An updated look at the most elusive memorabilia in sports
Original World Cup
- Perhaps no trophy in international team sports is more coveted than the prize that is awarded every four years to the winner of soccer’s World Cup. The original Jules Rimet Trophy was presented to every champion between 1930 and ‘70 with the first team to win three World Cups taking permanent possession of the trophy. Brazil did just that in 1970, and placed the Rimet Trophy in a bulletproof case at the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation in Rio de Janeiro. Permanence, however, lasted only 13 years. In 1983, four thieves broke into the confederation offices, beat up a guard, broke into the trophy case and made off with the prize. The four men were later apprehended and convicted, but the Jules Rimet Trophy has never been found. It likely was melted down for its valuable metals.
First issue of The Ring magazine
- The International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, N.Y., has a complete collection of Ring issues but private copies of the original magazine in good condition are extremely hard to find. It has been estimated a good first edition of The Ring could fetch more than $500. Legendary promoter Tex Rickard is on the original cover along Lord Lonsdale, a patron of the sweet science in Great Britain.
Baseball's most elusive score sheet
- According to baseball collector Peter J. Nash’s “Hauls of Shame” newsletter, the missing score sheet is No. 1 among baseball’s most wanted missing treasures. The sheet belonged to the New York Public Library’s A.G. Spalding Baseball Collection but has not been seen since 1973. When John Thorn went looking for the sheet in ‘88 he realized that pages of the manuscript were missing. Nash wrote, “Under close examination, it appeared that the score sheets were removed from the Knickerbocker Game Book with a sharp object.”
First football helmet
- The helmet worn by Navy’s Joe Reeves in 1893 is quite a prize, according to College Football Hall of Fame curator Kent Stephens. In an era when all players went bareheaded, legend has it a Navy team doctor warned Reeves that a kick to his head could result in “instant insanity or death.” Suitably alarmed, Reeves had a shoemaker create what is believed to be football’s first helmet. Later in life, Reeves became better known for integrating aircraft carriers into the U.S. Navy’s fleet.
Ed Thorp Trophy
- Yes, that’s Ed Thorp, not Jim Thorpe. Ed Thorp was a referee, rules aficionado and a supplier of NFL equipment in the league’s early days. When Thorp died in 1934 a large trophy was made in his honor to be given annually to the champion of the National Football League. As with hockey’s Stanley Cup, the Thorp Trophy would have the year’s champion inscribed on it and be passed around from year to year. But where is the original trophy? Although there are several duplicates, some speculate the Green Bay Packers took possession of the original Thorp after winning back-to-back NFL titles in 1961-62 and again in ’65. Another theory is that the Minnesota Vikings, the ‘69 NFL champ in the final season before the NFL-AFL merger, somehow misplaced the trophy. This has led to talk of Ed Thorp’s ghost condemning the Vikings to Super Bowl misery. Minnesota is 0-4 in Super Bowls and has not appeared in the big game for 40 years.
Vintage basketball equipment
- Any items associated with the first NCAA tournament in 1939 or the very first NBA game between the New York Knicks and Toronto Huskies on Nov. 1, 1946, carry high interest. Matt Zeysing, curator of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, says although the Hall does not have any Knicks or Huskies jerseys from that 1946-47 season, it would not surprise him if private collectors have gotten a hold of a few. And any basketballs or uniforms used in the first NCAA tournament in Evanston, Ill., certainly would draw interest from collectors, curators and historians of the game.
NFL’s first championship trophy
- The very first season of the National Football League was a bit of a free-for-all. In 1920 teams played different schedules, from as few as one game (the Muncie Flyers) to as many as 13 (the Decatur Staleys—later the Chicago Bears—and the Canton Bulldogs). It wasn’t until the following spring that league officials declared the 8-0-3 Akron Pros to be the ’20 champs over the 10-1-2 Staleys and the 9-1-1 Buffalo All-Americans. Akron featured Fritz Pollard, the first black quarterback and coach in professional football. Pollard and his teammates were awarded with a handsome cup made by Brunswick-Balke-Collender, a sporting goods manufacturer in Cincinnati. But within three years the Pros had become the Akron Indians, and by 1927 Akron was out of the National Football League. The Brunswick-Balke-Collender Cup? No one knows its whereabouts. Unlike the Ed Thorp Trophy and the Dauvray Cup, there are no known photos of what was described as a silver loving cup. Brunswick-Balke Collender truly is pro football’s Holy Grail.
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