Sport Rewards and Medals

See also : Sport II  Origins of sports  Olympic Games  Medal and decoration  Baseball bat  Babe Ruth
Chronology : 1896

1896 The English Trophy
2020 SOLD for £ 760K including premium

The Football Association (FA) was founded in 1863 by eleven English clubs who wanted to standardize the rules and prohibit holding the ball in the hand. The founders are quickly joined by other clubs and it becomes tempting to organize a competition. The easiest is to proceed by direct elimination : the FA Challenge Cup is created for the season 1871-72.

This competition is symbolized by a trophy which is entrusted to the winning club until the final of the following year. This heavy piece of silverware to be lifted by two large handles goes from club to club. It was stolen in September 1895. Despite a promised reward of £ 10, it was not found. Much later, a counterfeiter will declare without convincing proof that he had stolen it in order to melt it.

A new trophy was therefore needed for 1896. It was made by a Birmingham silversmith as an exact replica of the lost piece of which a cast had been preserved. It is 41 cm high, 51 cm overall with the plinth, and its cover is decorated with a footballer.

A design change is decided in 1910 with the intention of protecting a new model by copyright. The obsolete trophy, which bears the list of winning clubs from 1872 to 1910 spread over several cartouches, is presented to FA President Lord Kinnaird, a champion who had been a member of its council since 1868.

In the direct descent from the Lord, the cup was sold for £ 480K including premium by Christie's on May 19, 2005, lot 100. It is estimated £ 700K for sale by Bonhams in London on September 29, lot 6.

​1896 Just like in Olympia
2012 SOLD 540 K£ including premium

In 1896, the first major international multi-sport festival takes place in Athens. It takes as reference the games of ancient Greece. Designed and organized by Coubertin, the modern Olympic Games were born.

Two unprecedented events provide a link with antiquity and exacerbate the Greek patriotism : the discus throw (won by an American) and the marathon running.

Thirteen Greeks and four foreigners have dared to compete in this endurance race. The people and the king welcomed with an extraordinary burst of joy the victory of Spyridon Louis, a humble water carrier from the Athens suburb. This modern Cincinnatus returned to his farm after his feat.

The silver cup, 15 cm high, which was awarded to Spyridon Louis had been kept by his family. It is estimated £ 120K, for sale by Christie's in South Kensington on April 18.

Here is the link to the catalogue.

POST SALE COMMENT

As with any one-of-its-kind piece, the price of this cup was not predictable. It was sold £ 540K including premium. It is an excellent result, announced by Christie's on Twitter as an Olympic (memorabilia) record.

1923 Babe Ruth's Bat
2004 SOLD for $ 1.26M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2019 before the auction of another bat by Heritage (see below)

The Black Sox Scandal could have permanently tarnished the reputation of America's favorite sport. This case of faked baseball matches finds its epilogue in 1921 by a public trial and the ban for life of the players at fault.

In the same year Christy Walsh invents two lucrative jobs. He manages a syndicate of ghost writers who prepare texts to be endorsed by baseball personalities and approach the top players including Babe Ruth for becoming their business agent.

We must encourage young people to be reconciled with baseball. Following an initiative of the Los Angeles Evening Herald, Walsh and Ruth decide in 1923 that for three consecutive seasons the bat of the first home run of the champion will be inscribed and signed by him and given to the winner of a baseball contest organized for Californian students.

In 1923 Ruth scores his first homer on April 18 during the inauguration of the Yankee Stadium. It was impossible to imagine a more prestigious event. The bat used for this feat is awarded on June 7 by the newspaper to a young player named Victor Orsatti. It was sold on December 13, 2004 by Sotheby's for $ 1.26M including premium, a huge price for a sports memorabilia at that time.

In 1924 Ruth records his first homer on April 20 in Washington DC. His bat is awarded as promised to the winner of the Californian contest, Phil Grossman. It passed at Heritage on February 23, 2019.

​1923 The Watch of the Yankees
2014 SOLD 720 K$ including premium

In 1923, the New York Yankees baseball team is galvanized by their new stadium. The first bat used during the inauguration on April 18 by their star player Babe Ruth was sold by Sotheby's in December 2004 for $ 1.26 million including premium, a very high price at that time for a sport memorabilia.

The Yankees then got the title of World's Champions. To commemorate this victory, Gruen offered watches to the officials and all the players of the club. The watch presented to Babe Ruth has just resurfaced. It is estimated $ 750K, for sale by Heritage in New York on February 22, lot 80030 in the catalog.

This pocket watch with a pentagonal shape is engraved on the back with a baseball scene and inscriptions addressing the event.

This series of watches, most of which have disappeared, is the only trophy offered for this opportunity and has the same sporting importance as a gold medal at the Olympics. Babe Ruth understood the importance of this piece which he kept until the final phase of his illness a quarter century later. He then made engraved on the watch the name of the friend to whom he forwarded this sign of his glory.

For Gruen, of course, it was also a promotional act. The US-Swiss brand patented in 1922 this unusual shape of watches in an effort to capture the promising market of the wristwatch. For the same reason, their watches became ultra-flat, as indicated by the "VeriThin" movement that equips the copies presented to the Yankees.

​1927 The Ring of the Champion
2017 SOLD for $ 2.1M including premium

The championship ring is a tradition in American team sports. This reward is not comparable to a sports medal but to the celebration and commemoration of a victory. It is generally offered by the winning club of a major championship without limit of quantity : the players receive it but also the managers, the coaches, the sponsors.

This tradition gradually took hold in the 1920s in Major League Baseball for the benefit of the winning team of the World Series. The first rings linked to the MLB were awarded in 1922 to the New York Giants.

In 1923 when the New York Yankees won the World Series the memory offered to them was not a ring but a pocket watch. The watch of Babe Ruth was sold for $ 720K including premium by Heritage on February 22, 2014.

The next victory of the Yankees in the World Series was in 1927. It was also a sporting feat : they had won all four games against the Pittsburgh Pirates. That year as a whole was exceptional for Babe Ruth who scored 60 home runs in this single season, a record in the MLB competitions.

The Yankees have now joined the new tradition. The World Series ring in 14K yellow gold presented to Babe Ruth in 1927 is listed as lot 1 in the online sale organized by Lelands closing on June 30. A slight chip to the diamond is announced. Here is the link to Lelands.com.

The price of a ring at auction depends on the prestige of the sporting achievement that has been rewarded. When the basketball player 'Dr J' Erving sold his collection in November 2011 by SCP Auctions, his 1974 ABA championship ring was sold for $ 460K while the best of his other rings did not reach $ 250K.

​1936 Olympic Gold for Jesse Owens
2013 SOLD 1.47 M$ including premium

The success of Jesse Owens at the Berlin Olympics in 1936 was not a surprise. Technically, he was one of the best sprinters of all time by a remarkable optimization of movement and an amazing sacrifice of pain during effort.

He won four prestigious events : 100 meters, 200 meters, long jump and within 4 x 100 meters team. This grandson of slaves who was born in Alabama became a hero for the whole African-American community and is still now one of the most popular symbols of the Nazi abuse.

On this last point, the reality is surprising. Hitler was willing to admit that Negroes had morphologic features that enabled them to win. Earlier in these games, the Chancellor had only congratulated German athletes. His advisers made ​​him understand that it was a blunder and he therefore decided to stop contacting any winner.

Owens himself declared that Hitler had not been hostile to him. On the opposite, the champion sharply criticized the racial segregation in his own country, which will still go further for 32 years before being abolished.

One of the four gold medals of Jesse Owens is for sale by SCP Auctions. The online auction will close on December 7. It is not known which of his four wins is related to this award. His other three medals are not localized.

I invite you to play the video commented by Darren Rovell for the ESPN specialized sport channel.

POST SALE COMMENT

Very good result for this medal that was outstanding for both sporting feat and political significance: $ 1.47 million including premium.

1936 The Stride of Jesse Owens
2019 SOLD for $ 600K including premium

Jesse Owens is passionate about running. At the age of 15, he meets Charley Paddock, Olympic champion in 100 metres in Antwerp in 1920. Paddock compensated for an ordinary morphology by an innovative race strategy, finishing the sprint with a jump on the rope.

Owens also does not have an exceptional build. He is developing a fast stride with a minimal foot contact on the track. This innovation is very effective for sprint, long jump and hurdling. He reaches the top level in May 1935, winning four events in 45 minutes, during which he breaks or equals six world records.

He is obviously qualified for the Berlin Olympics in 1936. At first the challenge is for the sport. The Olympic Games are the best place to confirm that he is the fastest man in the world. The public is waiting for an exploit from him.

The mental state of Jesse Owens in competition is exceptional. His records of 1935 were obtained despite a very painful back following an accidental fall. In Berlin, he manages similarly to ignore the psychological pressure. He wins without difficulty four gold medals : 100 metre dash, long jump, 200 metres and 4 x 100 metre relay.

Off the track, he is an African-American at a time of severe racial discrimination. The amateurish doctrine in sport is ruthless. Upon his return from the Berlin Games, he seeks financial compensation and is excluded from all amateur events. His sports career is over.

His participation in the Berlin Games was exemplary. It was politically exploited, based on the fact that Hitler was expecting an Aryan win in the major events which he personally attended. Unlike Joe Louis or Jackie Robinson, Jesse Owens will not find a leading stance against racism, rejecting and afterward supporting the black power salute of Smith and Carlos at the 1968 Olympics.

At the time of the Berlin Games, the medals of the winners are struck in a unique model, with no identification of the sport and of course of the name of the laureate. The gold medals are in silver plated gold. Replicas were also released for some laudable uses. The authentication of a Berlin Games medal requires an impeccable provenance and an analysis by a specialized expert.

Two medals of Jesse Owens have been confirmed as genuine by James Greensfelder, author of a reference guide to Olympic medals. One of them, presented by the champion to tap dancer Bojangles, was sold for $ 1.47M including premium by SCP Auctions on December 7, 2013.

Another one will be sold as lot 1 by Goldin in an online auction that ends on December 7, 2019. It had been gifted by Owens to a weightlifter, as a reward for helping him to make speeches in public meetings in the 1950s and 1960s.

​1948 Emotion in the Stadium
2014 SOLD 650 K$ including premium

The victory of the New York Yankees against the Red Sox on April 18, 1923 was not an ordinary event. The New York team was opening their Yankee Stadium. This is the great day of Babe Ruth who makes a flawless game. He is 28 years old.

The 25th anniversary of the stadium is celebrated in a big feast involving 50,000 spectators on 13 June 1948. The hero is once again Babe Ruth but the circumstances are tragic.

Ailing in his terminal illness, Ruth has a great difficulty for walking and talking. He participates in the ceremony in his jersey number 3, a numeral that will not be reused by the Yankees in their tradition to so honor their greatest players. He uses his bat as a walking stick. The ovation is formidable.

The Yankees offer to Ruth a gold pocket watch of Longines brand, engraved with a vibrant tribute to the champion : "Babe Ruth - Silver Anniversary - 1923-1948 Yankee Stadium - The House That Ruth Built".

The family was very sensitive to this presentation and kept this watch. It is now for sale on May 17 by SCP Auctions online from California. The page shared by Auction Report embeds a video produced by Mint Condition. The price is difficult to predict.

POST SALE COMMENT

The last reward presented to Babe Ruth was sold for $ 650K including premium.

1956 Olympic Gold Medal of Bill Russell
2021 SOLD for $ 590K by Hunt

The victory of the US team at the Melbourne Olympic Games in 1956 was overwhelming. They won their eight games with an unsurpassed average margin in Olympic basketball. The victory by 85-55 against the Soviets was specially acclaimed in the context of the Cold War.

The team leader was the 22 year old central pivot Bill Russell.who had just won two consecutive NCAA university championships with the San Francisco Dons. The African American had to withstand the period typical humiliating racism during the training phase in the USA.

The 2.08 m tall with a 2.24 m wingspan athlete was also skilled in track and field. He previously achieved 2.06 m in high jump and was able to run 400 m in less than 50 seconds.

He had already signed an NBA contract with the Boston Celtics but had postponed the beginning of his professional career for competing in the Olympic Games which were still strictly accessible to amateurs.

The gold medal awarded in Melbourne to Bill Russell was sold for $ 590K by Hunt on December 10, 2021, lot 276a.

1957 Bill Russell NBA Championship Ring
2021 SOLD for $ 705K by Hunt

Bill Russell was hired by the Boston Celtics as an NBA rookie in 1956. It was a good choice. Russell is arguably the most effective defense player in NBA history, with an unprecedentedly intense game style. With him as defense pivot, the Celtics won their eleven first NBA titles, including a remarkable suite of eight consecutive titles from 1959 to 1966.

On April 13, 1957, the Celtics won the decisive last game of the NBA Finals of his rookie year by a very tight 125-123 against the St. Louis Hawks, after two overtimes. Russell had scored 32 rebounds in that game.

40 seconds before the end of the regular time, the very speedy Russell had saved that match for the Celtics by a personal feat known as the Coleman Play. Running from his own baseline against the Hawks forward who had received a pass at mid-court, he had managed to block the shot. 

The NBA championship ring awarded to Bill Russell in 1957 was sold for $ 705K by Hunt on December 10, 2021, lot 84.

Bill Russell made his whole NBA career with the Celtics. In 1969 for his last season, he became the first ever player to win eleven championships in a North American league. This record has been only tied once, by Henri Richard in the NHL in 1973. His 1969 NBA championship ring was sold for $ 560K by Hunt in the same sale as above, lot 279.