Erskine Ramsay Cup

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The Erksine Ramsay Cup

The Erskine Ramsay Cup is a loving cup trophy presented to Birmingham City Schools in 1924 as part of the Board of Education's program to promote "character education" at city schools.

The character education program was aimed, "not in further emphasis on studying or teaching morals, but in consciously creating situations which call for their practice." To this end, the board adopted a slogan around which to focus efforts each year. That theme was reinforced among the wider public through newspaper columns and speakers at civic clubs. The first year's theme was "health". For the second year, beginning in 1924, the theme chosen was "sportsmanship". To help promote the theme, board president Erskine Ramsay had a loving cup made to be presented to, "the high school manifesting the highest spirit of sportsmanship during the session," as judged by a committee of citizens who visited the school and attended athletic competitions during the year.

The front of the two-handled cup reads "Birmingham Public Schools Sportsmanship Trophy" with "Erskine Ramsay Cup" in larger letters below. At the top of the cup is engraved a couplet from Grantland Rice's 1908 poem "Alumnus Football", slightly modified, reading, "For when the One Great Scorer comes to write against your name He writes—not that you won or lost—but how you played the Game.

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