Get with the programme: collecting sports memorabilia

When the final whistle blew on the recent All-Ireland football final replay, and history was made as Dublin became the first team to win the Sam Maguire Cup for the fifth successive time, it was noticeable that no match programmes were discarded.

For those who had handed over €7 for the 128 pages, the programme became part of that history . . . and for some knowingly, and others unwittingly, keeping that booklet was a small step towards collecting sports memorabilia.

What would be more precious, certainly in financial terms, would be a worn Dublin jersey from that match. Indeed, for those who take collecting sports memorabilia seriously, match worn jerseys are perhaps the most prized of all items.

"That's the holy grail," admits Peter Geoffroy, of Collectibles Corner.

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A case in point is the jersey worn by Donegal-born Dave Gallaher, captain of the legendary "Originals" on the All Blacks tour of Britain in 1905. Nigel Wray, owner of Saracens rugby club, outbid a number of New Zealanders to add the jersey to his extensive sporting memorabilia collection.

Wray, who paid £180,000 (€200,000) at the auction in 2015 for the jersey, which is on display in the World Rugby Museum in Twickenham, was surprised that he managed to get his hands on the jersey.

“Gallaher was the father of All Black rugby. On that 1905 tour, they only brought one set of jerseys and had to have another set made during the tour. I bid for the jersey against five New Zealanders and I am surprised I got it because it is arguably the most important jersey in New Zealand sport.”

For those involved in collecting sports memorabilia, the items are varied and many. Old match programmes. Ticket stubs. Match worn jerseys. Replica jerseys. Posters. Boxing gloves. Golf flags. Boots.

As Barry Rojack, a collector from Dublin, put it, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, or one man’s treasure is another man’s trash”.

The collecting of sports memorabilia is a global phenomenon, while those in Ireland who indulge have developed a close-knit network with pop-up markets and online forums. The Irish Football Programme Club, for example, organise regular fairs around the country while also hosting a Facebook page which enables collectors to source material.

As the recent online auction for jockey Pat Smullen to raise funds to support cancer research demonstrated, sports memorabilia can be a valuable source of fund-raising: among the items auctioned included a Ryder Cup poster from the Miracle at Medinah signed by all 12 European players and team captain Jose Maria Olazabal which raised €2,500 while a signed Dublin football jersey fetched €2,000 and a signed Tipperary hurling jersey got €1,650.

The internet has made it easier to acquire items. For example, you want boxing gloves signed by Muhammad Ali? No problem. A simple search on eBay provides a range, from €450 for a single glove up to €2,600 for a framed display including autographed glove to €10,500 for the original glove from his last fight.

For more mainstream items, there is a large inventory of soccer-related merchandise on Sports Direct, including for example a signed Ronaldo Real Madrid shirt (unworn!), which can be acquired for €828.

Seek and you will find. However, Rojack – who is, as he puts it himself, “sports mad” and has been collecting “since I was a kid, [starting with] programmes, replica shirts” – warns against people getting into collecting sports memorabilia for financial gain.

Coveted items

“It’s not financial. You sometimes see people on groups who want to get in for the money but you would never bet your house on it because you would lose the house. Stuff can become undervalued overnight . . . . in our network, we help each other out. You’d have die-hard rugby fans who know Gaelic collectors. It’s very much a microcosm of Irish life, all types of people from different backgrounds,” said Rojack.

According to Geoffroy of Dublin-based Collectibles Corner, who run online auctions, one of the more coveted items among collectors would be All-Ireland winning medals.

“The GAA don’t do loser medals, so those winning medals, which are nine-carat gold, have an intrinsic value . . . . but you get very few of them.”

In an upcoming auction, however, Geoffroy has a very interesting and rare item: a ticket stub to the “Great Challenge Match” between Dublin and Tipperary in Croke Park on Sunday, November 21st, 1920. That match, of course, was to go down in history as Bloody Sunday, when British armed forces opened fire on the crowd, killing 14 and wounding hundreds.

The sporting memorabilia pop-up fairs which also take place at various points around the country – many promoted through Facebook pages – also provide an outlet for collectors to meet up and exchange stories as much as items.

“The typical collector is not a collector at all, they like to wear old jerseys, they’re tribalistic guys,” observed Rojack.

“And then there are the historical guys, who collect because of the history element. Some of the biggest collectors are well-known millionaires, like Nigel Wray, while at the other end you have people who are massive sports fans. If you go to the Irish Programme Collectors’ Club annual fair you’d likely find people who are very senior in banks and homeless people, all yapping away. It’s very universal, like sport itself . . . . it’s about friendship, relating your history. There’s a big nostalgia factor. What shirt do you have? Where were you when [Jason] McAteer scored the goal? All the best have a story.”

And those enthusiasts are, as Rojack, describes them, “mini curators” of sporting history.