Everything Detroit Lions has popped in value, from tickets to parking to memorabilia, including a rare piece of championship gear that went up for auction.
It’s hard to tell when an auction is mainly held online, but there was a lot of pre-auction action on Thursday (Jan. 18).
People wondered what the item was and whether it was worth putting in the family collection.
The unique memorabilia was a Lions 1957 autographed football.
The signatures were complex to make out, but three names were legible, including wide receiver Jerry Reichow, No. 80, No. 52, center Frank Gatski and quarterback No. 18 Tobin Rote.
The 1957 Lions won the National Football League championship long before they came up with the Super Bowl.
It was so long ago that you could watch players smoking cigarettes in the Briggs Field locker room celebration.
The unique memorabilia is not a game ball. It’s merely a football with the Lions signatures.
Robert DuMouchelle says the signatures are authenticated.
“The signatures were collected by a Western Union delivery man, Victor Peggs Sr,” said DuMouchelle.
Tasked with delivering packages to each Lions player, he had the presence of mind to hold it out with each doorknock.
“So that year, he went around with the football as he was delivering all of their packages, and he was having them sign the football,” DuMouchelle said.
Peggs passed the ball to his son, and then again, it went to the next generation.
Dwight Oscar took the $4,000 bid from an anonymous bidder.
Rod Meloni: “Were you surprised it went for that?”
Oscar: “Yeah, more or less. I thought it would be more; a lot of people were asking about it and the condition of it, yeah.”
The anonymous bidder, Local 4 was told was a woman from Detroit.
