Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

I have been searching online for search engines (be they free or paid) that carry archives of the following newspapers from the 1930's thru the 60's, and have had no luck. I was hoping somebody here might be able to point me in the right direction:

Detroit Free Press/Detroit News
Philadelphia Daily News/Inquirer
Green Bay Press Gazette
San Francisco Chronicle/Examiner
Baltimore Sun
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Kansas City Star

I already belong to Newspapers.com and GeneologyBank.com and have a card with the Mid-Continent Public Library, but there are still some gaps in the newspapers for the local teams I want to be able to search thru.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

Rupert Patrick wrote:I have been searching online for search engines (be they free or paid) that carry archives of the following newspapers from the 1930's thru the 60's, and have had no luck. I was hoping somebody here might be able to point me in the right direction:

Detroit Free Press/Detroit News
Philadelphia Daily News/Inquirer
Green Bay Press Gazette
San Francisco Chronicle/Examiner
Baltimore Sun
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Kansas City Star

I already belong to Newspapers.com and GeneologyBank.com and have a card with the Mid-Continent Public Library, but there are still some gaps in the newspapers for the local teams I want to be able to search thru.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

Baltimore Sun: http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/baltsun/advancedsearch.html
Philadelphia Inquirer: http://www.fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html

If you go to the site of the Baltimore Public Library you can register for a "card" that allows you access to the Sun going back to the early 1900s if not before.

This is different than most libraries, who typically will only grant a card to local residents, but I was able to get one and I live in Minnesota.

If things have changed and you're unable to get in, I'd be happy to search the Sun for whatever it is you're looking for.

Btw, I share your frustration with the other papers. And though Fulton does offer the Inquirer the search tool and OCR leaves much to be desired. Be prepared for a lot of false hits.

What source do you use for Minneapolis/St. Paul?

TodMaher wrote:What source do you use for Minneapolis/St. Paul?

I'm looking for missed FG distances, and the Vikings media guides have been pretty good about documenting the missed FG distances. According to my records I am missing one missed FG for the Vikings and three for the Vikings opponents so it's not a whole lot. But I do think it would be good to have a source for the Vikings games.

And San Francisco I'm not so worried about because the Oakland Tribune is a good source for info on the 49er's, even after the Raiders came to town.

TodMaher wrote:What source do you use for Minneapolis/St. Paul?

Good question, and there isn't a good answer.

If a newspaper has been scanned to microfilm but not run through OCR software, your only option is to pore through the film, minus any help via searching keywords, etc.

The Mpls/StP papers are on microfilm at the Hennepin County Library, and I've spent considerable time there. In situations where you know the day the info you are seeking will appear, then no problem.

But if you don't, or only have a ballpark idea, it's like looking for a needle in the proverbial haystack. It could be there...or not. You don't really know.

And, to your question, it's frustrating living in a city with rich football history (Mpls was the center of pro football analytics 20 years before the Vikings were formed) minus an efficient way to search its archives, though I've managed to unearth a few gems by putting the time in.

How to "turn the page" in Fulton Post Card site:

You go to the list on the left, the results you get for a search. You copy that link address.

You then change the number that usually appears on the right side of that "link" Each successive number will be the next page and so forth, In this same fashion you can go between days, learn how to find page 1, after a while. Sometimes it's hard to go between months. When you change that link for a different page, put it between quote marks and copy that and paste in the Fulton search window, click on exact phrase.

If you hit exact phrase you probably don't need the quote marks

I have no idea how the Fulton postcard digitalized all those newspapers from microfilm on his own. Nor how he did the Philadelphia Inquirer. Which may be Fulton's only non-New York paper.

The Baltimore Sun one has prices. That gets costly, depending on what you are researching and wouldn't allow just looking around as it would add up....

Rupert Patrick wrote:

TodMaher wrote:What source do you use for Minneapolis/St. Paul?

I'm looking for missed FG distances, and the Vikings media guides have been pretty good about documenting the missed FG distances. According to my records I am missing one missed FG for the Vikings and three for the Vikings opponents so it's not a whole lot. But I do think it would be good to have a source for the Vikings games.

And San Francisco I'm not so worried about because the Oakland Tribune is a good source for info on the 49er's, even after the Raiders came to town.

Rupert,
Which ones are you missing? Maybe someone can assist.