Sports Memorabilia

Nile Kinnick Group

Appraisal: 1938 Nile Kinnick Autograph & Program

Transcript

GUEST: We were going through my grandmother's attic after she had passed away in 2004, and we found this in her belongings-- I brought a program from the Wisconsin-Iowa game and a letter. My grandmother was a, uh, big football fan, and she and my grandfather went to the 1939 Wisconsin game. And when they came back home, they, uh, brought the program and gave it to my mother and her sister. They were twins. And each of them looked through the program and decided to write to one of the, uh, players. And my aunt ended up writing to someone from Iowa. My mom wrote to someone from, from Wisconsin.

APPRAISER: Who was written to for Iowa?

GUEST: For Iowa, my Aunt Jean wrote Nile Kinnick.

APPRAISER: Okay, and for Wisconsin?

GUEST: Uh, my mother wrote for Bert Connelly.

APPRAISER: Okay. Mm-hmm. Well, the Kinnick pick was probably the, the smarter pick.

GUEST: (laughs): Probably.

APPRAISER: . And, and, and why? Well, he was the Heisman Trophy winner that year.

GUEST: (laughing) Yeah, yeah.

APPRAISER: So Nile Kinnick was the fifth-ever Heisman Trophy winner, of 1939. She got the letter back in November of that year. He won the Heisman Trophy a month later, i, i, in, in December.

GUEST: Oh!

APPRAISER: So technically, it's a pre-Heisman Trophy le... (laughing): ...letter written by Nile Kinnick. Uh, if you don't mind, what does the letter say?

GUEST: Um, it says, "Dear Jean, May I say that you "and your sister are very cute-- very cute indeed. Best wishes, Nile Kinnick."

APPRAISER: That's fantastic. So here in the photo, we have, we have the, the cute girls.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: (laughs): As Nile put it.

GUEST: That's my Aunt Jean.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: She wrote the letter. And the o, one on my side is my mom, Jane.

APPRAISER: Okay. He didn't go on to play professional football. He wanted no part of that-- what did he do after he won the Heisman Trophy? He went to law school.

GUEST: (gasps): Like my husband.

APPRAISERS: 'Cause... Because the world needs more lawyers.

GUEST: (laughs): Yes!

APPRAISER: So he went to law school, uh, did that for a year. Did well. I think he was the third-ranked, uh, law student in his class, but he didn't finish that. Ever the high achiever, he enlisted in the Navy. He enlisted in the, as a Naval Air Reserve. And that's part of what becomes morbid about his story, is, it, that's where he met his tragic end. On June 2, 1943, he was training. Routine training expedition off the coast of Venezuela. His plane had an oil leak. He followed all procedures, everything he was trained to do. Tried to land, ultimately died when he hit the water.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: Body was never found. And ultimately, Nile Kinnick became the fifth Heisman Trophy winner, the first to die.

GUEST: Oh!

APPRAISERS: And, and now what we have today is the, be, because of those circumstances, the most rare Heisman Trophy autograph out there. He was 24.

GUEST: Oh, my...

APPRAISERS: He was a month short of be, being, becoming 25.

GUEST: Oh, what a loss. That's... Oh, my gosh.

APPRAISER: That's, that's what you've got.

GUEST: I didn't know that, I knew it was a Heisman Trophy winner, but I didn't know that.

APPRAISERS: I love the provenance. I love what the girls did and how they wrote. When my 11-year-old daughter watches this, I can't wait, because this is how you, this... (laughs) ...this is how you write to people. You know, "Dear Mr. Kinnick, I am eight years old, "and my name is Jean. (laughs): "When my grandmother "went to the Wisconsin-Iowa football game, she gave us your program." It's just so polite. And sure enough, he wrote back, and they were very cute. Iowa won, 19 to 13. The condition on the program?

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: It's taped along the spine.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: It's got some creasing. It's got some tearing-- at auction, let's give it $100 value, because we like, we love Nile Kinnick. You've got a card in here. It's a 1955 Bowman. This probably grades at a two, which on a one to ten scale... Ooh. ...it's on the lower end of that spectrum, not a lot of value. I'd be remiss to say, fetch more than $100. Okay?

GUEST: Well, that's more than I paid for it. It was $25.

APPRAISER: (chuckling): Well, there, there you go. Have you any idea of, of the value of such a thing? Of such an autograph?

GUEST: No, not from what you're describing. $1,000 or something?

APPRAISER: Well... We think that at auction, this piece could sell for $15,000 to $20,000.

GUEST: (gasps) You're kidding. (laughs): Oh, my God. My husband's going to be so excited! I'm excited! Are you sure?

APPRAISER: Uh, pretty confident.

GUEST: (laughing) Oh, my God! (laughing) I'm sorry. (laughs) Wow, gosh.

APPRAISER: We think you could insure this piece for $50,000.

GUEST: Oh, oh... (laughs) Oh, no, I'm so-- oh, my gosh, that's... I-- I'm sorry. (giggling): Oh... Listen, when... Thank you, thank you-- ooh! Fist bump. (both laughing)

APPRAISER: Listen, when you came, we, I, I was very excited. I was really...

GUEST: Oh, well, I'm excited now. (both laughing) How am I going to get it home? (laughs)

APPRAISER: Care... Very carefully.

GUEST: Very carefully. (laughs)