For the first time in long time, the New York Knicks have made the NBA playoffs in back-to-back seasons. The team’s history dates back more than 75 years but finding game-worn memorabilia from the earliest days of the franchise is a tall order.
Starting next week, though, collectors will have a chance to bid on two sets of game uniforms from members of the 1951-52 squad that reached the NBA Finals.
Heritage Auctions is offering a home jersey and trunks from center Connie Simmons, a jersey from forward George Kaftan and matching shorts tied to use by a rookie card named Al McGuire, who’d go on to bigger fame as a college basketball coach. They’re part of the company’s Spring Sports Catalog Auction.
The sports memorabilia world isn’t exactly loaded with game-worn gear from the NBA’s earliest days so it’s always interesting when such items do emerge.
The two uniforms, made by Thorp Sporting Goods on 5th Avenue, were originally obtained directly from the team by Danny Jacobs, a ball boy at the time.
Photos of Jacobs with head coach Joe Lapchick and Hall of Famers Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton and Harry “The Horse” Gallatin are included. Both were taken in February 1952 at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York. Copies of a letter from Knicks’ business manager Matt Goldner to Jacobs about returning as a ball boy for the 1951-52 season are also included.
Kaftan was a two-time All-American, NCAA champion and Final Four Most Outstanding Player at Holy Cross before joining the Knicks. He spent five seasons in the NBA.
Simmons played ten seasons in the NBA, winning a title with the 1948 Baltimore. His white #18 jersey and trunks make up one lot while the blue #17 of Kaftan and the trunks used by McGuire are together in the other lot.
The 1951-52 Knicks were the first team to force a Game 7 after going down 3-0 in a playoff series when they rallied against George Mikan and the Minneapolis Lakers, before dropping the deciding game.
Each uniform set is expected to sell for $10,000 or more when the auction ends next month.
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