Fall Premier Auction 2014
Wed, Nov 19, 2014 09:00PM EST - Sun, Dec 7, 2014 12:00PM EST
Timed Auction
Lot 992
EXCEPTIONAL 1958 BALTIMORE COLTS WORLD CHAMPIONS TEAM SIGNED FOOTBALL - SEASON OF "THE GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED" - A GIFT FROM JOHNNY UNITAS
Sold for
$3,426
Sold Price includes BP
Bid Increments
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When football diehards get together to debate the greatest gridiron battles there are thousands of regular and post-season games worth mentioning many with colorful nicknames like "The Heidi Game" "The Ice Bowl" "The Hail Mary Game" and "The Immaculate Reception." But 44 years after Alan Ameche rumbled into the end zone to end the first overtime Championship Game in the then 38-year history of the NFL the December 28 1958 nail-biter between the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants is widely regarded as the greatest of them all.
Johnny Unitas led his Colts down the field with two masterful drivesthe first set up a game-tying field goal to send the game into OT and the second was the 13-play 80-yard drive that brought the Colts victory. In the game's strangest turn of events 64000 fans piled into Yankee Stadium for the Championship Game which meant there were still 6000 empty seats. As a result the game was blacked-out in the New York area and millions of fans only saw Ameche that night on the Ed Sullivan Show! By now though most of these fans as well as the legions of NFL fans too young to remember the game played live have surely seen the game in full on TV. And for those that haven't the select highlight reel images that have been indelibly etched in every fan's mind will have to suffice.
Presented here is one of the more exceptional mementos from that immortal Colts season: A Spalding Eddie LeBaron signature-model football signed by Johnny Unitas Art Donovan Gino Marchetti Lenny Moore Jim Parker Raymond Berry Alan Ameche Steve Myra Bill Pellington Fuzzy Thurston Milt Davis Ray Brown Jack Call Lenny Lyles George Shaw Bert Rechichar Buzz Nutter L.G. Dupree George Preas Dick Szymanski Sherman Plunket Art Spinney Big Daddy Lipscomb and Leo Sanford. Condition is bright EX/MT with signatures averaging "8-9" in strength and contrasting beautifully off the white surface. An accompanying 2012 LOA from Baltimore resident Larry Wise reads "I was given the 1958 Colt Autographed football by Mrs. Dottie Mayer whose husband Dr. Erwin Mayer was the team physician for the Baltimore Colts. She told me he was given the ball by John Unitas. She also told me that her husband attended to Gino Marchetti when he was injured in the championship game and remained lifelong friends. This happened approximately 12 years ago. I have had the ball in my possession ever since."
Includes a full LOA from JSA.
Pre-certified by PSA/DNA.
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