Babe Ruth 100th Anniversary Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/19/2014
The weather had held out perfectly for most of the Berlin Olympics, but August 14th opened with a driving rain. That afternoon the United States was scheduled to play Canada for the very first Gold Medal in basketball. The game's inventor, Canadian James Naismith, was even on hand to award the medals but as the morning progressed the rain continued, turning the outdoor clay court into a mud pit. That the Canadian team even made it to Germany that summer was a minor miracle - the depths of the depression had left Canada's winning team, the Windsor Alumni, without the funds to travel to Europe. The Alumni's came up with the bright idea to change their name to the "Windsor Ford V-8's" and secured the financial backing from Henry Ford that allowed them to travel to Berlin. Led by the team's young captain Jimmy Stewart, the Canadians defeated Brazil, Latvia, Switzerland, and Uruguay on their way to the finals. From the stands Stewart's wife Mary cheered on Team Canada as they edged past Poland in the semi final round. Now, as the rain poured from the skies over Berlin, the United States team was the only thing standing in the way of the first Gold Medal for Basketball.
The ball presented for the tip off was far removed from today's sphere. The regulation Olympic basketball of 1936 was made of thick leather and comparable to a modern volleyball in respect to size and weight. The inside contained an inflatable bladder that theoretically enabled it to be dribbled on a court. Not that it mattered on August 14th - the rain soaked court made dribbling impossible and the game became a passing game. Here the Americans gained the advantage - they simply had more taller players on their team! After 48 minutes of splashing, mud spattering and just-out-of-reach passing, the United States emerged victorious 19-8. While the Americans celebrated, captain Stewart fished the ball out of the mud and passed it off to his wife Mary in the stands. She tucked it into the blanket she was huddled under and walked out with the ultimate heirloom for their future family.
The first Olympic Gold Medal ball stayed in the Stewart family since that rainy day in August 1936. The ball itself shows great game use. It's a German manufactured ball made by "BERG" whose name is stamped in black on its side, above a Teutonic-Looking eagle logo. There is a quarter-size hole in the top side of the leather ball so that the inner bladder could be inflated. As a piece of vintage basketball equipment, it's a great item - as the ball used in the VERY FIRST OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL GAME - it's a one-of-a-kind piece of Olympic history. The ball comes with a notarized letter of provenance from captain Jimmy Stewart's son as well as photocopies of period newspaper articles and photographs concerning the ball and the 1936 Olympic Games. A truly unique piece of not only Olympic, but basketball history.