Rare Footage of D.C.'s 1924 World Series Win Discovered

As Nats playoff fever continues to build, the Library of Congress has made a timely discovery of the only footage yet discovered of the Washington Senators’ 1924 World Series victory.

The footage was discovered during a routine inspection when eight cans of nitrate film arrived at the Library of Congress in August. A staffer came across a reel with the headline “SENATORS WIN WORLD SERIES” followed by “40,000 frantic fans see American Leaguers take 12-inning deciding game, 4 to 3.”

Nearly four minutes of 90-year-old footage showed fans storming Griffith Stadium’s field after Muddy Ruel scored the winning run against the New York Giants.

Mike Mashon, the head of the Library’s moving image section, explained in a blog post how the footage was found and restored.

The film emerged when the mother of Lynanne Schweighofer, a Moving Image Preservation Specialist at the Packard Campus, was named executor of the estate left by an elderly neighbor in Worcester, Mass.

While preparing the neighbor’s house for sale, her family came across eight cans of film in the rafters of a detached, non-climate controlled garage, “a space we archivists would not normally recommend for long term storage of motion picture film,” Mashon wrote.

“We baseball geeks (or, rather, historians) know the game for the heroic efforts of Senators ace Walter “Big Train” Johnson, who pitched the last four innings on short rest,” Mashon continued. “It’s the only time a DC baseball team has won the World Series…at least until this year, we hope. I’ve seen pictures of the game but never any film footage, and to watch Muddy Ruel lumbering home with the winning run in the bottom of the 12th inning was, well, almost like being there. Ninety years on, you can feel the electric joy of the crowd surging on to the Griffith Stadium field.”

Take a look at the video below.

Image: Library of Congress