This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 1/5/2025
Paul Hornung, nicknamed "the Golden Boy,” was an American professional football halfback and kicker who played for the Green Bay Packers from 1957 to 1966. He played on teams that won four NFL titles and the first Super Bowl. He is the first Heisman Trophy winner to win the NFL Most Valuable Player award, and be inducted into both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and College Football Hall of Fame. Packers coach Vince Lombardi stated that Hornung was "the greatest player I ever coached.”
From 1934-1976, the NFL’s preseason tradition included The Chicago Tribune Charities College All-Star Game, a game featuring college standouts against the league champion. On August 9, 1957, after his storied career with Notre Dame and before he would take the field for the first time for the Green Bay Packers, Paul Hornung participated in the 1957 contest against the New York Giants at Soldier
Field. A review of the rosters listed in the 1957 game program shows that Hornung, in fact, wore his famous No. 5 for that contest. Offered is the 1957 College Football All Stars jersey attributed to have been worn by Hornung in that contest. The stunning star-spangled durene pullover has nine felt stars decorating both shoulders against a white backing. A consistent front and verso sewn-on white tackle twill numbers show wear from its gridiron use. The crotch piece and six buttons are still intact. A Wilson’s manufacturer’s label is sewn onto the crotch piece. With the same style jersey being worn for extended periods of time and with these jerseys being devoid of name or year tags, it is important that we walk through the process we went through to narrow the dating specifically to 1957.
Wilson Tag: The jersey features a size 44 Wilson tag. This yellow tag was only employed from 1954 to 1958. Since it was not uncommon for them to carry over tags for an extra year we consider it possible this jersey could have been worn any time from 1954 to 1959 era.
Size: The size 44 is consistent with the size Hornung would have worn. Other examples that have surfaced include a size 42 Notre Dame jersey up to a size 44 for his 1967 Super Bowl jersey.
Use of Number 5: In reviewing the rosters from 1954 to 1959 other than Paul Hornung only one other player was listed as utilizing no. 5 which was highly unlikely as that player was already drafted into the NFL, and thus would have not participated in the game.
· 1954 – Number 5 not on roster.
· 1955 – Paul Larson California #5 listed - - did not play drafted by Chicago Cardinals #19 Tom Carey was Quarterback. Additionally Larson was 5’11” 185 lbs vs. Hornung’s 6’2” 215 lbs and would have worn a smaller jersey.
· 1956 – Number 5 not on the roster.
· 1957 – Paul Hornung Notre Dame #5 on roster for game
· 1958 – Number 5 not on the roster.
· 1959 – Number 5 not on the roster. In addition, by this time they had generally stopped using the Wilson tag employed on this garment.
Number Style:
While no dependable photos of game jerseys of Hornung from
that game have surfaced, we examined other number “5s” from the period. Earlier photos of this style jersey, including the photo of Purdue Quarterback Dale Samuels from 1953, shows a similar block style “5” but thicker number font. Later photos, like this 1958 photo of the post-game celebration, shows a style that matches the subject jersey.
Narrowing this example to being Paul Hornung’s #5 1957 College All Stars Jersey: A photo of Hornung in the 1956 style College Football All Stars jersey with the unique diamond point “5” one week before during practice was reviewed. Players were dressed up for a photo shoot in that photo as it featured the biggest stars of the day being Paul Hornung, John Brodie and Len Dawson along with star coaches Curly Lambeau & Otto Graham. Of interest neither #s 16 (Dawson) or #5 were employed the previous year. Hornung at practice wearing 56 jersey w/ diamond pt. style 5 The only game action photo we were able to find with Hornung in the 1957 College All Stars game shows him running where his left hand comes across and obscures the number. While this could, in fact, be the subject jersey based on our view of the earlier practice jersey we wanted to find a “5” on a jersey with the standard block style. We reached out to advance collectors of College Jerseys and the College Hall of Fame to see what photos we could find.
Finally a 1957 College All Stars game action photo featuring #51 Joe Amstutz who played for Indiana University was reviewed. It is clear from this photo that the “5” on his jersey is the standard block style confirming it was used during that game vs. the diamond style “5” employed in practice giving us confidence this was the style employed in that game and featured on Hornung’s jersey.
Game Use: This jersey has the moderate use that would be expected from a jersey that only saw a single game's use on the gridiron. The jersey shows fraying on the edges of the tackle twill numbers. There is one unrepaired hole on the right sleeve and a small blood stain on the lower left sleeve. In addition, there are several fabric and stitch pulls throughout the jersey. All of this is indicative of game use.
Based on the manufacturer’s tagging, this jersey dates from 1954-1959 and can be narrowed to the second half of this period due to the style of the Number 5. During this period of time only Paul Hornung would have worn the number “5” in a college All-Star game. This jersey is the size that would have been worn by a 6’2” 215 pound player, matches sizes employed by Hornung and displays moderate game use. Based on these factors we believe there is enough information to attribute this to being the actual jersey worn by the legendary Paul Hornung in the August 9, 1957 College All Star Game contest played against the New York Giants in Soldier Field. MEARS LOA
(93S0181)