MARK AGUIRRE'S 1980-81 COLLEGE PLAYER OF THE YEAR NBA PLAYERS ASSOCIATION TROPHY (SOURCED DIRECTLY FROM AGUIRRE)

During the 1980-81 college basketball season, one player stood out from all the rest: Mark Aguirre from DePaul University. While playing for the Blue Demons, he averaged 24.5 points over three seasons, and was named The Sporting News College Player of the Year in 1981. He was previously named the USBWA College Player of the Year and James Naismith Award winner in 1980. He averaged 24 points per game as a freshman in 1978-79, and led the Blue Demons to the NCAA Final Four. Over the next two seasons he scored 26.8 and 23 points per game, respectively, and was named the College Player of the Year in 1980-81.

This lot features a trophy he earned with the latter distinction from the National Basketball Players’ Association. Standing 15 inches tall, the two-tiered trophy has an abstract 11-inch-tall mother and child figure in the center surrounded by a gold-colored metal structure that mimics the stitching on a basketball. “NBA PLAYERS” is featured in gold-colored lettering mounted to the front of the abstract design. The center design is mounted to a 4.5-inch-tall black wooden base that measures eight inches in diameter. On the front of the base is a screwed-on silver plaque that reads: “NBA PLAYERS COLLEGE PLAYER OF THE YEAR 1980-81 Mark Aguirre National Basketball Players Association.” Serious tarnishing has taken place to the center metal pedestal as well as the abstract stitching design. The trophy, which weighs seven pounds, was sourced directly from Mark Aguirre.