Description: RARE 1936 Detroit Lions College All-Stars JOE CARR football press pass. The pass is dated September 1st, 1936 and was played at Soldier Field in Chicago. This pass originated from the scrapbook of early NFL President Joe Carr. The legendary Detroit Lions player Dutch Clark played in the game. Dumpster find reveals $150,000 scrapbook of early NFL President Joe Carr Trove shines light on the gentlemen who transformed the National Football League offered at Heritage Auctions DALLAS — Found in a Columbus, Ohio, dumpster, the first offering of a $150,000+ trove of documents and memorabilia from the early years of the National Football League will be offered at a public auction of sports memorabilia held by Heritage Auctions' on Saturday and Sunday. Nicknamed by the hobby as "The Joe Carr Find" the discovery of an unknown family scrapbook sheds light on the man many credit as "The Father of Professional Football." The archive was discovered by a Columbus, Ohio, "junk picker" who wishes to remain anonymous. The man spotted the old scrapbook and loaded it in the back of his bicycle and rode home with what turned out to be an extraordinary discovery. "Whoever preserved these documents did so for nearly a century – unfortunately, we have no clue why or how they ended up in a dumpster," said Chris Ivy, Director of Sports Collectibles at Heritage Auctions. "Thankfully they were found and an important part of the NFL was preserved for posterity." Joseph Carr was NFL president from 1921 until his passing in 1939. He also was likewise an important figure in early professional basketball, and minor league baseball. They include the most significant signed football photograph that exists: an 1930s photograph of team owner Tim Mara inscribed to Carr. (est. $20,000+). Mara is the visionary who turned a $500 purchase of the New York Giants within the nascent National Football League into one of the most valuable and storied franchises in American sports. It is one of three scarce photographs autographed to Carr one of which is signed in the 1930s by Bert Bell, whose career would see him become the NFL commissioner from 1945 until his death in 1959 $est. $1,000+), and a George Halas Signed Original Photograph, a pioneer of American football as a player, coach, owner and founder of the Chicago Bears (est. $1,500+). Also tucked inside the tossed scrapbook are membership cards retaining bold fountain pen signatures of Carr himself, including a 1936 season pass to the Cincinnati Reds, which holds the finest autograph exemplar from this extraordinarily rare and important figure known to exist ($10,000+). The reverse holds the endorsing signature of Carr himself, an autograph counted among the last he would ever sign. Just weeks into the 1939 baseball season – May 20th – Carr suffered a fatal heart attack, ending nearly two decades at the helm of the National Football League. Information on the pass from Heritage Auctions: 1936 Detroit Lions vs. College All-Stars Press Pass from The Joe Carr Find. Joe Carr's relevance to the growth of football is immeasurable. He helped elevate the ruffian sport, which was fourth in popularity to baseball, boxing and horse racing. Carr transformed the gridiron from a town game into a big city, and business, phenomenon. Before Carr took the National Football League to unprecedented heights, he was a newspaper man. That is where Carr learned the gift of promotion. This pass was issued for a September 1st, 1936 matchup between the Detroit Lions and the College All-Stars and Solider Field in Chicago. The pass was pasted to a scrapbook page by Carr's sister where it remained until recently. The reverse has remnants of application to the scrapbook. Remarkably, this exceedingly important rarity was narrowly spared burial in a public landfill when a self-described "junk picker" spotted an old scrapbook being unceremoniously tossed into a dumpster in Columbus, Ohio. The man loaded the book onto the back of his bicycle and rode home with an extraordinary Carr family archive. The Joe Carr Find Though his name may be unfamiliar to all but the true football historians, arguably no figure was more essential in raising the National Football League from its vulnerable infancy to commercial viability than the man whose personal collection is listed on the following pages. At a time when the college game was the only game that mattered, Joe Carr fought and won a seemingly unwinnable war to legitimize the pay-for-play gridiron. Though Jim Thorpe owns the distinction of the first president of the National Football League, the iconic Hall of Famer was little more than a figurehead. It was Carr whose generalship moved the needle from amateur to professional dominance. Remarkably, this special archive narrowly averted oblivion less than a year ago when our consignor spotted a large quantity of documents being loaded into a dumpster. We can see, in the lots that follow, what a great loss that would have been to the physical history of the early professional game. This offering represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the cultured football collector.
Price: 395 USD
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
End Time: 2024-12-05T00:44:48.000Z
Shipping Cost: 0 USD
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Item Specifics
All returns accepted: ReturnsNotAccepted
Team-NFL: Detroit Lions
Original/Reproduction: Original
Year: 1936
Sport: Football