R.M. Vivas

Probably one of the most difficult New York City Police Department (NYPD) revolvers to lay one’s hands upon is a Trophy Gun. While the total number of revolvers purchased by the Department during the 20^th century probably numbers slightly north of 100,000-125,000, only a small percentage were engraved as Trophy Guns.

As the name implies, Trophy Guns were revolvers presented as awards during graduation ceremonies at the Police Academy. They were presented starting in 1917 and the practice ceased around 1972. Trophy Guns were awarded in the name of a sponsor who was usually a person of means within the city or an office holder.

A single graduating class might have anywhere from three or four Trophy Gun recipients to as many as a dozen, depending on the era and size of the class.

There were several different Trophy Guns, the Hiram C. Bloomingdale Trophy being the most prestigious; awarded to the top recruit of each class. A valedictorian’s gun, it went to the recruit with the highest average of all fields of study.

The Frank J. Keeler Trophy was awarded for the highest academic average.

Barrel and cylinder serial numbers match, as do the stocks. The stamping on the underside of the barrel shows no signs of a refinishing job from the factory.

The serial number stamped on the butt, #64688, matches the factory invoice.

The invoice for #64668 shows that it was part of a ten-gun shipment to the Department’s Equipment Bureau at 400 Broome Street in Manhattan (also site of the Police Academy). The invoice describes the gun as a 2-inch Round Butt (RB) Blued (B) .38 Chief’s Special. Note that the Federal excise tax was not payed as this was a municipal order. As far as NYPD gun shipments go, this was definitely one of the smaller ones!

The gun was in Department inventory for only a few days before it was awarded. During that time the gun was logged into the Equipment Bureau record books (Book 52-55 Series C Off-Duty p. 162) and assigned Equipment Bureau number 2622.

The gun does appear in the Book 52-55 Series C Off-duty logged out as KEELER TROPHY.

Trophy Guns were usually logged out as such and seldom by the actual name of the recipient, although their shield number and command would usually be listed.

The engraving confirms it is indeed a KEELER TROPHY.

Of the myriad of Trophy Guns awarded, the KELLER TROPHY was available from about 1948 to 1972 and was awarded for “Highest Mental Average”; basically, the kid with the highest academic grades. Keep in mind, your overall place in the class was determined by academics AND marksmanship AND physical skills.

As an amusing an aside, some background……….

Frank J. Keeler was Vice-President of Chase Manhattan. Chase Manhattan was a major bank in NY through the 1980’s. Amusingly, the company, which was founded in the late 1700’s, started out wanting to be a bank but was hamstrung by Alexander Hamilton who had pretty well locked all banks out of NYC except for his. The Manhattan Company (later Chase Manhattan) found a little loophole in state banking laws. The law said no new banks in Manhattan, but it DID say that if a water company existed in Manhattan and had EXCESS capital, it could use that capital for banking. American ingenuity being what it is, two million was raised, one hundred thousand went to a mediocre water system and the remaining $1.9 million of EXCESS was used to start a bank.

I digress……..

I haven’t done much digging on ROBERTS yet. I believe he was a CPT in Public Morals in Queens in 1976 but it’s hard to find data. I’ll work on it.

Anyway, scored another Trophy Gun!

Best,
RM Vivas