Sports Memorabilia

[Southside]

Two things I wish I bought:
1. About 10 years ago BU was selling a framed panoramic photo of the crowd at Carver during an ISU game that at the time was the largest crowd at Carver. I could easily pick myself out.
2. Last year on Ebay there was a piece of the Sweet Sixteen floor signed by most of the BU players. One of you guys probably bought it!

It got me thinking, what is the best piece of sports memorabilia you have?

I have a 1985 Bears training camp program signed by Walter Payton, Dan Hampton and Richard Dent.

[BradleyBrave]

A couple of my BU favorites...

1.) A basketball signed by the entire Sweet 16 team.
2.) A framed BU pennant signed by the top 3 scorers in school history - Phegley, Anderson, and Hawkins.

A couple of my other favorites...

1.) An autographed Mark Grace 1986 Peoria Chiefs card.
2.) An autographed Greg Maddux Rated Rookie card.

[Chico]

My favorites are a picture of myself and Hersey Hawkins taken at his camp at Peoria High. A picture of myself and Coach Les taken after I arranged for him to speak at Elks Lodge 20 in Peoria. An autographed picture of Jim Thome and a picture of myself and Jim Thome at the first day of Spring training in Tucson the year after my Sox won the 2005 World Series. Also a Paul Hornung autograph written on an Arlington Race Track program. I also have a collection of Bradley game programs from the 60's and 70's.

[Da Coach]

I have a lot of old Bradley stuff, but recently I acquired an old basketball warmup jacket originally worn by the 1950-1951 team. That means it could have been worn by Squeaky Melchiorre or Billy Mann. Back then, they used the same uniforms for several years, then passed them down to the freshman team for several more years. This warmup jacket can be seen from old yearbook pictures. It first shows up in the 1951 yearbook. If anyone has the Victory, Honor, and Glory book, it is also shown on page 75, being worn by Squeaky and Billy Mann in an old photo from 1951. This same warmup jacket was also worn by the '51-'52, '52-'53, and '53-'54 teams. It could also have been worn by Bradley Hall of Famer Bob Carney. The only identifying mark in it is the #33 written on the inside with a laundry marker below the collar. Bob Carney wore #33, so I think it may have been his. The pictures don't show it, but there is a lot of wear on the material.

[Beninator]

Da Coach, that warmup jacket is really cool.

Some of my personal favorites:

A Sweet 16 t-shirt from last year with all the team logos of the schools in the Sweet 16 which is autographed by the entire Bradley team and coaching staff.

As for other autographs my favorites that I have obtained in person include Joe Dimaggio, and a cigarette advertisement featuring the 1948 AL and NL MVP's autographed by Stan Musial and Lou Boudreau.

[Majik45]

I have an autographed picture of myself standing between Jim Les and Hersey Hawkins at their basketball camp they held back in the early 90's with Les in his Sacremento Kings gear and Hersey in his 76er's gear (I think that's who he was with then). What's funny is that I was in like 6th grade and was as tall as both of them at the time.

My other favorite piece of memorabilia is a Nebraska replica helmet signed by Trev Alberts.

[mike radigan]

This is so dumb it defies description. When I was a child (late 1940s) my grandmother gave me a baseball signed by the Yankees including Babe Ruth and Lou Gherig. I was so young I didn't know any better and played with it and ruined it.

[Da Coach]

I have seen and read stories like this in movies and books, but I never knew anyone who actually did this!

[tornado]

Da Coach-- didn't you collect and complete several full sets, including the ultra rare checklists and #1 cards from the Topps baseball card sets of 1956, 1957, 1958, etc, plus gobs of doubles of players like Mantle, Banks, etc....then you stored them in a couple old shoeboxes, keeping them in pretty good shape until you discovered during your teenage years, that your mom had done some housecleaning and had thrown them all out?

That was probably $50,000 down the drain!

[mike radigan]

I have seen and read stories like this in movies and books, but I never knew anyone who actually did this!

Well, now you know someone.

[Da Coach]

Da Coach-- didn't you collect and complete several full sets, including the ultra rare checklists and #1 cards from the Topps baseball card sets of 1956, 1957, 1958, etc, plus gobs of doubles of players like Mantle, Banks, etc....then you stored them in a couple old shoeboxes, keeping them in pretty good shape until you discovered during your teenage years, that your mom had done some housecleaning and had thrown them all out?

That was probably $50,000 down the drain!

No, that wasn't me. I never collected cards as a kid.

[BradleyBrave]

And for my Wall of Shame, I have a Sports Illustrated with Kerry Wood and Mark Prior on the cover, autographed by both of them.

So sad.

[COACHCORN]

Great topic!

I have quite an extensive collection due to the fact the my best friend was nfl for 10 yrs and my other friend pitched for the A's, as well as me spending almost 3 years with the Kings but my favorite is 2 jerseys together both signed and put together in 1 frame. Magic and Bird.

[tornado]

Good to hear from you COACHCORN!

Have you put in your resume for the open assistant coaching spot at Bradley?

And fill us in on any news with Demetrius Young or Xavier Crawford.

[Chico]

Don't know if it's worth much, but I have the first issue ever of Sports Illustrated. I purchased it at the newstand on Main and Jefferson and for some reason saved it. It has a foldout of baseball cards from that era. I know they reprinted that issue for their 50th anniversary.