Question on Chamberlain Jersey

[blades3]

Guys,

I have a Wilt jersey that arrives with a letter on Sixers letterhead from Harvey Pollack (director of statistical information), but I'm not completely comfortable with its authenticity based on the letter alone and I'm asking for your input. The letter reads, "This letter is to confirm that the 76ers jersey provided me by XXX is one that Wilt Chamberlain wore when he joined the 76ers in January of 1965. The team changed uniforms in the ensuing season to coincide with the team winning the NBA title in 1967. I was the team's director of public relations during Wilt's stay with the team."

Here are some images, whatever information is helpful. Thanks.

[blades3]

Re: Question on Chamberlain Jersey

[cohibasmoker]

Re: Question on Chamberlain Jersey

Guys,

I have a Wilt jersey that arrives with a letter on Sixers letterhead from Harvey Pollack (director of statistical information), but I'm not completely comfortable with its authenticity based on the letter alone and I'm asking for your input. The letter reads, "This letter is to confirm that the 76ers jersey provided me by XXX is one that Wilt Chamberlain wore when he joined the 76ers in January of 1965. The team changed uniforms in the ensuing season to coincide with the team winning the NBA title in 1967. I was the team's director of public relations during Wilt's stay with the team."

Here are some images, whatever information is helpful. Thanks.

Heck - if that was my jersey, I'd be REAL comfortable with it - it's awesome. Pearson was the Official Distributor for the Eagles and 76ers back in the day. And as a kid growing up in Philly, Harvey Pollack was always showing up at Little League games with free 76ers tickets for the kids and parents.

Jim

flaa1a@comcast.net

[sox83cubs84]

Re: Question on Chamberlain Jersey

Heck - if that was my jersey, I'd be REAL comfortable with it - it's awesome. Pearson was the Official Distributor for the Eagles and 76ers back in the day. And as a kid growing up in Philly, Harvey Pollack was always showing up at Little League games with free 76ers tickets for the kids and parents.

Jim

Gotta agree with Jim...it looks absolutely awesome!

Dave Miedema

flaa1a@comcast.net

*

[both-teams-played-hard]

Re: Question on Chamberlain Jersey

The lettering seems a bit fishy. I am NOT an expert, and I do not know if every jersey had lettering that was "hand-cut" by the manufacturer. Are the shoulder straps longer than they appear in your photos? The Wilson tags are from the Mid to late 50s (they very well could have used carry-overs). There was a guy who passed off several 70s Sixers Erving jerseys, that were complete forgeries (from hand-cut lettering to photo-copied on cloth tags.) This is also a 1963-64 Sixers jersey.
Can you reveal where this jersey was purchased?
The shoulder straps seem a bit short.
A Wilt Chamberlain jersey should not be assumed real, no matter what an LOA says.

Some slight differences:

[otismalibu]

Re: Question on Chamberlain Jersey

Looks like a M&N swing and a miss. Hard to tell based on photos on a computer, but is that jersey pretty fresh looking? Fresher than the tags? Shouldn't it be shrunk up to almost nothing by now?

W/o even looking at the lettering...which does not match, the cut of those two jerseys are night and day.

Check out Getty #97648275

Cagers were sporting the spaghetti straps back then.

After 2 minutes of research, my initial reaction would be - sketchy jersey.

Unless I was running it in my own auction - then it would grade out to O-10!

Like BTPH, I'm no expert. I just browse photos. They're substantially more honest than many in the hobby.

[both-teams-played-hard]

Re: Question on Chamberlain Jersey

[tilley72]

Re: Question on Chamberlain Jersey

I'm fairly certain that the jersey you are holding was rejected by MEARS, not once, but twice. I would contact them for more information/confirmation.

-Andrew

[blades3]

Re: Question on Chamberlain Jersey

The jersey definitely doesn't look fresh. It looks worn to death and old. The whole reason I don't feel comfortable with it is because I can't find a photo match, like you guys have pointed out. I will contact Troy at MEARS about it also. The straps look fine to me (length) and here's a better image of them.

[otismalibu]

Re: Question on Chamberlain Jersey

Al got an ID tag in his.

http://www.americanmemorabilia.com/Auction_Item.asp?auction_id=53247

[both-teams-played-hard]

Re: Question on Chamberlain Jersey

Al got an ID tag in his.

http://www.americanmemorabilia.com/A...ction_id=53247

That link helps. I don't believe Wilson even made Sixers jerseys from that season.

Blades
I would think a "photo-match" would be near impossible. There are numerous "style-matches" on Getty (although with a different font as previously mentioned).
The photo of the shoulder straps that you posted is not consistent with any 50s or 60s durene hoop jersey or any Sixers jersey from the 63-64 season.

[otismalibu]

Re: Question on Chamberlain Jersey

I don't believe Wilson even made Sixers jerseys from that season.

Don't some older hoops jersey have only Pearson tags? Did Pearson manufacture those jerseys?

Doc era (except for his final season) 76ers jerseys were made by Wilson, but would have the Pearson tag if Pearson did the numbers/letters. I was told that jerseys going directly from Wilson to the 76ers (already attributed to players) only had the Wilson tag. Not sure if that's accurate or not.

[otismalibu]

Re: Question on Chamberlain Jersey

And don't forget to check the tagging closely.

[cohibasmoker]

Re: Question on Chamberlain Jersey

Going up in Philly, I had the pleasure of going into Pearson Sporting Goods more times than I can remember. Our little league uniforms came from Pearsons as did our baseball gloves, sneakers, caps, baseballs and basketballs.

Back in the day, there were Mom and Pop stores throughout the City but Pearson's was one of the biggest stores around. When you walked into the store, on the left hand side, they had a gigantic wooden board that displayed all of the jerseys they made for the various Philadelphia Professional, college and semi-pro teams. Being a kid, I was just amazed at the Flyers, 76ers, Eagles, Firebirds, Blazers and Big 5 team jerseys that were displayed on the wall.

Every now and again, the store would sell jerseys (I specifically remember seeing 76ers jerseys) that were returned from the teams and yes, they did have a place in the back that had a whole slew of sewing machines.

Jim

flaa1a@comcast.net

[both-teams-played-hard]

Re: Question on Chamberlain Jersey

Jim
From my research, Pearson distributed uniforms made by Wilson, Spanjian, Coane and others. I realize that they applied names, numbers and crests. Do you have knowledge that they actually produced the uniforms and jerseys?

I am using this picture of 63-64 Sixers shorts tagging as my example. No other manufacturer's tag is present. The "36" size flag tag seems like it may be from another maker...but I am not sure. This kinda looks like the font that Coane used for size tags. No you know when Pearson moved from 1010 to 1128 Chestnut. That would definitely help date certain tagging?