Like many of you, I have learned so much from GUU over the years about game used jerseys. However, I haven't felt like I have contributed much back to the community. Well, I hope to rectify that with a Notre Dame jersey thread. I am by no means an "expert", but I have learned quite a bit over the years from research and interacting with numerous collectors. So I thought I would try to intermittently post information about Notre Dame jerseys to help out those interested in learning more.

For the first post, I am going to address one of the most repetitive errors I have seen with ND jerseys, which occurs on ebay about once every 3 to 4 months (at least). And that is the auction for a "Game Worn #3 Notre Dame jersey" made by champion. If you have ever watched for game worn Notre Dame jerseys, you no doubt have seen the following item for sale:




On first look, it may appear to be a legit 1994 Gamer worn by Ron Powlus. But it is not. The majority of the specs for this jersey are correct: solid cuffed sleeves, screened numbers (sewn numbers did NOT appear on game worn ND jerseys in the 1990s), dome on the neck line, spandex sides, and year sewn in the tagging (which did occur for 1994 jerseys, if the tags were not removed from jersey modification by the equipment manager). However, this is actually an authentic jersey that was sold to the public - interestingly, the retail authentics sold at stores did NOT include the 1994 year sewn in the tags; I suspect the jerseys sold directly by the school did include the year stitched, but I have never been able to formally confirm this. Anyway, here's the quick and easy reason that you can tell this is not a gamer - the front #3 is wrong. Powlus wore a jersey with a much wider #3, as opposed to the authentic jerseys that feature the skinny #3. Here's an example of the the wide #3:

So, the next time a "game worn #3 Notre Dame jersey" pops up on ebay, check out the width of the front #3 - chances are, it is an authentic.