Rare example of a 1973 Topps #130 Pete Maravich cleanly signed “Pistol Pete” in bold blue Sharpie, with the additional inscription from Pete of bible verse ROM. 6:23. The autograph has received a perfect 10 grade from Beckett! The card exhibits sharp corners, strong colors, and the only flaw is that it is OC. A signed card from The Pistol is something you almost never see in the hobby. As a second team NBA All-Star, Pete's NBA career was taking off at this time, and on this card Pete is shown on the dribble in his Atlanta Hawks road uniform at Madison Square Garden.
Provenance: It was in the suburbs of Dayton, Ohio, in the late 1960s that an 8-year-old boy named Tim Gallagher began what would turn into a lifelong pursuit to acquire as many autographs of famous athletes as possible. Over a half century later, his collection across multiple sports (mostly basketball, baseball and football) had become one of the most comprehensive and diverse ever documented. The Dayton Journal Herald (2/5/1974) first reported on the then 15-year-old’s passionate hobby. Tim grew up in the same neighborhood and attended the same high school as the Paxson brothers, Jim and John, whose success in college and the NBA would give him access to many stars and Hall of Famers. When he was 46, the Dayton Daily News (7/3/2005) did a feature story about Tim’s collection, which by then had grown to 20,000 plus signatures. Early on most of these autographs were obtained at games, team hotels, and through the mail as he would write athletes (i.e. Bill Walton at UCLA) with self-addressed, stamped envelopes. As he settled into his own business career, Tim eventually had the financial means, combined with his connections, to attend major sporting events like the Final Four, NBA Summer Leagues and charity golf tournaments and get directly in front of countless big names. In 2015, Gallagher sold several thousand baseball and football autographs through a different auction house. But basketball was always his favorite sport, encompassing a vast majority of the collection with a list of legends (Mikan, Wilt, Russell, Pistol, Jordan, Kobe, etc.) and near impossible gets (i.e. Hank Gathers, Len Bias) that cannot be topped. The year 2020 marks the first time he has ever sold any of his beloved hardwood signatures.