Vintage Authentics Forrest Blue 49ers jersey Mears A8

[lon lewis]

Regarding the VA auction football lot # 242, I have been asked on numerous occasions what my thoughts were concerning this jersey. For what it's worth, here goes.

Let's put aside for the moment that the 49ers weren't a Sand Knit team and look at the jersey itself and the grading process.

In 1974, the 49ers had 2 differing "styles" of jersey One was the standard for the time, solid knit body with the numbers sewn on the front, back and sleeves. The NOB was on a plate that ran fully across the shoulder area. The letters were 3" "full block" ( with serif, or feet as some refer to them) and were sewn to the plate. The second "style" ( which was used for most of the games) had a solid knit body of a lighter knit and had screened on numbers on the front back and sleeves. These numbers were of the "plain block" variety ( no serif or feet) The NOB was on a full lenght plate and the letters were "full block"

In 1973, The 49ers had 2 differing "styles of jersey Once again the standard knit body with every thing sewn on. The second "style" was a "warm weather" jersey consisting of a mesh body NO sleeve stripes or sleeve #'s with sewn on front and back numbers. As noted the NOB was on a full length plate that featured "full block" letters.

1971- 1972 the 49ers had the usual Knit body jerseys with everything sewn on.

When you compare the above to what's offered as a '73-4 Sand Knit jersey you'll note that this jersey doesn't in any way compare to what the 49ers wore. The front and back numbers have the wrong font the sleeve numbers are too small (4" vs 5") the Nob letters are "plain block" the jersey body is all mesh including what appears to be a single ply shoulder area opposed to the double ply normally used, the sleeve stripes are wider and spaced further apart ect, ect, ect.

The accompaning Mears worksheet # 309911 dated 4/13/09 contains the following among other things
Numbering, number styling: heat seal (actually it's screened on)
Jersey matches examplars: Yes --exactly what exemplars are they referring to since this is from a company that didn't supply the 49ers?
Style Photo match: Sports card 1973 Topps # 294 This card is actually of someone named Jim Skaggs- Forrest Blues' card in '73 is # 70 and features him in a road jersey.
Wear Characteristics evident use: Light
Wear consistent with player and position: yes - Blue was the 49ers center who played his home games on astro turf you'd think that ther would be a at least a few abrasions to the jersey.

Grading break down: Base grade: 10 ( final grade A8)
-1 for missing size tag
-1 for for light wear

This appears to be yet another instance where an authenticator believed more in the tagging than in actual research. What we have here is a jersey that has the wrong font for the front and back numbers, ( not to mention the wrong material) sleeve numbers that are the wrong font and size, the NOB that is the wrong font and a few other problems that were prerviously mentioned.

The 1st photo is 1974 vs Rams @ Candlestick note the Numbers and NOB. the second photo ( lower left) is from 1973, the 3rd photo ( lower right) is from 1972. None of them match the VA jersey. If the tagging is all that counts then there's a whole bunch of A10's in the McAuliffe section of this forum.

[lon lewis]

Photos didn't load under previous thread

[Marichal27]

Another great grading job by MEARS. One of my all time favorites next to Lou!

[RKGIBSON]

Sand Knit? A8? Wrong manufacturer. A0 is the correct grade. MEARS grade on this job, F. Advice, learn who supplied the teams.

Roger

[both-teams-played-hard]

Good work, Lon.
Have the Niners jerseys ever been made by anyone other than Wilson? Aside from the modern era...

[G1X]

Lon,

Great job as always.

Nothing to do with this particular jersey or 49ers jerseys in general, but since mesh Sand Knit jerseys and single-ply mesh shoulders were brought into the discussion, I wanted to clarify that when Sand Knit first started making mesh jerseys, the shoulders were typically single ply. This can be seen on many NFL jerseys from that era as well as those teams in the WFL that used Sand Knit (7 of the 12 WFL teams used Sand Knit in 1974).

Hope this information is useful for those who collect NFL and WFL jerseys from that era. I can post a few examples if anyone is interested.

Mark Hayne
Gridiron Exchange
gixc@verizon.net

Always looking for Atlanta Falcons and WFL Jerseys

[RKGIBSON]

Lon can give particulars on pre-season and post season use, but the 49er's used Wilson from the start till sometime in '85 or '86 when they went to Russell. They changed back to Wilson in 1990. Then went to Reebok in 1996, then Adidas in 2000.

Mark, the Sand Knit info is useful as I find most of your post. Thanks.

Roger