The National Sports Collectors Convention (https://nsccshow.com) is an annual summer gathering of collectors/dealers who have a passion for trading cards, autographs, and any other kind of memorabilia that you can think of. First formed in 1980, it is now the premier collectibles industry event that attracts a majority of the licensing agencies from around the professional sports world. The 42nd “National” will be held during the final week of July at the Atlantic City Convention Center, and next summer it will head back to the Midwest in Chicago. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel is unable to attend this year’s event in person so instead he will be interviewing as many of the dealers who will be there as possible. We commence our coverage with Les Wolff and his magnificent college basketball merchandise.
1. George Mikan autographed black and white photo: Mikan was the 1st dominant college basketball center even before the days of Bill Russell/Wilt Chamberlain, he was a 2-time national POY/3-time All-American at DePaul, he led his team to the 1945 NIT title en route to being named NIT MVP while also leading the nation in scoring that year with 23.9 PPG, this item is priced at $150
2. Bill Bradley autographed color photo: this dates from a Princeton-Syracuse game around 1963/1964, you can see Bradley’s autograph on the sock of his Syracuse defender, Bradley wore #42 in honor of his childhood hero Dick Kazmaier (who wore #42 while winning the 1951 Heisman Trophy at Princeton), he was a 2-time All-American/1965 national POY who scored an NCAA tourney-record 58 PTS in a win over Wichita State in the 1965 consolation game en route to being 1 of the rare players named tourney MOP despite not winning the title, he also won the 1965 Sullivan Award as the best amateur athlete in the US, he later joined the Knicks (who would not have won a pair of titles in 1970/1973 without his perimeter shooting), this item is priced at $100
3. Coach Lou Carnesecca autographed color photo: the longtime St. John’s coach had a record of 526-200 over his 24 seasons and reached the postseason every single year including the 1985 Final 4, he was a 2-time national COY and a nice guy who is full of fun stories, and for you fashionistas who were wondering: yes, he still has all of his famous sweaters, this item is priced at $50
4. Jayson Tatum autographed color artwork: he only played 1 season of college at Duke but put up some great numbers on both ends of the court (16.8 PPG/7.3 RPG/1.3 SPG/1.1 BPG) in 2016-17, he also scored 19 PTS in a 6-PT win over Notre Dame in the 2017 ACC tourney title game and was named to the ACC All-Freshman team, last month he helped lead the Celtics to the NBA Finals and is already 1 of the best players in the league, this item is priced at $150
5. Bill Walton autographed Sports Illustrated cover from 3/6/72: this turned out to be quite a month for the young UCLA sophomore, 4 days after this issue became available he led the Bruins to a win at USC to finish 26-0 in his 1st year on the varsity, then won 4 more games in the NCAA tourney to clinch the title 19 days after becoming a cover model and be named tourney MOP, the Bruins dominated that season with a perfect 30-0 record and an average winning margin of 30+ PPG, he averaged 21.1 PPG/15.5 RPG that season while shooting 64 FG% and was named 1st-team All-American, Les is a big UCLA fan and got this magazine autographed at the team hotel during Walton’s 1st trip to New York City, Walton snuck in/out of the side entrance because he was very shy and his handwriting was very tiny, this item is priced at $100
If you want to check out Les’ other merchandise you can go to his website: www.leswolffsportsllc.com
He is also happy to chat via email (lwolff1823@aol.com) or phone (516-933-7787).