Watch Some of ROADSHOW's Champion Sports Appraisals!
Miss rooting for your favorite teams? Grab a hot dog and a soda and catch up on some of ROADSHOW's most memorable, out-of-the-park sports appraisals!
Wondering what to watch next? Whether you are a basketball fan or a hockey fan, enjoy watching the US open or anything in between, we have appraisals that will having you rooting for our guests to take home the gold!
Baseball: 1871-1872 Boston Red Stockings Archive
GUEST: Well, back in 1871, my great-great-grandmother had a boardinghouse in Boston, and she housed the Boston baseball team. Most of them had come from Cincinnati Red Stockings and were among the first to be paid to play baseball.
APPRAISER: Now, all these cards went to your great-grandfather? That's how he got them and they got handed down to you?
GUEST: Yeah, apparently he collected them, and he unfortunately cut them down to fit this little album, so they're all slightly askew.
APPRAISER: Right.
GUEST: And the thing that's special, in addition to the cards, is this letter, and they all wrote a little sentence and signed it.
APPRAISER: They must have really loved her. She did-- I'm sure she did the cooking, the cleaning for them. Because if you read some of these lines here: "I am just going upstairs to supper and feel awful hungry, "but do not expect much-- poor meals here, too hungry to say any more, Harry Wright." Here we have, "Would that we were home again. "My sentiments have been expressed "in the above paragraphs-- big meals. A.G. Spalding." Well, what you have here are some of the earliest known 1871 photographic baseball cards. Harry Wright here and his brother George Wright is here. You know, these were the original Wright brothers.
GUEST: (chuckles)
APPRAISER: Also, Albert Spalding. Now, Spalding is a very familiar name, isn't it?
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: He was the first well-known player to use a fielding glove. And what did he build from that? A sporting goods empire.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: To have this letter with Harry Wright and Spalding on it is tremendous. To have anything with their signatures on it is phenomenal, because again, you're talking about the precursor to the National and American leagues. So, that all said...
GUEST: (laughs)
APPRAISER: You're going to keep them in the family, right?
GUEST: I want to, yes.
APPRAISER: Okay. I'm going to value this as an archive, everything here. If you're going to insure it...
GUEST: Insure it, okay.
APPRAISER: ...I would insure it for at least $1 million.
GUEST: Are you serious? (chuckling) Oh, my. Holy smokes.
APPRAISER: It is the greatest archive I have ever had at the Roadshow.
GUEST: Really? Holy smokes. (chuckles) Guess I better put it in a bank vault.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm. I have to say, you have hit a grand slam today. (both laugh)
Watch as ROADSHOW hits a home run with this incredible baseball archive, still our highest-valued memorabilia appraisal ever!
Football: Gale Sayers Game-worn Jersey, ca. 1969
GUEST: My oldest brother coached Little League up in Connecticut about 30 years ago. And one of the kids on his team, his father was the public relations director for "Sports Illustrated." Well, around that time, my brother opened up a sporting goods store, and the kid's father, out of appreciation for my brother's coaching efforts with his son, gave my brother a bunch of sports memorabilia to hang on the walls of the sporting goods store. The sporting goods store didn't last but a few years, and when my brother moved down south, he brought all the sports memorabilia with him. And I've been a lifelong Chicago Bears fan, so he gave me the jersey that we have here.
APPRAISER: And this jersey belonged to Gale Sayers.
GUEST: Gale Sayers. And it was one of his away game jerseys. And Gale Sayers was one of my heroes when I was a little boy.
APPRAISER: The "Kansas Comet."
GUEST: That's right.
APPRAISER: One of the greatest and most exciting players of all time, in NFL history.
GUEST: He was.
APPRAISER: And one of the most tragic careers, cut short by a knee injury.
GUEST: Yeah, he did.
APPRAISER: And, actually, he was the youngest man ever elected to the Hall of Fame.
GUEST: Oh, wow.
APPRAISER: Here we have this jersey. It's been in your possession for over 30 years.
GUEST: Over 30 years, yes.
APPRAISER: What have you been doing with it?
GUEST (chuckles): It's been folded up inside a box in, in my closet at my parents' house. When I opened it up and my wife saw it, she was, like, "Is that your high school football jersey?" And I, of course, told her no, and she was, like, "We just need to turn that into a rag and use it to wipe down some of the furniture." But I persisted and told her, "No, no, no. It's a famous football player's jersey." She was just kind of, like, "Yeah, whatever." (laughs) And then I put it back in the box, and it's been probably sitting in that box now, well, about 16 years.
APPRAISER: 16 years. I'm glad she didn't turn it into a rag.
GUEST (chuckling): I am, too.
APPRAISER: What you have here is, is, as you said, it's a Chicago Bears jersey. It's from around 1969, 1970.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: Which were prime years for Gale Sayers.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: It's picture-perfect, as far as tagging. Tagging is very important when you're identifying jerseys and authenticating jerseys.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: Right down here, we have King O'Shea. This was the manufacturer.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: And King O'Shea manufactured the jerseys for the Chicago Bears during that time period. You also have the size, 46. That was Gale Sayers' size.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: Now, another thing, you look to see how much use a jersey has. Now, as you can see, this jersey is pretty dirty.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: There's a lot of sweat. There's a lot of blood. There's a lot of repairs, team repairs.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: This jersey's been torn apart.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: It's been through war, battles.
GUEST (chuckling): Oh, yeah.
APPRAISER: More than one.
GUEST: Sure.
APPRAISER: This jersey's gone through game after game after game.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: It's not like today, where a football player gets a new jersey every game. Let me show you another one back here.
GUEST: Big patch on the back.
APPRAISER: You can see... Look at this, that's... Somebody tore that.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: Right? (both laugh) I mean, this has just been torn apart, and fixed.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: And he wore it again.
GUEST: Sure.
APPRAISER: And again and again and again. Now, it does have some issues, okay? The zero on this sleeve right here is missing, okay? That probably got torn off, too. But that makes it better. All these tears and rips and blood and sweat, that's what collectors want! That's what everybody wants!
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: That's the history.
GUEST: That's the NFL. That's all those...
APPRAISER: That's the NFL, that's it.
GUEST: That's it.
APPRAISER: And it's all here.
GUEST: Wow. (chuckles)
APPRAISER: I mean, when you pulled this out, I almost lost it!
GUEST: (laughs)
APPRAISER: The fact that you have the provenance you do, this jersey I would estimate at at least $20,000 to $30,000, Roger.
GUEST (laughing): Oh, my-- oh, my gosh! I'm glad my wife didn't turn it into a rag.
APPRAISER: I am, too, man!
GUEST (laughing): Man.
APPRAISER: It's amazing! It's awesome.
GUEST: Oh, wow-- oh, wow. (laughs) Wow. (laughs) 20 to 30.
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: Is that at auction or is that...
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: Man.
Sweat, blood, and the NFL: get swept up in appraiser Simeon Lipman's enthusiasm for this Gale Sayers game-worn jersey that was almost turned into a cleaning rag!
Boxing: 1964 Cassius Clay Twice-signed Promotional Print
GUEST: I brought a signed photograph of Cassius Clay. A lot of people know him as Muhammad Ali, but at that time, he was Cassius Clay.
APPRAISER: Okay, and how'd you get it?
GUEST: When I was around eight years old, Cassius Clay lived in our neighborhood. Probably not by his choice, but prior to him fighting Sonny Liston for the championship, he lived in our neighborhood and he would run around the park. And all the little kids would run around following him, and chasing him, and mimicking him as he was practicing his boxing. So after he would do that, he would invite us over to his house for hot dogs and Kool-Aid. We thought that was the best thing in the world. But prior to that, we had to listen to him. So he'd teach us what I now know is life stories, telling us to be good kids. And also he'd show us films about how he boxed.
APPRAISER: Of course he did.
GUEST: How good he was.
APPRAISER: Of course he did.
GUEST: And he was the greatest, and he still is. Well, until he passed away, he still was the greatest.
APPRAISER: Sure. And this was in Miami?
GUEST: This is in Miami, Florida.
APPRAISER: Okay, this is one of his fighting promotions. And he personalized it to you.
GUEST: He personalized it to me.
APPRAISER: And he wrote, "To Nat, from Cassius Clay." And then he did again, in fountain pen, right there on his legs, he wrote, "From Cassius Clay." So he twice signed this for you. He must've liked you.
GUEST: I hope he liked me.
APPRAISER: So you know what happened shortly after, after he signed this to you.
GUEST: Shortly afterward, he fought Sonny Liston, and then he changed his name to Muhammad Ali.
APPRAISER: So, of course, Cassius Clay fought Sonny Liston on February 25, 1964. Beat Liston, seven rounds. He proclaimed his faith to the Nation of Islam, became Muhammad Ali.
GUEST: Correct.
APPRAISER: There's a lot of Muhammad Ali-signed memorabilia out there. You've got something here pretty special. You've got twice-signed Cassius Clay, both autographs are very potent, they're pretty crisp. And this one's personalized to you, so it means something to you.
GUEST: It means a whole lot to me. Believe it or not, I've had it, personally in my possession, only for about 20 years. My mother had it in a drawer. Like most mothers, they keep everything that their kids bring home. She put it in a drawer and kept it in a pretty pristine condition. And so I was so glad to get it, that I had to get it framed.
APPRAISER: I hope you thanked her. Let me ask you this.
GUEST: All the time.
APPRAISER: Have you ever had it appraised?
GUEST: Never had it appraised. I never thought of selling it, and hopefully when I pass it to my son, he won't sell it.
APPRAISER: Okay-- his recent passing, it has affected the value. We think the value has magnified. How much, we'll see in time. More auctions, more sales will happen, and we'll be better able to gauge it. We think that at auction, this would fetch a price between $5,000 to $7,000.
GUEST: No way.
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: $5,000 to $7,000? Wow.
APPRAISER: We'd insure it for considerably more. We'd insure it for about $10,000.
GUEST: Wow. It's been hanging up on my wall in the house, and it'll go back up on the wall, but I have to watch who come in the house now. (laughing) Well, golly, I never thought it'd be worth $5,000 to $7,000.
APPRAISER: It's a great piece-- it's a knockout.
What was it like growing up with Muhammad Ali, then Cassius Clay, in your neighborhood? For this ROADSHOW guest it was hot dogs, Kool-Aid, and words of wisdom.
Auto Racing: 1958 Signed Indianapolis 500 Racing Flag
GUEST: I'm a speedway sparkplug. I grew up just a couple of miles from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway track. And all through my grade school and high school days, I listened to the cars in the early spring, going around. This flag was signed by 31 of the 33 drivers in 1958 at the conclusion of the race. On the day of the race, on lap number one, 1958, all 33 cars were headed down the back stretch on lap number one, and two drivers, Ed Elisian and Dick Rathmann, tried to reach turn three, both of them at the same time, and it caused an accident that Pat O'Connor was killed in before they even completed lap number one.
APPRAISER: Right.
GUEST: So that's what makes this particular year eventful, but tragic. And of course, it was later won by Jimmy Bryan.
APPRAISER: Right, and we can only assume that this flag was probably started to be signed a day, two days, perhaps three days before, as we have Pat O'Connor's signature here. The only thing we can't figure out between any of us is how Jimmy Bryan managed to save the center logo for himself.
GUEST: Maybe there's a listener out there that can explain why Jimmy Bryan got to sign the center spot. He was the winner.
APPRAISER: Yep.
GUEST: And it had to have taken place after the race.
APPRAISER: Right.
GUEST: But yet we have a signature on there of one driver that didn't even complete the race.
APPRAISER: Right, and we've looked and we don't see Jimmy Bryan in another spot.
GUEST: No.
APPRAISER: Sometimes what we'll see is, we'll see the driver who wins on another spot, and then again in that center position after they've won.
GUEST: We've got 18 other signatures on here of people that were related to racing. Mm-hmm. Racing dignitaries, former winners. So you've got 31 plus 18, that's the number of signatures that are on this flag. And as far as I know, it's the only flag of its sort.
APPRAISER: Yeah. Through your father's occupation, you got to meet a lot of these drivers.
GUEST: I did-- my father had an accounting firm on Main Street, and so I grew up looking over the kitchen table, and my dad and maybe a couple of these drivers would be there. And they'd have a cold beer while they talked taxes. In 1956, I was in the soap box derby, and I had to build my own car. And that year, Pat O'Connor came to our house to have his taxes done, and he brought Ray Nichels with him, his chief mechanic. I said, "Pat, I've got my soap box derby out in the garage. Would you like to come and see it?" And he said, "Sure," and he got Ray Nichels, chief mechanic, and Pat, went out to my garage and they said, "Looks really good, Jackie, but you've gotta align the tires." And they spent time and they got my tires aligned. And I raced my car and I got more speed out of it in the soap box derby because of Pat O'Connor.
APPRAISER: So tell me how you, how you got it.
GUEST: A photographer by the name of Cooke had it. He passed away about 15, 20 years ago. An auction company had an estate sale and I went to that hoping to get photographs. This came up for sale and I bid on it and bought it.
APPRAISER: And how much did you pay for it?
GUEST: No records, I couldn't find the receipt, but I think around $1,000, maybe $1,100. I'm just in love with it. I've kept it all these years.
APPRAISER: Okay, sure. What would you think it's worth today?
GUEST: Oh, boy. (laughs) Let's... think big.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: Maybe $3,000 or $4,000? I don't know.
APPRAISER: Yeah, it's quite the special piece for you to have brought in today, especially being here in Indianapolis. I would put a value on this piece for insurance purposes of $10,000.
GUEST: Wonderful, wonderful. Wow, I didn't expect that. (voice trembling) Yeah, marvelous. Oh, my gosh. Well, it's a part of my growing up and it will be passed on to my son.
Watch this emotional appraisal of an Indy 500 flag brought to ROADSHOW by a "Speedway Sparkplug."
Basketball: 1986 Michael Jordan-signed Casino Coaster
GUEST: I was visiting Las Vegas the summer of '86. The University of Nevada- Las Vegas and University of North Carolina played an alumni basketball game. After the game was over, I was in the casino, and Michael Jordan and the rest of the team came back. I saw them sit down at a table, and I sat down at the table with them. (chuckles)
APPRAISER: What did you guys play, poker?
GUEST: Blackjack.
APPRAISER: Blackjack, okay. How did he play?
GUEST: He played okay. At first we all, we were all winning, and then he upped his bet, and, uh, we all started losing.
APPRAISER: You had your opportunity. You wanted an autograph, so you went ahead and you went for it.
GUEST: I... when he was leaving the table, I asked him, yes.
APPRAISER: Looks like he found a blue ballpoint pen, he did his, his typical, usual Michael Jordan autograph right on this paper coaster. So, '86, he got hurt early in the season. He broke his foot, and he came back the same season.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: The Bulls, when Jordan returned, finished with a 30-and-52 record and still made the playoffs. If we're giving it a grade, it looks about an eight.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: On a, on a one-to-ten scale. Overall, great piece. At auction, probably fetches somewhere between $2,000 to $3,000.
GUEST: Oh, wow, very good, wow. Thank you.
APPRAISER: (chuckles)
GUEST: Pretty neat.
Even though this ROADSHOW guest lost to Michael Jordan in blackjack, he still walked away a winner with his MJ-signed casino coaster!
Golf: Feather Golf Ball, ca. 1840
GUEST: I found this in an antique store in 1971 in Virginia. And because I was interested in golf and collecting golf items, I not only bought that golf ball, but several wood shaft clubs at the same time.
APPRAISER: And when you bought it, what did you know about it?
GUEST: I had read in some antique books about golf, about how they made feathery balls, using a top hat to measure the feathers, and how they boiled them in steamy water and stuffed them in the ball. So that made it very interesting to me at that time.
APPRAISER: And what did you pay for this?
GUEST: $200.
APPRAISER: And you recognized this as a feather ball.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: You bought the hickory-shafted clubs, right? The wooden-shafted clubs, and you bought the ball. Did you play with them?
GUEST: Oh, I wanted to so many times, but after reading in the books, I found out that they're only good for about six holes of golf, and they would tear and explode.
APPRAISER: (laughing)
GUEST: And I didn't want that to happen with a $200 golf ball.
APPRAISER: That's an expensive round of golf.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISRER: Feather balls were used until about 1850 or so, and they were used with the long-nosed, wooden-shafted clubs that were made in Scotland. And these emanate from Scotland…
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: …because Scotland is considered by many to be the home of golf. You said something about how they made the golf balls. You're absolutely right in many ways. These are leather-covered feather balls. There are literally feathers in the ball…
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: and the leather is usually from bull's hide, believe or not. What you would do is, you would take the bull's hide, cut it into strips, and then you would reassemble three different pieces, and you have a flap, and you would turn it inside-out, and you would measure an actual top hat and put the feathers in. In those days, a good feather ball maker could only make three to ten balls a day. It was very labor-intensive, and because of that, the balls were hugely expensive, so it was a sport only for the wealthy. This feather ball dates from the, probably, 1830s, maybe up to 1850 or so. You know what happened to the feather ball is that they discovered they could use gutta-percha…
GUEST: Mh-mmm.
APPRASIER: …which was from a gum tree in Southeast Asia. Much more durable, much easier to make, and therefore much less expensive. So with the advent of the gutta-percha ball, it became a sport much more for the middle classes. These balls, you could hit 100 yards, maybe 150 yards. That was about the limit. If you were a really good golfer, you could hit it 200. How far can you hit a regular golf ball today?
GUEST: I have hit a golf ball 300-plus yards, but typically about 280.
APPRAISER: And your pros today can hit over 300 yards. They estimate that today, only several hundred of these exist. They're very well sought-after. They're highly desired by collectors. If I were going to put an auction estimate on this today, I would probably put about $4,000 to $6,000.
GUEST: Oh, wow, very nice.
APPRIASER: The height of the market hit about ten, 15 years ago…
GUEST: Mh-hmm.
APPRAISER: …and at that time it could have even been as much as $15,000 to $20,000.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRIASER: I know. But still, $4,000 to $6,000 is pretty good.
GUEST: Still good.
Horse Racing: 1919 Belmont Stakes Sterling Silver Trophy Tray
GUEST: I brought my great- grandfather's trophy that he got for the Belmont Stakes. He had a stable at the time that had a number of great racehorses, but the big one was Sir Barton. And this is the winning trophy for the very first Triple Crown.
APPRAISER: So... and tell me about Sir Barton, because he was quite an interesting horse.
GUEST: Yes, well, he was a horse that inherited bad feet, and he had a really mean disposition. And they basically had to wear out all these other horses to get him to train. So for the Kentucky Derby, they put him on there for Billy Kelly so that he'd have a race mate for the race. And he blew it away.
APPRAISER: Right.
GUEST: He got the first race. So then they... Okay, well, so then they ran him for the other races.
APPRAISER: Right.
GUEST: But he was always a difficult horse, and he ran in spite of his sore feet.
APPRAISER: He also was known to be pretty feisty.
GUEST: He was nasty. Apparently, you wouldn't want to go near him.
APPRAISER: Didn't like humans.
GUEST: No, didn't like humans. Didn't like animals either.
APPRAISER: He ran four races in 32 days.
GUEST: Yes. So he ran the Kentucky, and everybody was surprised that he won. Then they turned around and said, "Well, we'll put him in the Preakness," and he blew that one away, too. And then he ran the... I think it was the Withers Stakes. And then they put him in the Belmont, and he ran the Belmont and he did really well.
APPRAISER: Yeah, and he was placed in the Kentucky Derby just as a rabbit.
GUEST: Yes, right.
APPRAISER: Just to tire out the other horses, and never looked back. What else do you remember about him?
GUEST: He was a horse that basically never really liked to run. Because they could never get him to run, it was hard to keep him in shape. So what I understood was that they really didn't know whether they were going to be able to have him ready each time that he ran.
APPRAISER: And so as we're sitting here today talking about the first Triple Crown winner, we were told earlier today that American Pharoah won the Triple Crown this year.
GUEST: I know, it's amazing.
APPRAISER: First time in 37 years.
GUEST: It's amazing.
APPRAISER: So we have this sterling tray here, awarded for winning the Belmont Stakes in 1919. All inscribed with the owner's name.
GUEST: Is there anything about polishing I should know?
APPRAISER: It's accepted to polish something like this.
GUEST: It is, okay.
APPRAISER: It'll show nicer. From the standpoint of athletic trophies, perfectly acceptable. And they're beautiful when they're shined up, so...
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: Yeah… When you look at comparables, you'll see there was a silver Loving cup trophy that was awarded to Sir Barton for the Belmont Stakes. That sold at auction for $17,000 in 2006.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: We would place an auction estimate on the tray at $15,000 to $25,000.
GUEST: Wow. Wow, that's pretty cool.
APPRAISER: For an insurance figure, I would place an insurance amount of $35,000.
GUEST: Okay. Well, that's wonderful.
Relive the experience of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW finding a trophy from the first Triple Crown winner on the exact same day American Pharoah clinched the prestigious racing title 96 years later!
Tennis: Wimbledon-signed Tennis Champion Sweatshirt
GUEST: I was an official, an umpire, on the professional tennis circuit for about ten years, and I would travel from one tournament to the next, and when I would see a champion, I would ask them to autograph the sweatshirt.
APPRAISER: Did you ever umpire at Wimbledon?
GUEST: Never. I have been to Wimbledon, but I've never umpired at, officiated at Wimbledon.
APPRAISER: But I see that you umpired at the U.S. Open.
GUEST: Many times, many times.
APPRAISER: So a lot of the signatures you got there?
GUEST: Yes, and all out of uniform.
APPRAISER: And the criteria here, by the way, was...
GUEST: Pretty much, you had to have a Wimbledon title.
APPRAISER: Okay, so for instance, we have Billie Jean King, great Wimbledon champion. Rod Laver, who won it four times. Then we got John McEnroe, Venus Williams, five-time Wimbledon champion as of 2017, and the great Martina, who won nine Wimbledon championships. What were they like when they signed this for you? What did they think of this?
GUEST: A number of them looked at it and they were very pleased to be able to sign it. Venus looked at it and said, "My gosh, how old is this shirt?" And, "I would love to sign it." And so, she signed it as boldly as you possibly could.
APPRAISER: I would put an auction estimate on it of probably $1,000 to $1,500.
GUEST: Excellent, excellent.
APPRAISER: And I would insure it for $3,000.
GUEST: $3,000-- all right, excellent.
It was all love between this former umpire and the pro-tennis stars that signed his shirt, which include Billie Jean King, John McEnroe, and Venus Williams!
Olympics: Fred Lauer Olympic Collection
GUEST: It's a collection of some items that I bought in Phoenix at a yard sale. The items belong to an Olympian by the name of Fred Lauer. He was a four-time Olympian, 1924 through 1936. All this stuff came out of one little box. I was looking for a postcard, and it had an Olympic swastika on it and that's how I recognized what it was.
APPRAISER: Now, Fred was a water polo player, correct?
GUEST: Correct.
APPRAISER: And he was in four Olympics and apparently he was also a collector of Olympic memorabilia and his own memorabilia. In the box, you found this sweater--his Olympic sweater--his Olympic pinny and his hat--probably from 1924 to '36. Uh, we had programs. Two of the more interesting items are this program right here from the 1924 Olympics which he got signed by the '24 Olympics swimming team which included Duke Kahanamoku--who is generally regarded as the father of surfing. He was a Hawaiian. And also Johnny Weissmuller who was the world champion and later became Tarzan. But your real treasure here is this little book right here and it's from the 1936 Olympics. The Olympics were in Berlin and Hitler and the Third Reich wanted to use the Olympics as his platform to show the dominance of the Aryan race. Uh, one fellow didn't really agree with that. His name was Jesse Owens, and he signed this book as did every other Olympian on the U.S. team. Jesse Owens, of course won four gold medals in that Olympics and became one of the first great African- American stars in the United States. What's fascinating about this book is there's another signature in here of a silver medalist named Mack Robinson. Mack Robinson had a younger brother named Jackie Robinson. Of course, Jackie Robinson would go on to break the color barrier in baseball and become one of the greats of all time. This collection is absolutely magnificent. I've never seen anything quite like it. There are 63 signatures in this book alone. It's amazing. What did you pay for the box?
GUEST: I bought everything at a yard sale for $5.00
APPRAISER: You paid $5.00. Well, I think you're going to be happy to know that the collection-- the whole collection--probably worth about $10,000 probably more, at auction. It's truly remarkable. You really very seldom see things like this come up and it's just marvelous. It's a real piece of history.
GUEST: Thank you.
You never know what will turn up at a yard sale...like a $5 box filled with fantastic finds from some of the most important Olympians ever.
College Football: Michigan Wolverines Football Helmet, ca. 1940
GUEST: It's a University of Michigan football helmet. Somehow my father got ahold of it when he was at Michigan in the early 1940s. I don't believe he ever wore it, you know, participated in the football. Although, I suppose it could have been intramural or something, but he was never on their team or anything. And it's just been in the family ever since. And he was there before World War II, so it's got to be the first part of the '40s, probably-- maybe late '30s.
APPRAISER: Well, and he acquired it at the university.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: Well, that fits right for the time. And of course, Coach Crisler introduced the wing-front leather helmet in maize and blue in 1938 in Ann Arbor-- was the first coach to do so. And there we see the wing-front design, where the name comes from, of course. And it's just a classic helmet. Very popular program, of course, to collect-- with the Michigan program, the football program-- and it's any sort of game-used equipment. Very hard to find, especially the helmets. They're very difficult, and collectors really, really seek, seek out these types of items.
GUEST: Oh, really?
APPRAISER: Any idea of the value?
GUEST: None, absolutely none. It was sitting on my shelf in the basement.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm, well, it's actually considered in very good to excellent condition, because, you know, of course, it was going to be on the football field
and take some knocks. So overall, really nice to see it in this condition. The value at auction would be $1,500 to $2,500.
GUEST: Wow, very good.
APPRAISER: If it did have a number on it or a name written inside, and we had the provenance that it actually belonged to a player who wore it on the field, you could double or triple that value.
Which University of Michigan coach first introduced the famed wing-front leather helmet? Find out!
College Basketball: 1982 University of North Carolina Signed Basketball
APPRAISER: You brought us this 1982 championship signed basketball by the NCAA basketball champions of that year, the University of North Carolina Tar Heels. How did you get this?
GUEST: Each year, our school will have a fundraising effort. And Coach Smith and some of the other coaches in the league would give us memorabilia to do it. So Coach Smith came up with the idea. He wanted to donate one to our school. And he said for the second one, "Why don't you get one and keep it for yourself?"
APPRAISER: How did you know Dean Smith?
GUEST: Well, I was blessed to be a college basketball referee for 32 years. I refereed the ACC, the Big East, the Big 12, Southern Conference, Southeast Conference.
APPRAISER: But Carolina was included in the ACC.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: Back in 1982, this was Dean Smith's first championship. And he had been with the team since 1961.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: So when you reffed-- and this was the '80s and '90s-- what were your favorite calls to make?
GUEST: The right one.
APPRAISER: That's a good answer. I was at school at Carolina when they won the championship in 1982, so this to me brings back tremendous, wonderful memories. You have one of the greatest basketball teams of all time, led by the freshman Michael Jordan, future Hall-of-Famer, James Worthy, future Hall-of-Famer, the great Sam Perkins. And if you remember the championship game, they played Georgetown. I'm assuming you didn't ref that game.
GUEST: I did not referee the game. That's the one where James Worthy intercepted the pass.
APPRAISER: That's right, and you know, that game was a seesaw game, the championship game between Georgetown and Carolina. Georgetown featured the freshman Patrick Ewing. 15 lead changes, Dean had not won a championship, his 21st season at that point, 1982. Here we are with Michael Jordan, tongue out, trademark, 17 seconds, taking the winning shot. One of the most exciting college basketball games in history, and a great championship for UNC. This basketball that you have is spectacular in that it looks like you just got it yesterday.
GUEST: Well, we've kept it in the case. I don't think I've had that in my hands, maybe once.
APPRAISER: Well, that's good.
GUEST: And I've had it more today than I've had it in my lifetime.
APPRAISER: We've got Dean right on here, the great Dean Smith. When he retired in 1997, he was the leading Division A coach. So you've got Dean, and then of course you have Michael Jordan here. This was the seminal moment where the legend of Michael Jordan was born.
GUEST: Yes, it certainly was, because we all remember that he was cut on his high school basketball team.
APPRAISER: That's right. And then of course he went on to win this, graduate after three years and then won six championships with the Bulls. Valuewise, because of the condition and because of the provenance, I would put an insurance value on this of $10,000.
GUEST: Oh!
GUEST: My wife just about fainted over there on the side.
APPRAISER: So you've made this Tar Heel very happy.
GUEST: Well, you have made us extremely happy, and I thank you.
What do Michael Jordan, James Worthy, and Leila Dunbar have in common? Besides being legends in their field, they're also all Tar Heels!
Hockey: Chicago Blackhawks Signed Hockey Stick, ca. 1975
GUEST: My uncle worked for Arthur Wirtz, who owned the team in the '60s and '70s.
APPRAISER: And it was gifted?
GUEST: Yes, it was Stan Mikita's hockey stick. It has his name and then his number on the other side, and it was the '74-'75 Blackhawks.
APPRAISER: Okay, now they weren't very good that year.
GUEST: Correct.
APPRAISER: But the Chicago Blackhawks these days are a very popular team. One of their prominent players is Hall-of-Famer Stan Mikita, and here you have a Stan Mikita game-used and signed hockey stick, and Stan Mikita, as you know, invented the curvature on the heads of the hockey sticks. The story goes that he and fellow Hall-of-Famer Robbie Hall were practicing, his stick broke, he was very upset. Hit a shot and couldn't believe the velocity...
GUEST: Like whoa!
APPRAISER: Exactly, we have the '74-'75 hockey team, the Blackhawks, all of their signatures on the stick. Most prominently, we see Stan Mikita's signature, at center. At auction, I would estimate the stick to go for about $2,000 to $3,000.
GUEST: No! $2,000? Ha! I absolutely never... that's mind-blowing.
Do you know the story behind why hockey sticks have a curved head? Find out now in this appraisal of a signed Stan Mikita stick.
Olympic Basketball: 1936 Joe C. Fortenberry's U.S. Basketball Olympic Gold Medal
GUEST: Well, I brought my father. He was Joe C. Fortenberry, and he was captain and high scorer of the first Olympic basketball team in Berlin, Germany in 1936. They beat Canada, and he scored eight points in the last game, and the score was 19-8. Played in a driving rain and mud.
APPRAISER: So this is the first year that basketball was included as an Olympic event.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: As you said, the U.S. wins 19-8 in a downpour that turned the clay and sand surface they had to play on into mud.
GUEST: Just a mess, absolute mess. No dribbling-- you just had to throw it. And it was a driving rain.
APPRAISER: Right. And what did your father tell you about the game?
GUEST: Well, he said it was a joke. He said it was Hitler's fault. Hitler said basketball should be an outdoor sport, so they had it outdoor on a clay court.
APPRAISER: Right.
GUEST: So that's the way it was.
APPRAISER: Right, which unfortunately for the game was a terrible way to start basketball being an Olympic event. But ultimately, a great result for the U.S., getting the gold medal. Tell us some more about your father's career in basketball.
GUEST: Well, he went to a little school called West Texas in Canyon, Texas, and they were the tallest team in the world back then. Everybody was over six feet back then. He was 6'7". Then he went on to play in the AAU for industrial teams. The McPherson Oilers was the team that he played for that went to the Olympics. And then later, he played for the Phillips 66ers. And he is credited by the New York Times in 1936 with inventing the slam dunk.
APPRAISER: So he's credited with being one of the first, if not the first, to do a slam dunk.
GUEST: Yes. He's also the reason, or one of the reasons, for goaltending, because there was no goaltending. He would just jump up and swat the ball away, and finally-- I don't know when they did it-- they decided, "We can't let them do that." And also they used to have a jump ball after every made basket, and he would get every jump ball.
APPRAISER: Right.
GUEST: So they got rid of that, too.
APPRAISER: He changed rules of basketball.
GUEST: Yes, he did.
APPRAISER: So he was the star of the Olympic team.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: He was one of the stars of the Phillips 66 Oilers.
GUEST: Yes, 66ers.
APPRAISER: Which was an AAU team, but it was the premier league for the United States.
GUEST: They were the best ones in the world.
APPRAISER: Before the NBA came along.
GUEST: I have this great memory when I was in high school out in front of our house, shooting goals and trying to dunk it. And I'm a little challenged—I was only 6'2". And he came home, he has his hat on and his pipe, he's about 55, takes his hat off, takes his pipe out, says, "Well, maybe I can still do that." He jumps straight up and dunks it two-handed at the age of 55. His pipe goes flying, and then he has this funny grin on his face and he says, "I don't think I'll ever do that again."
APPRAISER: That's unbelievable. We have his Olympic gold medal that you've brought today. We also have a great photo, what we thought was a great shot, because it has him doing a slam dunk.
GUEST: Yep.
APPRAISER: The gold medal is in the original box. Now, regarding the condition, it's in near-pristine condition with just one mentionable. We have one line running through the "L-I-N" of "Berlin."
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: Which I believe is perhaps a flaw in the minting process rather than a scratch.
GUEST: Oh, okay. Will that affect the value?
APPRAISER: I don't expect that to affect the value. What kind of value have you read about on the medal? What can you tell me about the medal?
GUEST: Well, one of his teammates had one and had it sold last year, but it had had a hole drilled in it and used as a necklace. And I believe it sold for $66,000. So I think this is a premium, and I'm prejudiced, but my father was important in basketball history, so I think it's worth $100,000.
APPRAISER: We had a previous medal in 2015 the family brought in to the ANTIQUES ROADSHOW in Tucson, that medal that you saw later sold at auction. It was from a family member, and at that time, that was the only gold medal from the 1936 Olympics basketball team to ever come up not only for auction, but even to surface for the public to see.
GUEST: Oh, okay.
APPRAISER: So now we have the second one that we've seen come up that somebody is showing the public. Definitely a museum piece. So we do have that comparison-- $67,000, the one you talked about-- the condition it was in was much lesser condition. This one, the importance of your father, his impact to the game, is huge, and this is by far the most important U.S. gold medal that we've seen come in at the sports table at ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
GUEST: Oh, boy.
APPRAISER: I would put a value of this, at auction, of $100,000 to $150,000.
GUEST: Wow. I was right, more or less. Thank you. That is incredible.
APPRAISER: And for insurance, I would easily put a value on it of $175,000.
GUEST: Wow. Well, it'll go back in the lock box.
It's no tall tale: this U.S. Basketball Olympic gold medal was brought to ROADSHOW by Fortenberry's son and made for a slam-dunk appraisal!
Baseball: All-American Professional Girls Baseball League Collection, ca. 1950
APPRAISER: Okay, put on that glove-- I want to see what you do.
GUEST: Hmm, babe!
APPRAISER: Scrunch down. That's right.
GUEST: That all right?
APPRAISER: This is you, circa 1951. How did you drop down into the All-American Professional Girls Baseball League?
GUEST: I went to visit a friend and a cousin in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He said, "How would you like to go see the Fort Wayne Daisies play baseball tonight?" And being a softball player myself and having played baseball with the boys, I said, "What a great idea-- let's go." At the end of the ninth inning, I turned to him and I said, "You know, I can do that." The next day, I had a tryout with the Fort Wayne Daisies, with Max Carey, right here.
APPRAISER: Great center fielder, Hall of Famer.
GUEST: And four or five of the Fort Wayne Daisies at the time. And at the end of the hour or hour and a half, he said to me, "Lois, we'll call you."
APPRAISER. (laughs)
GUEST: "We will let you know."
APPRAISER: Wow.
GUEST: In January, I received a letter inviting me to spring training in Alexandria, Virginia. And off I went.
APPRAISER: 17 years old.
GUEST: Got special dispensation from the county superintendent to get out of school.
APPRAISER: Wow. And how long did you play for?
GUEST: Four years. The league folded, actually, in 1954.
APPRAISER: Right, disbanded.
GUEST: Bill Allington, he was one of the longtime, very, very great managers in the league-- and he said, "I am going to take "a group of former players in the league, and we're going to barnstorm." We're gonna play against men."
APPRAISER: How did you do?
GUEST: I was just happy that every night I didn't get killed.
APPRAISER: And you've brought your collection, some of your collection-- there's much more...
GUEST: Yes, yes.
APPRAISER: ...from your time with the All-American Girls Baseball League. I know you played for two teams, the Daisies, and you played also for, uh, the Blue Sox, correct?
GUEST: Blue Sox, yes, yes.
APPRAISER: South Bend. This is when you played with the Daisies. Here you are, and Jimmie Foxx is right here. He was your manager. He managed for one year.
GUEST: That's right.
APPRAISER: Jimmie Foxx, another great Hall of Famer. And I believe Jimmie Foxx was pretty much the, the figure that they used to base Tom Hanks' character in "A League of Their Own." Now, was he really like that?
GUEST: No-- if I had an opportunity to set the record straight, I don't think there was a player on the Fort Wayne team that did not adore Jimmie Foxx.
APPRAISER: The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League got started in 1943, when the Major League players, many of them, went off to war, and Philip K. Wrigley, who was the, uh, chewing gum magnate...
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: Started it so they could maintain baseball in the public eye. And I see they made the women at that time wear these spiffy outfits.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: Which today would almost be considered miniskirts. So there's your catcher's mitt that you caught the game. This is your original cap. That's your jacket with the original patches. This is an example of a ball that they used in later years. The ball kept changing, getting smaller.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: From 12 inches to nine inches. We have the championship photo signed by Jimmie Foxx and the entire team. This is a facsimile of an actual program that you have signed to you by Jimmie Foxx. Your patch, the photo of you at 17 with Clark Griffith and Max Carey and the other lady who didn't make the team.
GUEST: Yeah, I have no idea who she is.
APPRAISER: Right. Plus, we have your scrapbook that we're not showing. We have other photos, we have a locket from you. We have other programs-- it's a treasure trove. I would put an auction estimate on the entire grouping of about $10,000.
GUEST: I'm surprised.
APPRAISER: Not bad for a girl baseball player.
GUEST: Not... Not bad for a 17-year-old that didn't know where New York City was.
This ROADSHOW guest was part of a league of her own during her time playing in the All-American Professional Girls Baseball League alongside some hall-of-famers!
