Posted December 9, 2005.

Rare Sports Newspapers Returned to University of Illinois Library

Two missing volumes of a 1920s sports newspaper that covered the 1919 Chicago White Sox gambling scandal were returned to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign library—one day after their disappearance was made public, the December 8 Chicago Tribune reported. The volumes of Collyer’s Eye turned up on a table in the campus library late December 6, shortly after the Tribune and other papers announced the loss.

Earlier this fall, in the midst of the White Sox’s first World Series run in 88 years, university librarians discovered that someone had taken bound volumes of the weekly newspaper from April 1920 to April 1922 and from April 1924 to April 1926. The library is home to every Collyer’s Eye edition from 1919 to 1944. After the loss was discovered, the remaining issues were removed from the main book stacks.

“Getting the news out about the missing volumes was extremely important,” said Associate University Librarian for Collections Karen Schmidt. “We don’t know what happened to the books—who had them, where they had been—but we are very, very happy about their return.”

University police said that due to the delicate condition of the volumes, the books wouldn’t be processed for fingerprints, the Associated Press reported December 7.

Posted December 9, 2005.