At just 19, painter William B.T. Trego burst onto the U.S. art scene with a prize-winning work at the Michigan State Fair titled The Charge of Custer at Winchester—even though he was so paralyzed that he could barely hold a brush. That was in 1879.

Last month, that painting, which art historians had believed to be lost for generations, emerged unexpectedly at auction in Cincinnati at Hindman. The rediscovered canvas, expected to fetch just $3,000 to $5,000, sold to a private collection for $14,490 with buyer’s premium—an impressive 190 percent above the high estimate, with the price driven up by eight competing bidders.

It was the second-highest result ever achieved by the artist, according to the Artnet Price Database, falling short only of the $42,000 sale of Cavalry Charge of the Union Army at Christie’s New York in 2007.

Where had the painting been all these years? Hiding in plain sight, hanging near the microfilm machines in the Illinois section of the Bloomington Public Library, about two-thirds of the way between Chicago and Springfield.

The Bloomington Public Library, Illinois. Photo courtesy of the Bloomington Public Library, Illinois.

“I was and still am stunned by the reappearance of the painting, as it had achieved a kind of legendary status among those of us who care about Trego’s work,” Joseph P. Eckhardt, the author of the artist’s catalogue raisonné, told Artnet News in an email.

The rediscovery was also a surprise for Hindman, which immediately started getting calls about the work when it published the lot listings for the March 30 auction.

“It’s always fascinating to find something that had been thought to be missing for so many years,” Ben Fisher, Hindman vice president and senior specialist of American furniture, folk and decorative arts, told Artnet News. “This is just a very powerful image—you have a really great rendering of Custer on horseback with his sword raised, charging into battle. It’s just phenomenal.”

The Charge of Custer at Winchester was one of about 40 pieces from the library’s 150-work art collection that the institution opted to sell to fund an expansion and renovation project. Appraisers had taken a look back in 2006, and found the signed Trego canvas to be the most valuable of the lot—but the library had no knowledge of its prior history and its import in the artist’s oeuvre.

The provenance for the painting has some gaps. Until the recent auction, the only record was an American diplomat named John C. White purchasing it for $1,000 in 1884. The only thing known about him is that he was the secretary to the American Legation in Brazil in 1879.

“John C. White is a bit of a ghost,” Fisher admitted. “But I think the odds of him being from Bloomington are pretty strong!”

William B.T. Trego’s The Charge of Custer at Winchester hanging in the Illinois Collection at the Bloomington Public Library, Illinois. Photo courtesy of the Bloomington Public Library, Illinois.

It was a man name Adlai Ewing—related in some way to Adlai Ewing Stevenson, vice president under Grover Cleveland, and his grandson Adlai Ewing Stevenson II, Democratic presidential nominee in 1952 and ’56—who gave the painting to Bloomington. It remained unclear when Ewing, who died in 1920, made the donation, or when or how he acquired it himself.

“I looked hard and I couldn’t find documentation—I even went through the minutes from all the library meetings,” Rhonda Massie, the library’s marketing manager, told Artnet News.

But despite the mystery, the library is thrilled to have played a role in this rediscovery—and with the above-estimate result of the sale.

“I thought it was pretty exciting!” Massie said.

The Charge of Custer was the first work the young artist had ever publicly exhibited, and it was hailed by the critics. The Cleveland Press called it “one of the best historical paintings of the kind that has ever been produced by an American artist.”

Its sale gave Trego the money he needed to enroll at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, studying under Thomas Eakins for three years before later moving to Paris to take classes at the Académie Julian.

This artistic success was remarkable, given that Trego had become partially paralyzed in his hands and feet after a severe illness—likely polio—at the age of two. The son of artist Jonathan K. Trego, the younger Trego was fortunate that his father recognized and fostered his talent despite these physical infirmities, encouraging him to pursue making art.

“His output was not voluminous,” Eckhardt said, “partly because of his handicap and partly because he insisted on working slowly and carefully in the old academic techniques his father taught him.”

Despite his early success, Trego fell on hard times in his later years, especially after the deaths of his parents.

“Sadly, the quality of Trego’s artistic work and imagination peaked at almost the exact time that his preferred genre—military history painting—lost favor with the public and he found in the mid-1890s that sales and new commissions were increasingly hard to come by,” Eckhardt said. “Trego found himself alone in an empty house he couldn’t afford or maintain. Increasingly ill with post-polio syndrome, and on the verge of moving in with relatives, he ended his own life in June 1909.”

The artist William B. T. Trego in his studio in 1893. Public domain, U.S.

It was actually a public library that led Eckhardt to Trego. When he retired from Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, in 2007, Eckhardt donated all the art books from his office to his local library in North Wales, Pennsylvania. The librarian told Eckhardt that North Wales had been home to an important American artist, and shared some clippings about Trego’s life.

“I was blown away by the story of a severely disabled artist whose talent and force of personality had enabled him to make a successful career for himself in the late 19th century,” Eckhardt said.

He began researching Trego with the idea of writing an article. That project snowballed, and in 2011, Eckhardt curated “So Bravely and So Well – The Life and Art of William T. Trego,” the first comprehensive exhibition of the artist’s work, at the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. The show was timed to the publication of the catalogue raisonné on the museum website, as well as a biography of the artist of the same name.

Part of the hope for the ambitious, multi-part project was that the catalogue raisonné could become a resource for tracking down the many Trego works whose whereabouts had been forgotten as the artist had fallen into obscurity in his later years and the century-plus following his death.

“In the past 12 years, several dozen have been found, including a wonderful self-portrait Trego painted while a student under the tutelage of Thomas Eakins,” Eckhardt said.

The artist’s catalogue raisonné details 179 paintings, drawings, sketches, sculptures, and photographs—only 17 of which have ever come up at auction, making the recent sale something of a rarity.

“The Charge of Custer is the biggest prize we’ve reeled in yet,” Eckhardt added. There is no other painting in this artist’s oeuvre that could delight me more by showing up so unexpectedly.”

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According to a 2023 Association of Pickleball Professionals (APP) commissioned survey, some 36.5 million Americans played pickleball between August 2021 and August 2022. Other assessments have pegged the number even higher. For the last two years, pickleball has been named the fastest growing sport in the United States by Sports and Fitness Industry Association.

Multiple pro leagues, celebrity investment, rapidly expanding equipment sales, mainstream media attention and a steady construction of new facilities have all been part of the spectacular recent growth of a game that has been in existence for more than half a century but as recently as three years ago was off most people’s radar. With so many Americans now flocking to the sport, there are plenty of holes to fill and opportunities to be realized.

One immediate area of need is how to efficiently find answers to basic questions like “Where can I play? How do I get better? Where can I get coaching? What types of strategies and tactics would fit my game?” And it’s not just players searching for replies. The relative newness of the sport has meant that teaching and coaching both players and coaches is a necessity.

A solution to those issues (and much more) can be found at The Art of Pickleball (https://theartofpickleball.net/), the newest website offered by Encinitas-based Total Sports. Already the global leader in digital coaching content, supporting nearly 100,000 subscribers worldwide, Total Sports adds pickleball to a lineup that includes the Art of Coaching Volleyball, Art of Coaching Softball and Art of Coaching Football.

For Total Sports CEO Terry Liskevych and President/COO Mark Tilson, who between them boast a wealth of experience across a wide range of coaching and sports business environments, vaulting full force into the pickleball realm was a natural.

“The amazing growth of pickleball has been well-documented and if you look at the numbers, you’ll see it’s across all age groups,” said Tilson, a former executive with the San Diego Padres, Miami Dolphins and JMI Sports. “With such an influx of people getting into the sport and also wanting to elevate their game from beginner to intermediate or competitive level, it seems like there’s a huge opportunity for the sport to continue that growth pattern.”

Although Art of Pickleball (AOP) has only been “live” since early January 2023, it already features an array of online material, notably instructional videos for all levels of play, encompassing specific shots and skills, in-game strategies, tactical development and drills from top pros.

In addition, the platform also offers a complete collection of practice plans and match analysis, a roster of coaches available for remote virtual training as well as extensive information on injury prevention, dynamic warm-ups and strength and conditioning—all specific to pickleball.

Total Sports spent nearly a year preparing for its pickleball debut. Research showed that pre-existing competition was largely composed of disparate YouTube-type channels with individual coaches or players providing personal tips on a fairly narrow range of topics.

Skylark, a marketing strategy and creative services agency based in Solana Beach, was brought on board by AOP to develop and produce the new video/photo archive which, at launch, contained over 150 individual resources covering not just the primary elements but nearly every facet of the game. According to Tilson, that count alone immediately put them in the top 10% of online options and those assets will continue to multiply.

“We’re going to follow the same philosophy we’ve used in building our other websites,” he said. “Today, our Art of Coaching Volleyball contains more than 4,000 videos and other resources.”

After navigating the “indexing” process that allows for new websites to be accessed via the various search engines, Art of Pickleball user figures have quickly been gaining traction.

“We’ve been really pleased to see the growth of traffic,” said Tilson. “When we started, we were obviously ranked at the bottom but in the first few weeks we were already just outside the top 10 and have been increasing between 200-to-800% week-over-week.”

The lure of pickleball was obvious but another “no brainer” for Liskevych and Tilson was creating a partnership with one of the biggest names in the game (locally and nationally)—Steve Dawson, owner of Bobby Riggs Racket & Paddle club in Encinitas, one of the pre-eminent playing facilities in the county, if not the nation.

The 61-year-old Dawson was a two-time Big Eight tennis champion at Oklahoma and an ITF World Champion before focusing on pickleball where he has won multiple U.S. Open and U.S. National championships, is a two-time Canadian National Champion and winner of a prestigious Huntsman World Pickleball Championship.

Liskevych calls Dawson “a master teacher of pickleball.” His connections and sterling reputation in the game bring further credibility to AOP and access to a variety of data bases that will fuel new visitors.

Also involved in the relationship are Dawson’s wife, Jennifer, and son, Callan, both pickleball standouts in their own right. Jennifer has twice won pickleball’s Triple Crown (singles, doubles and mixed doubles) at the U.S. Open Championships and Callan is one of the most exciting players on the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) Tour.

Conveniently, the seeds of a future affiliation were sown at Dawson’s club where Liskevych introduced himself while playing pickleball with friends. Dawson, an early advocate of the sport who went full bore about seven years ago already had huge visibility in the pickleball ecosystem through his venue, playing exploits, coaching work, events and sponsorships. But he was intrigued with what Art of Pickleball could offer, not only personally but for the sport as a whole.

“What I really like about their concept is that it’s not an open forum but it’s also not one person saying ‘my way or the highway,’ “ said Dawson. “You can pick a topic, go to Art of Pickleball and hear what 40 coaches have to say—it’s a true library.”

He was particularly drawn to the notion of AOP supplying educational tools for coaches. “There’s a need for quality instruction and a lot of teaching pros who have tennis or racquet backgrounds are now being pushed into coaching pickleball and they don’t have the background,” noted Dawson. “Being a racquet sport is a common denominator but in every sport there are nuances and seeing the caliber and diversity of coaches involved on the volleyball and softball coaching sites was something I thought would be important for pickleball.”

Liskevych bracketed a 12-year stint as coach of the USA Women’s Volleyball team, spanning three Olympic Games, with a pair of lengthy runs as a top echelon college head coach, first at Ohio State (men’s) and Pacific and later at Oregon State. Although he and Dawson are similar in many respects, Tilson believes the most important thing each brings to the table is their pursuit of excellence.

“They both have remarkable resumes and experience,” said Tilson, “but they also have this incredible expectation for this to be of high quality and value. They won’t settle for less.”

As far as the future, Dawson and Tilson speak bullishly on the position the sport and their venture will ultimately occupy.

“I see pickleball right now as exactly where it’s supposed to be,” said Dawson. “There are different national bodies, competitive arenas and teaching organizations—they have to weed themselves out and the strongest will survive. It’s normal and natural.

“If you look at tennis there were several major governing organizations, all kinds of little tours here and there and now, after 60 some years of pro tennis, we have the ATP and WTA .

“Pickleball is in sort of the same situation but it has exploded on hyper drive, all kinds of stuff happening at the same time. Instead of the 60 years it took tennis, I say it will take pickleball about 10-15.”

Compared to previous groups Total Sports has engaged with, Tilson views the sheer numbers the sport is generating and the uniquely vast demographic of the target audience as a huge differentiator for pickleball.

“Our products will attract players of all ages and skill sets as well as coaches at every level of development,” said Tilson. “Using volleyball as an example, we have a very solid subscriber base but the overall universe is miniscule when contrasted with pickleball.

“We may not get the penetration percentage we have in volleyball but, unlike volleyball, the pickleball market for our content is not necessarily a sub-set of the overall population—it’s the entirety. We’re not just trying to attract a specific niche of players or coaches. Our aim is all-inclusive.”

Five student teams advanced from the preliminary round of the Innovation Challenge competition in UMass Amherst’s Berthiaume Center for Entrepreneurship and will move on to compete in the final round on May 3. They will now compete to win up to $65,000 in equity-free funding. 

The Innovation Challenge is a two-part competition designed to assist and reward UMass students and young alumni (Graduates of the Last Decade, also known as GOLD) pursuing novel ideas and developing them into scalable, impactful ventures. The preliminary round on April 5 featured 20 student innovators (with backgrounds spanning across most of the UMass Amherst colleges) competing for a spot in the final round. Three celebrity judges helped choose the winning ventures: Lenny Underwood, serial entrepreneur; April Deluca, human resources executive; and Emily Reichman, venture capital fund founder.  

Berthiaume Center Executive Director Gregory Thomas said, “The semifinal is one of the most exciting and power-packed days. We start at 9 a.m. and work until 6 p.m. with very few breaks, listening to pitches, encouraging the ventures, and assessing their potential and where we can help. It is where the rubber meets the road.”  

Of these competitors, the following five ventures will compete once more on May 3. (The other competitors and applicants will receive detailed feedback from the judges and continued support from the Berthiaume Center and the entrepreneurship ecosystem to further their journey). 

Elijah Mishkind ’21 and Kyle Collins ’19
Isenberg School of Management
Marketing Major
“IRON is a platform for gym goers to track their progress, share and discover workouts and compete in the gym.” 

Emily Shal ’23
Isenberg School of Management
Finance Major
“Food Near Me is a mobile application designed to simplify the restaurant search process for food lovers. The app allows users to filter search results based on distance, food type, and price range.” 

Juliano Wahab ’23 and Alex Rohrberg ’23
College of Information and Computer Sciences & Isenberg School of Management
Computer Science & Marketing Dual Major
“Monet is an online platform that connects artists with art lovers worldwide. Our mission is to support artists by providing them with a platform to collaborate, connect with potential buyers, and monetize their art.” 

Noah Martinez ’23 and Aaron Xu ’23
Isenberg School of Management
Sport Management Major
“Drafted is an all-inclusive app that aims to streamline the recruiting process by making it a more casual and social experience intended to boost athlete exposure.” 

Ritik Shah ’23 with partners Jatan Pandya ’23 and Shubham Shah ’23
College of Engineering
Computer Engineering Major
“CardVerse is revolutionizing the multi-billion collectible card authentication industry, dominated by manual labor, by introducing the world’s first automated solution.” 

The final round of the Innovation Challenge is Wednesday, May 3, in the Old Chapel. Students, faculty, and media are encouraged to attend.