Tulsa Daily World · Tulsa, Oklahoma · 1915

Play ball! Attractive prices to clubs buying in quantities

M. C. Hale's hardware store opened the 1915 season as Tulsa's factory agent for sporting goods, complete with a batter, a tennis racket, a boy hugging an Official League ball and a creative spelling of Spalding.

Spring 1915 in Tulsa, and the hardware store at 107 South Main Street would like a word. M. C. Hale, HDW. announces itself as factory agent for the D. & M. and A. G. Spaulding lines of sporting goods, promises a very complete line with “attractive prices to clubs buying in quantities,” and cordially invites you to make the store your headquarters.

Yes, Spaulding. The biggest name in sporting goods, spelled with a bonus letter in display type. Spalding’s own 1906 ad on this site spells it correctly, so the extra u belongs entirely to Tulsa.

The illustrations carry the ad: a batter mid-swing, a fielder with arms raised, a tennis racket for the lawn crowd and a boy beaming at a boxed Official League ball like it was Christmas in April. It was the hardware store’s world and the season was just opening.