This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/1/2016
The AFL. Broadway Joe. The guarantee. Joe Willie Namath brought major attention to everything he did. By winning Super Bowl 3, he brought respect to the AFL. His play on the field under the bright lights of New York dubbed him the nickname, “Broadway". Resembling a carnival gypsy, his fortune telling skills of a Jets victory came to be true. Joe put his money where his mouth was!
Style: The examined jersey is a white (road) durene body shell with factory hemmed shortened striped sleeves, and crew neck. MEARS #313452 was issued with a crotch piece, this shirt was issued without.
Namath’s uniform number 12 appears on the front (9 ½”), reverse (11 ½”) and sleeve numerals (4”) in single tackle twill and sewn with a zig zag stitch.
NAMATH (2 ½” appears in green tackle twill on nameplate and is attached with a zig zag stitch).
Tagging / Manufacturer: The shirt is supplied by the Sand Knit company with a manufactures tag which dates to the 1968-1973 era (courtesy of the Official MEARS Tagging Database). Other examples of Sand Knit Jets shirts from the era include:
The Exclusive tag dates this shirt to the 1970-1973 circa.
Sizing approximate 52: Shirt measures as a size 52 which is consistent with the tagged size. This shirt is larger than the size 48 examples seen by MEARS, but acceptable as a cold weather shirt when under-garments were often worn.
Game Wear: Shirt shows moderate, visible game wear. Examination under a light table shows signs of yellowing/aging of the fabric. Abraisions to the numerals. Wear to the body shell and tagging. Team repairs present on front right sleeve and back right side.
Final Grade: MEARS A7. Alternate shirt as evidenced by the larger size and lack of crotch piece, but still meets all of the criteria (tagging, style, wear) for a game worn shirt. Three point deduction of moderate game wear/larger size. When examining Namath shirts from this era, you will notice two different thicknesses of numeral font. For this shirt, we were able to find a similar style font for the back number 12, but not for the front. Therefore, there is always the possibility this shirt was an extra, backup, or there is no image available to support it on field use. (89R0281)
(89R0281)
LOA Troy Kinunen / MEARS