational, literary and research corporation
under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code and is organized to operate a Library and Museum
devoted to the History of Sport, Physical Education, Recreation, Dance, Sport in Art and the Olympic Games.
Donations are tax deductible
Federal Tax ID# 41-2041155

The AMERICAN FOOTBALL
COLLECTION

and the

AMERICAN FOOTBALL
ENDOWMENT




Illustration of early American football by Frederic Remington, 1887


ATTENTION
Football Fans, Coaches, Players!

The IISOH is developing a comprehensive collection of all the literature in the world on the subject of American Football. We estimate that there are about 100,000 (one hundred-thousand) books published on this subject in all languages. We want all of them!

The IISOH seeks YOUR SUPPORT to build this collection and to establish a permanent endowment
for the sport of AMERICAN FOOTBALL. The endowment would be a permanent source of funding for acquisitions,
preservation and educational use of American Football material. We hope to create an endowment large enough to also create a full time position for an employee who specializes in Football literature.

It is all about the game -
whether Professional, Collegiate, Youth or playground -
it is all about FOOTBALL - American style.

We need you to donate BOOKS! Magazines! Yearbooks! Team Media Guides!

We need your cash donation!
We invite you to become a CHARTER MEMBER with a
single donation of $25.00 just once in your lifetime.
Your legacy: a lifetime of recognition on our ACKNOWLEDGEMENT page.


Naming Opportunity

There is also a naming opportunity for this endowment. A generous donation of at
least one million Dollars enables the donor to name the American Football endowment.
Permanently. Forever. There is no annual contract or renewal every decade. Lifetime.
The endowment would be named by the benefactor and it becomes a lasting legacy - contingent
upon the final approval of the IISOH Board of Directors.

The donation is placed into a trust fund and the interest alone is used to build the collection.


Endowments can also be made very restrictive - there can be more than one football endowment. The IISOH will collect books on all aspects of football: youth football leagues, College football, professional football, football around the world, etc. Because the subject of football is so broad there are multiple possibilities for endowments. Donors can create specific endowments for teams such as a "Philadelphia Eagles Endowment" or a "Pittsburgh Steelers Endowment" and so forth.

A college team can be endowed such as a "Notre Dame Football Endowment" or the "University of Pennsylvania Football Endowment." There are hundreds of possibilities. Any other American, Canadian or foreign football program can be endowed. American football is growing in popularity. There are now teams and leagues in Great Britain, Germany and Austria. It is fascinating actually - kids in Europe are actually suiting up in football gear and playing American football instead of soccer.

For more details about the endowment program,
please click here



NEW...February 9, 2018...

A TRIBUTE PAGE to the Philadelphia Eagles -
SUPERBOWL LII CHAMPIONS 2018.


Make a donation of either $25.00 or $250.00 to be added to the TRIBUTE PAGE for a lifetime legacy. Your name appears on this special TRIBUTE PAGE forever, and if you donate $250.00 then we engrave a 12 x 12 paver with your name and comments to be added to a "WALK OF CHAMPIONS" at the IISOH Museum when built.

This will always be a separate page in the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS SECTION, comparable to the CHARTER MEMBERSHIP section. A donor can be both!!
Donations are tax deductible
Federal Tax ID# 41-2041155


BOOKS & MEMORABILIA DONATIONS:




You are invited to donate your football books and memorabilia.

Every book is appreciated. A collection of 4,000 books is even more appreciated. You will receive a lifetime acknowledgement for your donation on our website. If you donate a large collection then please consider including a cash donation to house your collection in a private, named room.

We happily accept books in new or gently used condition. We cannot accept books that have mold, water or insect damage or missing pages. We reserve the right to cull donations and remove damaged material that could infect the remainder of the collection. When we receive material that duplicates our existing collection we normally save the best copies and use duplicates for sale in fund-raising events, the museum gift shop or trade to other libraries for their material.

We also want magazines, journals and ephemera such as brochures and tickets that are normally not saved. Memorabilia such as medals and trophies go to the Museum. Posters, 19th century lithographs, artwork, sculptures - all are wanted for the Museum.



How to ship to the IISOH Library & Museum:


Use empty, clean, dry wine boxes from the liquor store. These are the best, free boxes to find.
NEVER use food boxes from the supermarket because insects reside inside the corrugated cardboard.
Wrap each book or several inside clean, dry newspaper or white gift paper (from the Dollar stores).
Stack books flat and try to fill the box so the contents do not slide around during shipment. Use wrinkled up newspaper pages to fill empty spaces such as the corners. Seal the box and all seams with tape. Ship via US Mail at your Post Office using "MEDIA MAIL" (it used to be called "bookrate"). This is the least expensive method of shipping in the USA. Our shipping address is:

IISOH Library & Museum
PO Box 175
State College, PA 16804


CASH DONATIONS:

Cash donations IN ANY AMOUNT are always welcome!

Please consider becoming a Charter Member for just $25.00.
That is less money than the cost of a single ticket for most football games!
Donations of $25.00 or more are Acknowledged on our website with a
lifetime acknowledgement and again inside our building when it is constructed.

Naturally we would love to have larger donations, too. AND you can give multiple
donations "IN HONOR OF" someone or memorials "IN MEMORY OF" someone.
Honor your coach or memorialize a player who has passed away.
For $250 we will build a memorial page.

The IISOH would like to express its gratitude for larger donations in multiple ways,
so donors are also recognized with engraved bricks, plaques or bronze markers located
throughout our proposed sports complex.


For example, donors who give $250 or more will have
an engraved brick paver placed in the patios or walkways that will wind from
the restaurant and outdoor cafe patio through the campus: through playgrounds and
sculpture gardens to the sports fields. Larger donations -- over $500 -- will have
larger plaques in marble, stone or bronze displayed on designated walls of honor
either inside or outside the buildings.

There are numerous naming opportunities
for larger donations ranging from $1,000 to $30 million.
Go to this linked page to view over 200 possibilities.


Help us build this collection!
Be a part of the IISOH team -
become a CHARTER MEMBER with your donation.



If you are ready to make a donation online - then you can go here:
DONATE ONLINE NOW


CLICK HERE
to go to our secure website page -
we are using STRIPE for credit card processing




Download and print our American Football tri-fold brochure (pdf)
Make several copies and share it with your friends.


The Library and Museum eagerly accept donations of material that are within the scope of its collections. You are encouraged to send us books, monographs, theses & dissertations, magazine and subscription collections for the library, and memorabilia, posters, artwork and collectables for the Museum. The scope of the collection is COMPREHENSIVE - from kiddy football teams on the local community level to the Super Bowl and the international versions of American Football worldwide.

LIBRARY donations:
  • Material in ANY language, including but not limited to English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Flemish, Swedish, Finnish, Danish, Norwegian, Latin, Greek, Russian, Ukrainian, Serbo-Croatian, Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, Farsi, Sanskrit and dozens of others.
    The scope of the collection is international and comprehensive.

    .....

  • Books
  • Monographs
  • Theses & Dissertations
  • Bound and unbound serials (magazines, journals, etc)
  • Newspapers (hard copies or microfilm)
  • Juvenile literature
  • Dictionaries
  • Encyclopedias
  • Reference books
  • Manuscripts
  • Archives of organizations
  • Original letters of correspondence
  • Ephemera (pamphlets, booklets, folders, flyers, tickets, etc).
  • Miscellaneous items that do not fit into the above categories


Download and print our American Football brochure (pdf)
MUSEUM donations:

  • Football Posters
  • Antique Football equipment
  • Statuary in bronze, resin, plaster, terracotta, etc.
  • Paintings, Serigraphs, Drawings, etc.
  • Photographs, prints, negatives, glass plates, etc.
  • Films, movies, videos, dvd's, especially older films in need of archival preservation
  • Music, records, tapes, sheet music
  • Graphics, 16th - 19th century lithographs & prints



  • Football-related medals, awards, trophies
  • Football commemorative medals, participation medals, badges, etc.
  • Football pins
  • Football flags, banners, advertising
  • Football-related memorabilia
  • Philatelic items, stamp collections, illustrated postcards on Football
  • Numismatic items, coins, exonumia with Football themes
  • Uniforms, clothing, textiles, fashions
  • Physical education, recreation and play equipment related to Football
  • Games, especially antique items



These lists are not comprehensive and are limited only by your imagination! Keep in mind that American Football is an international sport and that we seek everything, in every language, in order to develop a comprehensive collection for this sport. As one of the most important sports in American culture, football originated in the 19th century from british rugby rules when someone picked up the ball and threw it forward instead of backward. Played in most high schools and universities, football grew in the 1960's to become one of the most important professional sports we know today.



The sport of American Football has spread throughout the world in various forms. The game is played in Canada, Australia and Europe with slight variations on the American rules. American football is not as popular worldwide as Soccer which is known through the world as Football. Our plan calls for two seperate endowments -- one for American style football and another for Soccer.

The IISOH will include all aspects of football in this American Football collection -- from high school and college football to the Super Bowl.

For additional subject areas that we seek to endow,
please see the list in the SUBJECTS area


The IISOH is a Pennsylvania Non-profit, Educational, Literary and Research corporation
under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code.


Donations are tax deductible
Federal Tax ID# 41-2041155



Links to a few other IISOH pages:

This page was created February 24, 2002
This page was updated March 12, 2010
This page was updated October 4, 8 2017
This page was updated November 7, 8, 18, 2017
This page was updated February 9, 2018
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