1958 Unitas Baltimore Colts Championship Jacket
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GUEST:
This is John Unitas's jacket. He was a friend of the family's. He would come over to our house when we lived in Towson. I was about ten, 11 years old at the time. And of course, all my friends would come over. They'd all bring their football. John would just be standing around looking at us. And he was, like, six-two, something like that. He'd take the ball and start padding like this, and acting like he was going to throw it.
APPRAISER:
(laughs)
GUEST:
And we were just standing there looking at him. You know.
APPRAISER:
It's like the dream come true, you know?
GUEST:
It was, and got to know him through the years. Great guy, he had a great sense of humor. He exuded confidence at all time.
APPRAISER:
He's an icon. Probably the most important person in pro football history, or one of them, certainly. The Colts, of course, won, as you said, in sudden-death overtime, 23-17, versus the New York Giants. They won the championship. They also won it the next year, 1959.
GUEST:
They did.
APPRAISER:
Two in a row. And this, as you said, is Johnny U's jacket. Here we have this wonderful patch, which states clearly, "World Champions 1958." Here is his name stitched in, "John Unitas." And here, we have in the pocket, another tag. Manufacturer's tag. It says, "John Unitas." And it has his size. And it's in pretty remarkable shape.
GUEST:
Is it?
APPRAISER:
Yeah. You seldom see things from this era this nice. And it's very rare to find anything of his. And it's certainly amongst the most desirable. Well, I would conservatively estimate it at $40,000 to $60,000 for auction.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
And who knows where it would go? Baltimore Colts memorabilia is incredibly desirable.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
Of course, you know, the Colts kind of broke the hearts of this city when they left, and...
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
It's a remarkable piece. I, I... When you, when you pulled the jacket out, I saw it, I was, like, "Wow, that's a championship jacket. How great is that?" When you showed me Johnny Unitas's name... (laughing) I almost fell on the floor.
GUEST:
It gets even better.
APPRAISER:
It's amazing. It's, it's truly wonderful, so congratulations. What a wonderful piece to have.
GUEST:
And it's going to stay in the family.
Appraisal Details
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