I debated on posting this as I wanted to give the auction house time to take action on this lot but I have just been informed that they will not be pulling this item out of the auction so I wanted to make sure that people know the truth. The item in question is Lot # 696 in the current Mastro Auction. It is described as a Late 1970’s University of Louisville Darrell Griffith Game Used Jersey.
When I first saw this auction title I got real excited as I am a huge Louisville Cardinal fan. Upon seeing the pictures of the jersey I knew something just didn’t seem right. I poured through the many U of L items that I have and I just could not find a picture of Griffith or anyone from that time period in a jersey like that. I knew that from the early 1970’s to the early 1980’s that the Louisville Cardinals wore jerseys with black numbering and lettering. I have several pictures of Griffith from the 1978-79 and 1979-80 seasons wearing a red away jersey with black lettering and not the white like in the auction. I was quite sure that U of L didn’t just change to white letters and numbering just for the 1976-77 and 1977-78 seasons and go back to the black but I had no proof. I also knew it couldn’t be from the 1980’s as they didn’t switch to the white letters until around 1983 or 1984 and the University of Louisville retired Griffith’s number right after they won the NCAA Championship in 1980.
I contacted two different Mastro employees (do not want to name names) on October 11th and told them of my concerns and even emailed pictures of Griffith to show of what I was talking about. The pictures I sent were from the 1978-79 and 1979-80 seasons and proved that they did not wear that type of jersey those seasons. I was told that they would get with Lou Lampson who signed off on the jersey and discuss it with him. The Mastro employee responded a couple of days later and stated that Lou said the jersey must be from his freshman or sophomore year due to the dating of the Rawlings tagging on the jersey, but he didn’t have any pictures to document it.
I decided to dig a little deeper and last Friday I contacted a person that works in the University of Louisville Athletic Department. This person has worked there for 30 years so I knew she would be able to find out for sure for me. I told her of my concerns and sent her pictures of the jersey in the auction. She emailed me back less than an hour later and it just so happened to be that Darrell Griffith was in the Cardinals Athletic offices and she showed him the pictures of the jersey. I was right, not only was the color of the numbering and lettering wrong but the jersey material itself was wrong. The jersey in the auction is mesh and the Cardinals didn’t even wear mesh, since they wore knit jerseys during that time frame. That information came straight from Darrell Griffith.
I immediately called up to the Mastro office and was told to email Lou Lampson of my findings. I forward all of my emails and responses from U of L to Lou and copied the Mastro employees. I was told again that they would have to wait to see the response from Lou Lampson before they could take action.
I was curious so I looked up the auction today and was surprised to see the item still in the auction. I called them up and was told that Lou is still sticking to his belief that the jersey is authentic due to the Rawlings tagging and that they would not be pulling the auction. I was floored and could not believe that they are taking the word of an authenticator over the person that actually wore the jersey.
I have always held Mastro Auctions in high regard but this just burns me up. This is somewhat a low dollar item compared to most items in their auctions. It’s scary to think on how they handled this one on what they do on the authentication on the real high dollar items. I also see that Lou Lampson puts no effort what so ever in trying to authenticate a jersey. This one wasn’t even close as he couldn’t even get the material the jersey was made of right. I will never trust anything that was signed off by Lou Lampson. If he would have put a fraction of the time researching it like I did he would have found it was a fake. I still can’t believe that well known auction houses still use this guy to authenticate items. The sports collectible industry has really went to crap.
http://www.mastronet.com/index.cfm?a...7&CurrentRow=1
Sorry this is so long but I had to put it in detail.
Todd
When I first saw this auction title I got real excited as I am a huge Louisville Cardinal fan. Upon seeing the pictures of the jersey I knew something just didn’t seem right. I poured through the many U of L items that I have and I just could not find a picture of Griffith or anyone from that time period in a jersey like that. I knew that from the early 1970’s to the early 1980’s that the Louisville Cardinals wore jerseys with black numbering and lettering. I have several pictures of Griffith from the 1978-79 and 1979-80 seasons wearing a red away jersey with black lettering and not the white like in the auction. I was quite sure that U of L didn’t just change to white letters and numbering just for the 1976-77 and 1977-78 seasons and go back to the black but I had no proof. I also knew it couldn’t be from the 1980’s as they didn’t switch to the white letters until around 1983 or 1984 and the University of Louisville retired Griffith’s number right after they won the NCAA Championship in 1980.
I contacted two different Mastro employees (do not want to name names) on October 11th and told them of my concerns and even emailed pictures of Griffith to show of what I was talking about. The pictures I sent were from the 1978-79 and 1979-80 seasons and proved that they did not wear that type of jersey those seasons. I was told that they would get with Lou Lampson who signed off on the jersey and discuss it with him. The Mastro employee responded a couple of days later and stated that Lou said the jersey must be from his freshman or sophomore year due to the dating of the Rawlings tagging on the jersey, but he didn’t have any pictures to document it.
I decided to dig a little deeper and last Friday I contacted a person that works in the University of Louisville Athletic Department. This person has worked there for 30 years so I knew she would be able to find out for sure for me. I told her of my concerns and sent her pictures of the jersey in the auction. She emailed me back less than an hour later and it just so happened to be that Darrell Griffith was in the Cardinals Athletic offices and she showed him the pictures of the jersey. I was right, not only was the color of the numbering and lettering wrong but the jersey material itself was wrong. The jersey in the auction is mesh and the Cardinals didn’t even wear mesh, since they wore knit jerseys during that time frame. That information came straight from Darrell Griffith.
I immediately called up to the Mastro office and was told to email Lou Lampson of my findings. I forward all of my emails and responses from U of L to Lou and copied the Mastro employees. I was told again that they would have to wait to see the response from Lou Lampson before they could take action.
I was curious so I looked up the auction today and was surprised to see the item still in the auction. I called them up and was told that Lou is still sticking to his belief that the jersey is authentic due to the Rawlings tagging and that they would not be pulling the auction. I was floored and could not believe that they are taking the word of an authenticator over the person that actually wore the jersey.
I have always held Mastro Auctions in high regard but this just burns me up. This is somewhat a low dollar item compared to most items in their auctions. It’s scary to think on how they handled this one on what they do on the authentication on the real high dollar items. I also see that Lou Lampson puts no effort what so ever in trying to authenticate a jersey. This one wasn’t even close as he couldn’t even get the material the jersey was made of right. I will never trust anything that was signed off by Lou Lampson. If he would have put a fraction of the time researching it like I did he would have found it was a fake. I still can’t believe that well known auction houses still use this guy to authenticate items. The sports collectible industry has really went to crap.
http://www.mastronet.com/index.cfm?a...7&CurrentRow=1
Sorry this is so long but I had to put it in detail.
Todd
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