1969 First Day Cover (Football Stamp) with Enclosed Typed Letter Signed from Senator Ralph Yarborough [Texas] on United States Senate Letterhead

1969. Letter. Very Good. No Binding. Signed by Author(s). Very slight edge wear to the cover. Fold marks to the letter inside, otherwise fine. Illustrated Art Craft cachet cover depicting 100 years of intercollegiate football that started with a Rutgers-Princeton game in 1869. Postmarked New Brunswick, NJ (home of Rutgers University) Sep 26 1969 with First Day of Issue cancel. Enclosed is a Typed Letter Signed (TLS) from United States Senator Ralph W. Yarborough (Texas) on United States Senate letterhead. Yarborough was the Chairman on Labor and Public Welfare that year. In his letter, addressed Dear Friend, he recounts football's 100-year history and ties in some Texas football history as well-the first high school game in Texas (Dallas, 1900) and the longstanding college rivalry between the Texas Longhorns and Texas A&M Aggies. Signed in ink with a fountain pen. An interesting collectible addition to an otherwise ordinary First Day Cover. From Mark Odintz's biographical entry in the Texas State Historical Association Handbook of Texas: "Ralph Webster "Smilin' Ralph" Yarborough (1903-1996), was a United States senator and leader of the liberal wing of the Democratic party in Texas. He became one of only five southern senators to vote for the Civil Rights Act of 1957. In 1960, Yarborough sponsored the Senate resolution leading to the Kennedy-Nixon television debate, a crucial event in the election and a model for subsequent presidential campaigns. In 1963 Yarborough was present at the Kennedy assassination; many believe his feud with conservative governor John B. Connally led to his sitting in the second car in the motorcade rather than with the president. Yarborough defeated George H. W. Bush, future president of the United States, in the senatorial race of 1964. In his years in the senate Yarborough supported many of the key bills of LBJ's Great Society and pressed for legislative action in the fields of civil rights, education, public health, and environmental protection. He voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and was one of only three southerners to support the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Yarborough served for years on the Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee, of which he became chairman in 1969. Through his support of the social welfare legislation of the 1960s Yarborough further identified himself with the goals of the national Democratic party and further distanced himself from the moderate-conservative state Democratic party. In 1970 Lloyd Bentsen, Jr., upset him in the senatorial primary and went on to gain the Senate seat. He died in Austin on January 27, 1996 and was buried in the State Cemetery. He is regarded by many as one of the great figures in the Texas progressive tradition.".