When football diehards get together to debate the greatest gridiron battles, there are thousands of regular and post-season games worth mentioning, many with colorful nicknames like "The Heidi Game," "The Ice Bowl," "The Hail Mary Game" and "The Immaculate Reception." But 44 years after Alan Ameche rumbled into the end zone to end the first overtime Championship Game in the then 38-year history of the NFL, the December 28, 1958 nail-biter between the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants is widely regarded as the greatest of them all.
Johnny Unitas led his Colts down the field with two masterful drives—the first set up a game-tying field goal to send the game into OT, and the second was the 13-play, 80-yard drive that brought the Colts victory. In the game's strangest turn of events, 64,000 fans piled into Yankee Stadium for the Championship Game, which meant there were still 6,000 empty seats. As a result, the game was blacked-out in the New York area, and millions of fans only saw Ameche that night on the Ed Sullivan Show! By now, though, most of these fans, as well as the legions of NFL fans too young to remember the game played live, have surely seen the game in full on TV. And, for those that haven't, the select highlight reel images that have been indelibly etched in every fan's mind will have to suffice.
Presented here is one of the more exceptional mementos from that immortal Colts season: A Spalding Eddie LeBaron signature-model football signed by Johnny Unitas, Art Donovan, Gino Marchetti, Lenny Moore, Jim Parker, Raymond Berry, Alan Ameche, Steve Myra, Bill Pellington, Fuzzy Thurston, Milt Davis, Ray Brown, Jack Call, Lenny Lyles, George Shaw, Bert Rechichar, Buzz Nutter, L.G. Dupree, George Preas, Dick Szymanski, Sherman Plunket, Art Spinney, Big Daddy Lipscomb and Leo Sanford. Condition is bright EX/MT with signatures averaging "8-9" in strength and contrasting beautifully off the white surface. An accompanying 2012 LOA from Baltimore resident Larry Wise reads, "I was given the 1958 Colt Autographed football by Mrs. Dottie Mayer whose husband Dr. Erwin Mayer was the team physician for the Baltimore Colts. She told me he was given the ball by John Unitas. She also told me that her husband attended to Gino Marchetti when he was injured in the championship game and remained lifelong friends. This happened approximately 12 years ago. I have had the ball in my possession ever since."
Includes a full LOA from JSA.
Pre-certified by PSA/DNA.